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by Christina Ethridge Leave a Comment

The 4 Sneaky Tricks You Can Use to Dominate Facebook in Your Local Real Estate Market


Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


Do you feel like you just can’t get Facebook right?

That once you have figured out something or you think you figured it out, like one thing out, something else comes along or everything changes?  As you know Facebook changes daily, but what do you actually have to pay attention to? And what can you just not worry about?

Today, I am going to walk you through the 4 sneaky tricks you can use to dominate Facebook in your local real estate market.  Sneaky tricks that have never changed, despite the algorithm shifts, they’ve never changed and now they’re backed by 43 million Facebook post of research.

Oh yes, I am going to show you the research, I am going to share the tricks, I am going to show what to do, that’s what we’re going to do today.

Thank you for joining me, I love that you’re joining me and welcome to another episode of The Ribbit show. And as always if your watching this in replay on Facebook, if you just comment in the video above, I am actually going to send you over my notes, resources and the 4 sneaky tricks I am going to teach you today.

I will send them over via messenger, just comment in the video.  

If you are watching this on YouTube, IGTV or Twitch, if you look in the description there will be a link to this original video and you’ll be able to get all of these resources as well.  So everyone who comments, you will get the stuff!

So we’re going to talk about the 4 sneaky tricks you can use to dominate your local real estate market and I did say that they’ve never changed.

These are tricks I have been teaching for the last 5 years on Facebook for real estate agents, for your local market.

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The Research

And just this week a research backed article they have used 43 million different Facebook posts from the top 20,000 brands to show you these things I’ve been teaching you, this is what works, this is what keeps working, and what will keep working for you and we’re going to go over that today.

Alright, here’s what happens every single day whether I am at a conference in person with you, in Facebook groups watching you talk and react, at local events and I am listening to realtors talk, etc.

Here’s the thing. I watch you panic, react or get so frustrated and upset or angry or just frustrated with Facebook because it’s constantly changing and this isn’t just Facebook.

This is like everything, not just upset  but constantly reacting, panic reacting instead of plowing through and just implementing.

I realize it’s coming from a place of wanting to do the best for your business for your clients, etc.

But the truth is, it’s actually from a panic action place. It is not from a place of strategy or a good path to follow so I am going to help you through this.

I don’t want you to jump from thing to thing. I don’t want you to jump from thought to thought because when you do that you don’t move forward and so we’re going to focus on what can get you moving forward with things that never change.

I am telling you 4 things today, the 4 things I am going to talk about, the research I am going to share with you.

These 4 things if you NEVER stop doing them, they’ve been working for the last 5 years. If you never stop doing them and don’t go chasing other stuff you will see success on Facebook.

You will. Absolutely.

So let’s talk a little bit about the research again.

If you say hello or comment in the video above, I am going to message you so after you comment, check you Facebook messenger.  I am going to message you with the link to this research with my notes from today and with the 4 sneaky tricks that I am going to teach you so definitely leave a comment in the video if you want these notes.

Alright so here’s the thing, I got this from Buffer. Buffer wrote this article but what they did, they analyzed 43 million Facebook posts. How could they analyze 43 million Facebook posts?

Because they are actually a posting tool. Buffer is a posting tool but not the one I recommend, They’re not my top one but they are able to look at all the posts and the different brands that are on Facebook from what goes through their system and they can give us 43 million Facebook posts from the top 20,000 brands and you know what they came up with?

It’s really, really interesting and I am going to go over the highlights for you real quick, it’s actually a really simple article to read and they give you access to the full data in a spreadsheet.

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What are the 4 Things?

Images receive the most engagement

Despite the video and links, you could put text up, you can put link post up, you put video post up, you can do live streams and images.

Images still receive the most engagement.  So images receive the most engagement.

That’s not a hard thing to figure out. People like pictures, they really like pictures. It’s even true over video. Now, live video is different, but this is true over video if you’re comparing uploaded videos, images and text and link post, link like when you share a post to your blog or something, images receive the most engagement. So if you’re looking for engagement you need to put images out there.

I am going to talk about the 4 things you can do here:  

Again thank you and if you want the notes and resources and the tricks, just comment in the video above.  

I am going to be asking you a question, so remember I always ask you this question because I need to know from you guys. I always ask you this so make sure, be prepared, if you’re listening today, to share with me: “What’s the most useful for you?”

Okay so images receive the most engagement. That’s the number one highlight from the article.

We’re going to be talking about what you should be posting here in a minute, the 4 sneaky tricks but I need to share the research with you to show you that this is all backed by research.

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How many times a day you should be posting

Okay number two, I have been teaching you how many time you should be posting every single day for the last 5 years. Does anybody know how many times you should be posting every single day to get the highest overall page reach?  

Do you know how many times that is? Take a wild guess how many times you should be posting, every single day to get the highest overall page reach.

How many times do you think a day?

I am just going to tell you it’s 5.  FIVE. Five times PER DAY.

 If you post 5 times a day, about every 4-6 hours, 4-6 times per day, 5 times a day, your page will receive the highest overall page reach. 

That means if you go more, if you post more than that your overall page reach actually declines. If you post less than that, your overall page reach does not get the highest it can get. You need to post 4-6 times a day, aka as research shows 5 times a day. 5 times a day. That is your best option.

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Your Page Category

Number three highlight from this research. Number three highlight is your page category is IMPORTANT! Because the way it lays out your page and how Facebook determines how much reach you should get based on your content, perceived content on the page

Page category is important.  

Pre-recorded videos

Number four highlight from the research is pre-recorded videos, I am not talking live streams, pre-recorded videos must be under 2 minutes. Yes, 30-90 seconds is the ideal, pre-recorded video length if you’re going to put videos on your page.

Now does saying all these things mean you shouldn’t put anything else out there?

No absolutely not but I want to show that these are the highlights from the article. These are things you need to take away from this research because they affect you on your page in your business.

Now what does this translate to for you as a real estate agent in your market? Here are the 4 sneaky tricks I’ve been teaching for the last 5 years on Facebook.

