New and seasoned realtors alike can utilize social media platforms to market their services and properties to a wide expanse of people. With roughly 2.89 billion active users per month, Facebook is an especially practical choice for realtors hoping to broaden their reach and connect with more potential clients.
As you work to establish your real estate business, it can be easy to lose track of the reason behind your marketing mission: to pair people with the perfect homes. No matter what type of products or services you are seeking to promote, Facebook’s format encourages consistent user interactions and fosters conversations between business owners and their followers. For realtors, this level of engagement makes it easier than ever to field clients’ needs and wants and strategically promote their listings.
To make the most of this platform, you have to put some time and effort into building your business’s profile, making connections, creating informative content, and promoting your business. Whether you’re entirely new to Facebook or you need to refresh your existing page, the following tips will help you understand the ins and outs of the platform and take advantage of its many benefits.
1. Create a Business Page
To make use of Facebook’s business-friendly features, you will have to set up a detailed profile page for your business. Expanding your social media presence will help you establish your brand and reach more people, but educating your followers on your business and its offerings will ensure that followers and likes will turn into reliable leads. The more information that you provide, the better your chances of landing new clients will be.
Facebook will prompt you to complete each section of your profile during setup, so follow their suggestions and try not to leave anything blank. When new people find your page or potential clients start researching realtors in their area, your Facebook page will be one of the first places they check to decide if your business suits their needs.
Here are a few tips for filling out your profile with information and images that reflect what your brand is all about:
Make Your “About” Section Stand Out. Take this space to write a short description that embodies your approach to real estate and your philosophy for serving clients. If you specialize in a certain service or area of your market, make sure to reference those strengths. While this section is typically pretty short, you can also include a link to your business’s website so that interested users can read about your track record in the industry and see more information about completed projects.
Use Professional Photos. For your main profile picture and cover images, make sure to use professional shots that represent you and your business well. Most realtors opt for a professional headshot as their profile picture to tie their brand to their image. Cover photos offer more opportunities to be creative. You may want to use a photo that represents the location you serve–like a skyline shot or an image of a recognizable landmark–or one of an impressive property that you helped to buy or sell.
Include a Call-to-Action. Finally, Facebook offers the option to include a call-to-action button on your page that can help users contact you directly from your page. Users can click the button, fill out their contact information, and ask a question or request a meeting without any extra hassle. This feature is easy for potential clients to use and effortlessly opens a dialogue between you, which is invaluable for lead generation.
Invite Friends & Contacts to Follow Your Page. After setting up your profile and listing all of your information, you can invite your friends, family, and industry contacts to follow your page. If you invite past clients to like your page, they may even help you out by leaving reviews of your services. With their aid and endorsements, you can develop a large follower base, reach new people through shares and interactions, and gain exposure for your new and growing business.
Add Custom Tabs to Organize Content. Facebook has added custom tabs that allow users to separate their content. This way, you can file different types of posts into their own sections to avoid cluttering your page. Realtors may get the most use out of “Reviews” and “Events” tabs that group together past clients’ comments and upcoming open houses respectively. If your followers come to your page seeking specific information, these tabs can help them find it quickly and give your page an overall cleaner look.
While creating a Facebook page may seem like a simple task, the platform’s business features vary a bit from the ones you access through personal use. If you take these tips into account as you set up your profile, you’ll have a solid start.
2. Get Familiar with the Admin Panel
If you’ve only ever used Facebook for personal interactions with friends, it may take some time to familiarize yourself with the new features available on your business page’s admin panel. You likely already know how to edit your settings, block users, or edit your page’s content, but Facebook allows business owners to manage their pages even more closely.
This is the section where you can control posting and tagging permissions, notifications, and other moderation settings. It’s wise to edit these preferences when you create your profile and make necessary adjustments over time. Here are a few important features to check as you get started:
Ensure that Your Page is Verified. On any social media platform, verification proves to your prospective clients that your business page is a legitimate and reliable resource. This will make other users more likely to share your posts, leave comments, and reach out for more information about your services.
Choose Your Post Attribution Settings & Page Roles. Transparency is essential to the success of your page. If you are writing your page’s content, you can opt to post it under your name. If you have hired someone else to manage your social media pages, you can attribute posts to your page instead. You should also add the users who help you maintain your page as admins or authorized editors.
Decide on Whether or Not You Will Allow Visitor Posts & Tags. While it may be intimidating to open your business’s page up to visitor posts and tags, engagement will help you reach new people and get your name out there. Сlient reviews and responses can help you find areas for improvement or serve as testimonials, but you may choose to limit tagging capabilities or moderate posts. Whatever you decide, make sure to update your settings to reflect your preferences.
