It was February of 2004 when Zuckerberg, et al. launched Facebook (then known as thefacebook.com), and started an online revolution. Today, it’s hard to remember a time when lead generation wasn’t absolutely entrenched in your real estate Facebook presence.
Other players jumped into the social media game, adding even more lead generating opportunities for the real estate professional.
But, like all real estate lead gen, social media marketing isn’t for everyone.
Sure, we could point out the Ryan Serhants and Fredrik Eklunds of the real estate industry as perfect examples of how to have a killer real estate Facebook presence, but we won’t.
The average agent doesn’t have the budget for a full-time social media marketing manager like the biggest guns do.
Yet, some of the smaller pistols among you do a more-than admirable job of getting noticed, building relationships and trust and generating real estate leads on social media.
Others? Their real estate Facebook presence is non-existent.
We looked at real estate agent Facebook pages for hours to find you some inspiration. Sadly, far too many had zero engagement and, even worse, no shares. On any of their posts.
Why bother with Facebook if you aren’t going to track your success and learn from your failures? If nobody is commenting on your posts or sharing them, it’s a safe bet that what you’re posting is boring.
If it’s time for you to get serious about generating free real estate leads on Facebook, let’s get back to basics.
1. Who is your target audience?
Since smart marketing means fishing where the fish are, according to Gary Vaynerchuk, you need to identify your fish.
And, no, you’ll never catch all of them, so narrow your choices down to one specific type. At least for now.
Do you even know who your target audience is?
If you insist on taking the broad approach of “anyone with a heartbeat who is thinking of buying or selling,” the chances that you’ll successfully dominate any Facebook audience in your market are slim, at best.
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Decide who you want to work with, figure out some key characteristics of this group of people and build a persona (age, annual income, marital status, etc.) that you’ll keep top-of-mind when interacting on social media. That’s the fundamental core of a successful real estate Facebook presence.
2. Shape your real estate Facebook presence to start targeting that audience
You don’t need to be blatant with your targeting. Something as simple as choosing images for your content and posts that demographically match that persona we mentioned earlier will go a long way in attracting and keeping that audience — photos of millennials, for instance, or veterans.
Then, consider boosting posts that are highly targeted, such as those for a homebuyer or seller seminar, a client appreciation event or anything where you want someone to take action.
Where does this wonder buyer/seller live (or want to live?). Stop in and have breakfast at a neighborhood café and then post about it, linking to the neighborhood’s description on your website.
Scan the news for stuff that’s undeniably sharable. Most big cities have an online magazine, whether it’s published by the city or the Chamber of Commerce.
Most have newspapers as well. Link to local stories or create your own blog post about something interesting, shocking or adorable.
Grand Junction, CO agent Joe Silzell rocks Facebook engagement by asking questions that have nothing to do with real estate. “Would you rather have free Starbucks for a year or free Chipotle for a year?” or “Would you rather have a personal chef or a maid?”
Although this post was shared only once, he got a lot of engagement from it.
His most-shared posts also have nothing to do with real estate. In fact, they’re decidedly local.
3. Engage with your audience
“These f$%@ers put out content all day long and then when people reply, they don’t answer because they think they’re just in the put-the-content-out business. But the first person that they actually reply to is like ‘I like that guy.’” Says the never-subtle Gary Vaynerchuk.
What he’s trying to say is that it doesn’t do you any good to post to Facebook if you don’t also engage with others. Especially if someone responds to your posts.
Your real estate Facebook presence should engage with them
When a real estate consumer is researching you as their possible agent, they will most likely go to your Facebook page. Lots of recent activity and interaction with others is a brilliant form of social proof and helps instill trust.
There is a reason Twin Cities broker/agent Kris Lindahl has 37,000 followers on his Facebook page. He knows how to create engagement (and shares).
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