Facebook holds the top spot for Real Estate Marketing tools used by Real Estate Professionals. It’s also the fastest growing social media channel for consumers ages 50+. Whether you love it or hate it, Facebook is still very relevant and important for your business.

1. To start, make sure your position, introduction, and company are up to date. If a potential client searches for you, they should be able to find you and confirm it’s you based on those three things. Are you the Mark Johnson working for Keller Williams or RE/MAX in Ohio? This process looks a little different based on what kind of profile you have (personal or business). If you have both a personal and professional Facebook page, both should be kept up to date with those critical pieces of info.

2. Update your cover photo. This is a place to highlight what you’ve been working on, add a holiday themed banner, or collage of recent listings. This is a space to be creative but still maintain professionalism. Some examples are linked below. For business page users: Did you know you can have a slideshow as your cover photo?

- Create a Cover Photo using Canva Templates. A completely free resource with sized and formatted cover photos so you can edit and add your own branding.

- 10 Best Examples of Real Estate Cover Photos

3. Update your URL– Just like on LinkedIn, you can modify your Facebook URL. Simply follow these instructions. Instead of your URL being: facebook.com/in/user868, personalize it. Using your name is the obvious choice, if it's available. If not, try using other professional usernames you have - like for your email or LinkedIn URL.

4. Write a month’s worth of compelling content at once. Also known as “batch writing”, writing a few weeks of content will save you time and energy during the week. 

Some ideas are:

• Add images and videos to posts. It increases the engagement rate and adds life to your content.

• Ask a question to your community or create a poll to engage your audience

• Share a mix of promotional content and relatable, useful content.

  • Think about what information new homeowners are searching for or potential buyers; whomever your target market is. Something that resonates with my clients is to think about your transaction checklists. What info do you send clients during the transaction? What are they looking for (Hint: late night Google searches) or asking you about during the process? Chances are other potential clients are wondering the same thing. Draw from this knowledge pool and create a blog post or infographic with the info.

5. Post frequency. If you have a business page you can view your insights to see what time of day has gotten the best response rate from your followers. If you are working from a personal page, all you need to do is experiment with different times of days and frequencies of posts to see what performs the best. What do your followers connect with?

My rule of thumb is to post no more than once per day, and to average around 3-4x/week. Don’t post content just because you’re trying to reach a minimum number of posts that week. Every piece of content should be meaningful and relevant. If it is, your followers will engage. If it isn’t, you are wasting your time and theirs. Real Estate is ranked one of the lowest for average engagement with their followers on social. Don’t get discouraged if your posts don’t generate a ton of interaction from your followers. Noting even minimal engagement will help you gauge when you should post.

6. Please make sure your headshot was taken within the last 5 years… ok fine 8. Maximum. 

7. Be authentic. Some of the most famous ‘influencers’ on social media got there because of their authenticity and attribute that to their success. Be careful about getting political unless you are actually a politician. So don’t get political… just don’t.

8. Create a business page. There are TONS of reasons why I advocate for a business page, but the number one reason is: SEO. Search. Engine. Optimization. Facebook is a huge engine. If you search for yourself on Google, you should be able to find listings for your company page, Facebook page, and LinkedIn page. These big social media companies have weight in the world of SEO, and when your social profiles are up to date, you will populate sooner in search results. And that is the goal. SEO is a game that is constantly changing but a small step to help you keep up is to maintain your presence online.

9. Focus on local interests. Make your page a resource to locals. What’s going on in the community? What is there to celebrate this week/month/year? Was your town listed on a CNN Traveler blog post about charming small towns? Was your city listed the safest large city in the U.S.? These are the mentions you want to brag about - not about your success, but rather the success of your community.

PS. Make sure you're following our company page!

Do you have specific questions? Comment them below! Or email me at [email protected]

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Useful Resources:

Stop Failing on Facebook

Win More Clients on Social - Real Estate Marketing Ideas

41 Facebook Marketing Ideas for Realtors

Podcast - How Realtors Can Grow Their Business With Facebook Ads