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What are the 4 sneaky tricks?

You need to post 4-6 times a day without fail

Number 1, you need to post 4-6 times a day without fail, never stopping, never ceasing, 4-6 times a day.

Period.

On your page. This is your business page. This is not your personal profile. You must focus on getting your content out 4-6 times a day without fail.

This is important.

That is why inside Leads and Leverage we have 102 pieces of content every single month with other content that can be reused for members to use on their pages and this content is customizable. I’ll show you how in just a minute here.

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You need to have access to that content

Number 2, if you need to post 4-6 times a day you need to have access to that content because you don’t have access to that content and you don’t have time time to going and researching it.  That’s why we do that inside Leads and Leverage.

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You need to be focusing on what your people want

Number 3, you need to be focusing on what your people want. Now here is what I mean.

If you’re just posting 4-6 times a day and you’re just throwing stuff out because it fulfills a check mark, meaning it’s one of the times a day you’re supposed to post, that’s not going to help you.  

You need to tap into your audiences top reasons for engaging online. There are 5 main things from this research that I am giving you the link to the 5 reasons people share online is

The 5 reasons people share online is:
Delight others with valuable & entertaining content
Identify and present ourselves to others
Foster relationships Self-fulfillment
Spreading the word about issues, products, and brands

You want to delight others with valuable and entertaining content.

To identify and present themselves to others. Basically we want to look smart, we want to look like we’re the first to know something. We want to share what we have, we want to influence others.

Those are my words for it that I’ve always been teaching you. Now the research says delight others with valuable and entertaining content and identify and present ourselves to others.

We want people to see us as we want them to see us, foster relationships.

Are we promoting something?
Engaging something?
A passion for something?

Self fulfillment is another reason and spreading the word about issues, products and brands. Now, it is no coincidence that most of the viral content on Facebook is related to food, animals, fashion, humor and beauty.

And do you know where real estate stands on this scale? When you look at this article you’ll see it, it’s like nothing, like nothing.

You want to know why?

Because of what we post about real estate. When we’re posting our listings or random articles or random data or random stats that’s not interesting to the consumer so you need to figure it out in ways that are more interesting.

Now here, let me tell you one of the top 4 things you can post average interaction by topic is DIY – Well guess what? You can move that real estate ranking up by posting things that are involving DIY in your house. Your remodeling, your landscaping, etc.

You change that content, you change that real estate content to not be about you and selling your crap and it’s not crap, it’s houses, but if you want people to engage in your page and get to know, like and trust you, you have to be posting things that they’re interested in. You have to and you’ve got to make it into that DIY category.

So you need to post 4-6 times per day, without fail and you need to focus on what they want and like.

They like pets. They like passions, passions like things they support and causes. They like DIY, they like food and you can actually connect food to kitchens and entertaining space. There are so many ways you can make this connect with things.  I

Those are 2 of the sneaky tricks, you need to focus on what they like and you need to post 4-6 times a day.

You need to make a whole heck of a lot of less than 2 minute videos.

And oh my gosh if you’re afraid of the video, let me just tell you two things:

Number 1, if you don’t want to get in front of the video because you don’t like how you look, I hope to heck that you are staying in your house every single day and not letting people see what you look like because guys and girls what you look like is what you look like.

If you’re afraid to get in front of the video, I am really hoping you’re afraid to be in front of people. It makes absolutely zero sense that you don’t like being on video and yet you’re okay with being in front of people.

Makes no sense to me. You are who you are. You talk like you talk, you look like what you look like. Get over it and get your little butt in front of the video, well actually your face in front of the video.

Yeah, that’s kind of a kick in the pants. I am so sick of hearing people say they don’t like the way they look and I’m like “do you go out in public and see people?”  Are you afraid to do that because it makes no sense that you would be afraid to be on video like this and yet still go see people?

It doesn’t make sense, the connection is like, it doesn’t make sense to me.

So you have to realize you look like what you look like, you sound like what you sound like, get over it and get on video.

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Make a whole lot of less than 2 minute videos

Now with that said, you need to make a whole lot of less than 2 minute videos and get them on your Facebook page and I’m not talking live streams. I’m talking videos.

You can do 2 different kinds that are both pretty powerful for you.

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The first one is a connection video.

That’s actually what my mentor calls videos where you share something that you’re passionate about that may be contrary to the industry or contrary to what’s going on.

For example maybe some of you have seen my You Be You video

Basically I am really sick of people telling us we have to be someone different, to act different, whatever else in real estate.

The other one I fully, firmly 100% believe is that our industry is out to make us fail. Why else do 87% of us fail out of the business in less than 5 years?

Because of how we glorify people who do real estate in a way that the consumer doesn’t like which is why do we all look like used car salesmen.

It’s not about relationships. They try to pretend like it’s about authenticity and transparency and relationships, but it’s not. Those are 2 of my big “stick it to the industry” things that I am like, “Yeah, I am going to take on the industry in this because it’s bad and detrimental for agents.”

What do you think is bad and detrimental for the consumer?

What do you think that they’re not getting empowered by or for?

What do you think, and let me tell you this, if you live in a lower cost of living area where homes are running under $200,000 or under $150,000, annual incomes are under $50,000 if you do your research I would be willing to bet that most of your buyers would not be able to take advantage of the mortgage interest write off on their taxes.  

So you could really take that topic and go with it. If they’re telling you “yeah, it’s mortgage write off, blah, blah, blah” and you’re not even itemizing your taxes which by the way those are the parameters I just gave you. A certain dollar amount, especially when the interest rate is so low and incomes are low and they can only write off a certain percent.  

If you do your research you might be in market where people are touting this but it’s only used by 5 or 10 or 15% of the people in the market that would be a connection video.

Educating the public that sounds contrary to what the masses are doing.

For example as a real estate agent, I am sorry but the NAR economist have been a laughing joke for as long as I can ever remember because they always spin things to make real estate look good or make buying or selling real estate look good like always.  

They always have, even during the recession they did. I have always called them out.

No I’m not an economist but I could compare them to the other economist or to what was actually going on in our market at the time like all the way down to an individual house.

