Did you know that there are 5 things that you’re doing on your Facebook business page that’s actually killing your real estate return on investment?

In other words these 5 things that you’re doing on your page, they’re pretty much killing your page. They’re killing your ability as a real estate agent to bring in leads using your Facebook business page.

I am going to walk you through all 5 of those, today but first who am I?

I am Christina Ethridge with Leads and Leverage and I help real estate agents create more time, make more money and enjoy the journey, because what else is life about but enjoying it.

We need to enjoy each moment even through the drudgery of lead generation. Now there is fun generation. There is boring generation but you know we got to be able to enjoy everything that’s going on. You guys are awesome!

Welcome to today’s episode of the RIBBIT show and as you know every time I go live, I love answering your questions, helping you solve problems, moving you to the next step and today is no different.

Let me know any questions that you have whether it’s regarding today’s show or if it’s regarding real estate in general. Let me know and I will answer them. I’ll do them in future live episodes. Please keep asking the questions. I love it!  

Today I want to talk about the 5 things you’re doing on your business page and on your Facebook business page specifically.

Here’s the thing. I watch agents do this over and over and over again and actually it’s not just, it’s not just our Facebook business pages. We get a little weird when it come to everything that we do advertising and marketing. I don’t know, it’s like we flip a switch and we become. . . it’s weird.

Let me as we go through each of these 5 things explain what I mean, okay?

The 5 things you’re doing on your Facebook business page that is killing your real estate return on investment.

Stop Obsessing Over Your Analytics and Insights

Number one and these are not in order from the greatest and the worst.

These are just 5 things, okay?

You all are obsessing over your analytics and your insights. You get your page setup and you’re like “Why don’t I have any page likes?” Or you get your page setup and you’re like “Why did people hide my post?” “Why did people unlike my page?” “Why aren’t people following it?” “Why are people following it?” “What are people on? Like you are obsessing over the analytics.

Here’s the deal, You can look at the analytics and the insights for ideas like if you have something that just becomes a run-away hit and you’re like “Well okay, apparently people like this. I need to do more of this!”

If you have something that is a very, very obvious flop now I’m talking posts here then you go “Okay, I will do less of that because people don’t like that” but you’ve got to stop obsessing over the number of people who unlike or hide a post or even looking at the analytics on individual posts.

You really need to stop. You don’t want to get lost in the weeds. This is where you don’t need to waste your time on Facebook.

I realize there is a lot of people out there telling you “Go look and see when your people are online and do that!” and I am like “you know what? Just get your butt online and do stuff” like literally stop worrying about when people are online. Don’t worry about when they’re online.

If you’re able to do a post right when you’re able to do a post do it because here is what happens when we look at those analytics and we over analyze them exactly like the concept of answer that lead in first 3 minutes or you won’t get it if we don’t do what the standard that is set up there, we end up not doing anything at all so stop obsessing over your analytics and just start doing!

Get stuff out there! Use your analytics, your insights on posts for guidance of what more to put out but do not use them as “Oh my gosh people this person hid me or I got one less follower!” Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about that. Just use it as a broad guide as to what to post and as much as it works for you, cater your posting times to when people are online but that’s it.

If it’s becoming to obsessive for you just schedule the stuff. Just get it out there so you’re consistently doing it. Consistency is way more important, way more important. Consistency over the long haul is way more important than making sure you get the right post at the right time to the right people. Like seriously, okay?

Stop Barfing Up Sales Posts All Day Long

Alright, number two and I am going to use a phrase. I love this phrase because it’s from my friend Jennifer Allwood and I just like how she does this.

She says…she uses the word barf. “Stop barfing up sales posts all day long. Stop barfing them out on your page.”Right?  

So stop auto-posting your listings. Stop doing that! Your sales to value posting ratio meaning every time you do a sales a pitch whether it’s from a listing or an open house or I am so awesome I’m working with buyers, whenever with any of those sales post, okay?

Your ratio should be one of those to a MINIMUM, a MINIMUM of 15 other value posts. That means 1 out of 15 posts should be a listing or an open house or a sales pitch.

So you’re like, “Okay, what do I put on my other 15 posts?” Well most of you just go and get canned crap from vendors or you just throw stuff up because you know I need 15, I need that ratio 1 out of 15.

Again with the analytics you should be putting out 4-6 posts every single day. 

You need to be putting out value not just noise. You need to stop auto posting your listings. You need to stop auto posting your humble brags or just posting your humble brags and you need to have one brag, one listing, one open house per 15…not FIVE or TEN but FIFTEEN value post.

So stop barfing up sales posts all day long, okay?

