Real Estate Social Media Statistics: Sourced Numbers for Agents

Real estate social media statistics show agents and their clients on the same two networks. In NAR’s 2026 Member Profile, 76% of Realtors use Facebook professionally. In NAR’s 2025 Technology Survey, 39% named social media their best source of quality leads. And Pew’s 2025 survey found 84% of U.S. adults use YouTube and 71% use Facebook.

Every number on this page comes from the original publisher: the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), Pew Research Center, or the platform companies themselves. Each figure carries the date of its survey or publication. Where two sources disagree, we explain why. Where a popular statistic could not be traced to its original study, we left it out and say so.

What are the key real estate social media statistics?

The key real estate social media statistics cover three things: which platforms agents use, which platforms clients use, and how big each platform is. The table collects the headline figures with source and date. Details and caveats follow in the sections below.

Statistic	Source	Date
76% of Realtors use Facebook professionally; Instagram 57%, LinkedIn 55%, YouTube 31%, TikTok 16%	NAR 2026 Member Profile	Published June 2026
29% of Realtors did not use social media at all for business	NAR 2022 Member Profile	Published July 2022
39% of agents said social media produced their highest number of quality leads	NAR 2025 Technology Survey	Published September 2025
32% of agents most often use social media scheduling or content tools	NAR 2026 technology research	Published September 2026
56% of agents who use AI use it for social media posting	NAR 2026 technology research	Published September 2026
84% of U.S. adults use YouTube, 71% Facebook, 50% Instagram, 37% TikTok	Pew Research Center	Surveyed February to June 2025
Median age 40 for first-time buyers, 62 for repeat buyers	NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers	Transactions July 2024 to June 2025
3.60 billion daily active people across Meta’s apps	Meta	June 2026 average
More than 1.3 billion LinkedIn members	LinkedIn	Undated company page, read October 2026

How many realtors use social media, and on which platforms?

Most Realtors use social media for work, and Facebook is still the platform they use most. NAR’s 2026 Member Profile coverage, published June 25, 2026, lists the top platforms agents use professionally to stay connected:

Platform	Share of Realtors using it professionally (2026 Member Profile)
Facebook	76%
Instagram	57%
LinkedIn	55%
YouTube	31%
TikTok	16%

NAR’s public summary of the 2026 profile does not give a single “uses any social media” figure. The most recent overall number we could find on an NAR page is older. In the 2022 Member Profile, reported in July 2022, 29% of Realtors said they did not use social media at all for their business. That same 2022 report put Facebook at 72%, LinkedIn at 55% and Instagram at 45%.

Compare the two years and one shift stands out. Instagram rose from 45% in the 2022 profile to 57% in the 2026 profile, moving past LinkedIn. Facebook moved from 72% to 76%. LinkedIn held at 55%.

Why do some sites quote different NAR platform numbers?

Some sites quote different NAR platform numbers because NAR runs two separate surveys. The Member Profile asks Realtors about their business and background. The Technology Survey asks a different sample, of about 1,200 agents, about tools. Don’t mix their figures in one chart, and check the NAR page before quoting any undated number.

Do realtors get leads from social media?

Realtors say social media is their best source of quality leads among the tools they use. NAR’s 2025 Technology Survey, published September 18, 2025 from responses by more than 1,200 agents, found 39% named social media as the tool that produced their highest number of quality leads. CRM came second at 23% and the local MLS third at 17%.

Two cautions apply. First, this is what agents report, not tracked conversions. Second, “quality leads” is not “closings.” Our roundup of real estate lead generation statistics shows that the typical Realtor still earns half of their business from repeat clients and referrals, and that organic social traffic converts website visits at a low rate. Social media often works as the place past clients remember you, rather than the place strangers find you.

NAR’s 2026 technology research, published September 22, 2026 from responses by 1,200 agents, measures use rather than results. It found 32% of agents most often use social media scheduling or content tools, and 56% of agents who use AI use it for social media posting. That 2026 edition does not repeat the lead-quality question, so the 39% figure from 2025 is still the newest of its kind.

Which social media platforms do U.S. adults use?

U.S. adults use YouTube and Facebook far more than any other platform. Pew Research Center’s Americans’ Social Media Use 2025, published November 20, 2025, surveyed 5,022 adults from February 5 to June 18, 2025. The shares who say they use each platform:

Platform	Share of U.S. adults (2025)	Change Pew reports
YouTube	84%	Relatively stable in recent years
Facebook	71%	Relatively stable in recent years
Instagram	50%	Up from 40% in 2021
TikTok	37%	Up from 21% in 2021
WhatsApp	32%	Up from 23% in 2021
Reddit	26%	Up from 18% four years earlier

Use is not the same as daily use. In a separate Pew survey of 5,123 adults from February 24 to March 2, 2025, about half of U.S. adults said they visit Facebook at least once a day, and about half said the same of YouTube. About a quarter (24%) said they use TikTok daily. That gap matters if you post often: a daily Facebook or YouTube habit gives your posts more chances to be seen.