What is happening in your market?
In your industry?

In your area that you can take a stand on that bugs you beyond belief?

Stand on that. Make a connection video. You need to take a stand. You can have people not like you, flat out you have to go for it. Go for getting those enemies. You’re like “WHHAATT are you talking about Christina?”

Here’s the thing. If you do not have people who completely disagree with you or can’t stand you or whatever then you don’t have people who absolutely love you and will like follow everything you do and say.

You have to have haters in order to have lovers.

Now make sure everything you’re doing and saying is factual. It’s actually going to help people.

Don’t just make crap up, like really. But you need to be a little bit, kindly divisive, if you will. You need to take a stand for something. That is a connection video.

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Do a whole boatload of sneak peaks videos

Number 2, type of video do a whole boatload of sneak peaks. I don’t mean sneak peaks of listings.

I mean give them sneak peaks of parks, of bike trails, of downtown, of neighborhoods, of business centers. Give them sneak peaks of all sorts of areas.

Talk about it, what you like about it, what you don’t like about it, what you wish they would change, what you know they’re doing.

Do stuff that is under 2 minutes. Quick little vignettes around your area. Be the source of the lifestyle of everything that’s happening in your area. They want to know. You know the area.

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You know the market so show them

You know the market so show them. You can’t tell them this, you have to show them this.

Number one is post 4-6 times a day without fail, just without fail, period. If you struggle with getting the content, well that’s what we give inside, one of the pieces we give inside Leads and Leverage. Content that you can take and customize it for your market, for your area.

Number two is focus on what your people want or like. You have to do that.

Number three is make a whole lot of less than 2 minute videos, you’ve got to do that.

Number four sneaky trick, right now inside of Leads and Leverage we’re doing our August challenge with all of our members. Right now, inside of Leads and Leverage we are doing a challenge with our members, an August challenge is a local photo vault challenge.

So basically, I am challenging members every single day for 21 days and everyday they are going out and taking pictures locally.

I am giving them the ideas of exactly what to take pictures of and what angles, what pieces etc, of each of those things.

And this vault we are creating all of these pictures. We are creating what is going to be in our content for the next 12 months so in 21 days we are gathering a whole plethora of local photo content that we can put out.

You need to be putting out a lot of local photos. People like local. They like photos. You can do all kinds of different things from doing like that was then, this is now stuff. You can give them updates on things that are changing or neighborhoods that are being built, streets that are changing.

There are so many things you could do but you need to be that source.

You need to be sharing and the beauty of Facebook is that you can so quickly become the expert, the source, the page and person that loves your area so much that you’re sharing it with the world and the community gathers around and collaborates with you.

This is huge.

So Number one, post 4-6 times a day without fail.

Number two, post what they like and want. They want food and cats and DIY and local.

Three, make lots of less than 2 minute videos, make connection videos and make sneak peaks, do everything.

Number four, post a whole lot of local photos and obviously, you’re going to need more than these things that’s why I said inside of Leads and Leverage, we have that.

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You’re welcome to join us

You’re welcome to join us inside Leads and Leverage, I will send you the link, just comment in the video above. That link is included inside the tricks, notes and resources that I am sending you, so just comment right inside the video. It’ll come over to you via messenger.

Alright, so I am going to recap this. While I am recapping this for those of you that have been watching the whole time, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to tell me, “What was most useful for you??” What was the most useful for you, today?

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Let’s recap

We talked about the research done from 43 Million Facebook blog posts by Buffer.

Images receive the most engagement. You need to post 5 times a day because that is your highest overall reach.

Your page category is important.
I am saying you do not want a local business category.
You are not a local business.
You are a service.
You as an agent are a service unless you’re a property management company or you are the brokerage.
You are not the local business.
You are a product or a service.
That is important.

Pre-recorded videos are to be under 2 minutes. Those are the main 4 highlights from that research

What does this translate for you? Or how does this translate for you? It means you need to post 4-6 times per day without fail.

It means you need to focus on what people want and like on your page, make it contextual, make it connect with real estate in some way.

Make lots of less than 2 minute videos, I walked you through connection videos, sneak peaks, etc. Okay? There’s that,

 You need to be putting up lots of local photos. It’s huge! 

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Questions & discussion during the live stream

Now Jerri said, “Much better than Facebook lives that are at least 5 minutes.” Two minutes videos, that’s what helped her the most

Yeah okay now  so there are 2 different realms here, okay? If you’re going to do pre-recorded videos, they need to be less than 2 minutes and you’re right, Jerri is absolutely right. Those can be easier than a Facebook live that’s 15 minutes.  

Now you need to understand, it’s hard to say what you need to say in less than 2 minutes. It’s not quite as easy as you think, however for Facebook lives it’s easy for me to keep going and sharing with you guys because I get ideas and you inspire me with questions.

Obviously two different things, but they did not actually talk about Facebook lives in the research so we’re just talking your other posts and not Facebook lives. But yes, if 2 minute videos are much easier for than a 15 minute Facebook live, flippin do those videos. Get them up there, they are in important.

And Pam, you’re right to have lovers you have to have haters. You have to have people who don’t like you. The trolls are going to come out of the woodwork like they’re going to come out of the woodwork and you’re going to be like what rock did you crawl out from? Literally, all you do is delete comment and ban them. Just get rid of them.

Bunny said, “I found posting 5 times a day and the photo vault very helpful” Yes, that is huge.

James said, “Make lots of less than 2 minute videos” Absolutely.

Learning about how many times to post. This is a big one Valerie.

Most people think one or two times a day, a couple of times a week.

A lot of the real estate vendors that sell you content that auto post on your page, a lot of them have not made it clear that you need to post on your page, not your profile. Although, now you can not post on your profile with those vendors.

Facebook turned it off, thank goodness but they also don’t make it clear how much content you actually need to post so you’re paying money and not even with a good strategy.

In many cases if you’re only posting once a day you’re actually losing reach rather than it helping you. Learning about how many times to post it has always been 4-6 times a day without fail for you as real estate agents for most pages in fact.  Not all pages but for most pages in most industries.