After you edit these settings, you should be ready to make your profile public and start
posting content. As your business’s needs evolve and your page becomes more active, don’t hesitate to revisit your choices and make necessary changes.
3. Make Informative & Entertaining Posts
Once your profile is up and your community is growing, you can start posting content. One of Facebook’s strengths is that you can post a variety of different types of media to attract and engage your followers, which offers plenty of creative ways for you to promote listings, share information, and get people talking about your page and your posts.
A great way to attract people to your page is to produce content that contributes to the larger conversation surrounding real estate. This way, users who are looking for general information about the housing market, tips for renovating properties, and answers to other common real estate questions, can view your page as a resource rather than an extended sales pitch.
To do this, you could create short videos or links to posts from your blog that cover the basics of your industry. Most of the traffic that you will see from Facebook will come from users who need real estate advice but have little to no prior knowledge of the market or its tendencies. You can begin by posting general advice and, as your page becomes more popular, even start responding to requests or answering questions that your followers submit.
Ultimately, interactive content like the latter example will help you gain a bigger following and get more engagement on your posts. Over time, you can also begin to develop a distinctive brand voice through your content that will set you apart from other realtors in your area. While it may feel like a slow-moving process to create educational content rather than promotional material, these posts will help you establish your page and your online credibility to set the stage for other marketing methods.
Another way to boost your page’s popularity is to post entertaining content, like funny text posts and video clips that give your followers a sense of the real estate market’s current state while revealing your approach to business. In today’s market, buying a home is becoming increasingly difficult. A savvy realtor may be able to comment on those frustrations and show potential clients that they understand their plight. From there, you can present your own solutions to common problems and gain traction with a humorous yet constructive approach.
4. Take Advantage of Facebook Marketplace
While there are plenty of online platforms designed for home listings, Facebook Marketplace is an option you shouldn’t neglect. After picking up on the popularity of “buy, sell, or trade” groups on the platform, Facebook created the marketplace for users to list any type of items for sale–including homes. If you’re looking for more ways to market properties, this unconventional outlet could get more eyes on your listings than any other platform.
Due to a large number of regular users, Facebook Marketplace items move quickly and communication between sellers and buyers is often quite open. Homes are certainly harder to sell than used furniture, but realtors may benefit from this feature for different reasons. For instance, most users access the Marketplace via Facebook’s mobile app.
Scrolling through options on their phones enables users to view more homes and like, comment, or message realtors quickly and easily to show their interest. This allows you to get more leads with very little footwork. All users have to do is search for homes in a certain price range and area and your listings will pop up, providing an easy opportunity to get in contact with potential clients.
Further, you can list homes on Marketplace without crowding your page. When you create your listing, you can choose whether or not you wish to share it with your friends. If you prefer to use your Facebook page to promote other types of content, this is a great way to double the platform’s functionality without compromising either of your marketing goals.
Another benefit of utilizing Facebook Marketplace is that there are no fees for creating a listing. Thus, you can promote your property with a few photos, a detailed description, and a price estimate and begin conversing with leads with no cost to you. Whether the users who contact you via Facebook messenger intend to purchase the property you list or not, you can develop relationships with new potential clients. You’d be surprised by how many productive leads you can gain from a casual mobile search!
5. Take Part in Facebook Groups
As your page takes off, you can begin looking into ways to expand your reach and get involved with other real estate resources on Facebook. One way to engage with more people is to join Facebook groups related to real estate and promote your page to their members. If you already frequent groups for local real estate agents, you can make connections there that can help boost engagement on your page and find more followers.
While real estate groups may get you in touch with your peers and help prospective clients find you, don’t limit yourself to industry-specific groups. Look into Facebook pages and groups for local business owners, tradesmen, and professionals, or home improvement hobbyists. To maximize your reach, you will have to step out of your circle and make new connections.
If you break into new groups, you won’t just multiply your leads. You can also build working relationships with other local businesses and professionals that can help you throughout your career. For instance, realtors who know great contractors, plumbers, and landscapers can help their clients source necessary work that could make or break a sale. If you pair up with other local business owners, you can get free publicity from their endorsements and get discounted rates on physical advertisements, renovation and remodeling supplies, and other materials that will ultimately improve your services and help you make a name for yourself in your area.
You may also want to take part in Facebook groups for neighborhoods that you’ve served in the past. If you have established a reputation for getting your clients into homes in desirable areas, it might be beneficial for you to take part in their groups and maintain those connections. This way, residents in those neighborhoods know to call you if they ever decide to sell their homes and you can stay on top of the area’s development.
6. Demonstrate Your Local Knowledge
After making connections with some of your local businesses, vendors, and communities, you can start making your own posts about your area’s resources and market trends. Every prospective client is on the lookout for a knowledgeable realtor, so demonstrating what you know about the area you serve will make you a frontrunner in any search.
