Facebook business pages are a great supplement to an agent or brokerage’s website. Pages show information about your business, such as your listings, photos, videos, client reviews, posts and more. Setting up or improving your real estate business Facebook page can drive more traffic to your brokerage. Making a few simple changes to your business page may generate results immediately and increase its online presence.
87.1% of U.S. marketers will use Facebook marketing in 2020, a small increase from 86.8% in 2019.
1) Create A Page That Showcases Your Brand
The first step to improving your real estate business’ Facebook page is enhancing its design to match your brand. You should fully complete all sections to provide the most information about your company. This includes selecting a name for your page, and title, such as real estate broker, which will appear next to your profile image on the top left of the screen. You also want to ensure you have selected the proper business category, generally selecting “small business” is the best way to go.
Don’t forget to call your viewers to action. Facebook allows you to place a prominent CTA button on your Facebook Page. This appears on the bottom right corner of your cover image, and provides another option for a user to message and engage with your brand.
Make sure to put time into drafting well-written content for the about us section. Many people ignore this area. Facebook gives you the opportunity to promote your strengths and talk about the problem you can solve for your clients. Not filling out this area is a big mistake. You can’t really account for potential leads assessing your skills and experience, as well as search engines who are ranking your profile for relevant local searches. Google will use this about section in their search results to describe your page.
If you have at least 25 people who like and follow your page, you can add a custom “vanity” URL that contains your business name or city and real estate agent title. This URL will be displayed in Google searches to better promote your brand, in the same way a title works on a web page. As a result, your name, about text and URL could impact your click through rate (CTR) on Google and thus impact your search ranking.
Here are some tips:
Add Great Content
Facebook pages with large followings convey new and fresh information including a steady stream of compelling content. You should post valuable articles, ideas, photos, and videos regularly enough to stay top-of-mind with your followers. Additionally, try to develop your own #hashtag scheme to get people talking about your content and create a way to track how it is shared across social media. If you find great content on another related Facebook page, it will not hurt to share that on your page as well, so long as you do it through the “share button” and not just copy, paste and take credit for it yourself.
After your happy with your content posts, you should consider boosting the post to capture the attention of those who do not already follow your page. You can even target an audience based on those with a history of engagement to generate more likes and shares. Facebook prioritizes those pages that have more social engagement then others, so this advanced strategy can overtake your competition. With this in mind, liking other Pages on Facebook can help leads and followers learn about your page. As you follow other Pages’ content, comment and on their posts, which will show their users that you are engaged with the industry and can lead to networking opportunities. Often people will reciprocate a like or share and this is a good way to gain more followers of your own.
You can enhance your about section with video content as well. Research has shown that Facebook users are particularly drawn to video rather then static images. You can do this by going to your Videos tab, choosing one of your uploaded videos, and selecting “Add a Featured Video“.
Facebook’s user behavior studies have found people gaze 5X longer at video than at static posts on Facebook
Enhance Your Cover Image & Profile Picture
You may also consider revamping the cover image and profile icon image. The cover image is the most important visual element on your Facebook page. Cover images are 851 pixels wide x 315 pixels tall and stretch across the top of your page. It’s important to upload your cover image with this specific dimension, or you risk displaying a stretched, distorted, or grainy photo. The image is the first impression of your brand on the page. With this in mind, you may want to use a well staged listing preview or skyline of your service area as the image.
Don’t forget to add your custom CTA button to your cover image for better lead generation. It is very easy to upload a new cover image. You just click on the edit button when your mouse hovers over the image. One good example shown here is Bond New York, who in this screenshot, also successfully modified their profile image for seasonal or social issues with their community.
If you have a logo you already like, it’s fine to stick with that as your profile icon. It is worth noting, many people trust profiles with head shots of an actual person more then a corporate logo. The profile icon should be uploaded as 180 pixels x 180 pixels, but keep in mind that on mobile devices it can be shrunk quite a bit, so make sure not to incorporate tiny details, but rather you a high resolution photo that will show well when reduced in size.
Use Professional Designers When Possible
Unless you are a graphic designer, it would be best to find a freelance designer to create a custom cover image and tweak your profile icon. This is a great choice for a variety of reasons. First, logo and cover image designs are inexpensive and for a small fee, the designer can create one that works best for you. Second, a professionally designed logo and cover image can tell more about your business’ achievements displayed with your own style. Third, having a catchy, unique and creative cover image and logo is a great way to separate your company from the competition.
If you do not have access to a professional designer, there are a number of DIY approaches you can take. One thing to keep in mind is that Facebook’s color scheme is blue and white. You may want to stay clear of those colors to catch the attention of your users. If your logo already has similar colors, you may want to use a background color that contrasts with the logo itself. You do want to choose an eye catching image that is directly relevant to your product or service.
2) Upload Your Properties To Your Business Facebook Page And Marketplace
Adding an MLS search to your Facebook page is a great way to display your real estate inventory. Ensuring that your audience can quickly see the properties you want to feature will generate return visits to your page. If you have an IDX website or MLS search feature, you can incorporate your listings into your Facebook business page with Proxio’s SocialSearch. SocialSearch allows people visiting your Facebook page to search the MLS directly on your page. They can compare properties and save them for future review. People can even like and share your properties with their Facebook friends.