Pam says, “2 minute videos, sneak peaks.” Absolutely.

The other Pam says, “Learning to give lots of info in less than 2 minutes” You don’t have to give lots of info but have to give very focused and specific info and be consistent, do 2 or 3 of those a week, like create them and then pop 2 or 3 up a week.

Yeah, Julia says, “Having a library of post and videos will be a time saver!” IT IS HUGE! That is why inside Leads and Leverage, every single month we are now doing a challenge to help batch content, batch posts, batch leads, batch everything, our lead generation.

The goal is leverage so Leads and Leverage. The goal is leverage.  

Ok local town photos are useful.

Tate says,

I’m curious…10 years ago real estate agents had their own websites with their own branding and URL. I don’t see this today. Agents are hiding in the big pages, Zillow, dah dah dah and not protecting their identity. I’ve also noticed Google is not including Facebook, twitter activities in search results as they were just a few years ago. Is a Facebook page enough?

A Facebook page is not enough.

Tate asks “if a Facebook page is enough?” No. It’s not. A Facebook page is a conduit to your own hub. Now 10 years ago, the same number; well actually a higher number of real estate agents that have their own site. Well let me clarify this: She said 10 years ago real estate agents had their own sites with their own branding and own URL.

The same percent of agents still have that today because a lot of agents don’t believe you need your own branding or URL, you don’t need your own branding but you do need your own site and URL.

Using an agent site or a brokers site is not going to help you, no it’s not going to help you at all. You can’t track it, you can’t re-target to it and you can’t actually build a business based on it .

To get down to your question, a Facebook page IS NOT enough. A Facebook page is a conduit, it’s going to take this big multi-billion person platform and bring the right people into your sphere, into your email list, into your website, etc.

Your website, not your brokerage website, your website. So it is a leverage. It is a lever. You’re going to use it. It is a conduit.That’s what it is. You absolutely have to have it as conduit but it is not a destination.

Just remember your Facebook business page is a conduit not a destination which is why we don’t spend a lot of time in playing with the different templates for looks that Facebook has.

We only use what is actually going to get us better reach, better engagement and more leads. So that is what we focus on, not the other stuff. So it is a conduit to your hub and your hub is your very own website.

It’s not your brokerage site, it’s not a Placester site or any other vendor site, it is your site. Your own site built on WordPress, not Wix, not Squarespace, not built on anything else. It’s built on a really good robust backed platform you host.

That is why I recommend Mike Muller with areweconnected.com He is amazing and has been in the industry for, I don’t even know how many years, but he has been in industry for as long as me at least. We actually met on Active Rain in 2007 I think back when we were both blogging on that platform. He knows what he is doing, he doesn’t control it, he sets it up for you and you have the freedom to do what you want.

He is so amazingly affordable so Mike Muller at areweconnected.com. That name is not actually in the resources because I didn’t know I was going to be talking about him today, but you need have a page that serves as a conduit into your website.

Comment below and let me know what was most useful for you and if you’re willing, tell me what you’d like me to teach or share with you next!  Let me know what you need help with below.

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Want the notes, tricks and resources?

Again if you want these notes, tricks and resources just comment in the video above and I will send it to you via messenger.

If you’re watching this on IGTV or YouTube or Twitch if you click through to the link in the description it will bring you to this original video and you can get all of these resources.

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Featured Download:

The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Done, facebook for real estate

by Christina Ethridge Leave a Comment

What EXACTLY should you be posting and sharing on your Facebook business page that people are interested in seeing?


Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


I’m really excited to be here with you today because I get to answer a question that I think every single one of you has asked.

Here’s the question. This is direct from one of the people that have joined one of our Facebook groups, the Facebook for Real Estate Agents Group.

The Best Post You Can Put on Your Page

The question is  “What’s your number one struggle when it comes to Facebook lead generation?” They said, “I don’t really know what to do with Facebook even though I know it is a powerful tool to let people know what I do and about who I am. I don’t want to post things that people don’t care about like where I’m having coffee. I’m just not sure what to do.”

That’s what I’m going to talk about today. In fact, I’m going to give you three reasons why that post about where you’re having coffee is the best post you can put out, so there you have it.

Today, let’s talk about why this question was so good. This question was given to me by our community manager inside Lead and Leverage, and I was like, “This is a great one to do because this is where we all circle.” We really struggle.

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Three reasons why that post about where you’re having coffee is the best post you can do.

Reason #1

All right. Reason number one, reason number one. People are voyeuristic. We’re voyeuristic. We like to know every little thing other people are doing. Why? Why do we like that? Well, there’s a lot of reasons, and so I went through my own self.

I was like, “Well, sometimes it’s FOMO, fear of missing out. Do they have access to something? Have they tasted something? Have they done something that I haven’t done yet or that I need to do?

Do they have something that I should have, or are there somewhere where I couldn’t stand it?” I’m going to make sure that they know there’s a better place out there, or all kinds of things. All kinds of different things. “What’s their life like compared to mine? What can I do to change my life? What should I add to my life? What am I missing?”

People are voyeuristic. We like to see inside of people’s lives, and ironically enough, that’s in the little things, in the little things. Okay? I’ll go further into that in a second.

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Reason #2

Reason number two. People like coffee. They do. There’s a reason that coffee and wine memes, and jokes, and pages, and things do really, really well on Facebook.

You’re a real estate agent and you’re doing a real estate agent page, but here’s the thing. People want to know who you are. They want to know who you are. They want to know why you tick.

They want to know that you need coffee fed into your veins like they do. They want to know that you like to have wine every single night or whatever it is. They want to know somehow a connection with you on those realms. Okay?

They like coffee too. If you’re doing this locally, which most of you should be, you need to be sharing where you’re having coffee. As a real estate agent, a lot of you don’t actually like to work physically in the office. You’re either out showing properties, out taking listings, or sometimes a lot of you are working in coffee shops.

