Recruiting top talent in any industry can be challenging. However, in real estate, the challenge is far more significant due to the independent nature of an agent’s role. However, with the right channels and tactics, it can be done effectively, especially when it comes to recruiting real estate agents using LinkedIn!
LinkedIn is probably one of the first social media accounts on your mind as it dominates the professional world. When used correctly, it can become a powerful tool for recruiting the best agents for your real estate business. With over 700 million users worldwide, LinkedIn offers brokers a vast pool of candidates, but getting started can be challenging. After all, the last thing you want to do is waste money and have little to show for it other than resumes or candidates that don’t match your office’s culture fit.
Real Estate Recruiting: LinkedIn Best Practices
Recruiting real estate agents through LinkedIn requires a strategic approach. This blog post will explore how brokers can use LinkedIn to recruit the best real estate agents.
First Step: Optimize your company’s LinkedIn profile.
Your company’s LinkedIn profile is the first impression potential candidates will have of your brokerage. So, ensuring that your profile is filled out and highlights the benefits of working with your brokerage is essential. Think of it as any other real estate marketing you would do.
Including relevant keywords in your company’s profile can make it easier for potential candidates to find you. Consider using keywords related to the real estate industry, such as “brokerage,” “real estate agents,” and “property management.”
Next, highlight your team and include information about them in your company’s profile to give potential candidates a sense of the culture and community at your brokerage. Make sure to include high-quality images of your team, office, and properties, as this will help to give a better representation of the company and professionalism.
Make sure to showcase your achievements to help establish your brokerage as a reputable and successful business. If you have awards, accolades, or milestones your brokerage has achieved, cover them as well! These are the core pieces that set your brokerage apart.
Finally, keeping your company’s profile up-to-date is vital to show potential candidates that your brokerage is active and engaged in the industry and on social media (something younger agents care about deeply. Make sure to frequently update your profile with the latest company news, awards, events, and other information that could showcase your brokerage’s progress.
Create A Posting Strategy, Generate Real Estate Leads
A well-optimized profile is great, but you’ll also want a relevant posting strategy to fill out your feed like other social media platforms. After all, a social channel is for sharing! Since LinkedIn is so business-focused, you can establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry and area by writing engaging and informative posts while increasing your visibility on the platform. Here are a few quick tips to get you started:
Share industry insights:
Share your knowledge and insights on the real estate market with your network. This can include tips for buying or selling a home or can be a place to identify industry trends. Your expertise as a broker gives you a leg up in engaging the right audience of realtors over the news stories that matter.
Highlight your listings:
Share photos and information about the properties on which your team has listed or been the buyer’s agent. Expand on details such as how you or your brokerage went the extra mile to get a deal done promptly. You can even make some of these sponsored posts or ads to enhance your outreach further. Don’t be afraid to add a bit of personality to these posts, and you want to highlight your brokerage’s culture!
Share testimonials:
Share testimonials from satisfied clients on your LinkedIn page. This can help build trust and credibility with potential agents investigating your profile. They want to know you are a respected member of the real estate community!
Use visuals:
Use high-quality images and videos to make your posts more engaging. This can include photos of properties, virtual tours, and videos that provide a behind-the-scenes look at your team works.
Engage with your network:
Encourage engagement with your posts by asking questions and encouraging comments. Respond to comments and messages promptly to build relationships with your network.
Use Hashtags:
Make sure to tag your content with relevant hashtags! This is a great way to get your posts noticed when people perform searches. At the minimum tag something relating to trending real estate hashtags, but also build your personal hashtag brand as well!
If you are want to learn about using other social media platform to recruit agents you can read more here!
Building A Strong Network
LinkedIn is all about networking and is crucial for recruiting real estate agents. To get started, determine your target audience. From there, you and your team(s) should connect with other industry professionals, including real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and related professionals. The more connections your brokerage has, the more likely you will reach potential candidates. This is due to the nature of LinkedIn’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree connection system.
