Real Estate Facebook Pages – Like a BOSS!

Most small business owners and sales people start a Facebook business page at some point, but after posting regularly for a few months, completely desert it and go back to trying to get in front of people the old fashioned way.  Why is that?  Why would we, as marketers, not care to use the world’s largest social media platform properly?  The short answer is that we are trying to use it as a selling platform instead of a social network… I’m looking at you, Realtors!  I can’t tell you how many Realtors I’ve un-followed due to seeing the same basic posts over and over and over again:  “My new listing”, “Open House” and “Check out my website”.  I want you to create and manage real estate facebook pages that DON’T suck!

We all know how important it is that you stay in front of your past clients.  It’s important for repeat business, but more importantly, it’s important for referrals!  Here’s a basic fact:  most people buy or sell a piece of real estate once every 5 to 7 years.  What will keep those people following your real estate Facebook pages and engaged in your page’s activity long after they’ve made their transaction?  The answers are more simple than you may think, and these are the real “secrets” to real estate Facebook pages:

1. Find BETTER ways to share your content.
I unfollow Realtors because their posts are “in my way”.  It’s a photo of the exterior of a house, and it says: “New Listing!” and it gives the address and maybe the price or whatever.  I’m not planning on buying a home anytime soon.  If I WAS planning on buying a home soon, we all know that I’d likely find that home via Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com or the MLS.  But since I’m not considering purchasing real estate anytime soon, this post is merely in my way.  It feels like an ad, and essentially, it is.  And not even a good one.  Next time you have a new listing you want to post to your real estate Facebook pages, do this instead:  Find one thing about this house that is worthy of being on a Houzz or Pinterest type website.  It could be a paint color, piece of furniture, kid’s room, or even a garden.  Find something about the house that is neat or unique or fashionable, take a good photo of it, and post that one photo on your real estate Facebook pages, along with an insightful comment: “I love this dining room table at my new listing.  The homeowner’s said they bought it in an antique store while they were on their honeymoon!  I think it’s so neat when such an important piece of furniture has a story behind it.”  Why does this work?  Because nobody cares about your new listing, but anyone could be interested in a neat piece of furniture, or a sweet story, or an interior design trick.  This will be content that doesn’t feel like an ad, and therefore it won’t be in their way.

2. Be real and have conversations.
In real life, you wouldn’t walk into a room full of people and tell every single person you meet about your new listing.  You wouldn’t do that because you’d know most of the people there, and ideally you’d ask them questions about their lives, or trade stories about recent events.  If you literally introduced yourself to everyone by throwing an uninteresting listing advertisement at them, regardless of whether or not they were in the market to purchase a home, you’d have a tough time networking or building client relationships.  Social media works the same way; you can’t just introduce yourself with an ad.  Share personal events; I understand if you’re a private person, but a photo from a delicious dinner you had recently or a link to a local news article are things that aren’t excessively personal, but “real” enough to keep your real estate Facebook pages followers enjoying your content.  Mix in things like this with the clever listing “ads” that I suggested above, and few people would ever have a reason to unfollow you.  Don’t forget to reply to every comment, tag the person you’re replying to, and ask questions that dig deeper into the topic.

3. Share proven content.
Some people say this is cheating, but if real estate Facebook page activity is the name of the game, then choose posts in your news feed that are already getting a ton of activity.  If it sparked so many likes, comments, and shares that it’s trending, chances are great that your followers will enjoy the content as well.  This could be anything!  An article, a cute photo, a joke… anything that caught the attention of others already will be seen by your followers as valuable content.  It’s important to note that “sharing” content gives full credit to the original author of the content, which is great, but it becomes obvious if your Facebook page is all shared content and you never post anything original.  80% of your real estate Facebook pages posts should be your own, original content.

Using these three simple Facebook page tips, you will eventually create a page that is full of vibrant conversations, plenty of likes, shares, comments and happy followers.  That’s the goal of having a Facebook page, and this is the way to do it right!

Brittany Gilbert

Oh, by the way, if this post was useful to you at all, please say “thanks” by liking my Facebook page!  It means a lot to me!  🙂