Facebook is becoming one of the most prominent websites on the internet today. With the user base growing and the overall reach surpassing its competitors, Facebook is now a top online destination for real estate consumers and top producing agents alike. Each and every day, real estate brokerages are finding new ways to use Facebook to reach out to existing consumers and to extend their reach to new potential buyers and sellers. Whether they are trying to push featured listings or simply stir up a conversation in their local market, these Facebook real estate innovators are constantly trying to expand their total online presence throught his channel. Opening your door to Facebook will help you accomplish your overall online marketing goals.
It’s no secret that your competition is constantly trying to expand their consumer base, whether it be through traditional marketing or giveaway campaigns. And now, through Facebook, they are expanding the reach of their potential consumer base through social menas and therefore have a greater chance of connecting with the dwindling supply of active buyers and sellers in today’s market. Facebook’s user base and overall reach is growing very rapidly. So here are a few ways in which you should start to use Facebook immediately in order to make sure that you are not left in your market’s social networking dust.
Your Facebook Profile
Create one! You may be used to creating identities around your company, or your brokerage, however in Facebook it is more about connecting with the individuals on a personal level rather than professionally through a corporate identity. So don’t be afraid to let your professional and personal life shine through in your descriptions and other profile content.
Participating in the Facebook Marketplace
Here is a great place to show off your real estate supply. Facebook has a great housing marketplace to show off properties for sale or rent. Here you can publish all the necessary info need about your properties in hopes that someone looking for what you have to offer could find it right on Facebook!
Social Opportunities with Facebook Photos
Facebook gives its users the ability to publish and unlimited amount of photos for free. All you do is upload them and create albums, Facebook does the rest. To take advantage of this great service and to help you market your real estate supple you should start by creating albums per property. Whether you only have a few pictures of 60, Facebook can occupy them all and gives you an additional chance to let people view what your supply has to offer in visual form. Each individual photo also lets you make tiny captions, this should be used to describe the photo and what your user is viewing. Your photos, if they are interesting, might yield comments from other users. These can be great opportunities to interact with people as entire conversations can be had through photo comments.
Joining and Creating Facebook Groups
Facebook allows individuals that share the same common interest to form groups. If you find groups that pertain to you local area of interest, join up and establish yourself an area expert for that group by simply being an active member of the group. Responding to user comments, sharing news and advice, and simply befriending other group members. Starting your own group is another way to take advantage of the group services Facebook offers. Creating groups like, “First-Time Home Buyers in Salt Lake City” or “Home Sellers in Frisco, Texas” might attract users pertaining to an interest that can really benefit your business. But you have to make sure to update your group and be active with it, even if no one else in the group is. Otherwise, you won’t likely get much from it.
Facebook Status Updates
Here is your chance to publish real time personal and professional news. Facebook’s status update allow you too publish information and push it to your community in seconds. If you have price reductions or a new listing, the second that news item appears in your professional life you can notify your Facebook friends instantly. Taking advantage of this feature is very beneficial, as when users login, the first thing they are notified of are recent status updates. As with anything, try not to spam people with status updates, as Facebook makes it easy for people to ignore the updates of others who are sending out messages they don’t find regularly useful or interesting.
Shooting and Uploading Real Estate-Related Videos
One of the more advanced features Facebook offers is the ability to upload regular and high-def videos. If you have created online slideshows or video tours of your properties you can post and share these with the Facebook community. Or you can sit right in front of your Macbook laptop and discuss real estate topics into the web camera, uploading the video instantly when you are finished using the Facebook video interface. Then Facebook makes it so easy to share the finished video by posting to your profile, sending it to friends, etc.
Understanding Privacy Policies
Facebook is always trying to improve its policy settings for its users, whether a user wants to only be seen by a few friends or the whole Facebook family. Since your main goal for Facebook should be to gain additional reach for your business you would benefit by opening up your facebook profile to all of facebook. If you were to lock it up to only your metro or rural area, you risk the chance of not being seen by the maximum possible community. If you have any information that you would like not seen by some users, we suggest either not adding it to your profile, or exploring the advanced settings of Facebook’s privacy settings in order to selectively hide it.