Editor’s Note: Social Skills is a bi-monthly feature in RISMedia’s Daily News focused on social media and digital marketing tips, trends and solutions for agents and brokers.
As the TikTok ban looms—with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act now signed into law and in motion—there’s many in the real estate industry who feel a bit unsure about how their marketing efforts will be affected. TikTok is a strong marketing platform for REALTORS®, especially those looking to connect with younger audiences like Gen Z.
While losing TikTok would definitely be a loss for the marketing portfolio of many agents, it doesn’t have to be the end of effective social media marketing. REALTORS® can turn the success they found in their TikTok marketing into success on other social media platforms, if they know how to take advantage.
Here are a few ways to re-route your social media marketing in the event of a TikTok ban in the U.S.:
Start sharing Instagram Reels
Instagram created Reels to both rival and emulate TikTok’s success in the social media world. Reels will post on to your followers’ feeds and will appear as recommended posts in the feeds and explore pages of others, but they also share to the Reels tab on Instagram’s app, which has a similar vibe to TikTok’s For You page.
To bring your TikTok content to Reels you really won’t have to make any changes. The Reels tab not only has a similar look to TikTok’s For You page, but its algorithm is virtually the same (meaning whatever type of content a user watches and likes they will receive more of). This means that whatever content you would post on TikTok and however you would tag it will work the same.
Creating a YouTube Channel
While this is a slightly different medium than TikTok itself, YouTube’s power as a marketing tool can’t be underestimated. One of the original forms of social media, YouTube has enviable long-standing success as a video sharing platform.
The content you share here can be similar to what you created for TikTok, but you can get a lot longer-form with it. The attention span on TikTok rarely lasts more than three minutes, but YouTube’s attention span can last up to an hour or more depending on your content style.
Some ways to create content on YouTube include sharing home tours, but sharing multiple from an area in a video instead of just one per video like TikTok. You could share insights on the latest housing market news, and advice for potential buyers and sellers. You can also share local business and restaurant recommendations for your area to attract homebuyers from other areas and brand yourself as a hyperlocal expert. There are many more ways to produce YouTube content, and they all give you the freedom to market yourself in your own way.
Taking advantage of YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts was another social media creation to emulate TikTok’s success. While it hasn’t been as successful as Instagram Reels or TikTok itself, a ban could give this sub-set of Youtube the chance to become infinitely more popular.
Similar to Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts also has its own tab on the platform along with appearing on user’s home pages. The algorithm also works pretty much the same. So, following along with Reels, whatever kind of content you would post on TikTok can be replicated here.
Another perk of YouTube Shorts is the ability to take clips of your YouTube videos and share them to Shorts, to draw more attention to the full length videos on your channel.
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