Well, guess what? You need to be sharing that. You need to be sharing your favorite coffee, your favorite baristas, your favorite drinks, your favorite locations, why you like to be there.

Show yourself living your life. Show yourself working your business without selling crap to people. Like seriously, you need to show that. You need to share that.

There is a reason behind  that on the Leads and Leverage Facebook business page … This is an international business. There is a reason that I share my Stitch Fixes and my Amazon Wardrobe and Prime Wardrobes.

There’s a reason why because that is a piece of me that people are interested in. I realized it seems very weird to share these pieces out to the world, but those are the pieces that people connect with. Those are the pieces that help people build a relationship with you.

They think they understand you a little bit differently, a little bit better, a little bit … Everything is falling down. A little bit … Just on a different level. This is how people buy from people. If they see you, know you, like you, trust you as a person, they’re going to use your services.

People are voyeuristic. They have fear of missing out. They want to make sure they’re getting the best or if they’ve tried everything, or experimented, or etc. They like to to try new things, and they like coffee too. Like seriously, they like coffee too.

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Reason #3

What’s reason number three? Reason number three is all about community involvement. You eat at restaurants in your community. You drink at coffee shops in your community. Maybe you go to wine tastings in your community.

Maybe you volunteer at the Humane Society, or Habitat for Humanity, or the Food Bank, or the like Ironman. We have Ironman here or any of those other things. Maybe you’re involved in that.

People are also involved in that, so you sharing not just, “Hey, I’m going to go do this,” but like actually sharing in the moment while you’re there and sharing this gives people a reason to know they can trust you.

It also opens up their eyes. People discover new businesses, new restaurants, new places, new things to volunteer for, new things to become passionate about. That’s a community involvement piece that you can’t pay any amount of money to create.

You have to physically do it and be involved in it, so you really, really need to make these connections, and so something as silly, seemingly silly as coffee is really important, but here’s why we tend to avoid these things and that we overthink it.

What we put on Facebook is all about the deep, meaningful, super big moment posts.

 I hate to tell you, but our lives in general have 3, 4, 5, maybe 10 big, deep, meaningful events, and all of the rest of the days are filled with seemingly meaningless, daily chitter-chatter, normal life. 

We only go on that 25th anniversary once, a trip, the big one, one time. We only do  A lot of us only get married one time. Even people who get married multiple times, you don’t do it every single month, every single day.

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It’s ALL about those minuscule connections

You can’t keep thinking that what you post on Facebook needs to be these big, deep, meaningful moments. They need to be the everyday humdrum, the mundane, the seemingly innocuous connections.

It’s about those minuscule connection, the seemingly uninteresting and unimportant. There is a whole thing on YouTube of people….of vloggers. People who basically blog their daily live on video.

There’s thousands upon thousands of people that have very successful YouTube channels just sharing their day like literally just sharing their day. “This is my morning routine. This is how I put my makeup on. This is how I do my hair. This is what I did today. This is the book I’m reading.”

Just all the stuff that seems seemingly boring and innocuous, right?

I’m going to be the first one to admit there are a few people that I follow on YouTube specifically to see what they’re doing in their days, and they have different days they profile because I am always wanting to improve myself. What does that mean?

Does that mean I need to read more books? Does it mean I need to do more yoga? Does it mean I need to drink less? All three of those are things that I need to do, and I’m working on doing. There’s other things too, but we’re all looking in some sense to be different, to be better, to be more connected, so even if we don’t consciously know that, so share the mundane.

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Share the boring. Share the little things.

Like I said, that’s why I share the Wardrobe boxes that I get. I got one yesterday, and I just was absolutely not in the mood to be on camera yesterday. I was not. I’ve been stressed out. I was going to get a massage.

Yeah. I’ve had to actually put massages in my weekly regimen for right now to help keep my cortisol lower, to help lower my cortisol so that I just … because I’m not handling stress real well right now, and I’m like, “Well, I’m not going to let it like control me, so what can I do to fix that?”

Yesterday, I just did not want to be on camera, and it’s probably because we had like 50 to 60 people over here on Monday, at our house on Monday, and I was exhausted and didn’t even think about that, “Oh, I might be peopled out,” because I’m an introvert.

I didn’t think about that, but I didn’t want to be on camera, so I got a box yesterday, and I felt guilty for opening that box, and going through it, and trying this stuff on, and doing all these stuff because I had been sharing these things with everybody out there.

I felt a little guilty not sharing that, but then I realized, “You know what? I don’t have to share everything,” but the thing is, is that you should be sharing more, so you definitely should be sharing more pieces, bits and pieces. For each person, it’s going to be a little bit different.

A friend of mine who is amazing on engaging with people, she has a massive audience on Facebook, on Instagram, etc.

She had a big pool party on Monday, and she shared all the stuff, and I didn’t. I didn’t share it.

I felt like it was my time, and that was what I was going to do just for me. I like shared one thing, so it’s just we all have different aspects that we do, that we share, but we definitely need to share the silliness like having a cup of coffee.

I know people who share I think almost every day that they work. They go work at a coffee shop, different coffee shops. Sometimes, the same one, and they always show the little design that people make on their coffee drink that they get.

Here’s a little secret. I don’t drink coffee ever. I cannot stand the taste of coffee. I have four boys and a husband. They are coffee nuts. I cannot stand coffee.

Be that as i may, I certainly understand the allure of coffee because I watch it in the zombies that walk around my house before they have coffee and then what coffee does. It fuels them, but I also know that there’s really little cute designs that you get on your coffee.

You could share that.

Be Engaging!
There’s all kinds of things that you can do that just are amazing little pieces of your life that people will connect with, that show that you’re a part of the community, that show that you’re engaged.

People care about your coffee, or your tea, or your wine. They care about your green or your brown thumb. They care about your hot mess and your success. They care about your wins and your losses. They care about your activities, your life. Dull and boring though all of these things may be to you, so you just have to realize that whatever it is, you may think it’s boring, you may think it’s dull, you need to start sharing it..

