What kinds of posts do you make to your social media pages? Are you constantly talking about yourself, or are you sharing posts that plenty of your friends and followers will “like,” enjoy and share?

The last time that you logged on to a social media site, which posts did you read? What was it about these posts that captured your attention? On the other hand, what did you want to hide or delete?

If you want to get real results from your social media efforts, here are some tips on how to do it.

The 95-5 Rule

When it comes to having your posts read on any social media site, the best approach is to follow the 95-5 Rule. 95 percent of what you share is about helping others or commenting on what they have said. Only five percent of your posts should be about you and your needs.

Ask And Answer Engaging Questions

The best activity that you want to do on social media sites is engaging with others. While it’s nice to push the “Like” button, a much better approach is to comment on other people’s posts.

For example, to do this on Facebook, look through your Facebook feed each day and answer questions that your friends have posed. It’s a great way to engage and to have many more people see what you’re posting.

Another way to do a powerful social media post is to ask an engaging question of your own. For example, if there is a new zoning change coming to your area, ask people to post their opinions. You could also ask their opinions about who makes the best burger in town, or anything else that is fun and engaging.

Shoot Video Testimonials

A great way to increase your web ranking using video is to gather video testimonials from your clients. Testimonials rank highly on Google, and so do videos. Put them together and you have a very powerful combination that can greatly help your web rankings. Follow up by posting these on YouTube, as well as the other social media sites, and you have a simple way for potential clients to find out about the quality services that you provide.

Create And Monitor Your YouTube Channel

If you haven’t created a YouTube video channel for your listings and your marketing videos, it would be smart to make this a priority in 2014. Once you create your YouTube channel, the next question is how to track your results. This was difficult until YouTube released its new analytics program.

In the past, you could track the number of views your video received, but that was about it. What is much more valuable, however, is audience retention. The “Audience Retention Report” allows you to track how well your videos hold the attention of your viewers and to compare your results with everyone else’s results. You can filter your results by topic, geography or date.

For example, if you want to know what your competitors are doing, you could filter by “real estate” and then a specific market area. The tool will show you who your competition is as well as how well you are doing against them. The report also allows you to identify who is visiting your site from other countries.

Instagram: A Picture Really Is Worth A Thousand Words

Part of the big shift for 2014 is moving from using words to describe your listings to using visuals, whether it’s pictures or videos. No longer are pictures enough; design and beauty now matter as well. Although Instagram has been around for a while, it has evolved as the photo-sharing site of choice for many Realtors. For example, if you want to tell a story about a property visually, Instagram is the perfect platform to achieve this goal.

Marketing On Pinterest

Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, YouTube and LinkedIn combined, and is the fourth largest referral website in the world. Since women typically drive the home-buying process, and 68.2 percent of Pinterest users are female, Pinterest is an important marketing tool to reach these potential clients.

A great way to use the site is to prepare a Pinterest “board” to illustrate how you would market the sellers’ listing using this site. To achieve the best results, carefully tag each board you create so that your listings can be found more easily online. Your tags should include the city and ZIP code, street address if your sellers want to give out information, your contact information, property information, as well as your description of the property.

If you want to achieve better results from your web marketing efforts, try implementing some of these strategies. Have fun, connect, provide value – and watch your real estate business grow. 

Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, trainer and author. Email: Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com