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

[BREAKING NEWS]

As of TODAY you can no longer post to your personal profile using a 3rd party tool… so if you’ve been using a vendor to post real estate stuff to your personal profile… that has been officially nixed by Facebook.

So… what are you to do? How do you use that content to bring in real estate leads? Should you do something else? If so, what and most importantly, how?

I’m going to WALK YOU THROUGH how to GET AROUND this issue – right now in this post.

As of August 1st, 2018, you can no longer use a 3rd party tool to post to your personal profile.

So if you have been using something like any of  the normal tools, like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Smarter Queue, Edgar, etc. and you’re posting to your personal profile, if you have been using real estate directory, Back At You Media, any of the real estate vendors and your posting to your personal profile, you can no longer do that as of today.

No more,so what do you do?  What are we going to do? What are we going to change? How are we going to get around that thing that Facebook nixed?

If you can’t post to your personal profile with these automatic tools you’ve been using, you can’t drum up business from people you already know.

What are you going to do?  

How are you going to use to Facebook?

That is what we’re going to talk about today.

So today starts off with a bang, because Facebook gave us a huge, wonderful thing for us to talk about and walk through today.  

Let me start by explaining this real quick.

First of all there are two pieces where you can use tools or where you could use tools like Real Estate Directory or Back at You Media or I know there are other real estate specific vendor tools that let you put or post some pictures they have, etc. but also the non-real estate tools, like Edgar, Hootsuite, SmarterQueue, TweetDeck or whatever, of those tools you can no longer use to post to your personal profile.

 Let me be very clear. PERSONAL PROFILE. 

You can still use the tools to post to your business page.

These tools, however, are no longer available on your personal profile.

There two parts to this.

I am excited this is happening in one way because I got tired of seeing all of those real estate provided post on personal profiles because guys the rules and terms of service of using Facebook are really clear.

You are not allowed to use your personal profile for commercial gain. There are ways around it and you can tweak it, but using that automated content…hmm… not so much and quite frankly, it really wasn’t working.

I mean sometimes you would have a post that would work and sometimes you wouldn’t, but profiles can’t happen anymore, pages you’re good to go!

Those tools are meant to leverage your time for your business page. You personal profile quite frankly are supposed to be you, kind of in the moment.

It’s a virtual representation of you, so we’re going to talk a little bit today about how to separate the two and how to use those tools.

If you using Real Estate Directory or Back to You Media or your using Meet Edgar with the content we give inside of the Leads and Leverage membership, or using something else like HootSuite, Tweetdeck or Smarterqueue or any of those others for anything else you’re doing – when should you use them? How should you use them? Or how do you get your page to get the same amount of energy as your personal profile did?

If you want the Facebook page set-up checklist, download it here because what we’re going to talk about today is how to get your Facebook business page gap for you, how to take over where you can no longer use your personal profile to do this.

That checklist I have for you, that is for you to use to set up your page so that you get the same reactions, the same engagement so you get the same leverage you feel that you were getting on your profile.

So let’s go through all the questions!

Let me be really clear, you can no longer use these 3rd party tools, the tools that allow you to post out, schedule your post, like HootSuite, TweetDeck, SmarterQueue, Meet Edgar, all of those plus real estate specific ones like Real Estate Directory, Back At You Media and whatever ones that are specific, you can no longer use those tools on your personal profile. They are only to be used on your business page.

The first thing I know some of of you are like that’s the only way.  I’ve been posting to my personal profile and I schedule it out.

I am to going to tell you, you’re going to actually have to post to your personal profile, but here is the beauty of you personal profile just like we all have time where we want to be with people or we don’t want to be with people, there are times we feel like sharing what we’re doing and there are times we don’t feel like sharing what we’re doing, your personal profile is perfect for that.

I am on Facebook with you all the time, so you guys aren’t going to believe this but I am an introvert.

I get my energy from being alone. I cannot tell you, like I go through a day like this looking forward to 7:00 pm.

Do you know why?

7:00 pm is when I go into my sanctuary, my space, when I get my time. There are nights I don’t get that, but here’s the thing if I give people a whole lot, the last thing I am going to want to do is post on social media, because it still feeling like having to be in engaged in that.

How do you get your personal profile to work for you?

Well you start sharing things, as real estate agent, I am willing to bet you go out to something, a lunch, a dinner, an open house, a brokers open, a title company training, a conference, etc. I am willing to bet at least once or twice a week you go somewhere out in the community, check in – check in on Facebook wherever you are.

Share with them, if you’re at local business check-in. Use your personal profile to check in, this will keep you in engaged with people.