This is one of the things that I was doing before we opened our pool. We bought our house last August, and it’s the first time we ever owned an in-ground pool, and we’re in an area that pools are not really … I mean, I joke and I say this like all of like five pools in the whole area. There’s more than that, but we’re way up north.

There’s not a lot of pools like in-ground pools in the area, and so I joke about that, and it’s not a new experience for us. My husband Chuck worked for Endless Pools for almost four years. He’s very familiar with pools, and the pool chemistry, and things like that, so it wasn’t a like scary burden for us to get the pool.

That wasn’t an issue, but what was exciting was I started InstaStorying every day starting … sometime in April like asking people, “When do you think we’re going to open the pool?” and I’d show pictures of the snow on the ground and things like that, and it was just a random stuff because I was excited.

I wanted to open the pool right away. I wasn’t sure with the weather so I kept doing that, and the engagement that I got from that was just crazy. I was like, “Wow, people are interested in this?”

Yeah, they were interested in the journey. It was funny, and they were making bets on…well not really making bets, but like voting on the poll on when they thought the pool would open.

Here’s the thing. How does that get business? It’s not a direct way. They’re not going to go, “Ooh, I voted on your pool poll, so now, let me go sign up for Leads and Leverage,” or, “I voted on your coffee, so now, let me go buy a house from you.” That’s not how it works.

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You build audiences…You build relationships

You’re building relationships with people, and over time, they get involved with you. They get involved in your life. They help create things with you, and that’s how they get to know they can trust you, and then when they have a need that you can fulfill, that you can serve for them, that’s when they are tied to you because they already know they can trust you.

That’s how it works. You build audiences. You build relationships. You nurture them, and then when they’re ready, they use you. That’s how it works.

When you’re doing this, here’s a few other things. I mean, I talked about the pool story. What are other things that you can share?

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Share Videos

A friend of mine, same friend, Jennifer, she bought a house super fast like we did. However, she’s got like 18 or 20 years in the remodeling and construction industry. They literally bought their house and moved in . Everything was still  in storage, but they were living in the house, and tore the entire house apart. A 6,000-cent-square-foot house, tore it apart, and so like she’s doing everything fast, and they’re still remodeling, and this was back in February.

She’s been sharing all of this, all of this on Insta Stories, on Facebook, etc. It is not related to her business. It’s not related to her business, except that she likes to help creatives make money like the whole starving artist thing.

She’s like, “No, that doesn’t exist.” Creatives, so people who are faux painters, or maybe they make jewelry, or they make reefs or things like that. That’s what her business is. She helps them learn how to make money, and she has been sharing her entire remodeling process.

It’s crazy. She gets tons of people that pop in on these videos and stuff like that.

The key is she’s sharing stuff. She’s not showing how to do a business, so in a sense, it’s unrelated to what her business is, but it’s a connection point.

As realtors, if you’re going through remodels or if you’re going through anything related to your living at all, you should be sharing it. Absolutely. One of the things I like about InstaStories is that it’s 15-second increments. I could literally share little bleeps, little moments. I love that. Whereas a Facebook live, you need to be on for at least 15 minutes, so it’s a little bit of a different ball of wax there, but you need to be sharing that.

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Share Pictures

If you don’t want to share a video, share pictures. Share pictures. Engage people. Ask people. Even if you’ve like picked something out or you know what you’re going to do.

You need to be doing that kind of stuff. Share that coffee. Share that tea. Share your favorite drink. Share random stuff. That’s what people like. That’s what people want to know. They want to know how to find things. They want to know how to do things. All that kind of stuff. How do you think they’re going to get to know about you?

If you’re like a golf-themed, you love to golf, are you checking in at your page at golf courses when you’re golfing? Are you getting in 9 or 18 rounds of golf in the morning before you go out and work? Are you sharing that, or have you felt like you’ve had to keep that as your little like little secret? Things like that. Hey, Stas. How are you? Stas is my son. The one that … Like I said, very far away. Good to see you.

Anyway, are you sharing things like that? Are you afraid to show that you go golfing in the morning before you work? Are you afraid to share … I don’t know, anything about that kind of stuff? Don’t be afraid.

If there are parts of your life that you definitely don’t want to share, don’t share them. Don’t put them out there. Jennifer puts a lot of her kids out there. I rarely put my kids out there. Very rarely. They really don’t like to be shared like that, so I don’t. It’s just not what they want to do.

I also don’t like to share new big purchases. I just don’t. I’m not that kind of person. I don’t want to. If we were to get a car, I’m not going to share it that we got it. I don’t really share a lot about that  

Yeah, we’ve shared the pool because it’s part of our house, but I just … That’s just not me. I’m not going to do it, but things like that, just things like, what is it that you put your boundary, set your boundary up?

That cup of coffee, that is the perfect thing that people are interested in, and I know it seems weird, but they are. They’re interested in that.

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Post Local Stuff

The more local stuff you have, you want to put it out. Absolutely, you want to put it out. Spring, and summer, and fall are like the best times because we’re out of our houses doing local stuff, doing local events and stuff, so we’re out there doing things. Absolutely, we need to put them out there.

Do you need help with some ideas, some inspiration on what … What’s the boring mundane stuff that you can put on your page? I mean, some of the things that I may be doing.

I have some really interesting questions, and I’ve been really toying with this for me through Leads and Leverage.

I’ve had people asking me, “Okay. If you don’t drink coffee, how do you stay energized? You’re eating keto? What are you doing? How are you dealing with …” I’m 48 or I will be 48 in November. I will be 48. “How are you dealing with perimenopause?” I know that’s not interesting … Men aren’t interested in that, but how are you dealing with the changes in life? Do you exercise? What’s a routine you do? How do you keep your stress levels down? What’s your day look like?

All these interesting things like, “Do you take a supplement?” Just all these interesting stuff that is totally unrelated to Facebook or real estate agents. However, it’s questions that you might have because what your underlying thing is, is, “How can I change me? Does she know something or have a resource that I could use that would help me become who I want to become?” That’s really what you’re asking and what you’re looking for, so it’s really interesting. I’ll be sharing a lot more. I’ll be revealing a lot more, just who I am and what I do.

