Often times we see real estate professionals wondering why their social media posts aren’t getting much traction. The reason is that posting articles by itself is no longer effective – between Facebook’s algorithm change and the amount of information out there, you need to be more creative with the split second you have to grab someone’s attention.

Here are 9 ways to get attention and more interaction with your social media posts:

1) Tell a Story

People love stories. Use headlines that allude to a story when someone clicks. One example might be “Learn how [Person’s Name] achieved [some amazing result] without [some undesirable task].”

2) Trigger emotion with images

The eyes are said to be the gateway to the soul. In short, use images with people’s faces.  This has been proven in multiple industries time and time again. Images with people’s faces typically get the best click through rates. So if you want something to be seen, use relevant faces to complement your posts.

3) Position ads as “helpful resources” not “advertisements”

People on social channels are mostly immune to traditional advertisements.  As such you need to position your posts and ads as helpful resources or interesting articles, not a sales ad. Here are a  few examples of how you might do this in the real estate space:

The Real Estate Agent – Let me help you find the perfect home you might not find published online.

The Title Company – Tired of not knowing the status of your closings? See how [Title Company] can keep your clients happy through the closing process.

The Mortgage Company – This is the simplest way to find out how much home you can afford – the actual amount might surprise you.

4) Tease post

Tease your post by using short casual text with no capitalization or very long text if something emotional or personal. Posting articles is not enough. Tease the content to elicit curiosity.

5) Memes

Memes still work well. Google “real estate memes” or “memes buying a home” to get some memes or use an easy graphic editor like Canva.com to create your own.

6) Use Video

Make sure the video has Facebook Graph meta data so the video actually shows up in the news feed when it is shared.

7) Ask questions

Post an article on remodeling a kitchen and ask them which options they’d select if it were their kitchen.

8) Use surveys

Similar to the previous item, use embedded polls or surveys to get instant interaction from your followers.

9) Comment on other people’s posts

This one is so frequently overlooked. A few times a week, take general interest in what your followers are doing and posting then like, comment, and share.

Why is this so important? Facebook and other social networks show content more frequently and for more people as it gets more likes and comments. In other words, more likes equals more comments equals more shares equals more people.

What tactics have you found work well in social media?

TitleTap is a website builder for Real Estate Law Firms and Title Agents.

This post was originally published on Inman.com.