Share memes or inspirational quotes that you see on Facebook with your person crowd. Let people know what you’re doing and where you’re going with your personal crowd.

If you’re at little league, take a picture and share it, if you’re at a park and rec thing take a picture and share it, at a local gym, take a picture, it doesn’t have to be of you or a person, just take a picture and share it.  

Do that 2-4 times a week, so you can do that.  If you notice on my personal profile, www.facebook.com/christina.ethridge, you can go follow it, I have a lot of public post, I will share things I am passionate about, interested in,

I share pictures of one of my cats, it’s an ongoing joke because all he does every single morning, at the same exact time, goes to the window and sits there so it’s funny because people think he is statue.

I share those kind of things because I don’t have to talk, so if you’re more of an introvert there are lots of things you can do on your personal profile that will still engage people.

If you’re at a closing, don’t be salsey or braggy, just share that you’re at a closing. There is a real estate agent in our market who does a great job of it, she was at a closing at a title company that has very limited parking for people, they have parking reserved and she just just took a picture of that sign and said “I wish they had this everywhere!” The sign had the title company’s name on it, so that was a subtle hint as to where she was and why and also a subtle reminder of what she does.

Your posts are not meant to be canned crapped as I call it, it’s supposed to be in the moment, flexible. Okay?

On your business page, you need to go through the checklist first of all, but it should not be focused on you. Your business page should not be focused on you.  

Your business page needs to be focused on the consumer, what do they want? What are their needs? What are their passions? What are their desires? It’s not a billboard for you because quite frankly, nobody cares about your sales pitches, that’s why we don’t get activity on our business page.  

You need to use that checklist.

Go through that check list, and I’m actually going to be doing a #Live workshop, a brand new Facebook page strategy workshop and I will tell you more about it as I am on over the next few days.

Remember I will be #Live every single business day in August on my page LeadsandLeveage with Christina Ethridge.

I will be going over the entire checklist  but your strategy on your page, just to briefly go into this, the strategy on your page it’s about the consumer, not about you!

If you’re going to continue using the stuff from Real Estate Directory, Back to You Media, or stuff you have scheduled into HootSuite or anything like that you need to customize it to your consumer.

 This is important that you do that, because it’s about them, about their lifestyle, about their desires, when you can show that you can relate to them that’s when they start trusting you.  

That’s when they believe you when you tell them not to even look at the Zestimate from Zillow, because we all know they suck, the consumer may or may not know, but if you want them to listen to you and believe you and clearly implement or do what you say, then you have to give them a reason to trust you first.

That is the goal on your business page. The content you got, you can still use it for your business page, but please customize it. You need to, you need to invest time to do that.

Now, it is really important that you know if you just post stuff automatically to your business page and people are not reacting to it and you’re not getting the right people to engage with it Facebook won’t actually shut the page down, but if you’re filmlar with “ghosting” on Craigslist where you think something is published, but it’s not?

It’s a similar concept where they won’t push your page out organically, at all.

Additionally, if you run ads to promote your page and it’s a dud with people, with the consumer, Facebook is going to make it harder for you to get out, they will charge you more to get out into the algorithm, because people aren’t responding to your page.

You really, really need to make sure your page is really catered to engaging with the consumer.

Which is why you really want it to be about them, the lifestyle they like.

Does it include HootSuite?

Yes, it does include all 3rd party tools, it’s officially turned off.

You have seen email or notifications from the vendors you’re using. I believe it was turned off yesterday or the day before where you could no longer schedule anymore.

I use Meet Edgar, for all my business page stuff and I don’t actually use it for my personal profile, I never have, but I did see where that was all turned off.

How Do I Use My Personal Profile?

Here’s the thing, your personal profile is for you to be connected with people you already know.

If you’re on PTA or go to a lot of local businesses or a member of chamber of commerce, anything like that then you need to be connected with these people on your personal profile.

That is key.

These are people you know or you’ve met at least once in real life, IRL people, so you want to continue that relationship with them These people you know, who you’re already engaged with.

How Do I Use My Business Page?

Your business page is to reach people you’ve never met or you may never get to meet any other way, That’s what the business page is for.

Some people may come over you already know, click on it and stuff so you may not need to post the same stuff in both places etc, but when you have something on your business page and you do want to share it on occasion, once a week, maybe to your personal profile no matter how many real estate agents I am connected with on my personal profile I have mine open so people can follow me.

I do it have it that whenever I want to post something private to my friends only, I can do that. No matter how many real estate agents follow me on my personal profile I hardly ever, maybe twice a year I actually share things from my business to my personal profile.

