Social media marketing is one of the best sources of driving traffic to your website, blog and listings. Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world with billions of people using it worldwide and a lot of real estate agents are starting to see the benefits of incorporating Facebook Marketing into their overall marketing campaigns.
We are a big advocate of content marketing to drive traffic and boost engagement; however, a lot of real estate agents are doing it all wrong. This blog post aims at educating you on the best practices of Facebook marketing for real estate.
Create a Facebook Business Page
A lot of real estate agents make the mistake of using their personal Facebook profile for all their marketing efforts; don’t do that.
On the other hand, a Facebook business page looks more professional offers more freedom because it is geared towards businesses. Unlike Facebook pages, personal profiles have a limit to the number friends you can have. This greatly limits your potential to grow and reach more people in the long run.
Optimize your Facebook business using the following tips:
- Completely fill out your profile
- Use relevant keywords to help with search engine optimization
- Brand yourself and choose a target audience and tailor your about me section to them
Identify your Target Audience
The most effective way to market on Facebook is to know who you’re marketing to. Don’t take the path of other real estate agents and try to appeal to everybody. It is very difficult to sell and appeal to a broad audience in a largely varied market. Branding yourself sets you apart from other real estate agents because it gives potential buyers a good idea if the house you’re selling (or renting) matches what they’re looking for or not. At the same time, this helps you get better leads because you’ve targeted your audience precisely. It is a win/win situation.
Examples of branding yourself are
- Working with families to help them find the perfect family home
- Working with young professionals to find modest to luxury condos and apartments
- Helping investors make better real estate investment decisions
Create a Detailed Property Listing
Most of the time, the first contact potential customers will have with you is through your Facebook page. You have to take advantage of this opportunity and put some of your best listings on your Facebook page. Although pictures are worth a thousand words, a descriptive caption that appeals emotionally to a potential buyer will probably worth a few hundred thousand dollars. As a real estate agent, this will save you considerable amount of time and it will also increase in more sales because you’re sure any lead that calls for an inspection is a hot lead.
Create better listings using the following tips:
- Use one picture album for one property listing
- Use descriptive words for the captions
- Provide specific information in the album description such as if the home is great for a family looking for a place near an elementary school, parks, vet etc.
- Use videos for virtual tours of the house and add it to the property listing
Provide Valuable Content
People hate being sold to. Rather, they want someone to tell them something they didn’t know. They want to be entertained. They want to be informed. As a real estate agent, it is your duty to give them what they want. If you’re just posting promotional updates about what you’re selling, then you’re using social media all wrong.
Use the 80/20 rule of social media marketing; 80 percent value related content and 20 percent promotional related content. Keep in mind the following:
- Show passion and be creative
- Use humor and create conversations
- Ask and respond to questions; be helpful and stand out
- Post interesting facts about your neighborhood and area. The key is to keep it short, sweet and fun.
- Post normally boring information with a funny picture.
Ask for Reviews
People buy from people they trust. The fastest way to build trust with a total stranger is when they see that other people have done business with you, and were satisfied. That is social proof. With the Facebook Review feature, you can get your existing clients to leave reviews for you that will motivate other buyers to contact you.
Tips for getting reviews:
- Only ask happy customers for reviews and 5-star ratings
- You can send them a sample review if they are stuck on what to write
- In case someone leaves a bad review, respond transparently and try and fix the problem so other people can see your professionalism.
Facebook should be a very important part of your content marketing strategy. Use a variety of content types to boost engagement such as videos, infographics and images. Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section
