The Instagram Formula of the top-100 Real Estate Agents & Mortgage Lenders in the Industry.

What content mix are the best Realtors and mortgage lenders posting on Instagram?
 
They say that there’s a roadmap to success, and the best way to achieve greatness in your respective field is to follow in the footsteps of industry leaders. However, when it comes to Instagram, those road maps are a lot harder to find (or changing almost monthly). The social platform continues to evolve rapidly, as do the ways marketers and business owners use it.
 
So, for the average entrepreneur or real estate pro to maximize their presence on Instagram, they’d have to spend hundreds of hours reading guide, blogs, and eBooks and watching scores of instructional videos.
 
Then, it hit me: instead of doing it that way, why not just follow the most successful Realtors and mortgage lenders in the U.S. and track what THEY are doing on Instagram? By observing the best of the best and analyzing the results, I could form a rough blueprint for best practices -and share it with you (so you can shamelessly copy it).
 
By the way, if you’re in a rush then you can skip all of this methodology and just check out the results and graph near the end of this blog.
 
I did just that over the course of the last three months, but it wasn’t easy. It took endless combing through lists of top mortgage lenders and Realtors, checking in with industry periodicals and sites like Mortgage News, Mortgage Origination, Scotsman Guide, Realtor, and many more, and cross-referencing endless smaller blogs and rankings.
 
The other issue was that I was only looking for the best on Instagram, not just the best, and many of the traditional “old guard’ don’t bother with social media, or just use it sporadically and personally. 
 
I also wanted to track individuals (or teams), not large companies with huge social media ad budgets and countless interns, and I threw out the outliers (like Crazy Cat Realtor and Political Post Broker) and discounted any post that had to do with going to the gym, random vanity selfies, or snapshots of their lunch (there weren’t too many of those, as the top-100 definitely do things for a reason, don’t waste time, and have a tight social media plan).
 
Likewise, I took into account the fact that Realtors post a whole lot of content about houses:  open houses, houses for sale, houses that just sold, and just plain nice houses. So, those will always be more prevalent in a real estate agent’s Instagram timeline, and I split them up into sub-categories based on the purpose of those posts.
 
So, while this list shouldn’t be taken as 100% accurate, it is based on a mountain of data and observation. I think the result is a very fair representation of what the top Realtors and mortgage lenders in the U.S. are posting on Instagram to bring in clients and grow their business better than the rest.
 
Let’s get the good stuff – the top-100 formula for Instagram.
 
(Keep skipping to the next section)
 
In all, there were 30 main categories of posts for top-producing Instagram accounts (in no particular order):

• Blog or Podcast 
• Technical & Product info, guidelines, etc.
• Events (a whole lot of golf tournaments)
• Instructional/How-To/Answering a Question
• Testimonial and review
• At and around the office photo
• Photos with buyers/sellers/clients
• Slice of life at work
• Photos with team members, coworkers, office staff, etc.
• Local landmarks, notable places, and great restaurants
• Old photos/history/throwbacks
• Others in the community
• Referral partners/other industries and professionals
• Area sports (including pro, college, and high school)
• Highlighting local businesses
• Family and personal 
• Seasonal, holiday, and special days
• Funny memes, industry 
• Industry news, facts, and market info
• Stats, data, charts and graphs
• Company branded ads/graphics/marketing
• Giveaways/Raffles/Contests
• Thank You or expressing gratitude
• Quotes
• Charity and causes
• PSAs
• Awards, certificates, accolades, media mentions
• Motivation & Inspiration 
• Homes design and architecture
• Financial news

​​
That’s a whole lot to process (and way too much to summarize in one simple yet snazzy graph), so I decided to break it down into nine main categories, ranking them by a percentage that they appeared on the Instagram timeline.
 
(Finally, here it is.)
 
The top categories for top-producer Instagram content:
 
34% Personal, Family, and Slice-of-Life
27% On the Job
11% Events, Happenings, and Offers
9% Community and Charity
6% Social Proof, Reviews and Testimonials
5% Products and Services
4% General Interest and Humor
3% Network
1% News, Blogs, and Content

That’s pretty useful data if you’re a Realtor or mortgage lender (not yet in the top-100 in America) and trying to strategically plan your marketing on Instagram.
 
It also means that it’s much easier to walk into the footstep of these industry giants and emulate their success! 
 
A few other notes:
 
Video versus image posts:
Videos are a huge part of their marketing plan, but don’t dominate their Instagram feed – yet. In fact, videos comprise only 21% of all content for the top 100 Realtors and mortgage lenders in the U.S. – a little more than one out of every four posts.
 
However, averages can be deceiving, as I tracked several real estate pros who post almost nothing but videos, and a good number of pros post them rarely or not at all.
 
How often do top Realtors and mortgage lenders post on Instagram?
Among the best of the best of Realtors and lenders, they post on Instagram 1.7 times per day.
 
Personal versus business Instagram profile:
93% of all Instagram accounts were business profiles for the top 100 Realtors and mortgage brokers.
 
That’s it for today – enough number crunching until next week! Hit me up if you have any questions or need some help with your marketing!
 
Your friend,
Norm  :-)