11 Ways Smart Real Estate Agents Are Using LinkedIn to Get Better Leads (2024)

LinkedIn may be less flashy than other social media platforms, but it’s one of the most overlooked channels for generating real estate lead generation. I’d go so far as to say that LinkedIn is the ideal place to show that you’re knowledgeable and relevant in a loud, crowded industry.

I bet you’re wondering how to make LinkedIn work for you. We’ll show you how, with a little time, a lot of consistency, and a clear objective, it’s the ideal social media platform to generate leads, maintain your lead pipeline, establish yourself as the expert, and expand your sphere of influence (SOI).

1. Start by Building Your Profile

No matter how a potential client finds you—whether it’s through your website, Instagram account, or by word of mouth—chances are they’re also going to check out your LinkedIn profile. Your profile should have one main goal: to show the world that you know what you’re doing.

Start the process by taking stock of your profile. We all know that it’s your online resume, so take this opportunity to brag about and differentiate yourself. Conduct a quick audit and check the following:

• Is your photo current and in line with our headshot recommendations?
• Is all of your professional experience relevant and accurate?
• Does your background image have something to do with real estate?
• Use the headline wisely. You’re not just a Realtor; you’re Charleston’s Top Luxury Real Estate Agent.
• Have a catchy slogan? Put it here. Don’t have one? Create one here!
• Gather endorsem*nts and recommendations—at least three, ideally five.
• Add all awards, accomplishments, accreditations, designations, and specialties.
• Show you’re multidimensional: Add volunteer work, hobbies, and organizational memberships

LinkedIn’s own data shows that member profiles that showcase volunteer experience see as many as six times more views than those that don’t. If you volunteer at the animal shelter, are a champion badminton player, or just really into pickleball, include it!

Here are a few profile examples that show off designations, hobbies, and accomplishments. Each profile really stands out and highlights what makes that agent special. I especially like the use of images that signal a specific location or make you want to buy a beautiful home.

2. Make Connections to Generate Leads

If you’re like most agents, your connections are mostly … other agents. It’s important to have relationships with fellow real estate pros, but when it comes to LinkedIn lead generation, you need to expand your network.

Networking thoughtfully is a crucial part of your lead generation activity. Spend some time establishing connections with people you know, and then start looking for new and valuable relationships. Connecting to community influencers is key to LinkedIn lead generation—nonprofit board members, local thought leaders, C-suite executives, and other movers and shakers who will open doors for you.

By design, LinkedIn does an excellent job of recommending new contacts for you—it can use data about who you’re connected with and who is visiting your profile to suggest new links. Don’t “request bomb” people, though. Spend some time every couple of days strategically reaching out.

Be Strategic About Networking for Lead Generation

Sure you want to connect with people, but LinkedIn is a vast and populous place. Who should you target for successful lead generation?

Connect With Agents in Other Cities & Create a Referral Network

Focus on agents in other cities, near and far, who can pass along referrals. It’s important to connect with those who are in a similar real estate niche (luxury agents in New York would want to refer to a luxury agent in Los Angeles, for example). But you need to also connect to agents who differ from your specialty so that you’re ready to step in and be the expert when other agents are not.

Be in the Know When New Businesses Come to Your City

LinkedIn allows you to filter news and information by geographic area so you can keep your finger on the pulse of local business news. This is a great way to get a heads-up if a big corporation or company is moving to town. Investigate where their employees might be moving from and start an ad campaign to target that area, sending connection requests based on that geographic area. Not only is that helpful for (probably very stressed) families making a big move, but it also keeps your pipeline full.

LinkedIn Networking Etiquette

If you want to connect to someone but you don’t know them, make sure to introduce yourself. Best practices dictate sending a personal message with your request to connect.

If you want to really show some respect or stand out, opt to send an InMail (essentially email that has a better response rate than a connection request), available with LinkedIn Premium. If you’re curious about Premium, check out the discussion below.

3. Join Relevant Groups to Market Effectively

Groups are an innovative way to get to know different segments of your target market and their pain points. Joining and being active in groups allows you to finely craft your value proposition so that you’re addressing the needs of your target audience.

