The Real Estate Agent's Guide to Using Facebook to Sell Homes

In the modern day, real estate agents (especially the new ones) can have a hard time competing against dominant forces like Zillow that have been changing the game of real estate business. But there is one area that Zillow has yet to be dominant, and that is Facebook. So, at least at the time of this writing, Facebook is an area that real estate agents can still attract new clients, whether they're buying a home or interested in selling.

First, A Little Background

SoundListings.com is more than just a site profiling real estate listings across the Puget Sound of Washington State. Co-owned by a long time writer and publisher who has worked with accomplished writers and authors over the years, Sound Listings is also a way for this co-owner to give back to the Pacific Northwest through in depth and informative writing. In the case of SoundListings.com, it's real estate marketing on a local level we're discussing today and helping real estate agents improve their craft.

Does Sound Listings Have a Facebook Page?

Yes, but it's brand new, like our website. SoundListings.com is co-owned by two long time friends coming from industries outside of real estate and bringing a unique approach in an attempt to shake things up and do things differently, especially when it comes to buying or selling homes in and around the Puget Sound. If you have specific questions about prices, we will connect you with our broker(s). Joe Drazich is a personal friend and knowing how well he has done for his clients is the chief reason he is working with us now, and why we are connecting home buyers and sellers with his services.

Don't Make it All About Money

What it comes down to is this -- we don't want to make our business all about money. We want to make our business all about making researching and choosing a home an exciting process, one of discovery and not one of being beat over the head by stress and the worry that you're going to regret buying where you bought or selling when you sold.

At the time of this writing, you won't find a ton of content yet on our site or Facebook page -- you'll have to visit our other websites that have been around a lot longer to get that kind of depth. But there's a lot more to come.

Facebook Marketing Can Be a Powerful Tool for Real Estate Agents

Facebook marketing is a powerful tool for real estate agents, small business owners and corporate Titans alike. Real estate agents and small business owners can harness the power of Facebook pages and Facebook marketing, allowing them to take advantage of the benefits that large companies enjoy and sometimes at a minimal cost. In fact, if you're a real estate agent, you can learn to optimize your Facebook page in such a way that you may not have to spend any money at all.

This guide will help you learn how to build the basic components of an effective Facebook business page, helping you turn it into a mega marketing tool and lead generation machine.

Anatomy of a Facebook Business Page: Understanding the Basics

First and foremost, Facebook pages are branding machines. Everything from your profile picture and cover photo to your layout, call-to-action button, and content is a way to promote your brand, engage with your audience, and spread the word about who you are and what you do. That being said, you shouldn't spend your time on Facebook beating people over the head with sales, deals, and other "salesy" content. Facebook is a way to start a conversation while maintaining consistency across your brand and providing customers with a place to engage with and learn more about your company.

Here are the Basic Components of Your Real Estate Facebook Page

Profile Picture and Cover Photo

It's easy to overlook the profile picture and cover photo as being unimportant or trivial. However, this is your place to showcase your logo and brand identity in a beautiful way. Make sure to invest in graphic design if you have the ability to do so. A graphic designer will be able to take your branding and message and create a beautiful profile and cover photo set. However, you can learn to do this yourself if you can't hire a designer. Regardless of how you go about it, make sure the end result is a profile picture and cover photo that showcases your brand and stays consistent in color, logo, symbolism, and other branding characteristics.

Call-to-Action Button

Every Facebook business or fan page has a call-to-action feature. This button is right up there with subscribe, follow, and message, and it's a great way to tell your audience what you want them to do. While the natural inclination might be to make this a "shop now" button, that's only appropriate for retail-based operations. If you're selling items for a living, go ahead and use the "shop now" button. However, for B2B or service-based industries, it can be more helpful, effective, and appropriate to use the "learn more" button.

Content for a Real Estate Agent's Facebook Page

Your content is incredibly important. The majority of the rest of this guide will be spent on your content because that's what's going to make or break your Facebook page. Make sure to focus on SEO (search engine optimization), but not so much that it takes away from the natural flow of your page's language. Remember that you're not selling to your audience, you're engaging in a conversation with them. That conversation will lead them down the path of becoming a customer if they like what you're saying. Having a lead magnet available for download in exchange for their email address can help you provide a valuable resource to your audience while also building your email list, so it's a double win.

Customer Engagement

Finally, while not part of the "anatomy" of the page, per se, you want to stay on top of your customer interaction. That is, after all, the point of the page. Make sure to answer as many comments as possible (assuming they're legitimate prospects and not trolls), thank people for compliments, and respond genuinely to legitimate concerns your clients or audience members raise. Showing you're human and that you care about your audience is one of the best ways to ensure that your page does well, grows organically, and eventually, results in business growth.

How to Make Your Facebook Page Work For You

Your content is king, and it's one of the most important tools you have in making your page work for you. Here are some rapid-fire tips that can change the way you operate your Facebook page and result in increased success, engagement, and audience growth.

Ask Questions

Asking questions is a great way to get your audience involved. If you're speaking as though you're talking to just one person and you ask a question, people will naturally want to respond. A great question to ask is "Where in the world are you today?" People love to answer that question. If you're more of a B2B type of company, asking questions like "What do you struggle most with when it comes to (industry you work in)?" is another good option.

Use Images

Posts that are solely or mostly made up of an image or images tend to get far more clicks, likes, and comments than text-only posts. If you can use videos, the engagement rate will increase even more.

Be Authoritative

You want to position yourself as an expert in your field. If you offer tech consulting services to companies, make sure you position yourself as the authority in your field. Your audience should know that they can turn to you for information on and help with their tech needs.

Offer Valuable Information

Don't sell to your customers all the time. Instead, offer them valuable information that they can take with them and use. The more valuable you are to your audience, the more likely it is that they'll turn to you when they need to purchase the goods or services you offer. If you can incorporate helpful tips into images and post them like memes with your branding, all the better.

Consult Facebook Regulations Before Running Events

Finally, you'll want to make sure that you consult Facebook regulations before running a contest, creating a giveaway, or otherwise asking your audience to participate in a similar kind of event. Facebook has an ever-changing set of rules about these things, and you can get your page banned if you're not careful to follow those rules.

Real Estate Agent SEO

SEO can work for you in powerful ways, and not just on your Facebook page. Google cares a great deal about trustworthiness and value. If your real estate agent Facebook page provides value and is a trusted source, it'll probably obtain a good deal of likes, shares, and comments. That's how Google views the Internet, so you need to make sure you're providing value and setting yourself up as a trusted resource to your target market in order to rank well. However, if you're connecting your Facebook page with your website, as you should, engaging in solid SEO practices will help you in two ways. One, it will increase the engagement rates for your page itself and help you grow your audience on Facebook; and two, it will increase the authority ranking for your actual website. This means you're growing your audience in two places at once, which is excellent for your business.

Organic Growth Wins the Long Game

A final point to remember is that you should never pay for likes or fall for gimmicks like follow-for-follow requests. Google can see right through that, and so can your audience. Take the time to build a genuine audience of loyal followers that you grow organically over time by offering high-quality, high-value information. Sure, you can buy a thousand followers, but since those followers aren't real, you won't see any engagement. Organic growth means you're building a real audience full of real potential customers who will engage with you and follow what you're doing. That will always win the long game with Google and search engines, so stay focused on authentic growth and you'll likely experience long-term results.

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