Even though, there are many people I could target on there, it is my personal page, it’s about me as a person.

And yeah, I am passionate about Leads and Leverage with Christina Ethridge and helping you create more time, make more money and enjoy the journey, but those are not the only pieces of me.

I am wife, I love my husband, I am a Mom, I love my kids, I am a daughter and sister, I have fur babies, I go to shows, I love to travel. All of those are all pieces of me as well.

When you are using your personal profile and it just looks like you have Realtor logo as your picture and your header, people know right away you’re using it only for business.

They aren’t interested, they want to know you. They want to connect with you.

There is a reason I connect with certain people on Facebook because I am curious about their life. I am curious what they’re doing. I am curious about their passions. I am curious about their interest.

Things like that, I do not want to be sold to and neither does anybody else for you guys, so be aware of that.

There is a fine line and there are ways to do it. I shared different random things I have accomplished, for me usually Leads and Leverage members end up tagging my personal profile in that way, I get some business on my page. It’s all fun stuff, it’s the more relational stuff that’s on there.

Again there are ways to use your profile for content. They way Facebook has been acting lately I am actually surprised they haven’t done it sooner.

It was, and has been for awhile now, really annoying, I would not connect with real estate agents because all they pushed out on their personal profile was real estate agent directory stuff. I would see the same exact post, all over in my fed, so I would just stop.

What was the point in this? They think it’s a tool they pay for so it will get them business. It doesn’t always get you business.

If I Place Ads on my Business Page Do They Automatically Post on my Personal Profile?

It does not post on your personal profile. What you are seeing is your own ad in your newsfeed. Your newsfeed is a compilation of everything you’re clicking-thru,but if you put an ad, an actual ad on your business page, like you’re going into ads manager and creating an ad on your business page, and you’re seeing it in your newsfeed, it is not on your personal profile.

Just make sure you know personal profile vs.business page. You need different content for each one, if you want the page setup checklist, let me know below.  

Stay on Top of the Facebook Algorithm Changes

If you want to be sure you do not get hit by one of these algorithm changes because quite frankly every single month for the last 6-8 months there have been multiple algorithm shifts and changes and you want to be sure that you do not get blindsided by these, you NEED to join us inside of Leads and Leverage.

If you want to ensure you are always ahead of the game, come on in! All videos and workshops that I do are available inside the membership for replay. There is a lot in there, how to set up your page, your posting content, content strategy, everything, it’s an entire process all in there.

Right now, you’ve got to put it all on your business page and if your business page isn’t set up correctly it’s just going to die so get the checklist. It will be a waste of your time and energy if it’s not set up right.

Featured Download:

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

Want to pay LESS for your Facebook ads and get MORE results?

Facebook ad costs keep going up (and they’re just going to get higher and higher as more people move to using Facebook ads)… HOWEVER, you can hack your way to lower ad costs

Make sure your Facebook business page is SET UP for lead generation… for ad conversion.

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

Today I wanted to dive into something that we’re noticing as ad-buyers, and that you may not really be noticing. You may not be putting enough money into Facebook ads to truly notice this, however, it’s happening.

What’s going on is ad costs are going up, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today.

I’m going to give you a few hacks you can use to lower your ad costs, because there are some tips you can definitely use that will lower your ad costs and increase your conversions, getting more people to respond to your ad.  

Like I said, basically we are going to talk about ad costs. I’ve seen a lot of members talk about this, “Ad costs are expensive, it’s costing me this much for page like, or this much for an opt-in.” We are always on the hunt to try to lower our ad costs, absolutely, absolutely we want to do that.

But that comes from all the different tweaks you can do, so here’s why this is important.

If you already have what you think is a pretty good ad cost, say it’s costing you $2 to get opt-ins, where people actually opt-in with your email address, and you are like “You know what, I brought that down for $4,” here’s the thing. For every tweak that you do to it, you can lower as much as possible and, you know, you’ll lower it to a point where it’s not possible to lower it anymore.  

But here’s the other thing, here’s what is coming, and I’ve shared this before, but right now, $80 billion dollars is being put into TV commercials, and print advertising, by the big guys.

Right now, that is how much they are putting into TV commercials, and print advertising. No one is watching TV commercials, so when they realize what they are doing is no longer working for them, they are going to shift their ad budgets, their ad costs.

And guess where they will shift them too? They are going to shift them to where the eyeballs are! And since Facebook has more active users then Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp combined, that’s where they are going to put their ad costs, which means that ad costs for you, as a real estate agent in small town USA, or wherever you are, are going to go up.

