This real estate social media article will cover everything that you need to do to generate leads online. This post is part one of a four-part series.
When I meet new clients, at some stage or another the inevitable question pops up ‘do real estate Facebook ads work’? If done right, yes, they do. But before you run off to grab your credit card, you should understand a few things.
By improving your Facebook reach organically you will maximise your ROI when you do eventually decide to invest in paid ads.
NOTE: I’ll be focusing on Facebook. The same principals apply to all social media platforms.
Real Estate Social Media Mistakes
Mistake # 1
Making it all about you.
If you’re real estate social media posts are not reaching your market, or engaging your audience, it’s because you are sharing content that doesn’t interest them. I talked about how most agents approach social media in a previous post.
When people go to social media it is to be inspired, entertained, educated or to feel connected in some way. When they find something funny, useful, or inspiring, they will tag their friends or share it. Both, if you’re lucky.
There will be exceptions, but for the most part, your listing and sales results are unlikely to be shared by the majority.
You’re up against it from the start. Only a small percentage of your posts will be served up in your audience’s feed. (You can learn more alarming Facebook stats here).
Therefore, when your content does make it past the FB algorithm into someone’s feed, you need to be sure that it connects.
Facebook Marketing for Real Estate Agents - how to do it properly
Give people what they want. A good rule of thumb is to only post sales results, listings, and self-promotion 20% of the time. The other 80% should be content that is not salesy in any way. If your page if 100% all about your, or even 40% about you. You need to change your strategy.
When a potential client visits your site how do you want them to feel? Stop for a minute and think about that. Do you want them to feel that you’re reliable, knowledgeable, friendly? What about good at you do? There are plenty of ways to show them that apart from shoving your listings and sales results down their throats.
Do you want them to feel that they can trust you? Now look at your Facebook feed. Does your social media content reflect the message that you are trying to send?
I often hear agents say that social media for real estate doesn’t work. You can’t expect it to if you are having a one-way conversation with your audience. Especially when all you are posting about is your most recent sale or how good you are.
Think about when you meet new people. Do you first try to build rapport so that they get a sense of you and what you’re about? You probably ask questions to make them feel comfortable, you might volunteer some information so that they can start to engage with you.
I’ve met many agents who are great in person, approachable, friendly, engaging and they know their stuff. However, their ideal client would never know this by looking at their Facebook page.
Do your real estate social media posts engage your audience?
Real estate social media - it's personal
Think about those pre COVID-19 19 parties that you went to. When you are first introduced to someone would you yell in their face about how great you are. What about when you were out door-knocking? The minute the door was opened would you go on and on about your successes and how great you are at your job? Probably not. Because we know that this isn’t the way to develop trust or rapport.
If you are you always pushing your results put yourself in your audience’s place for a moment.
You find a Facebook page and begin to follow it. Let’s say it’s a page for a car dealership. After three months they haven’t shared anything of value to you.
Sure, they post about cars that they are trying to sell but you prefer to browse sites like carsales.com as they have an extensive range of vehicles, not just ones from this particular dealership.
You scroll through the feed. It’s boring. All they post about on their page are cars for sale. You rarely interact with it. You’ve never liked or shared a thing and they’ve given you no reason to want to tag a friend.
Now, if they were posting engaging videos, behind the scenes articles, funny memes, or educational infographics, they would begin to see people engaging.
Examples of social media content that they could post might be, a video of a mechanic showing how to do a service on your car, or how to change a tyre. They could offer a FAQ sheet and answer commonly asked questions that people have when buying a car. They could post memes and behind the scenes photos.
Think about how you could follow a similar strategy for real estate social media marketing. Think about the pain points of your customer and what they want and need to know.
As a profession, real estate agents do not always have the best reputation. Use this to your advantage.
People love to bag out the real estate profession. Make fun of your industry and get people laughing.
Share humorous content depicting the industry. This is the type of content that gets engagement and shares.
How do you think your followers feel when all you are posting about is your ‘look at me’ content? Yes, I’m calling it. As a profession, real estate agents seem to have no qualms socially shouting their greatness to all and sundry.
You might have yourself convinced that you’re sharing valuable information but it’s a camouflage for making it all about you.
If your content sucks and is sitting their like a stale listing try not to be too down on yourself. If you are mainly sharing links and images of your sales and listings you have a great opportunity to turn things around. And you can start today.
The only way from here is up, right? With a refresh of your content, you will generate genuine engagement.
Summary
Keep the self-promotion to 20% or less. Provide information that your audience wants. You will start to cultivate a community of people who want to do business with you and who are happy to refer you to their friends.
This article is part of a three-part series. You can read Part 2 here.
How to quickly come up with ideas for social media or your website.
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