Is that tactic that you are using on Facebook actually helping you? Or is it killing your real estate business?

Today I am going to talk about three things that you are doing on Facebook, at least probably doing on Facebook, that is actually killing your business.

And I’m going to give you two things that you can do that will psychically grow your business, using Facebook.

Today’s topic was inspired by one of my eCLUB members. It was actually inspired by many of them, but this just happened last night, or this morning rather, so I was thinking “this is a really good thing to talk about.”

A member found a great Chrome add-on that would help them send bulk email without adding all the stuff on the bottom. And that inspired me, I’m going to go inside the membership and talk about that today, very specifically, what’s legal, what’s illegal but that’s not actually what we are going to talk about today.

What it did do was inspire me to realize that there are a whole bunch of tactics that we are using, and tools we are using that may actually be illegal, but mostly killing our business rather than helping our business.

Just because we find a tool or a tactic, and we think it looks great on the surface, when we don’t know or understand the tactic itself, and it’s strategy behind the tactics, then it’s dangerous to use them. So that’s what we are going to talk about today. You guys are amazing!

What are three tactics that you are using on Facebook that probably aren’t helping but just hurting your business?

Because they are available to use, whether it be “Vendor tool,” or “Leverage,” or “Automation,”  just because they are available to us, we think they are okay to use.

Auto-posting your listings to your Facebook business page.

So, with this first one, the one about the listing, maybe you are using your listings to grow leads for your business- please be aware that I’m not saying that the tool is a bad thing- what I am saying is that how you are using the tool can be a bad thing.

So auto-posting your listings to your Facebook business page, that can be, like if you are putting it as “listings to leads,” I think if you put in your ad your listing, then you can have it auto-post to your page.

Auto-posting your blog posts to your Facebook business page

Blog posts, if you are doing auto-posting for blog posts to your Facebook business page, like a lot of people who use “Wordpress,” and there is a plug-in you can get that auto-posts your blog posts to your Facebook business page.

Auto-posting of generic real estate posts through a vendor.

So if you are using something like “Real Estate Agent Directory,” or “Back At You Media,” or any of the other vendors who provide generic content, whether it be “ItWorks” photos or articles, and you are using those, this is where you are going to get in trouble.

So why are these bad? Please note again, that the vendors are not bad, it’s how you are using the tool that’s bad. So why are that bad?

First and foremost, your page is not a brochure, it is dynamic, not static. 

It should reflect your customer, their lifestyle, it should be ever-changing, it should be engaging.

Remember Facebook owns it all, all of this we are using, right? So Facebook wants you to have a meaningful engagement. They do not want you to push stagnant posts out to the world just because you can.

That is the difference between a static brochure and thinking that you just need to pop stuff on there and “keeping it active,” it actually works against you, by the way, all versus a dynamic page where you are trying to create conversation.

Now here is what I mean: if you are just auto-posting stuff, auto-posting your listings and your blog posts and that generic real estate content, Facebook is not going to push it out because they can see that it is auto-posted and they can see it’s generic. They can see that no engagement is happening.

So when you post that out there, they go “nope, we are not going to send that post out.” And every subsequent post that you put out that’s like that, you get less and less reach until you have zero.

They are not going to push out crap that they don’t want on their platform. It’s not censorship, it’s because their goal is to page engagement.

If what you are doing does not create enough engagement, guess what? It’s not going to get pushed out there. Then some of you say “well fine, I’ll just put an ad out there then.” Here’s the deal- if your page is not active, engaged and creating meaningful engagement, your ad costs are just going to go through the roof.

It’s going to be insane, and trust me, it’s going to get more and more, because they know that it’s not what people are wanting. Therefore, your ads are getting less connection. You cannot just circumvent it, with ads.

So the consumer-the person you have never met- wants to engage with you, not a automated page. They don’t want to see dull posts come across their feed.

I realize that some of the stuff that these vendors provided is not really engaging per say, but it is cool, when you are just posting it and not engaging it, like you aren’t starting a conversation with it, that’s where you are getting into trouble.

If you actually want to leverage your Facebook business page, then you have to actively be involved.

You can use all of those things, but you have to be involved.  You have to be the voice. If someone is going to be “talking” on your page, whether it was on video, or on texts, then it needs to be you.