LinkedIn and Pinterest were not part of Pew’s 2025 platform list. The latest figures on Pew’s social media fact sheet are from 2024: LinkedIn at 32% and Pinterest at 36% of U.S. adults.

How does social media use change by age?

Social media use changes sharply by age for Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, and much less for YouTube and Facebook. Pew’s fact sheet gives the 2025 breakdown, from the same February to June 2025 survey:

Platform	Ages 18–29	Ages 30–49	Ages 50–64	Ages 65+
YouTube	95%	92%	85%	64%
Facebook	68%	80%	74%	57%
Instagram	80%	62%	40%	19%
TikTok	63%	44%	30%	12%
Snapchat	58%	31%	13%	4%
X (formerly Twitter)	33%	25%	16%	10%

Pew notes that Facebook and YouTube are the only platforms a majority of every age group uses. Facebook peaks with adults 30 to 49, at 80%, not with the youngest group.

Now put buyers’ ages next to that table. NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, published November 4, 2025 and covering transactions from July 2024 to June 2025, puts the median first-time buyer at 40 years old and the median repeat buyer at 62. The typical first-time buyer sits in Pew’s 30 to 49 group, where Facebook reaches 80% and TikTok 44%. The typical repeat buyer sits in the 50 to 64 group, where Facebook reaches 74% and TikTok 30%.

NAR’s public summaries of the buyer profile do not break out social media as a way buyers found their agent or their home, so we have no NAR figure for that.

How big are the platforms, according to the companies?

The platform companies report much larger numbers than Pew because they count users worldwide and define “user” their own way. These are the figures each company publishes about itself:

• Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger): Meta’s second-quarter 2026 results, released July 29, 2026, report 3.60 billion daily active people across its apps on average for June 2026, up 3% year over year. The release does not split that number by app.
• YouTube: YouTube’s press page says Shorts averages over 200 billion daily views and that YouTube has been number one in U.S. streaming watch time for nearly three years, citing Nielsen as of January 2026. The Shorts figure carries no date.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn’s about page, read in October 2026, lists more than 1.3 billion members, including more than 290 million in North America. Members are registered accounts, not active users, and the page gives no date for the count.

Why don’t company numbers match Pew’s?

Company numbers and Pew’s survey don’t match because they measure different things. Meta counts daily active people worldwide across several apps. LinkedIn counts registered members. Pew asks a representative sample of U.S. adults which platforms they use. For a local agent, Pew is the more useful source, because your clients are U.S. adults in a specific age range, not a global user base.

We could not trace current user counts for TikTok in the U.S. or for Instagram alone to a company page we could open, so they are left out.

Which real estate social media statistics can’t be traced?

Several widely shared real estate social media statistics could not be traced to an original study, so this page leaves them out. The best-known example is the claim that listings with video receive 403% more inquiries than listings without. It appears on many agent marketing sites, usually with no link or with a link to another blog. We could not find the original research behind it.

The same goes for undated claims about the share of buyers who “start their search on social media” and for platform percentages credited to NAR with no year. Some of those may come from older NAR surveys, but without a date they can’t be compared with current data. Before you put any number in a listing presentation, run it through this check:

• The number appears on the publisher’s own page or report.
• You know the survey or publication date.
• You know who was surveyed: agents, U.S. adults, or a platform’s global users.
• You know which question was asked: used, used daily, or produced leads.

For video-specific figures that do hold up, see our video podcast statistics. For the wider set of sourced marketing numbers, including email, websites and AI, read our real estate marketing statistics roundup.

What do these numbers mean for agents?

These numbers mean most agents should treat Facebook and YouTube as the base and pick one more platform based on their clients’ age. Four practical moves follow from the data.

1. Start where your clients already are. Facebook and YouTube reach a majority of every adult age group in Pew’s 2025 survey, and your typical buyer is 40 or 62 according to NAR. That rules in Facebook and YouTube for almost every agent.
2. Add Instagram or TikTok only if your clients are younger. Instagram reaches 80% of adults 18 to 29 but 40% of those 50 to 64. If most of your deals are first-time buyers, it earns a place. If you list for downsizers, it probably doesn’t.
3. Film once, post in several places. YouTube’s reach across all ages makes video the format that travels furthest. Our guide to video marketing for realtors covers what to film first and where each version goes. If you’re considering short-form video, our article on selling real estate on TikTok covers what works there.
4. Plan your posting time, then measure leads by source. With 32% of agents already using scheduling or content tools in NAR’s 2026 research, batching posts is common practice. If you’re choosing a tool, ICONS has published a side-by-side comparison of social media scheduling tools for real estate agents. Disclosure: Ardor SEO is the parent company of ICONS of Real Estate. Whatever you use, tag every lead in your CRM with where it came from, so you can test the 39% claim against your own business.

One compliance note. Social posts are advertising. Fair Housing rules apply to captions and to paid targeting, and Meta’s housing ad category limits who you can target. Our guide to Meta’s special ad category for housing explains those limits. Check your broker’s advertising rules before you boost a post; this is not legal advice.

NAR publishes its Member Profile each summer, its technology research each September and its Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers each November. Pew updates its social media survey roughly once a year. Check for a newer edition before you reuse any figure on this page.