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Find Out What People Want and Need

What I want you to focus on is start finding out what people want, what they need and don’t necessarily ask them. Watch them. Observe them. Listen between the lines, and then give them what you’re seeing and hearing that they need.

Does that make sense? It’s never you as their real estate agent. That is never the surface problem. That is never it. It’s always about, “What are they seeing? What are they needing? What resources are they needing?”

I know I keep using this as a resource, but one of the things that we’re struggling is, is we’re not DIY people. We know a lot of construction people. However, most contractors are not interested in the small stuff, the honeydew list stuff, and so we’re really trying, struggling finding someone to be our honeydew person, and so we actually finally found one. It’s actually a friend who’s going to come over and help us with a couple things.

It’s not easy to find some of these stuff. If people are buying in your area like we bought a house that’s 57 years old and most houses around here aren’t that old, they don’t have trees … They’re not on an acre with 30 or 40 different trees that are a hundred feet tall.

They don’t know what kind of tree care they need to have. Could you partner with a tree service and educate people? Not partner-partner, but on video. Could you educate people about what’s going on? What do they need in the spring? What do they need in the fall? Is it worth it to DIY it on different things? Things like that.

I’m just thinking about this going, “Okay. There is some stuff we’ve outsourced. There’s other things that we’ve done ourselves.” It just depends. Everybody has different needs, so that’s what your key is. Your key is always them, not you.

The goal in anything that you do is not to take them from someone who does not know you to a contract in one fell swoop. That is not your goal. You do not meet someone and suddenly, you’re 80 rocking … holding hands, rocking chairs, and married, and have 10 grandkids. It doesn’t work like that.

The entire process is a journey, and you need to be thinking that way, and giving value, and teaching, and engaging, and sharing you, and sharing your resources, and … Yeah, all the little crazy stuff that’s in your life. You are going to see a lot more of that coming out on Leads and Leverage, definitely, as I share more of that.

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Here’s The Warning

Here’s the warning though. It does set you up for more obnoxious people coming at you. There is going to be an order for you to have people who love you and resonate with you. You will have to have people who are just idiot trolls. That’s basically what I call them. They’re just idiot trolls.

They have nothing going on in their life, except to watch videos, and vetch, and put down. It’s because they’re jealous. It’s flat out because they’re jealous. 100% of the time, they are jealous. They see you as someone who has something that they don’t. They see you as doing something that they want.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Tony Robbins or if you’re me. Nobody knows me. It doesn’t matter who you are. If you have people who love you, you’re going to have those troll people that come out, and I just call them troll people. Troll people. They have no lives. Pray for them. They are full of anger, full of bitterness.

They have no life, but they’re going to come out, and here’s what I suggest. Don’t engage them. Ban and block them. That’s all you have to do. Don’t engage. Just ban and block.

It’s about the … Get ‘er done. Get ‘er done and serve people.

If there’s anything you would like me to help you with when it comes to Facebook for real estate agents, or anything that you’ve seen on my page, or anything you’ve heard me say, or anything you’re getting mixed messages on.

You go to a conference, and they say one thing, I say another. You go to a training. They say one thing, I say another. For most of the part, I say the opposite of most everybody or most everybody says the opposite of me because they don’t understand how Facebook actually works. They don’t understand how social media actually works.

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Focus on Helping People, Not Just Talking to People

There’s two schools or camp. There’s a “just get leads” camp, and then there’s a “just talk to people” camp. It’s neither one of these camps. See, the end result of getting leads over here does not start with just talk to people.

The end result of getting leads over here starts with you developing relationships, and it’s not just random talk crap. You actually have to have a strategy. You actually have to be focused on helping people, not just talking to people. You got to help them, and you got to reveal who you are in a way that they are like, “Yeah, I agree with,” or, “I like that.”

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Make a Connection With People

A couple of other things. We’ve adopted, and what’s  great about the way we’ve adopted … is we’ve adopted both domestically and internationally. Can you believe there’s actually a divide? There are people who adopts domestically or who don’t adopt.

It’s usually people who don’t adopt that just lambast people who adopt internationally because they’re like, “There are domestic children to adopt.” Yeah. Instead of saying, “Thank you for taking two orphans in this world and giving them a family,” they criticize just like that.

But then, there’s the other side, same thing, who would like never even consider adopting domestically.  Right, but we’ve done both, so we connect to both of those elements. We have traveled for 15 months in our RV with four boys, four cats, a dog, and us parents in a 30-foot motorhome. We did that for 15 months.

That’s another connection point, right? We love Disney. We go to Disney all the time. That’s another connection point. We love performing arts. We love New York City. We go to shows all the time. That’s another connection point.

These things that you share. My husband loves coffee. We love wine. We actually have a wine business, and we’re developing a bigger one, so we have that. That’s a passion for us. That’s my passion. It is not my business focus, but it’s a passion.

There’s that, so there’s all kinds of different things that you can have connections with with people. Reveal them, both positive and negative, good and bad. Don’t let people tell you what you should like and shouldn’t like, but definitely put your likes out there and what your dislikes are so that you can connect with people who’s similar as you.

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Featured Download


Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


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Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: Done, facebook for real estate, facebook lead generation

by Christina Ethridge Leave a Comment

Are you asking other real estate agents to “like” your Facebook business page? You’re killing your lead generation on Facebook if you are.


Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


Are you making this major mistake?

As agents, we tend to think that if we like each other’s Facebook business pages, we will close more deals, but this is false.

I see this all the time: real estate agents exchanging Facebook business page likes with one another.

Every time I see it, I just want to scream from the rooftops, “You’re killing your Facebook lead generation.”

  I just want to scream from the rooftops, “You’re killing your Facebook lead generation.” 

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The Wrong Page Likes Devalue Your Page

Disengaged or disinterested followers devalue your Facebook business page.

Business pages should be used as funnels for unmet prospects, and personal profiles should be used to cultivate relationships with people you have met.

But alas, we have this theoretical idea that — somehow, some way, in some form or another — if we go around patting each other’s backs on Facebook, it will bring more closings to the closing table.