So, what can you do to hack it? What can you do to make sure you are not negatively affected? We are all going to have rising ad costs, but how can you avoid the extremes?

Start With the Basics!

The first thing I’m going to start with is the very basics. The very basics have to do with having your Facebook page set up that in a way, in a sense, hacks the algorithm.

I say “hacks” loosely, because basically you are setting it up in a way that people respond to, that consumers respond to, and they like it.

There are actually three main pieces from it, and if you want the entire checklist, it is free and there is a link up under the video. Use that link to opt-in to the full checklist,

I go through everything, because everything you do, every tweak you make, changes your result and gives you higher results while lowering your ad costs.

I’m going to give you the three top ones that are the most important, especially when you are running ads, even on your posts that you are doing.

Let’s do this! The top three pieces, and if you want all of them so that you can do as much as possible, get the checklist. It is free! I just ask for your email so that I can email you your checklist.

The checklist is free! And I’m not selling you anything with the checklist, so you’re good, just do that.

The first thing is, this is the hardest, I really think this is the hardest, because we believe so much in why we do this.

The “why” we believe in this is actually flawed, and I’m going to explain this.

How to Set-up Your Facebook Business Page Name

 Your Facebook business page name should not be your name. It should not be “homes for sale,” it should not be your team name, your brokerage name, no. It’s shouldn’t.  

Here’s why. There’s a couple reasons actually and this is number one.

If you put “Jane Doe Realtor” as your page name, first of all, if you ever get married or divorced, “Jane Doe Realtor- Cowell-Baker,” let’s just say that. If you ever get married or divorced, or you change companies, or your broker dies and the brokerage goes to a different franchise,

Or what if your broker sells to a different franchise, or your broker goes bankrupt and the broker goes to a different franchise- and I’m just gonna let you know that two out of those three things have happened to us in our whole life, our whole business time.

If any of those things happen, marriage, divorce, change name, whatever, its next to impossible to get your Facebook name changed through Facebook.

So when you’re investing time and money and other resources into your page, and you can’t change the name, you have to abandon it, and that sucks.

For example, if you were with RE/MAX, we were with RE/MAX, and we had set everything up so that the only thing, if we would ever have to change, the only thing that we would ever have to do anywhere, is change the logo everywhere and change the brokerage name.

We did not have it in our domain, we did not have it, at the time, in our Facebook page, we didn’t have a Facebook page for the business at this time. This was back in 2004 that this happened, or 2001, somewhere in the early 2000’s before Facebook.

Our broker decided to partner with another two people, and to let the RE/MAX franchise go, and went with GAMC, and so that’s what happened and it was out of our control. We stayed with the same brokerage, we didn’t leave anything, but that changed.

Then, in 2009, when we were with GMAC, we saw this coming, I had already set everything up. Our page name was not related to our franchise, our website was not related to our franchise, nothing. Now we had all the disclosure’s everywhere,  however, we had it so I could change everything really easily.

And our broker, our brokerage, went bankrupt. Like literally, boom, bankrupt. And so by the next day, we were officially unlicensed, although we were.

You have to be with a broker, but although, we were prepared within 24 hours, we had our own brokerage up and running. We knew this was coming, so we had prepared.

But here’s the thing, a lot of people didn’t know it was coming. And nobody had Facebook pages back then. This was 2009, beginning of 2009, no one in our brokerage had Facebook pages, except us.

It’s almost impossible, even if, even there is a trick to changing your Facebook page name, even if you know that trick, you can get away with it once, maybe twice. And then it’s, no, you can’t.

So the key is that you do  not want to put something that could possibly change. Gosh, if you are in the business long enough, it’s going to change. Something’s going to happen, something’s going to change.

Even if you own your own brokerage, you still could sell it. You could decide to not have it, for whatever reason, just be aware of that. So that’s number one.

Your Page Needs to be Lifestyle Focused

Number two reason why your Facebook name should not be your own stuff, because no one gives a flying fig about you. If there are people that you do not know, which is why you have a Facebook business page, which is why you are out to meet your unmets, they don’t care about you.

They care about themselves, they care about their lives, they care about the lifestyle, they care about their dWreams. So when they see an ad, or a page that says “Jane Doe Realtor Coldwell-Banker” or they see RE/MAX or Century 21, when they see that, they are like, their first reaction is “I’m not going to respond to this, I’m going to hide the ad, they are just going to sell me, etc.”

In other words, your conversions suck. They suck because people are turned off. It’s not about them. It’s about you.

