Most Realtors know that in late 2007 and early 2008, real estate sales activity dropped off dramatically. The rapid rise of social media coincided with the drop in the market, providing a perfect platform to grab a larger share of the shrinking real estate pie.
While the last few years have seen a return to more robust seasonal sales, the market remains challenging, and the acquisition of quality customers has become increasingly difficult. Third-party lead generation sites provide leads on buyers, and they have proven effective, but many agents rely on a large sphere of influence, and growing that has been a challenge.
Agents can always rely on tried and true methods of open houses, direct-mail campaigns and even email newsletters to attract customers. But one of the most effective and current tools for customer engagement is social media, and more specifically, Facebook.
In early 2011, Facebook reported more than 640 million users, with 50 percent of active users logging in each day and 65 million users accessing the site through a mobile device. The site passed Google as the No. 1 site visited on the web globally. Those statistics are too powerful to ignore.
Facebook Do’s And Don’ts
But how can you get involved? And what are some of the do’s and don’ts?
Getting started on Facebook is as simple as setting up an email account. All you need is an email address. And once you are set up, Facebook has some of the best user help around. The platform’s FAQ section is easy to use, and very clear in explaining the answer to any of your questions.
But it’s not all nut and bolts, and knowing how the system works; it’s more about how to interact with friends and customers.
At Jack Conway & Co., we offer seminars on using social media tools. Recently, we partnered for education with Boston.com and a company called Social Made Simple, an online social networking tool specifically designed for real estate and mortgage professionals to help overcome the challenges they face in using social networking to market themselves.
We realize it’s important for our agents to understand these tools.
At Conway, we’ve presented social media best practices to our agents using the “cocktail party” approach. The biggest no-no on Facebook is coming out on your personal page and presenting listings, sales or asking for customers in a direct manner. You wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party with your listings in a binder and put it in front of all the guests’ faces, would you?
Like a cocktail party, Facebook requires subtlety, starting a conversation and finding common ground with someone before getting right to business. Agents will tell you they are asked “How’s the market?” by the second question in a conversation, if not the first. So let the conversation on Facebook take that natural turn as well.
Conversation Starters
Talk “around your business” and engage people through those conversations. Instead of posting a photo of your listing and writing, “Come to my Open House today, I am at 33 Main St.,” try this: “What a beautiful day on Main Street, some family is going to make this house their home today!”
It’s a conversation starter, not an advertisement.
One tip for continued customer engagement is taking a photo of buyers when they close on the home. Before taking down that yard sign, have them pose with you in front of the home with the “Sold” sign in hand. A message like this can be effective: “We were so proud to help the Smiths buy the home of their dreams.”
If you can, “friend” the buyers on Facebook and share the photo on their page. It’s a sure bet their friends will see it, and of course, you made it all happen.
These are just a few of the ways Facebook can help a real estate professional. It’s important to remember Facebook is always evolving and continues to offer different ways to segment your messages. Stay on top of it, and you can stay ahead in the new world of social media customer engagement.
Al Becker is director of marketing at Jack Conway & Co. Email: abecker@conway.com
