There are many real estate agents out in the field who either don’t know or choose not to know that Facebook terms and conditions forbid the use of a personal page used as a business page.Whatever speculative reason Facebook has for this, the fact is if Facebook ever determined you are not adhering to their conditions, your account could be deleted. Not so much fun when you have been building a business online only to have it wiped away.
Beyond that reasoning, there are many more reasons to have a page when running your real estate marketing through social media:
1. Separate personal and business life
Although your schedule doesn’t seem to have a start or end time, you should appear as though you have some separation. Have you ever accidentally posted something, not remembering that one of your friends was on there and should not seen it? Or have you had that client who wanted to friend you after a closing – not saying yes to that friend request might risk referrals or future business? Although Facebook has sharing categories (public, friends, friends not acquaintances, only me, and custom lists), this does not mean that the photo of your child or a personal post that you did not mean for friends of friends or the wrong group to see did not. As you can have unlimited fans on your business page, sharing information and not having to always be paying attention to the status relieves you of considerable stresses of those “oops” postings. You can keep your personal profile to your inner circle of friends and acquaintances.
2. Appear professional/verified business
As a Facebook user, have you ever gone to a page see what their business was all about and seen the “+1 add friend” to the page? You might have suddenly felt as though it was either not a business or you had the wrong place. Same thing with your prospective clients. Your branding is everything you do and say. If you want your prospects to take you serious, then look serious. Seriously.
3. Analytics for enhanced marketing
What’s working and what isn’t?
Some people are more interested in statistics than others. But if you are using this social media platform to your advantage and want to optimize your time online, you should know what’s going on with your page. Leaving a page to happenstance work might be similar to going on a diet and not watching your calories. Facebook has set up the business pages in that if you want to make sure you are connecting with your target market when they are online, you can see this information easily. What types of posts (links/photos/text/etc) are working? What types aren’t? Share and do more of what IS working. You can find out times your niche market is online, demographics, reach of your posts – basically what’s working and what isn’t. Use this to your advantage!
4. Adding functionality through Apps
Apps are being developed constantly to assist you with providing information to your target audience for which they might be looking. If you have a real estate business, what types of information could you provide your prospective clients that they would view as helpful?
What do your fans want?
Find or build the apps.
Some ideas might include:
- Your listings
- Mortgage calculator
- Neighborhood information (schools, maps, local events, etc)
- About you (since you are the brand, people want to feel connected to the person, not the salesperson)
5. Boost Posts or Ads
If you have a specific post that you would like to show up in your friend’s or fan’s newsfeeds, you can certainly pay to have this happen. Facebook is a marketing machine, so anytime they can change their EdgeRank to their advantage, you can be sure they will. When a platform is “free” to use, you can be sure there is some monetary value in it for them. They are a business, not a charity. Do remember that you spent considerable amount of money with mailers or sports calendars in the past. This is another venue to spend your marketing money rather than one you haven’t seen any results from. You need to be where people are, and people are on social media!
What is the difference between promoting, boosting, and creating an ad?
For the most part, promoting and boosting are the same concepts with a few differences. Currently, you can promote your personal posts in the news feed. In business pages, this is considered boosting a post. The post will show up at times that Facebook has determined in your friend’s feeds. When you boost a post, you can choose whether you would like friends of your fans or a target market and how much of a budget you would like to spend. The minimum amount will depend on a variety of factors (primarily length of time and target market criteria). If you are a real estate agent, consider the fact that most of your business is referral – so you either want to hit that target primarily OT you would like to try a new target market. The more refined you are in your target, the better. Ads, however, show up on the side of the news feed. Personally, I only go to these ads when I accidentally hit the link while my page is loading.
6. You won’t be the noise that your friends will unfriend you for
If you have a business page, people are expecting that you will be posting to your heart’s content. You will still want to make sure, although you post daily, you don’t post more than three times in a day. If they are following you, they will be interested in what you have to say, but even hearing from businesses too much is considered noise. Just like an ad that is constantly on television, you want to be there when they are, but not all the time. When you have a certain post (article, listing, quotation, etc) that you want to make sure gets seen by all your friends, SHARE it to your wall from your business page. This will remind people not only what you do for a living, but that you are the expert who you are. The sharing rule is anywhere between 20-25% business to your personal page. You will have to gauge your friends’ tolerance level. How much do they want to see? Always ask for the LIKE or the SHARE when posting your business page to your wall. Don’t just ask, though, give them a reason for liking your page (“I have tons of other tips and tricks, home value ideas, Pinterest board app, articles, plus my listings”). People will come not only because they like you, but because they want to see more articles like the one you just posted. So make sure that article is superb!
Thanks to social networking,
there is now a definition for it!
Thanks for this post, I always wondered if I was accidentally annoying my friends. Thanks for the tips!