Why? Because you need to get to know your prospective customers, and you must help them, and give them what they want. Some of them want a real reason to connect. They do not want more noise. They do not.

So it’s on you to create the conversation, it’s on you to pique their interest, it’s on you to humanize your page, so that you can build know-like-trust relationships with people that you have never met before, so that you can use your Facebook business page as a conduit.

Remember, it’s not a destination, you can use it as a conduit into your database. And so that you can nurture your database, so that you can help people buy and sell real estate.

The whole point of this is so that you can create conversation, it’s on you to pique their interest, it’s on you to humanize your page, so that you can build know-like-trust relationships with people you’ve never met, so that you can use your Facebook business page as a conduit to your database, so that you can nurture your database, all so you can help people buy or sell real estate.

That is how it works. It is a journey. It is a process.  

So, instead of those three things, (auto-posting your listings to your Facebook business page, auto-posting your blog posts to your Facebook business page, and auto-posting generic real estate content through a vendor to your Facebook business page), what should you do instead?

Two things you can do instead that will actually work!

Facebook likes it, consumers like it, your prospects like it, and it makes it easier to leverage a page and it makes your ad costs go down.

You need to turn your page into a lifestyle page.

What do I mean? You need to focus on your prospects, and on their lifestyles in your community. At least one-third to one-half of your posts should be local.

Local photos, local check-ins, local article shares, local happenings. They should be local. And a good half of those posts should involve you. Because you need to be seen. People need to want to connect with you, all on a local level.

Then they need to connect with you, a real human being, doing business.

People also want to support local business. But if your page is “Jane Doe Realtor,” and all you are putting out and spewing out is that auto posting crap, it doesn’t matter if it’s “Jane Doe Realtor in local area,” they still see it as a cardboard cut-out of boring.

They are not going to give you the time of day. You need to be engaged in the community.

Best practice if you are going to use vendor generated content

The second thing is, if you are going to use vendor generated content, including ours, inside of the eCLUB that we have really curated what people really like, if you are going to use any of that, you must look at each and every piece of content that you are putting on your page, and make sure that that piece fits your community.

You also need to start the conversation with that content- you cannot just put up stuff just for the sake of putting it up. You just can’t do that. It’s killing your presence on Facebook, with Facebook and with the consumer. You have to take that content, and customize it.

A lot of you, I know a lot of you, when we were with CRS, we would get the CRS blog posts and newsletter, a lot of people would just start popping up those blog posts, which doesn’t help you.

It’s the same thing- you can’t just pop up the same content. You need to customize it. You need to put your thoughts on it. You need to put your ideas on it. You need to relate it to something in your community. You need to make it engaged with you and the consumer.

So if you are going to use vendor generated content, including what you get inside Leads and Leverage, then you have to look at each piece and cater it. Not lose all of it, but cater it to your area, for your prospect, etc.

So those pieces right there, that right there is your golden ticket from how to nurture people you do not know into clients. Through Facebook, through email, through snail mail, through all of those realms, that is the key on there.

And for the entire month of August, inside of Leads and Leverage, we are actually doing an August challenge that brings engagement and conversation into your Facebook business page, all inside Leads and Leverage.

Prospects, consumer, unknowns and unmets all love these kinds of posts. They engage with them.

And by the way, so does Facebook. If Facebook likes it, and consumers like it, you are going to get higher organic reach and lower ad costs.

One of the things that I am doing, especially this month, and I’m actually seriously contemplating doing this for the rest of the year, I am going live every single weekday at 10am, helping answer a question that you all have.

And so, on that note, if you have questions, put them in the comments below, I have a whole lot of days that I am going to be answering the questions, I am going to be giving you the tools.

And I want to give you the strategies, and the tactics and show you all that you will be needing for each one of these things.

That is what I’m doing to help you on your page. Sorry, I can’t make local posts for you because you guys are all over the world, but I can help you with what you are struggling with.

I can help you with some of the questions you may have about these tools. I can help you identify the strategy, to figure out the tactics that are working and that are not working. The only way I can do that though is if you ask your questions.

Ask your questions, in the comments below, I am following up on every single one of these videos, and I will be doing a video every weekday at 10am, Pacific time, through the month of August, and I’m seriously considering doing it the rest of the year.

So far, I’ve got about forty different questions I need to answer. Well, I actually have about a hundred questions, but forty from this. So let me know!