Joining a diverse range of groups might seem like a distraction, but it will not only grow your network and generate leads, it will help you market more effectively to those leads. Consider what kinds of groups might be interesting and helpful for your niche. A group that unites professionals in finance or senior care could be a good fit. Or maybe people who love dogs, jogging, or startups. Whatever your niche, chances are there’s a LinkedIn group for it.

Let’s say you join a group of dog lovers in your area. Now you can start to network, participate in conversations, and understand what makes the dog-owning community in your town tick. Are people looking for properties with fenced-in backyards? Apartments near dog parks? Are young couples looking for puppies (which is a classic first step before homeownership)? Guess who’s right there to help them! Their fellow dog-lover (who’s also a real estate agent). I will caution you to be authentic in your networking, though. No one likes someone who only pretends to like dogs.

4. Engage Meaningfully With Your Network

As with almost every social media platform, engagement only works if it’s a two-way street. Your success with LinkedIn depends on your ability to give back to your community. Sharing and liking posts isn’t enough.

The good news is that LinkedIn sets you up for success. It alerts you when connections have professional news, milestones, and anniversaries so you can reach out and congratulate them. Celebrating their accomplishments goes a long way to showing exactly what kind of professional you are.

You can also give back by taking a few minutes to write recommendations. The whole I’ll-write-you-one-you-write-me-one only gets you so far. Think what it would mean to your connections to see your kind words out of the blue!

Remember, though, you really want to be authentic. Nothing is worse than fake attempts at thoughtfulness—people can sense that a mile away.

Because LinkedIn is unapologetically a professional platform, you get to write, post, share, like, recommend, and network unabashedly and not annoy your friends who just want cute puppy content.

When leads look at your profile, they want to see that you’re the person others depend on for helpful, relevant, compelling content in your area of expertise. Ideally, you’re the one crafting the content, but I’ll get to that in a minute. For now, as you’re building your presence on LinkedIn, focus on reposting and sharing articles and videos that will interest and inform your audience.

Be judicious and selective in what you repost, and make sure that it’s high-quality content. What you decide to share is an extension of your brand, so make sure it’s from a source you trust and respect. Set a goal to repost regularly and be sure to engage with other relevant posts.

Remember, almost everyone has some degree of interest in real estate, especially in today’s market. I bet you can find posts to share about real estate and adjacent topics that will appeal to just about any audience, not just your fellow agents.

Share stats about your market’s real estate activity—available from your local board of Realtors—including average home prices, current inventory, and average days on market. How to stage a home for a quick sale, how to compete in a market flush with cash buyers, what to do when interest rates are expected to rise—these are all great topics to repost, share, and discuss with your LinkedIn audience.

6. Create Content Around Trending Topics

Sharing and posting is a good start, but if you create your own article content, you will truly reap the LinkedIn rewards. Note that you can always link to your existing blog on LinkedIn, but the algorithm will give priority to content created on (and for) its site. So if you want content to have a better chance of being shared, liked, and commented on, create it right on the platform.

As you might imagine, the vast majority of people on LinkedIn never post anything, which means that if you regularly post content and use hashtags, people are much more likely to see and engage with your content.

This is especially true because users have to manually turn off notifications (and most people aren’t taking the time to do that), so your posts are getting seen by hundreds, maybe even thousands of users who didn’t even know they were interested in what you’re writing about.

Write What You Know

What’s your real estate specialty? What sets you apart from your competition? That’s what you should start focusing on in your posts. They can be short—you can even simply ask a question or conduct a poll. Just make sure your posts are reflecting your brand and expertise.

Write About What’s Trending

LinkedIn clearly lays out what’s trending, liked, and shared in the LinkedIn News feed. Pick a topic and relate it to what you know: real estate.

Take a look at this LinkedIn News Feed. While at first nothing looks real estate-related, you could easily tie some of these topics to real estate and craft a post that’s timely and relevant to your audience.

In a screenshot from this week, there is plenty for agents to write about. That second trending topic, “US Recession Seems Less Likely,” is perfect for agents! Who doesn’t want to shine some hope on our stagnant housing market? Then there’s another topic, “Home Sales Nearing 2008 Levels,” that offers a great opportunity to show expertise. Or just have some fun, bond with your fellow Swifties, and weigh in on the Taylor Swift film, which is also a hot topic.

