If you’re wondering why you’re not generating leads successfully on Instagram, you might be making one of these 3 fatal mistakes. Instagram can be a powerful lead generation tool for any real estate agent, but it can go real wrong, real fast. In this video, I share how to avoid these mistakes.

I’m so grateful to book dozens of appointments on Instagram each year, which leads to lots of revenue for my business. It’s my favorite lead source and my Instagram presence is something I’m super proud of. But, even though it’s something I feel like I’ve figured out to a science, I still see other real estate agents really making some terrible blunders on the platform and I want to help you avoid them. Let’s get right to it - 3 fatal mistakes to avoid on Instagram:

Mistake #1 - Acting like a business instead of a brand.

A lot of real estate agents don’t seem to get that Instagram is not just another place to advertise. But, they don’t know what else to post, so they shout about their new listings and open houses and completely alienate their audience. Listen: No one cares about your new listings and open houses. (Sorry.)

Stop posting like a business and begin posting like a brand. What’s the difference? Everything. While a business is focused on advertising a product or service, a brand is focused on connection and relationships. The real estate agents who understand this crush it on Instagram: they post valuable content that entertains, educates, and inspires, which attracts new followers to their account each day.

It’s the difference between screaming to the masses, and speaking directly to real buyers and sellers who are actually going to buy or sell in your favorite neighborhoods. If all you do is advertise your business, you’re going to alienate anyone who isn’t looking to buy or sell right at that moment, and make it very hard to establish yourself on Instagram.

Mistake #2: Focusing on Followers and Likes instead of relationships.

Somewhere along the way, I think a lot of people forgot what these social networks were made for: for being social. While I want my instagram account to grow and impact more people in my area, I’m much more concerned about having great conversations with prospects and referral partners, and engaging with my community.

Besides, you know what they say: real estate businesses are built on real people. And real relationships. That is the truth and that will always be the truth - so focus on creating meaningful connection on instagram and just watch as those leads come in.

Mistake #3: Paying for growth and engagement.

YIKES! Nothing is more cringeworthy than when you can pull up an account and see that they’ve bought their followers and likes. Yes, there are websites that monitor Instagram accounts and show you when they’ve bought followers. It’s spammy and scammy, which real people on Instagram hate, but that’s not even the worst of it.

The worst is that when you hire bots to do the follow unfollow and liking hundreds of posts and comments every day, you can get flagged as violating the Instagram terms of use and your account can get disabled and deleted with NO WARNING. You can see how this can this create major issues not only if you’re relying on Instagram as your main lead source, this creates so many issues with your ability to reach your audience and market yourself.

But also, guys we put a lot of time into building our authority on social media and it would be a shame to lose it all overnight just because you got sucked into the bad advice that more followers equals success. It’s not true. So don’t fall into that big mistake of paying for growth and engagement.

Okay, guys, don’t make those three mistakes: marketing like a business instead of a brand; not focusing on real relationships, and paying for bots and likes.

So I hope this got your wheels turning on ways you can build an authentic, powerful brand that will grow your authority and your business in your market.

And if you want to get serious about growing your business on Instagram, download my free guide on Instagram for real estate, it’s packed with a ton of value and it can get you lightyears ahead of your competition and it’s totally free.