Many people may argue that social media is on its deathbed—or in its final marathon crawl—but evidence suggests otherwise. In fact, 77% of Americans currently have an active social media profile—the same percentage of Americans who currently have smartphones or devices.

Social media gives businesses and professionals of every industry an opportunity to engage with broad audiences. For this reason, it should be an essential tool in your digital marketing toolbox as a realtor, broker, or agent.

Facebook and Instagram may seem like no-brainers, but marketing through social media channels is actually more complex than most people realize.

I’ll be discussing social media marketing for realtors in coming posts. For now, let’s chat about the top social media marketing mistakes you should be avoiding in the coming weeks and months.

Staying Inactive

In order to build an effective presence on social media platforms, it’s essential to commit to them in the first place. Consumers are far more apt to stick with brands, professionals, and companies who show regular, consistent activity—they’ll shy away from profiles that show little engagement or years-old posts.

Inactivity can actually be the biggest detriment to your social media marketing efforts as a realtor. Failing to respond to client messages on Facebook, for example, or ignoring comments to the property listing you shared on Instagram can do your reputation more harm than good.

What’s more, neglecting to reach out to prospective homebuyers and clients via private messaging, share content from other profiles in your industry, and keep your profiles updated may indicate to clients that you are behind the times, or that you are more invested in other things (like your website or blog).

Once you build profiles on prominent platforms, keep them active and regularly updated. Consider outsourcing social media marketers if need be.

Forgetting SEO

Social media is excellent for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes. You can optimize any content you share on social media for trending keywords, making it an ideal complement to your current SEO efforts.

This includes media, such as images and videos, too!

Forgetting to optimize posts for trending keywords—and neglecting to conduct the right keyword research—may mean wasting the great potential platforms like Twitter and Instagram have to offer you.

Business social media profiles can also appear in Google search results. If you haven’t yet done so, at the very least establish a Facebook profile for your real estate company, agency, or partnership.

Mismanaging Reviews

Social media platforms are quickly becoming review portals in themselves. Facebook, for example, enables customers to leave reviews for businesses on their Facebook profiles. Like Google reviews, these starred ratings will appear in search results for appropriate terms, including your company’s name.

If you’re busy managing your online reputation on other platforms—like Yelp or Angie’s List—it can be all too easy to forget about social media reviews. Some businesses don’t permit reviews on their profiles, neglecting a powerful digital marketing tool as a result.

Enable Facebook reviews if you have a Facebook business profile, and manage these the same way you would manage any others.

There’s far more to social media marketing for realtors than meets the eye. I’ll be talking more about building an effective campaign in coming posts. Stay tuned!