Are you a real estate professional looking to gain more customers? If so, then you better get started on joining social media sites.

With real estate professionals on a constant search to find the best method of reaching potential home buyers or sellers, social networking has become the new outlet for reaching audiences with 84% of real estate agents utilizing social media. The real estate industry is actually taking the lead in the category of small businesses that use social media.

When asked which social media site they are using, 79% responded with Facebook. It's no wonder, though, since this social media site is favored among all and provides various features for businesses to take advantage of. Twitter stood as the second most used social media site with 48% of real estate professionals using it. LinkedIn came in third with 29% of real estate professionals using the professional network. Other social media sites included WordPress (15%), YouTube (12%), Blogger (5%) and Flickr (4%).

If you’re not of the 12% with a YouTube account to provide customers with a video, now is the time to create one since 73% of homeowners are more likely to list with a realtor who providers a video. Results also showed that after viewing a home online, 45% of online audiences walked through a home, 29% located a local agent and 21% drove by or viewed the home.

For those who stay current with the latest in mobile phones and apps, the Realtor.com app, which allows those looking to buy to view home listings, has users spending an estimated 16 minutes on the app and over 20,000 property listings are viewed each hour.

While some professionals may find using social media to be far from what they are used to when reaching audiences, 55% of real estate professionals said they feel comfortable, 26% said somewhat comfortable, and only 10% said uncomfortable.

Now is the time for real estate professionals to get involved in social media and reach their audience.