Being a relevant 1st or 2nd connection will drastically increase your chances of someone responding to your Inmail. You will also be able to use your network to introduce yourself to a potential candidate. An Inmail referencing someone in both of your networks will go much further than a completely cold Inmail. Don’t forget to sign up for LinkedIn premium to enable you to send more non-connected InMails. LinkedIn premium is a low-cost subscription drastically reduces the struggle to reach LinkedIn users and warm leads.
Once you have connected with industry professionals on LinkedIn, make sure to engage with them. Like, comment, and share your fellow agents’ posts, and be sure to reach out to them. This will help keep your connections active and top-of-mind.
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn groups are a great way to connect with potential candidates on LinkedIn. Join groups related to the real estate industry and actively participate in discussions. Post content around topics like attracting ideal clients or how to create warm leads. This will prove your brokerage’s marketing chops to others. Build your network, increase your visibility to potential candidates, and establish your brokerage as a thought leader in the industry.
By taking this one step further, you can use LinkedIn events to connect with potential candidates personally. Attend industry events, conferences, and networking events to build your network, create new connections, and generate in-person marketing leads. LinkedIn makes finding events in your area a cinch and lets you know which potential recruits may be attending.
Create Job Postings For A Real Estate Agent
LinkedIn’s job posting feature allows you to advertise open positions at your brokerage to your target audience. By posting job listings on LinkedIn, you can easily reach many potential candidates. Use this to help attract a diverse range of candidates and increase your chances of finding the perfect fit. Creating a job listing is easy; however, this section will cover some critical elements of a successful job listing.
LinkedIn Ad Requirements
Job Title: The job title should be clear and specific, such as “Real Estate Agent – [City Name]”. This will help attract qualified candidates searching for real estate opportunities in that specific location.
Job Description: Provide a detailed overview of the position, including responsibilities, qualifications, and the benefits of your brokerage. Make sure to highlight any unique aspects of the position, such as the opportunity for professional development and access to coaching or other technology.
Requirements: List the qualifications and experience required for the position, such as a real estate license, preferred sales experience, or if the agent specializes in working with certain types of clients. This will help attract qualified candidates and save time in the hiring process.
Company Description: Provide a brief overview of your brokerage, services, and company culture and values. This will help attract candidates who align with your values and are a good fit for your team.
Targeted Audience: LinkedIn allows you to target your job listing to a specific audience, such as location, industry, and job experience. This can help you attract suitable candidates for the position and, more importantly, avoid paying for irrelevant candidates.
Remember, a well-crafted job listing will save you time sorting through resumes and money since you are paying on a per-click basis. To enhance your recruiting efforts you can read about the top qualities to focus on when recruiting agents here.
Automating Candidate Communication
Alternatively, suppose you want to drastically reduce the amount of effort needed to sort through applicants. Like other sites you use for real estate lead generation, you can set the job posting to link to an external site and Brokerkit’s built-in recruitment landing pages. When candidates fill in the landing page form, they are automatically imported into Brokerkit and enrolled into the dynamic outreach campaigns you have set up (No need to create them yourself, Brokerkit has plenty built in!). This automates your communication, and you can simply track it through the pipeline activity report.
Direct Outreach
Leverage LinkedIn’s advanced search function: LinkedIn’s advanced search function allows you to find potential candidates based on specific criteria such as location, industry experience, and job title. This can help you target the right candidates for your open positions. By using the advanced search function, you can find potential candidates who are already in the industry and have the experience and skills you are looking for.
Personalize your approach: When reaching out to potential candidates, make sure to personalize your message. Mention how you found them, what you appreciate about their profile, and why you think they would be a good fit for your brokerage. Personalizing your approach can help increase potential candidates’ chances of a positive response. It shows that you have taken the time to review their profile and are genuinely interested in them as a candidate.
