Claude AI for Real Estate Social Media: How I Built My Own Social Media Assistant

I’m an Austin agent, and I’m not consistent on Instagram. I know it works. I just don’t want to spend my evenings picking a topic, designing graphics, writing a caption and scheduling it.

So I tested how much of that I could hand to Claude. The answer: almost all of it. I built a Claude AI social media assistant for real estate, and I named her Sarah. She finds local news, builds the carousel, and gets it scheduled.

I’m William Zhang, a full-time real estate agent in Austin and the founder of Real Estate AI Society. In the video I build Sarah from scratch, including the ugly first draft. Higgsfield sponsored this video. Below is the whole setup in writing, so you can follow along.

What a Claude social media assistant does for a real estate agent

Most agents use AI for one thing: “write me a caption.” That still leaves you with every other step.

Sarah handles the steps around the caption:

• She knows my market and my price point.
• She researches what’s happening in Austin.
• She builds a carousel for Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube Community.
• She schedules the post to my account.

I work with buyers and sellers in the $500K to $700K range around Austin. That detail matters. It’s why she doesn’t hand me “5 tips for first-time homebuyers” like every other AI tool does.

Step 1: Create the project and write the instructions

If you skip this step, you get generic content. It’s the most important one.

1. Open the Claude desktop app and click Projects, then Create new.
2. Name it. I called mine “Social Media Assistant.” Then I gave her a human name, Sarah, so I can talk to her like a team member.
3. Open the project instructions and paste in who you are, what you do, the area you serve, the people you serve and their budget.
4. Save.

Now every chat inside that project starts with that context. Claude already knows who you are before you ask for a post.

Step 2: Add a project folder

Click Add folder and create a new one on your computer. I named mine after Sarah.

This folder is where everything piles up: your brand files, your reference images, your finished carousels. Claude will ask for permission to change files. Choose always allow. That’s how she saves her work.

Keep everything in this one folder. The longer you use it, the better she gets, because her notes and memory stay in one place.

Step 3: Connect an image tool

For the cover image, I connected Higgsfield. It gives Claude access to image models, so Sarah can generate a cover without me opening another app.

1. In Claude, go to Settings, then Connectors.
2. Search for Higgsfield in the Discover tab and click connect.
3. Sign in to your Higgsfield account.

If it isn’t in the list, you can add it by hand. Click Add custom connector, paste the server URL from Higgsfield, name it, and sign in.

Only the cover image uses image credits. The rest of the carousel is built with code.

Step 4: Add the carousel skill

A skill is a file that teaches Claude how to do one job. Mine builds Instagram carousels, LinkedIn carousels and YouTube Community posts from any topic, article or video transcript.

1. Click your name, then Settings, then Customize.
2. Find the Skills section and click Add, then Upload skill.
3. Drag in the skill zip file.
4. In your project, type /carousel-lite and ask what it can do. This confirms it installed.

The first time you run it, it may ask to install a small tool on your computer. Approve it. That’s what lets it build the slides as image files you can edit.

You can get the skill and the setup instructions from the free Social Media Assistant kit.

Step 5: Ask Sarah what to post

This is where it gets fun. I asked her one question: what should I post today?

She didn’t give me a tip list. She came back with four things happening in North Austin that each affect home values in a different way. One was a highway project in East Williamson County. Another was a new Taylor Morrison community breaking ground.

Then she suggested one carousel: how local development can change what nearby homeowners’ houses are worth. That’s a good post for sellers, because sellers want to know what a new highway or a new neighborhood means for their home.

I asked her to build it with the carousel skill. She asked for my Instagram handle, my brand colors and a headshot. I gave her all three, and because we were inside the project folder, she remembers them now.

Step 6: Fix the ugly first draft

The first version was decent, but the cover image was weak. It looked like a generic AI graphic. I forgot to give her my phone number for the last slide, too.

This is the lesson of the whole project: Claude doesn’t know what good looks like to you until you show it.

Here’s what I did:

1. Found a few Instagram covers I liked.
2. Dropped them into the brand swipe folder inside Sarah’s folder.
3. Told her to redo the carousel.

The new cover matched the style of those references. I asked for a version with me in it, picked the option I liked best, and used that one.

Then I gave her feedback in plain words, like “remove the sources line from the caption.” I typed it out on purpose, so she saves it to her memory. Next time she skips it. It’s the same as training a new employee, except you only explain it once.

Every time you see a post you like, take a screenshot and drop it in that folder. The swipe file grows, and the covers get better.

Step 7: Schedule the post from Claude

Posting by hand is the step that makes people quit. I wanted Sarah to do it too.

I used Nimply, a social media scheduler. Here’s how I connected it:

1. Go to Settings, then Connectors, and search Nimply in the Discover tab.
2. Connect it and create an account.
3. Link your professional Instagram account and allow the permissions it asks for.

There’s one more setup step. Claude blocks image uploads to outside tools by default, for security. In the video I add Nimply and Higgsfield to the allowed network list so Sarah can upload the images. It takes a minute.

Then I told her to schedule the post. She scheduled it. I decided to post it right away instead, and it went live on my Instagram. I never opened the app.

Step 8: Put it on a weekly schedule

One good post is nice. A system that posts every week is better.

In Claude, I created a scheduled task with these settings:

• Runs: every Thursday at 9 AM.
• The job: search for local news and events in the Austin area, build a carousel, and schedule it for 10 AM.
• Alert: notify me by email and push notification when it’s done.

I set permissions to auto approve to start. That way I can review the finished post instead of approving every small step.

Now the weekly work of finding an idea, making the graphics and scheduling it doesn’t start from zero. It’s waiting for me.

What I still check myself

Sarah isn’t a replacement for my judgment. I still read every post. I fact-check the news before it goes out, because a wrong claim about a highway project is worse than no post at all. I also make sure it looks like me.

That’s the right split. Claude does the research and the production. I make sure it’s true and on brand.

Where to start

If you only do one thing today, do Step 1. Create the project and write the instructions. It changes every answer you get after that.

Want the instructions and the carousel skill I used? Get the free Social Media Assistant kit. To see how I run the rest of my business with Claude, join the newsletter. I also wrote about turning a carousel system into a repeatable brand and about posting to Instagram automatically.