Stop Trying To Find Someone Else To Do Facebook For You

Number three, number three, numero three.

You need to stop trying to find someone else to do this Facebook thing for me. I don’t care how big a business you think you have you need to stop it.

Seriously your Facebook page is YOU. It’s a virtual extension of YOU.  

Would you host a party or a client appreciation event and then not show up? Have a VA represent you?  Tell the VA what to say or maybe just have them represent you? Or would you have a vendor come in and just barf up crap, canned crap for you?

Well if you wouldn’t do that in person why the heck are you be doing it on Facebook because you have this mentality that it’s just another “throw my ads out crap space.” Well here is some news for you. All that money y’all are spending on ads and banners and everything, like everywhere they don’t work because that’s what you think about them.

That’s how you think of them. You think that suddenly you’ve got to be this I don’t know, someone else has to do it for me. You have no voice in it. It’s not you. Your ads, your page, your everything, they are visual extensions of you.

If you aren’t saying it, if you don’t feel natural saying what’s on that page or in those ads, nobody cares about reading it. Nobody likes it. You have to stop living under the delusion that your page is just an ad and someone else can handle it for you. It’s not. It’s you.

There’s a lot if things that you can outsource when it comes to your online marketing, your website, your page, etc. but the voice, in other words the person, the sound, the way people build a relationship, that’s you and you can’t outsource that. You can’t! It’s just not going to work.

Stop Trying To Get Page Likes By Running Contests

Number four is stop trying to get page likes by running contests  Alright, here’s the thing. You gotta stop. I see so many people running contests for example I am going to run a contest for a free meal. I am going to to do this. I’ve got lots of page likes and lots of this and that. You want to attract targeted page likes, people who live and work and engage in your community.

You do not want to bring people in that are outside of your community so you don’t want to be running these kind of contests for this, okay? You do not want to beg for untargeted page likes from people who just want a freebie, like literally they just want a freebie. They are not interested.

Contests are about the worst thing you could do to run to get page likes, seriously.

They are the worst ones you can do.

They are basically when people are entering contests, sweepstakes, etc…..I remember when it was I think Keller Williams that had this sweepstakes thing. I can’t remember who it was or maybe it was Back At You Media or Real Estate Agent Directory or whatever it was, it was some sort of sweepstakes thing that people got money or something in general and they were using it and this was several years ago.

They were using it to get people to like their page and I’m like what good does it help you if you’re in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, that’s me and someone from Katy,Texas likes my page when they’re literally not interested. They’re only doing it to enter the contest. What good does it do you? Well it doesn’t do you any good.

In fact it’s a negative. It’s detrimental so stop using contests and getting coupon cutters and untargeted page likes, Just stop it. You want real, you want engaged. You should not be doing that. Contests are meant for something different.

Stop Trying To Act, Like Or Think That You Need To Act Like Someone Else

Number five….this one’s a hard one and I think that people do this both purposely and unconsciously. You need to stop trying to act, like or think that you need to act like someone else.

We get so scared to show people who we are and be who we are like literally we think “Oh I can’t wear a T-shirt on camera because I am talking to real estate agents.” Now I don’t think that but I know people who do and I’m like “Dude, I don’t care. This is my business. This is me. This is who I am naturally and this empowers me. ME.

If you are someone who would never be caught dead in a T-shirt and you see someone else having success doing it and you try and be that you are going to fail because it’s not you. It’s not who you are comfortable being.

You need be who you are so for me to show up in a suit I’m going to be stiff and I used to wear suits. That’s not me. That’s not my personality. That’s not my lifestyle. That is not what I am trying to teach you that you can do. That’s not part of enjoying life for me anymore so I wouldn’t show up like that.

That is number one…that’s the “look like” but I am also talking about the sound bite. If I am watching somebody that I really like and know and love and all of her sudden her online presences has changed and I’m like this is not her. This is not her. It’s not coming across as her and I’m feeling a little uncomfortable watching her because I have seen her in so many other things and I wonder what she is doing and she’s trying to be… she’s trying to be something that she’s not and I don’t mean that in a bad way. What I mean is she feels as though she needs to do this to get her business wherever she wants to get it.

You need to be YOU.

If you’re going to be on camera, yes, you have to have a little bit more energy on camera than you would in person. You have to. Just like the camera adds 10 pounds or 50 pounds let’s pretend the camera adds 100 pounds on, ya know. The camera adds weight. It also sucks energy. It sucks energy so you have to be more energetic when talking. If you were literally sitting right here with me I wouldn’t be in your face one on one.

Here’s the thing so I do have a little more energy but this is still me. I still mess up my words. I’m still wearing my clothes. I’m still this how I am. This is how I act if I’m on stage. This is what I do etc.