If you do not want to use SocialSearch, it is easy to submit your listings to the Facebook Marketplace in the real estate category. The first step is to submit your property photography, videos and information such as the listing address, amenities and pertinent data including how many bathrooms and bedrooms to a marketplace listing.
In your photos, show things you may not have thought to display before, like hallways, utility rooms. These photos in the post-COVID world cater to people who do not want to visit a property, but see everything online, yet still get the full property tour experience. Next, you can share your listing in multiple places within the Facebook network including your business page, personal news feed, and groups where you are an active member. You can also boost those listing as discussed further down this post in the bonus section. Once you do this for one listing, repeat it for all of your inventory that you wish to promote.
3) Attract Former Clients To Your Reviews Section
Yes, getting more visitors to like your page and share your posts is one of the main goals of social media marketing. Encouraging visitors to leave reviews is even more helpful to establish your credibility both in the social world as well as in the eyes of Google, with a huge local SEO benefit. Having positive reviews on your page will increase the authenticity as an agent or brokerage. It will let people know that you can be trusted to provide great service. Reviews help customers figure out exactly what services you offer and what to expect when they contact your real estate business.
While any client has the ability to post in this section, you should proactively manage your brand’s image by requesting reviews from former clients. If a former client has given you a great review on Yelp or your GMB profile, reach out to them and ask if they would mind writing a few nice words about your real estate practice and rate your 5-star performance on your Facebook page.
Consumers on Facebook want to read reviews. Requesting more reviews is an easy and effective way to improve your business Facebook page. Additionally, previous customers who really enjoyed your service. These recommendations can be used to generate real estate leads without doing any extra work.
The customers can review your real estate business and recommend it to their friends. According to Market Force research, 81% of its 12,000 respondents confirmed that their friends’ recommendations and posts directly influenced their purchasing decisions.
Once you have several good reviews in your review section, you should rearrange the tabs in left hand column to move reviews to the second spot just under home. Placement really does matter with respect to your tabs. Keep in mind that only mobile devices, only the top 3 tabs can be seen, so it is important to make sure your arrange your tabs to include reviews and photos.
According to BrightLocal, 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as their friends’ and families’ recommendations.
4) Interact With Potential Clients Through Setting Up Your Facebook Messenger Tool
Interacting with potential clients on a Facebook business page is a very easy step that is often overlooked by many people because of how simple it is. Using your Facebook page to quickly reply to questions and comments though predetermined answers will show that you are engaged with your audience and easily accessible. This is important to clients who are looking at your page for the very first time.
These prospects will most likely have a lot of questions that they need answered. It means a lot, if you can answer them quickly and accurately through Facebook automation. You can communicate directly with your audience through messenger conversations initiated from your page and sent as a text message. Your business page comes with an Inbox, which lets you communicate with users on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. You can also use communication tools to organize your messages and automate chatbot responses.
Engaging with leads on Facebook will show that you care about your current and potential clients. Creating posts to increase engagement is wonderful, but replying to the comments on your posts in a timely manner with in debt feedback is just as important as creating them. Part of being successful on Facebook is being social. People like to know that someone cares about their comments and questions. Showing them is an easy way to drive traffic and increase revenue.
5) Joining Facebook Groups In Your Service Area
Joining a Facebook group in your geographical area is the final step in improving your real estate business Facebook page. Participating in Facebook groups can help you promote your brand and business page. You should join a group as your business page, to drive readers to your page. When you join a group and participate in discussions with other people who are in your industry, it gives you and your company the ability to organically invite potential customers and business back to your Facebook page. It encourages people to follow your page and consume your content.
A Facebook Group can be more casual than a Facebook Page. On a Facebook Page, the company is looking to answer questions and engage in a manner that is appropriate for the public. Facebook Groups allow room for casual banter and the opportunity to build more meaningful relationships.
If your business has a question that would like to get some responses, a group is a good place to initiate the conversation. You can suggest tips that have worked for you in the past. In return, you will gain customers and network with colleagues that have not followed your page yet. They can send customers to your page. Engaging in a group on Facebook is a great way to get your real estate business’ name out there and generate real estate leads.
* BONUS: Targeted Marketing
Even if you have little advertising experience, Facebook marketing can make it easy to generate real estate leads and promote your business to wider audiences. The Facebook marketing homepage will walk you through creating an advertisement that is right for your business. There are a wide variety of different types of ads that can be used on Facebook. It’s up to you to figure out which kind works best for you.
For example, if you have a lot of pictures of homes and your business being successful, it would be better to choose an ad with photo carousel. However, if your desire is to drive more likes to your Facebook page or to your website, choosing an ad type that is less picture heavy and more action focused would be best.
The best way to go about using ads on Facebook is to start slow. Only fund the ad account with a smaller amount of money to get the ball rolling. After you’ve garnered some attention and your ads have started to increase traffic, you can then start contributing more money to marketing on Facebook. It’s a very simple task that can have a huge impact on your business Facebook page.
If all else fails there are many qualified companies, such as Connect Now that can help manager your Facebook ads to boost your real estate lead generation