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Agents have heard it before: Having a social media presence is crucial to succeeding in real estate today.
That’s what speakers reiterated during a panel called “Social Media 2025: The New Rules of Engagement” at Inman Connect New York on Wednesday. But these social media savvy agents also discussed best practices and how to get started for those still new to using social for their business.
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On authenticity
Andrew Jevin of Compass in Los Angeles told panel moderator Holly Meyer Lucas, also of Compass, that he thought agents should only have one social media page that focuses on their personal life, rather than trying to juggle personal and professional pages simultaneously.
Andrew Jevin
“I could not for the life of me get my friends to follow my real estate page,” Jevin said of the days when he tried to have two separate accounts.
“I think people care about us as individuals and what our interests are,” he added.
Since social media by nature often ends up being a more casual space, Meyer Lucas also wondered how panelist Kourtney Pulitzer of Sotheby’s International Realty in Palm Beach balanced the more formal Sotheby’s brand with her content on social media.
Pulitzer said that once she decided to do social media, she committed to going all in. But her personality by nature is also a little more polished, which fits right in with the Sotheby’s International Realty brand and is reflected in her social media content.
“So I’m being authentic; that’s who I am,” Pulitzer said. “That’s my encouragement: to be yourself.”
“Our clients hire us to market that property, and I think in today’s age, we can’t ignore social media,” she added. “We can’t skip any of the steps, and this is a really important step in today’s market.”
Panelist Lindsey Tronolone of The Jupiter Group at Compass recently launched her team and has used social media to make the community aware of its presence.
“My biggest piece of advice would be to keep it simple,” Tronolone said. “I would focus on who you are, where you are and what value you offer.”
Since she lives and works in Jupiter, Florida, and is married to a yacht captain, Tronolone said her content tends to focus on what it’s like to live in a water-oriented community.
“Don’t overthink it,” Tronolone said. “If you have an urge to grow on social media, just get out there and record.”
Focused branding
Lindsey Tronolone
Tronolone also leverages her partnerships with local businesses in Jupiter to collaborate with them on social media.
“To me, that’s tapping into a local market that I might not have had access to,” she said.
Tronolone offers to come out to the business and film content with them onsite, then she posts and collaborates with them on social media, which ultimately helps her grow local followers.
Jevin also used social media to pivot his personal branding last year. When he first started his social media accounts, he used the handle “The Snapping Realtor” in reference to his use of Snapchat. But, after a while, he tired of people misinterpreting the name.
“It started because when I would see people at an event, people would come up to me and start snapping at me,” Jevin said.
“We’ve come such a far way of embracing social media,” he added, “but I just got tired of people not knowing my name and just knowing me as the snapping Realtor.”
Jevin also coaches agents, and said one of his tips when he’s asked about social media handles is to include one’s name in the handle instead of something generic about “homes.”
“I think my name best fits my business,” he said. “Put some thought into what your handle is going to be.”
Tell your story
Kourtney Pulitzer
In line with her own “buttoned up” brand, Pulitzer has a videographer come to her house once a month for one to two hours to film content that she organizes in advance and feels will add value to her clients and her business. Out of that longer film session, she’ll create short videos that get put out on social for the next month or so.
Despite her efforts to produce more polished content, Pulitzer said that she quickly realized that the pieces of content gaining the most traction were some “behind-the-scenes” clips that she produced.
“I realized that the behind-the-scenes videos were really what was propelling the entire page,” she said. So now she embraces those clips and uses them to show people who she is and what her days are like.
Featuring that kind of off-the-cuff content is one of the ways to build trust with consumers, Tronolone added, rather than solely focusing on strict real estate topics.
One of the mottos she shared with the audience is, “Facts tell; stories sell.”
“I can go on and talk about the facts of my property,” Tronolone said. “But the stories section about me, about the property, that’s what people want to know. That’s why we love reality TV because we want to know what happens behind the scenes.”
Meyer Lucas recommended that anyone attending Inman Connect New York who wants to elevate their social media accounts should be filming some kind of content while at the event, which shows their followers that they’re investing in their career.
Don’t be afraid
Holly Meyer Lucas
And even though many people feel they have to do something new or innovative to stand out on social media, Jevin said there’s no shame in following trends.
“We’re all copying things on social media, so it’s OK to copy,” he said. “Do a trend. If you see a bunch of agents doing it, do your own version of it.”
Although social media has helped Jevin gain attention professionally, he said he doesn’t really do it for the metrics anymore — he does it because of the way he can impact other people.
“I know I’m doing good if I go to dinner with friends and they start talking about my content,” he said, also recounting a time when a friend said Jevin being open about being a gay man on social media helped their son in his own journey of coming out.
Stories like that have helped Jevin see “how I could change the world by being me.”
Pulitzer also touched on the controversial topic of buying followers on social media and said that people shouldn’t be ashamed to take this step (as she did) if it helps them build their business.
“Here’s the thing — none of us are writing the rules for social media. No one is. They’re being written as we’re going,” Pulitzer said. Ultimately, buying followers ended up hurting engagement on her pages, she said, so once she realized that, she decided to delete those followers.
“That’s a big part of this: People are afraid to start; they’re afraid to break the rules,” Pulitzer said. “There’s so much fear. Just do it.”
Tronolone said that agents who are just getting started in a serious way on social shouldn’t even look at the metrics, but just focus on building any kind of following, as long as they are engaged.
“Two hundred followers who are highly invested in your business are way better than 2,000 followers,” she said.
Pulitzer said that any agent who feels like social media isn’t right for their business should reconsider and give it a shot.
“Some people say, ‘It’s great for your business, but it wouldn’t work for my business.’ And I’m like, we’re in the same business,” Pulitzer said with a chuckle. “We’re in the same office.”
Email Lillian Dickerson