For instance, you can post guides for buyers that outline local amenities and provide information about popular neighborhoods. These posts can add a local context to your page and educate home buyers who are researching your area before their move. Whether your goal is to sell luxury properties in your city or get families into beautiful homes with great resources, you can use these posts to establish your brand identity and tie your business to your location.
While you should always aim to use buzzwords in linked posts that are specific to your brand and business, emphasizing your location is a great way to distinguish your growing business from other online options. Even if you haven’t found your niche just yet, location-based SEO (search engine optimization) methods can help make your page more visible to people searching for real estate agents in your area. When you write blog posts and other content, be sure to include your business’s taglines along with key terms related to your location to encourage search engines to recommend your business. Sharing these posts on Facebook will further increase your brand’s visibility and give your followers convenient access to useful facts and tips.
These efforts won’t just raise your page’s rank in web searches, they will also help legitimize your business and establish your brand’s authority. People want to work with realtors who know their local market inside and out, which most often correlates with a positive track record and invaluable insight. When you are able to offer your clients the best deals, service, and specialized advice, people will take notice.
7. Share Your Successes
Some of the preceding suggestions may seem purely altruistic but don’t be shy about sharing your own achievements and successes. Ultimately, your social media accounts are designed to sell your services and promote your business. Facebook users share big life events and updates with their friends all the time, and most businesses follow suit.
Facebook’s format lends itself well to brief updates, which could be simple text posts or graphics detailing your sales or links to news articles that mention your business. While most users don’t appreciate frequent posts about realtors’ open listings, potential clients will be interested in seeing evidence of your competence. You can post about recent closings, open houses with high turnouts, and other accomplishments to show your followers how your business is doing.
Further, productive posts like these can encourage your followers to interact with your page or reach out to you for more information. Seeing you and your existing clients succeed may inspire your followers to take the first step on their own real estate projects.
8. Strive for High Engagement
On this note, engagement should be a top priority as you establish new social media accounts. While making frequent posts and engaging with others will certainly increase traffic to your page, your next move should be to encourage your own followers to contribute to the conversations you start by liking, sharing, and commenting on your posts.
You can achieve higher engagement on your page through many different methods, but some strategies may lend themselves particularly well to your specific industry. For instance, you can publish videos of property showings or even schedule live virtual open houses for your followers to watch in real-time. These videos aren’t just great for promoting your listings–they are also useful for gauging what your followers have to say about real estate trends and styles. In the comments beneath your videos, you may notice that a majority of your viewers liked or disliked certain features of the home you displayed. Not only could your video inspire a discussion on home design, but it can also help you get a sense of what your audience (and potential client pool) prefers.
If you choose to go the live video route, you can respond to your followers’ comments as they post them and answer questions in a timely manner. In addition to increasing your engagement, you may have serious leads amidst your audience who will appreciate the convenient showing and your thorough responses.
While it is certainly wise to tailor your posts to suit your clients’ needs and your business’s services, you can also opt to break up your regular content with something fun every once in a while. One of the easiest ways to boost your follower count and encourage engagement on your page is to post regularly, but you may not always have new homes to show or have the time to write advice articles or answer individual questions. Instead, you can share a bit about your personal life. For instance, you may want to show support for your favorite sports team on game night or write about activities and attractions in your city. It’s up to you to decide how much you want to say about yourself on your business page, but many people enjoy getting a glimpse of professionals’ day-to-day lives.
Alternatively, you may want to post content that you know your followers will interact with. If you share memes or make posts about current events or trending topics, encourage your followers to respond with their opinions or share stories. Sometimes all it takes is a little push to get people talking about the things that interest them. If you would like to relate these extraneous posts back to your business, try asking your followers for local restaurant recommendations or request that they respond to your post with their own homeownership anecdotes. Some realtors further incentivize responses by hosting giveaways and choosing commenters at random to receive prizes.
Whether you stick to real estate-related posts or branch out to more diverse content, make sure that you encourage your followers to respond to your posts and engage with your page. After all, social media is about bringing people together and sharing ideas. If you post interactive material that interests your followers and sparks conversations, your marketing efforts will be better received.
9. Try Out Facebook Ads & Promote Your Posts
If you want to further increase your page’s performance, you can look into Facebook’s built-in advertising features. Facebook includes several features that you can use to attract new followers, boost engagement, and ultimately find more leads. Here is a list of some of Facebook’s most useful ads and what they can achieve for your business.
Page Promotions. Through Facebook, you can promote your page to more users with ad placements on the platform. Whether you choose to share your page to all users or to market it specifically to those in your area, Facebook can increase your page’s visibility by recommending your page to more users.
