Plan, Build, Get Your Approval, Schedule, Add One-Offs, Recap
A real estate social media manager spends the month on a repeating cycle. They build next month’s content calendar, send every post to you for approval, schedule what you approve, add one-off posts as your deals move, keep your account connections working and send a short recap at month’s end. Your part is about 20 to 40 minutes of approvals a month, plus a quick yes or no on one-off posts. What a good manager doesn’t do is post without your sign-off or reply to your comments and DMs.
Below is how the month runs, start to finish. This is how we run it at Freedom, and it’s a fair yardstick for anyone you’re thinking about hiring.
Table of Contents
▼Before Month One: Setup
The first month starts with setup, not posts.
Qualifying the accounts. You need a Facebook Business Page, not just a personal profile, because no scheduling tool can post to a personal profile or a Group. Instagram needs to be a Business or Creator account linked to that Page. If you don’t have either, we can set them up for a fee. More in Facebook Business Page vs Personal Profile for Realtors.
Connecting your channels. On Facebook and Instagram, you add us to your Page in Meta Business Suite, and we connect from our own login. No password sharing. Channels like LinkedIn or Google Business Profile have to be authorized by the owner, so we do a short screen-share where you type your own password.
Building your disclosure line. Your brokerage name goes on every post, in the image and the caption, at least as large as your name. We add the extras your state requires, like the firm phone in Georgia and Louisiana, and put the full disclosures in your bio. In Texas, that includes the IABS and Consumer Protection Notice links. Our state rules guide has the details.
Brand kit and photo rights. Your logo, headshot and colors. And a confirmation from you that you hold the rights to your listing photos from your photographer.
Your voice. A few captions you’ve written that sound like you, and a short list of things you never want posted.
Mid-Month: Building Next Month’s Calendar
Around the middle of the month, the VA starts on next month’s calendar. A typical month mixes:
- Listings you have active or coming up (only once they’re in the MLS)
- Market updates for your area, in plain English. See real estate market update posts.
- Local and community posts: a new restaurant, a school event, the road work everybody’s talking about
- Tips that answer questions your clients actually ask
- You, using photos you’ve sent
- A seasonal post or two, not ten
The calendar is spaced so three listing posts don’t land back to back. Each post is built for every channel it’s going to, with the right size and the disclosure in place. The posting pace depends on your package; three to five posts a week is the range most agents can sustain, which we cover in how often should realtors post.
While building, the VA checks each post against a short list:
- Brokerage name and state extras present and sized right
- Photo rights confirmed
- No fair housing slips in the wording or image. “Great for young families” doesn’t make it through. See Fair Housing on Social Media.
- No other agent’s listing without the listing broker’s permission
- No financial or closing-figure details
- Any altered or virtually staged image labeled
Third Week: Your Approval Window
This is the only part of the month that needs you.
The full calendar lands in your approval queue with a few days to review it. You approve, edit or reject each post. Most agents do it in one sitting, with coffee, in 20 to 40 minutes. If you haven’t gotten to it by midway through the window, you’ll get a reminder.
Anything you don’t approve by the deadline doesn’t go out. It doesn’t carry over and post by default. If you’ve built up a bank of pre-approved evergreen posts, the VA can drop one into the empty slot. Otherwise the slot stays empty.
That rule sounds strict. It’s the point. You’re the licensee, and your broker supervises your advertising. A post you never saw is still your post. Approval on every post means every piece of your advertising has a human sign-off, and there’s a record of it. If you’re a broker, that record is useful. See how brokers supervise agent advertising without approving every post.
Before the Month Starts: Scheduling
Once the window closes, approved posts get scheduled across your channels in the scheduling tool. The VA confirms each one is queued on every channel it’s meant for, at a sensible time, with nothing doubled up.
This is also when the VA runs the weekly connection check. Platforms expire their connections from time to time, and LinkedIn is the usual offender. When a channel needs reconnecting, we set up a quick call with you before posts start failing, not after.
All Month: One-Off Posts
Real estate doesn’t follow a content calendar. New listings go live, houses close, open houses get scheduled on a Tuesday for that Saturday. Those posts get added between calendars.
Each one goes into the same approval queue with a fast turnaround. You approve it, it posts.
Just Listed and Just Sold posts are available as an add-on to a plan, and our TC and listing coordination clients get one on the house. Ask when you get started. Just Sold posts announce the sale, never the price. See turning transaction milestones into social media posts and Just Sold posts that don’t overshare.
Open house promos follow the same path: a before post, and if you send photos, a short recap after. Details in open house social media promotion.
Month-End: The Recap
At month’s end you get a short note by email or text. Nothing fancy:
- How many posts went out
- The top post of the month
- Follower change on each channel
- Anything that needs your attention, like a channel that needs reconnecting or a post you rejected that we should rethink
Then the cycle starts over, and next month’s calendar is already in progress.
What a Social Media Manager Doesn’t Do
Knowing the edges of the job matters as much as the job.
We never reply to comments or DMs. When a buyer comments “Is this one still available?” or messages asking about a price, that’s your conversation. It belongs to the licensed agent, and it’s a lead. Turn on notifications on your phone and answer yourself.
We don’t talk to consumers on your behalf. Not in comments, not in messages, not anywhere.
We don’t run paid ads. Ads bring in their own targeting rules and a separate skill set.
We don’t shoot photos or video. We use what you, your listing photographer or licensed stock provides. If you film your own short videos, we can caption and schedule them on some packages.
We don’t post anything you haven’t approved. Worth saying twice.
Some providers do reply to comments or run ads, and they charge for it. If you’re comparing, our breakdown of what a social media manager for realtors costs shows how those extras move the price, and hiring a VA for real estate social media covers why we keep VAs out of consumer conversations.
What to Look for in Anyone You Hire
Whether it’s us or someone else, a manager’s month should include:
- A calendar you can see before anything goes live
- An approval step where unapproved means unpublished
- Your state’s disclosure built into every post
- Photo rights checked
- Access through Page roles and their own logins, not your password
- A regular check that your channels are still connected
- A recap, even a short one
If a provider can’t describe their month this clearly, ask more questions.
Where to Go From Here
Our social media management service runs on exactly this cycle. Pricing is on the service page. If you’re still weighing whether to hand it off at all, read done-for-you vs DIY real estate social media, or start with the bigger picture in our guide to social media for real estate agents.
The Closing Table — Monthly Tips from the Contract-to-Close Experts
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Related Articles
- Social Media for Real Estate Agents: The Done-for-You Guide
- Hiring a VA for Real Estate Social Media
- Is Outsourcing Social Media Worth It for Agents?
- Turning Transaction Milestones Into Social Media Posts
- Just Listed Post Ideas and Captions That Stay Compliant
- How Much Does a Social Media Manager for Realtors Cost?