You are YOU. You are you. You are your brand. You are your USP, your Unique Selling Proposition, You are your value.

Literally, you as a real estate agent. YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. It is not the house. You are. You need to be YOU. If you want people to get to know, like and trust you, they have to see you.

They have to see who you are. They don’t need to know every single time… I am going to get silly here….they don’t have to know every single time you fart. You know when you date, when you date people you tend to hide some of those things that might be more embarrassing but after you get married all bets are off, right? You could be somewhere in between. It’s always somewhere in between so you have to remember that it’s all about you.

You are the brand, You’re the value. You’re the unique selling proposition. If you try to be, act, duplicate or parrot someone else you’re basically saying that you’re brandless, that you’re one of the masses and you are not valuable and you’re not worth spending time with. That’s what you’re saying when you’re not you so if you stop thinking of everything as I have to put this certain image out there, I’ve got to put this whatever out there, and just start being you that is where people connect with you.

Why do you think people like Vin Diesel and The Rock….I am trying to think of who else that is really big, the celebrities who are out there that are actually just themselves and revealing all this stuff about themselves and they engage with people as themself and people see everything as much as their willing to show of course. Why do you think they are so much more popular than some of these other celebrities that are just as big a celebrity as they are who are on social media?  

It’s because those other celebrities have outsourced it. They’re not the voice. They’re literally using it like a billboard which is why it’s not working for them. This is why people – like in – okay let me just say this. In the performing arts industry on stage, one of the part of your audition, part of your audition for a show is how involved in social media are you?

Do you promote the shows? Do you share? Do you help get butts in the seats? Yeah, that is totally part of auditions for performing arts. So my point is, they want people who are relating with people. Same thing with real estate. People want to work with people who are relating with you. That’s the whole point of this whole thing.

Let’s Recap The 5 Things

Let me go back through these 5 things
Number One: Stop obsessing over your analytics. I went into detail on that.
Number Two :Stop barfing up sales post all day long or even every single day. Seriously.
Number Three: Stop trying to find someone else to do this Facebook thing for you.
Number Four: Stop trying to get page likes by running contests.
And Number Five: Stop trying to act or think you need to act like someone else.

Which One Of These Five Things Is Hardest For You To Change?

Now here’s what I want to know. I always want to know what was most useful for you? But actually what I want to know is what of these 5 things which one is the hardest for you? Like which one is the hardest for you to change? That is what I really want  to know so what was most useful for you but more importantly, which one is the one that you feel like it’s the hardest for you to overcome or change that mindset or do? Which one of those 5?

"Sally says, The most useful was not worrying about analytics."

I know. I know. They’re like guidelines. We shouldn’t get lost in the weeds of them and a lot of people do get lost in the weeds of them and a lot of “gurus” say go look at your analytics and do this and I’m like dude just get your crap online, like literally just get YOU, your attitude, your energy, your everything, get yourself out there and use those for guidelines.

I am going to dive a tiny bit on this. This whole month that I have been doing all of these RIBBIT shows every week day, I’m going to go through and look at the ones I’ve done. I’m going to look at the ones you guys attended the most. Did I promote those better or was it the topic?

I need to look at that because I need to know moving forward what you want to see more of. I know you tell me but at the same time your actions often show me something different than what you tell me. Isn’t that interesting?

I am just going to use the analytics over the course of the month to see which topics were most important to you, by who showed up in general and the questions you asked in general and the engagement that you did.

I am going to be looking at that because that is going to help me shape my content. Do I need to go deeper on something? Do I need to do more? That’s what I’m going to use my analytics for.

I am not going to go on there and go “Oh how many shares did I get on this?” Because the shares in and of themselves won’t help me. It’s overall who came or how many people came, how engaged were you, etc.

I am also going to look at it over time. What days of the week are you preferring because I can’t keep up doing these lives 5 days a week like forever but I can keep it up on the days that you tend to want to be here. I am going to look and see over time which days of the week do you prefer.

All of this stuff is going to help. That’s what I am using analytics for but I have to use it over time so you can’t just go look at your page of 100 page likes or 500 page likes and go “Oh everybody is online here.” Well yes and no, not really and that’s not when you just should post your post. You need to post all the time so all of that just to give you a little insight.

Inside Leads and Leverage, inside our member site for September we did a video challenge. In August we did a photo challenge where we batched everything. We had everybody go take a ton of photos. I gave them all ideas and everyone went around and batched a whole bunch of photos so they have a years worth of photos for their page, for content, right?

We learned how to do this so that we’re not overwhelmed with stuff especially when it comes spring again and it gets busier, etc.