Write (or Create) Something Fun

Often, posts with the greatest interaction are speaking to a specific audience and identifying a pain point—which can be really effectively done with humor. I love this example from our own Kaydi Rainey that talks directly to fellow agents (though anyone can be in on the joke).

In the end, all of this work is in pursuit of your goal to convey your expertise and generate leads who see and appreciate your industry authority.

7. Upgrade to LinkedIn Premium

One of the most frustrating things about LinkedIn is that it tells you how many people viewed your profile, but not always who viewed your profile. If users are searching LinkedIn in private mode, you may receive a cryptic notification like “A CEO viewed your profile.”

Clearly, a LinkedIn member who checks out your profile might be an excellent lead. Knowing who they are makes it possible to follow up and turn that warm lead into a hot one. That’s where LinkedIn Premium comes in. It lets you see who has viewed your profile in the past 90 days, but still lets you browse in private mode. Here’s how former agent Gill Chowdhury scored a $3 million dollar deal from LinkedIn:

InMail Messages

The only way you can message someone who is not in your network is by signing up for LinkedIn Premium and using their InMail platform.

LinkedIn promises that InMail is 2.6 times more effective than cold emails or calls, but it’s not cheap. I’d recommend starting with the Business plan, which is $45 per month (with a free one-month trial). This gives you 15 InMails a month. If you really ramp up your lead generation, consider the Sales Navigator package ($80 per month), which includes custom lead and account lists, advanced lead searching, and lead recommendation.

LinkedIn Premium also includes unlimited people searches, competitor data, industry news, analytics, and more. It could be a really powerful addition to your marketing strategy, but only if you’re really going to put your time into LinkedIn. Otherwise, it’s probably not worth the investment.

8. Buy Ads & Sponsored Posts

Of course, if you’re pressed for time or don’t want to learn yet another social media platform, LinkedIn also offers a ton of paid promotion options that you can use for lead generation. You can build audiences and create sponsored content, messaging ads, or text ads for LinkedIn lead generation, site visits, or what LinkedIn was designed for—recruiting agents.

Just be aware that since LinkedIn is a business-to-business (B2B) channel, advertising here is not cheap. But if you want to try your hand at it, here’s a quick rundown of what they offer:

You spend time writing and creating content on LinkedIn, so of course you want it to be seen. Just like on Facebook, you can boost your content. You write an insightful and timely blog post, then pay LinkedIn to promote it for you. You select the duration of the boost, the budget, and the target audience.

Taking a page from Facebook’s Messenger advertising options, LinkedIn also offers advertising in private messages. You can create messaging ads for brand awareness, recruiting, or lead generation, and can even spark engagement.

Why hashtags? Hashtags are essential to getting your content seen by relevant audiences. As with any social media platform, hashtags help a relevant audience see what you’re writing and sharing. Check out the helpful use of hashtags in this posts below.

10. Promote a New Listing via LinkedIn Circle Prospecting

As I’ve mentioned, one of the aspects that makes LinkedIn such a lead-generating power tool is that you can search by geographic area. The first step with a new listing is to locate nearby companies. You can then target your connection requests to people who work in those companies. Throw in a beautiful video of your new listing and send it out to employees of those local companies who might be looking for a shorter commute. Add a brief introduction, and wait for the replies of interested buyers.

11. Be Consistent for Optimal LinkedIn Lead Generation

LinkedIn gives you all of the tools you’ll need to be successful in expanding your audience, establishing your authority and brand, and networking strategically. Leads find you (or you find them) because you are the present, professional, and engaged real estate expert. But, none of this happens without consistency.

Devote 20 minutes a day to:

• Connect with former and existing clients, friends, and colleagues
• Strategize who you want to target
• Share, like, and engage with relevant content
• Join and engage in groups
• Offer congratulations to someone celebrating a professional milestone or success
• Write a recommendation
• Write a post on a trending topic
• Create video content (start with your elevator pitch introduction)

Bringing It All Together

Are you a real estate agent who uses LinkedIn to generate leads? We would love to hear your social media tips or questions in the comment section below.