When I do say something, I always get responses that seem to make sense — at least on the surface — but if anyone digs just a tiny bit below the surface, they fall apart.

Those responses include:

More exposure is good for my business.

I want to be available for referrals.

But a top agent I asked said to move all agents to my business page.

These are just a few of the plethora of reasons why real estate agents engage in “like” exchanges.

Let’s hit each one, shall we?

More exposure is good for my business

Really? How so? Can you track this statement? Can you back it with statistical data?

In my over 20 years in real estate, I have yet to get actual, statistical data from a single agent on this. They’ll spout its truth, but they don’t have any evidence to prove it.

You see, it’s just the old way of thinking that’s always been theoretical because it sounds right on the surface.

But the problem is, the statement is ambiguous. What constitutes exposure? What is the content? Who is the audience? What does “good” mean?

We know it takes seven to 13 touches before our message sinks in, and we’ve translated to mean that more exposure equals more business.

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Did You Know?
It takes seven to 13 touches before our message sinks in — but is all exposure good? 

Getting the Right Exposure

Even if it is true — does that mean all exposure is good?

Here’s where most agents fall by the wayside and tend to be more stubborn than realistic. To get the exposure theory to work for you, you must be exposing the right content to the right audience.

If exposure is good, it must be the right exposure — and the right exposure is a prospect who want to buy or sell. A real estate agent in another market is not that prospect.

Let’s look at this from another perspective — that of Facebook. We’ve all heard that Facebook is now a pay-to-play platform. That means if you are a business and you want to make sales, you are going to have to invest in the platform — both in time and money.

You aren’t going to get a whole lot of focused, free exposure anymore. In other words, all this time you are spending getting your colleagues around the country to like your business page is not helping you at all in any way, shape or form. Period.

You’ve got to have your Facebook business page set up for real estate lead generation — not for exposure — and you’ve got to be engaging in lead generation-focused activities.

In fact, if you’ve been collecting likes that aren’t interested in your content, you’ve devalued your Facebook business page — drastically.

And you’ve locked yourself into a box — a box that you’ll be constantly working to get out of (which is futile), once you realize you could be getting actual leads if you understood how Facebook works.

I want to be available for referrals.

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Provide Value and Service to Your Prospects

I have never understood why real estate agents spend more time focusing on staying connected with colleagues and hoping to get potential referrals than they do on consistently exposing their services to real prospects.

Why on earth are we spending 80 percent of our energy connecting with sources who will bring in less than 5 percent of our closings in any given year? Why, indeed.

I also question how adding a real estate agent to your real estate business page — a page that you are (hopefully) providing valuable, relevant content on, for your particular target market — is going to make you available for referrals from agents all over.

First of all, the page isn’t relevant to the agent in another market, so they aren’t going to stay involved in your page.

Their disengagement means anything you post won’t be showing up in their Facebook news feed, which ultimately defeats your intended purpose — referrals from said agent.

There are much better ways to stay connected with colleagues around the country — ways that will give you more referrals.

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How Facebook Penalizes Your Page

Here’s another thing: The more disengaged your page “likes” are, the more Facebook penalizes you and makes it even harder for you to get your content into the news feeds of your page fans who are real prospects. It’s all part of the algorithm.

 The more disengaged your page likes are, the more Facebook penalizes you. 

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Running Ads is Going to Cost You More

Last, but not least, when it comes time to “pay to play” — otherwise known as running ads — you are going to be wasting a whole lot of money putting ads in front of people who will never use your services.

Would you add colleagues from around the country to your snail-mail campaigns focused toward homebuyers or sellers in your local market?

If you would, you’re wasting copious amounts of money on something that will never give you a return (and if it does it’s a crazy, ridiculously small return) and need some serious targeting and marketing help.

But a top agent I asked said to move all agents to my business page.

This one kills me. Agents go to conferences and conventions and revere the agents who are on these panels. They revere them because they are making the big bucks doing a trillion and one transactions each year.

Although I firmly believe in doing what is working and not reinventing the wheel, you’ve got to make sure that what is being touted as working is truly working.

Without getting into specifics, my team has closed more transactions than 99 percent of the agents on these top agent panels.

One thing I excel at is lead generation and conversion, and I’m a tyrant when it comes to digging deep and doing what actually works. We look at statistical, empirical data — not anecdotal gut feelings.

These agents have no idea how to use Facebook. They don’t know how to generate real estate leads from their Facebook business pages, nor do they understand how to cultivate more referrals from colleagues around the country using Facebook.

If they did, they would know that their business pages are funnels for unmet prospects, and their personal profiles are cultivators for “met” relationships.

Key Point
Business pages are funnels for unmet prospects; personal profiles are for met relationships.

In other words, connect with colleagues on your personal profile and use lists to keep them organized. Use your Facebook business page to drive leads into your capture points.

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So what should you stop doing?

You must (I can’t emphasize must enough) stop exchanging Facebook business page likes with your colleagues.

If you want to grow your business, and you wish to take advantage of the No. 1 lead generation resource available to you today, then you’ve got to take the time to understand how Facebook works for real estate lead generation.

There is more to Facebook lead generation than just stopping this practice, but this is the biggest mistake I see agents making. And I thought it’s about time I started addressing it. I even go as far as to say that asking people to like your page is a big fat no-no.

As I was writing this article, I realized I was making one big assumption about you — that the reason you are using Facebook is because you want to close more transactions.

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Don’t Follow The Crowd

If that is your goal — then you need to think about and analyze what you are doing on Facebook. Don’t just follow the crowd because, quite frankly, the crowd doesn’t know what it is doing.

 Don’t just follow the crowd because, quite frankly, the crowd doesn’t know what it is doing. 

My question for you is: Have you been out there exchanging page likes with other agents? Are you going to change that and do something that works to bring more closings to the table? Do you disagree?

If so, please share with me why — and as you now know, I like real data behind statements, not feel-good anecdotal sharing of gut beliefs.

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Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


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Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: Done, facebook for real estate, facebook page setup

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