One of the most asked questions I get from real estate agents is “what should I be posting on my Facebook business page.”
As an agent, I know you are hoping for a quick answer, an easy answer.
I know that you are holding out hope that I’m going to say “just go hire a vendor to pump out stuff on your page.”
But… it’s a little more complex than just outsourcing content.
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You see, it all starts with understanding why you even have a Facebook business page in the first place… and you can’t just jump to the “I want more closings” conclusion. You’ve got to work out the process… you’ve got to understand how your business page plays into that process.
When you know the why behind your page, you can discover the who… who is your page for, the what… what should you be posting, the how… how should you be utilizing your page, and the when… timing is important.
In a nutshell, your Facebook business page is for your customer.
I know, I know… you’re saying “duh” Christina! But here’s the reality… we say we know that our business page is for our customer and yet… we don’t try to figure out what our customer needs or wants.
What does your customer need? This is the question you need to start with.
Think about their journey… their homeownership journey. From the moment they begin thinking about owning a home to the last moment they own a home. That journey spans a lifetime. From 1st-time homebuyer to move-up buyer/seller to downsize buyer/seller to assisted living seller.
Make sense? In other words, there are decades of time in your customer’s journey… not just the 5-6 months or so of the buy/sell process.
What you share on your Facebook business page needs to be what your customer needs.
It needs to be relevant to their lifestyle.
It needs to solve their problems.
It needs to be focused on walking them through their journey, from buying a home, to living in the community, to selling their home, etc.
And remember, the “cycle” of their journey is about 10-12 years long (that is the average length of time people own their homes) so you need to go on that journey with them through the content you create and the content you share.
Yes, you’ll need to create content, but we’ll get to that portion in another article.
Today I’m just going to focus on the content you share. Curated content.
What you don’t want to do is focus on random “calendar of events” type posts because, you aren’t their activities director. Make it about their lifestyle, in context to their journey they go through with their home.
When they start thinking about moving, what are their needs? What are their problems? What about before they start thinking about moving?
As they move through life, have they gotten married? Adopted? Given birth? Brought another generation into their home? Get divorced? Experience a death? Change jobs?
What are their needs, contextually, when they go through all of these things in their life?
Being contextual is important, very important.
What do I mean by contextually? I mean, help them solve their “living” problems through these lenses.
When they get married, what is perceived as the next step? When a family member dies, how do they handle the real estate in the estate? When they bring in an aging parent, what do they usually need in terms of their home lifestyle?
Each one of these experiences will happen in the lives of your customers. What do these experiences mean for their lifestyle, their living situation, their home? THAT is what you want to share on your business page.
Always remember, your customer is not you.
They don’t know the same things as you.
They aren’t in the industry and don’t understand the relevancy of most statistics… so here’s a clue, run away from national statistics. They are boring to them. They’ll scroll past. Why? Because national statistics are meaningless to them. Most real estate agents don’t understand how national statistics drill down and relate to their own individual home, let alone a customer who is outside of the real estate industry.
And quite frankly, we are all overrun with information. We are overwhelmed. We experience frustration. We experience stress. We end up at a standstill because there is simply too much information out there. You need to be their guide. They want a guide. They need a guide. They want to know, like, and trust someone to help them through this entire journey.
So be focused on being their guide.
Be focused on helping them decipher the noise.
Don’t just throw more noise (information) at them.
Be very careful with local statistics. If all you are doing is pushing out stats and saying “now’s the time to buy” that is not helping your customer. Not one iota. It’s pushing your agenda, which is to have more closings. Don’t kid yourself that it’s for your customer.
It’s also not helping you. You are actively pushing people away instead of attracting them. Remember, your goal is to create, and build, know, like, and trust relationships, not turn people off.
Flip your thinking. The goal is to help create focus and clarity in their lives, not to confuse them more.
I think that the major reason real estate agents don’t know how to lead generate and convert all that well is because they are confused and thus they end up projecting that confusion out to the world, to their customer.
They’re confused about how they can help people before the contract and yet still get a contract from the help.
It’s a journey, a journey to create and build, know, like, and trust relationships and when you understand that journey and successfully execute and implement that journey into your business, your business is affected dramatically… it grows quickly and scales beyond your imagination.
Here’s a tip when it comes to sharing local statistics… share a single statistic and drill it down to exactly how that statistic affects them or their home, personally. If you can’t explain it to a 10 year old so they understand it, you don’t understand it yourself and neither will your customer.
So what should you be sharing on your Facebook business page?
Like I said above, you need to be sharing resources and information that will help your customer on their journey… you want to share valuable information, relevant information, correct information. Remember, what you share is a reflection of you, so your reputation is on the line here too.
And, when you share, don’t put so much content into each status update that it just flies right on by in their news feed. You want to keep it insanely simple. Share one thought. Ask one question. Share one aspect. That’s it. It’s much simpler than most people think.
What do your customers love?
Most people enjoy home tours. Most people enjoy remodels. Your customers also need to know insider secrets. They need to be educated. They want to be educated.
However, they do not want to be sold to. Stay away from anything and everything that talks about why they need a REALTOR. Don’t share any checklists or articles that tell them that in order to succeed at buying or selling their home, they need to use a REALTOR. Why? Because they don’t know, like, or trust you yet and don’t believe you. In fact, it closes them off to listening to anything else they have to say.
And let’s be realistic… they don’t need a REALTOR (or real estate agent). Many people successfully sell their homes themselves, so stop preaching that they’ll fail if they don’t use you.
What do you do instead? You teach them. You educate them. Educate them without a blatant agenda. Educate them about the successes and failures, about what affects their home and what doesn’t, about new tips, tricks, and tactics they can try to get a higher price, etc. You let them discover that you are authentic. That you are an expert. That they need your guidance. They must discover this for themselves. The discovery is the journey.
Here are some specific things you can share on your Facebook business page that appeals to most real estate leads out there…
Home Tips: Give short & succinct, but valuable tips about their home… from a maintenance tip to a showing tip to a home hunt tip to a curb appeal tip… give them tips. Short. Succinct. One tip per update focus.
Home Tours: People love home tours. LOVE them. And, it doesn’t matter where in the world the home is, they love looking at them. So, you need to share them! From all over the world. All different kinds of tours. From tiny apartments to sprawling estates. Why do you think people go to open houses and go on home tours? They like seeing the possibilities.
Remodels: Next to home tours, this is probably just as popular. People like seeing what others have done. They like ideas. Think of the popularity of Pinterest… they love seeing the before and after so show them lots of remodels!
Quotes/Memes: This one, no matter how much Facebook changes their algorithm, is always popular. People love quotes. They love inspiration. They love beautiful and funny pictures. So share quotes… share memes. Give them a smile on their face.
But… I say all of this with a huge caveat.
…if your Facebook business page isn’t setup to generate leads, it won’t matter what you put on it, because your efforts will be all for naught.
If you think of your Facebook business page as a place for them to explore, rather than a conduit between Facebook and your database, you’ll forever be battling to generate leads.
Your Facebook business page must be setup as a lead generating conduit, a funnel, and that’s why I’m giving you access to my Facebook Page Setup Checklist… it’s free and it’s yours, just click here.
