“Generate real estate leads who are ready to buy or sell ASAP and want to hire an agent right away.” If this item is on your online marketing checklist, you’ll want to put some time into building and optimizing your Facebook Business page.
To explain why, Placester’s Content Marketing Director Juliana Casale recently co-hosted a webinar with Relola‘s Content Marketing Director Lauren Walker. Together, they explored how agents can generate high-quality real estate leads from their Facebook pages by following a few simple pieces of advice.
Check out the recap below, and be sure to catch their Facebook real estate lead generation webinar on-demand.
To generate real estate leads from Facebook, you need a strong Facebook Business Page.
“But I already have a personal Facebook account. Why do I need a real estate Facebook page too?” That’s a fairly common question among agents today — and a fair one.
It may seem redundant to have multiple presences on the social network. However, as Juliana notes, there are significant benefits to this approach.
“Some of the high-level differences between a personal Facebook account and Business Page are that you can add your team members to your Business Page,” says Juliana.
“You can figure out what your style will be and how it maps to your branding: the type of colors you use and the logo you use. What you call it doesn’t have to be the same name as your business, either. It can include your local market. You can have fun with it.”
Once your Business Page is up and running, Lauren notes that it’s important to think about how you will use it within your real estate marketing strategy on Facebook.
“What is this page called?” asks Lauren. “What is its editorial mission? Are you going to use your Facebook Business Page as an individual agent or broker, or for your team? Are you going to use it for your whole brokerage at large? .Is this going to be a place where you’re relating person to person, or you’re really speaking more as an entity?
That’s going to dictate how you build and use the page.”
Beyond basic setup, Juliana adds that it’s vital to know who’s going to run the page and ensure it’s effective.
“I also think it’s important to think about who’s going to be actually manning behind-the-scenes — you know, who’s in charge of posting, who’s in charge of answering comments,” says Juliana.
“It is important to have someone dedicated, that is checking in regularly and updating your content. You don’t want to launch and just have it gathering dust, because that’s not a good look when someone visits your page.”
Driving traffic to your real estate website is one of the core benefits of your Facebook page.
Earning many Facebook fans is certainly a big benefit of setting up a Business Page.
But Juliana brings up an additional side effect you may not have thought of: “I would say the most important benefit is driving traffic to your real estate website,” she says.
“You can build up your audience outside your sphere of influence. I think what’s helpful as you’re thinking about what to post and what content to share is you’ve got to think to yourself, ‘Am I making it easy for someone to contact me when I’m posting? Am I making it easy to learn more by linking to things that lead to my site?’
Try to think through what you want a person to do after you’ve posted, and what action you want them to take.”
Just like on your website, your Facebook Business Page features a navigation bar. On the left side of your account, you’ll find tabs where you can add your brand info and website links.
“There are so many tabs that are part of the default Business Page, and additional tabs you can add,” says Lauren. “Think about that ‘Services’ area [in particular] and think about how you can get granular: what you do, and for whom you do it.”
The more details you provide about your business, the more those who land on your page will know about you, Lauren states. This, in turn, can spark your audience’s curiosity and get them clicking to your website.
Multimedia can get more fans for your real estate Facebook Business Page.
From your cover image and profile avatar to photos and videos of your listings and market, high-resolution visuals are a must for your Business Page.
As Lauren and Juliana note, start with the brand-oriented imagery, then focus on creating and posting unique, visually stunning multimedia.
“Facebook has become visual,” says Lauren, adding she remembers the beginning of Facebook, when people just posted text.
“Nowadays, you really don’t think about Facebook without thinking about visuals,” she continues. “And we’re visual people: That’s how we learn quickly and we get information quickly.
Your headshot, your logo, your hero image, your featured image, your cover — these are really important. It’s a quick opportunity to tell your brand story.”
The key to building a great online brand, Lauren notes, is unifying the way you market your agency on every digital outlet: your Facebook page, other social media accounts, email, and your website.
At the end of the day, it’s all about being as engaging as possible on Facebook.
To generate real estate leads from your Facebook presence, you need to be proactive with your engagement, shares Lauren.
“This is how you show your authenticity,” she explains. “When you go on social media, don’t just post. When you get a like or comment on one of your posts, comment back. Do not miss that opportunity to acknowledge that somebody saw what you did.”
The best way to get likes and comments, Lauren adds, is to tag people. You don’t want to go overboard and tag random people. If you know a handful of people, though, who would find a specific share informative, don’t hesitate to tag them. Doing so will amplify the reach of those shares, as those tagged are often inclined to share it with their network.
Juliana shares the same sentiment, noting how engaging with others allows you to get your brand in front of new individuals — many of whom may not yet know about your agency.
“If someone shares your Facebook Business Page post to an audience that’s not familiar, and you’re pointing people back to your website in that post, that’s going to be a big win for you,” she concludes.
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