Follow-up: After reaching out to potential candidates, make sure to follow up. Don’t be afraid to send a friendly reminder about your open position and why you think they would be a great fit. Following up can help increase the chances of a positive response from potential candidates. It shows that you are persistent and genuinely interested in them as a candidate.
Leverage Employee Referral: Encourage your current agents to refer their colleagues or friends who would be a good fit for the brokerage. Employee referral is one of the most effective ways to recruit top talent, as referrals tend to be more qualified and have a good cultural fit. By leveraging employee referrals, you can tap into your current agents’ networks and reach potential candidates who are already familiar with your brokerage.
Real Estate Lead Generation Using Brokerkit
BrokerKit is a powerful recruiting CRM that can help real estate brokers and teams streamline and optimize their recruitment process on LinkedIn. With its landing pages, automated email campaigns, tracking and organizing features, lead generation tools, scheduling, and analytics, BrokerKit can help you reach potential candidates, track their progress, and hire the best agents for your brokerage.
Create a brokerage landing page:
BrokerKit allows you to create a landing page for your brokerage that includes information about your company, culture, and opportunities. You can create LinkedIn feed ads that direct potential clients to this page and provide them with a clear understanding of what your brokerage has to offer at a glance.
If you have in-house recruiters, they are assigned an individual landing page they can use in their recruiting efforts. Any candidates who come through that landing page are automatically assigned and attributed to them. This is especially helpful in paying out commission on a successful hire and tracking their overall pipeline. Agents and other staff roles also have access to individual landing pages, simplifying the process of setting up a referral program and tracking compensation!
Lead generation:
BrokerKit provides a built-in tool to tie anyone in the CRM to their LinkedIn pageant and other social platforms. This is great for agents with common names or who do not come up in LinkedIn’s search.
Furthermore, if you have MLS, Realtor Association, or other data lists, you can import the contacts directly into Brokerkit. When your dynamic outreach campaign assigns you a task to reach out via LinkedIn or another social channel, you can use this tool to reduce the administrative work of finding them manually.
Automated Outreach Campaigns:
Enhance your outreach by adding automated email, calling, and text campaigns that you can send to any potential candidate. These emails are customizable to include information about your brokerage, job opportunities, and the next steps in the recruitment process.
Unlike other CRM systems, Brokerkit has a library of these campaigns baked in and accessible to all users. To get one started, go into the campaign library, find a suitable campaign, then add a trigger to activate anytime a candidate comes in attributed to LinkedIn. If you want to get a demo of Brokerkit and see these campaigns in action, you can schedule one here!
Automated Task Scheduling:
Along with automated campaigns, smart campaigns can set reminders and schedule follow-up tasks. This helps you keep on track with all your clients, even on the non-automated pieces.
Data Integrations:
Brokertkit has integrated API with third-party agent data providers so you can harness the power of your local MLS and get detailed agent grading. Combine this with the ability to pull social profiles, and you can directly reach out to the best agents in your region.
Worried about not being able to code? We have webhook integration through Zapier, allowing you to set up the automation around tagging or triggering information coming in from 3rd party data sources. Zapier connects apps through an easy-to-use platform, no coding experience is needed!
Reporting and Analytics:
BrokerKit provides reporting and analytics features that allow you to track the performance of your recruitment campaigns, including the number of candidates that apply, the number of interviews scheduled, and the number of hires. This will help you optimize your recruitment strategy and improve results. You can even tag agents you reach out to through LinkedIn to refine your outreach efforts further!
Wrapping Up
The steps outlined in this blog can be used for any social platform, but it’s essential with LinkedIn if you want to find the best candidates. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network for a reason and can be a boon when it comes to enhancing your brokerage’s recruiting efforts. Don’t be afraid to build your network, share industry posts or try new outreach strategies on the platform. As long as a solid strategy is behind your efforts, engaging and interacting with the platform will be a net positive for your brokerage. Alternatively, if you’re ready to take your growth to the next level, tools like Brokerkit can automate your entire recruiting process on and off LinkedIn.