Where Your Next Seller Is Scrolling Tonight

It's 9:14 on a Tuesday night in Fort Collins. The dishes are done, the kids are down, and a homeowner who's been quietly thinking about selling is on the couch with a phone in one hand.

She isn't searching for an agent. She's scrolling. Whichever app is open is where your name either shows up or doesn't.

So which app is it?

Which social media platform is best for real estate marketing?

For most Northern Colorado agents, Instagram is the best platform for real estate marketing, because it reaches active buyers and move-up sellers and shows your work visually. Facebook is a close second and reaches older homeowners better than any other app. YouTube earns its place for long-form depth, and TikTok is optional.

That's our position, and it's a decided one. Here's the data behind it, and the reasoning the data alone can't give you.

Who is actually on each platform?

Pew Research Center's 2025 survey of U.S. adults is the cleanest picture available. YouTube is the most widely used platform at 84 percent of adults, Facebook follows at 71 percent, Instagram reaches 50 percent, and TikTok 37 percent.

Those totals hide the part that matters for real estate: age. The platforms look completely different depending on who you're trying to reach.

• Instagram. Used by about 80 percent of adults under 30, 62 percent of adults 30 to 49, 40 percent of adults 50 to 64, and 19 percent of adults 65 and older.
• Facebook. Used by 80 percent of adults 30 to 49, the highest of any age group, and by 57 percent of adults 65 and older. About 58 percent of adults 30 to 49 and 54 percent of adults 50 to 64 use it daily.
• YouTube. A majority of every age group uses it, including 64 percent of adults 65 and older.
• TikTok. Roughly half of adults under 30 use it daily, compared with 5 percent of adults 65 and older.

Now line that up with who buys and sells homes. In the National Association of Realtors' 2024 profile, the typical home seller was 63 years old, the typical repeat buyer was 61, and the typical first-time buyer was 38.

If Facebook reaches more people, why is Instagram first?

Fair question. Facebook has more total users, and it's stronger with the oldest sellers. Here's why we still put Instagram on top for most agents in Loveland, Windsor, and Fort Collins.

• It reaches the people who are about to move. Sixty-two percent of adults 30 to 49 use Instagram. That's the first-time buyer, the growing family that needs a bigger house in Timnath, and the couple selling their starter home in Johnstown.
• It's built for what you sell. Real estate is visual. Short video, clean photos, and a face people recognize all play to the format.
• Your profile works like a storefront. Instagram lets you pin up to three posts to the top of your profile, which means the first thing a curious visitor sees can be exactly what you choose.

Think of Instagram as your storefront on Main Street and Facebook as the bulletin board at the community center. Both get seen. One is where people decide whether to walk in.

Where does Facebook fit?

Facebook is where your sphere already lives. The neighbor from your old street, the parents from your kid's soccer team, and the empty nesters in Berthoud thinking about downsizing are far more likely to see you there than on Instagram.

With the typical seller now in their sixties, ignoring Facebook means ignoring a lot of the people who actually own the houses. The good news is that you rarely need separate content. A short video made well for Instagram usually works on Facebook too.

What about YouTube?

YouTube is a different animal. People go there to learn, and they stay longer.

A ten-minute tour of what it's actually like to live in Old Town Fort Collins, or a plain-English breakdown of the Loveland market, is the kind of thing a relocating buyer watches start to finish. That's depth no fifteen-second clip can match, and it keeps working for months.

The catch is effort. Long-form video takes more planning, more shooting, and more editing, so it's the platform you add once the first two are running, not the one you start with.

And TikTok?

Optional. The daily audience skews young, which can be great for agents who work heavily with first-time buyers or renters and genuinely enjoy the format.

For most Northern Colorado agents, though, an hour spent on TikTok is an hour not spent on the two platforms where sellers actually are. If you love it, use it. If you dread it, skip it without guilt.

The best platform isn't the biggest one. It's the one where the people who own the houses already spend their evenings.

Do you need to be on all of them?

No. Spreading thin is the most common mistake we see. Four accounts posting once a month each will lose to one account that shows up every week.

A simple order works for most agents:

• Start with Instagram. Get your profile right, pin the posts that explain who you are, and post consistently.
• Share to Facebook. Put the same work in front of your sphere and the older homeowners who are most likely to list.
• Add YouTube when you're ready. Long-form neighborhood and market videos for the buyers who want depth.
• Treat TikTok as a bonus. Only if it fits your clients and your personality.

What should you actually post there?

The platform is the room. What you say in it still matters more.

The agents who win on Instagram don't only post listings. They post themselves, the neighborhoods they love, and proof from the clients they've helped, so people have a reason to stick around between houses.

Buying or selling a home is a big decision, and big decisions take time. The goal isn't to make that Fort Collins homeowner call you tonight. It's to make sure that when she's finally ready, you're the agent she's already been watching.