Using Facebook to Sell Real Estate (part 1)

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm hooked on Facebook. I started using the world's most popular social media site in October of 2008 and quickly became interested in seeing what all my high school friends were doing now, looking at family photos, and posting information about what book I was currently reading. Since that time though, Facebook has gone through many design and content changes and become far more important to my daily routine. 

Facebook expects to announce its 500-millionth user next week. That's a milestone for sure, but more importantly than that, Facebook has now become a serious online force to be reckoned with.  Here's some statistics:

    • 50% of their active users log on to Facebook every single day.
    • Average user has 130 friends.
    • Average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events
    • Average user creates 70 pieces of content each month.  

When I personally look at these stats, my first thought is that most of the people I know that are on Facebook have hundreds, even thousands of friends; so why wouldn't I want to market to these people? Through a little trial and error over the last couple of years, I've come up with a few unique ways to market to my sphere of influence using Facebook.

The first thing I figured out pretty quickly is not to do daily postings showing my homes for sale or what I was doing every second of the day in my real estate business. Honestly, no one wants to read that stuff and no one cares. That's a good way to get "un-friended".

The second thing I realized is that people want to see "the real you". Social media is meant to be very transparent and open. That's the beauty of it. Your personality, humor and interests are on display for the whole world to see.

What I've since realized is that people just want to know what's going on in your life. They want to see photos, the things that interest you, and what you're doing at that moment in time.  This is why Facebook is such a great marketing tool for a real estate agent like me. Real estate is my life, that's what I'm doing during the day and it's what interests me, so it's what I communicate about on Facebook. Oh sure, I have many interests outside real estate, but why shouldn't I let people know what I'm doing in real estate.

Obviously I'm not the only one that feels this way because this last year I found a company that provides a unique service for Realtors. The company is http://socialrealestatetools.com and they've created a product that enables me to place a REAL ESTATE tab on my Facebook profile.

Using this tool enables me to create a sort of "stealth marketing" position for all my listings. Visitors to my Facebook profile page will obviously be curious about viewing these homes which will serve two purposes: 1) it lets visitors know I'm in real estate and 2) it helps sell my homes and is another way to advertise my sellers properties.