Boost Your Posts. Facebook also allows you to boost existing posts, videos, and events. Rather than bombard your followers with multiple posts about the same topic or event, you can simply choose to boost your original posts. This is a great way to reinvigorate conversations surrounding older posts, get more views on previous videos, or remind your followers about upcoming events before they pass.
Link to Your Website. Facebook also has functions that link your followers to your primary website or blog, which is a great way to get people to interact with your business across multiple platforms.
These more general features can all be accessed via your page, but you may also choose to access Facebook’s Ad Manager to promote your business with specialized advertisements. This dashboard allows you to manage your Facebook marketing campaign easily, and realtors should take special notice of the following ad types:
Lead Ads. While the platform’s normal function is helpful for lead generation, realtors may benefit from Facebook’s dedicated lead ads to gain information about prospective clients and follow up on their inquiries and requests. The Call-to-Action button mentioned along with page setup is a great example of Facebook’s lead generation tools. In a clickable tab on your page, users can respond to a custom form that gives you all of the information you need to follow up on their interest in your business. Even if they don’t follow your page, you can easily view and manage lead information via the platform.
Call Ads. Real estate is a people-driven market, so each of your clients’ goals and needs will be unique. For that reason, most realtors’ first move will be to set up a time to meet with potential clients over the phone or in their office. Facebook allows you to create call ads that promote your business and prompt users to initiate a call to your business. This is a great way to cut down the time between a client’s initial research and their first effort to reach out.
Event Ads. In addition to promoting your events to your existing followers, event ads can help you spread the word about showings and open houses to a larger audience. This way, you can reach a broader pool of potential clients and avoid marketing your events (and your listings) solely to those who are already aware of your services and offerings.
While these ads and promotional methods are incredibly useful and convenient for business owners, it’s important to note that some Facebook ads are paid. If you’re hoping to use social media to conserve your marketing funds, check out the platform’s campaign budget optimization tool to help you manage your Facebook ad purchases.
10. Utilize Facebook Insights
Coming up with ideas for engaging content may seem difficult at first, but Facebook makes it easy to see which types of posts are the most effective. Amid other page settings, Facebook includes a section called Insights that allows you to view analytics related to your page views and interactions. As you start your social media marketing journey, these stats will help you see how your moves are affecting your page’s overall performance.
While increases in likes and follows are good indicators of your page’s early growth, understanding the nuanced effects that your posting methods and follower engagement rates have on your page will help you streamline your marketing strategy and get the most out of your Facebook page. Here are a few examples of the useful information that Insights provides:
- Follower Breakdowns. These days, Facebook allows you to see more than just your follower count. Insights provide data on the number of people who unfollowed your page as well. If you have been switching up your content or slacking on your posting schedule, this information can help you get back on track with your goals. You can also see information about your follower demographics, which can help you edit your content to better suit your followers’ needs or change up your strategies to attract your target audience.
- Page Previews. This metric allows you to see how many users read your page’s information by hovering over your link. Previews do not necessarily correlate to clicks or follows, but they can help you get an idea of the number of eyes that have seen your page via ads or organic traffic.
- Likes. The Insights section doesn’t just show you how many people have liked your page. It also shows you how many of the likes were paid (or derived from paid ads) or unpaid and how many people have unliked your page. Further, these metrics reveal where the likes were derived from so you can see which ads had the biggest positive impact on your page’s performance.
- Events. For realtors, understanding the demographics behind your event RSVPs can help you plan open houses accordingly and prepare the right pitches to reel in leads. For instance, knowing which age group you should target may help you decide which features of the home you should upsell or how you can resolve problems with the property that might turn off different buyers.
- Boosted Posts & Ads. If you have made the effort to boost any posts or promote your page with ads, you can see how those are performing via the Insights tab. You can also track how many people have seen your local ads on their mobile devices, which can help you understand the progress of your local brand development efforts.
If you’re making use of Facebook’s many advertising features, you need to be aware of how your choices are impacting your page’s overall performance. Any effort (or money) that you pour into your social media marketing plan should be returned with page growth, higher engagement, and a gradual increase in lead generation and clients. If you notice a problem with these metrics, you can make changes in time to redirect your course and reap the benefits of your smart strategies.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Facebook is an essential platform for realtors who wish to market their businesses online. Due to the platform’s large user base and improved marketing features, Facebook offers realtors opportunities to reach more people, establish their brands, generate more leads, and create effective ad campaigns without breaking the bank or distracting from their other business goals. Whether you’re building up your online presence from scratch or hoping to revamp your existing Facebook page, these tips will help you get the most out of this classic platform’s newest features and enter into the largest online community with confidence.
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