Your page needs to reflect their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, through the lifestyle. You need to be lifestyle focused, kind of  like doing a passion page.

REI has a camping page, they have a hiking page, they have a climbing page, they have a rowing page, they have all kinds of different pages around passions that people have.

You don’t want to have all kinds of different pages, you just want one, as a local real estate agent, you will want ONE real estate page.  

You want that page to revolve around people’s lifestyle. This is why you will see a lot of “homes and lifestyle,” or “living,” or “life in.” You want one key word.

No, “county” is not a keyword.

No “North Virginia” is not a keyword.

You need to narrow this down.

You need to have a page name that reflects the passion of the people you are trying to connect with.

I live in Idaho, so i might do “Idaho Homes and Lifestyle.” If you have ever been out here, this is a big state. I don’t care if I’m licensed in Idaho and I could potentially get the deal in Boise and I’m in Coeur D’Alene.

No, that’s eight hours away! Be realistic. Even from Coeur D’Alene to Sandpoint, that’s an hour away, I’m not gonna sell in Sandpoint. So there are some people that will. Focus on one town, focus it down, on “Coeur D’Alene Homes and Lifestyle,” “Dubuque Homes and Lifestyle,” even Phoenix might be too big, either go “Phoenix Metro” or name it the outlying areas.

That’s like a the big win, the big one, right there.

Your header photo! We are so excited to put “houses!” and “I’m a real estate agent!” and “buy from me!” and “Sell! Sell! Sell!” in our header photos.

That’s a freaking turn off to everybody. Nobody likes it. You know what they like? What they connect with in the header photo?

They connect with, a piece of architecture, a sculpture, an area view, something about the area.

You are trying to socially connect with people you do not know, about something that you have in common, and that is where you live. You need to reflect that.

Examples like that of our area here, it’s about the lakes. There is so much about the lifestyle here, the four season lifestyle, from hiking, to mountain biking, to skiing, jet skiing, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, it is about the lifestyle, the outdoor lifestyle here.  

One of the biggest things we were able to use was that I took some pictures of the lake, some of the best pictures that reflected what it’s like to live here. What is it like to live in your area?

What do you love? I mean, if you are in Philadelphia, the art museum steps.  I mean, hello, Philly is known for “Rocky” and for a whole lot of other things, and the oldest road in America, things like that. I mean, that’s just Philadelphia example, wherever you are, what do you have?

Even here, I don’t have to use the lake. If I was trying to go for a crowd who had younger children, I would use the Mugsy and Millie thing, and if you have kids and know the stories, that’s great, the author lives here and has decorated mooses all over the place. They are really kinda cute, and they are iron sculpted moose. I mean, I would use that!

Find something that is related to your area and here’s a little side trick, a little bonus, if you don’t think that you take pictures well, because your photo really has to be well taken.

You have to own it, you take it or you buy it. You do not borrow it. You do not pull it off Google. This is a business so be ethical.

Stop breaking the rules, stop using other people’s pictures. If they give you permission to use their photo, get it in writing.

So here’s what you do. Hire a high school photographer to go out and take 100, 200 pictures for you. Pay him a $100. $200, whatever it is. Have them take a ton of pictures. Tell them all the different areas that you want them to go take pictures in, and then get the use of some of those pictures and use some of those.

So number one is your page name, number two is your header photo,

Your Profile Photo

The number three one, this is another hard one for real estate agents, like harder than I thought.

For that page photo, you know, the headshot, the profile piece of that, the profile photo of your business page, so many of us want to use our logo, or our professional headshot.

 There is nothing more of a turn off for a business page that is about passion, that’s about a lifestyle, then to see a logo. 

People know immediately, its a sell. They know immediately, the feel immediately, that they are going to be sold to.

You don’t want that.

If you have your professional headshot on there, again, same thing. You are trying to connect with people on a social connection basis on here.  

This is Facebook we are talking about here. This is Facebook- when you are out volunteering for the Humane Society or for Habitat for Humanity, or even chamber events, do you always stand in your professional headshot pose?

No! You are a real person, you feel real, you look real, be real in that little profile photo. I’m talking about the business page, be real in it, take selfies!

And I know that a lot of you struggle with this, you do, and I know this because my members brought it to my attention. I did not realize how big of a struggle this was until they did. Guys, its a selfie. Take your phone, and play with selfies.

And for all you ladies that are, you know, really worried about looking heavy in your selfies, etc, in your selfie photo, let me do you a favor, I don’t even think you can see this.

Do not take a selfie where your nose is in the middle of the picture. You don’t want the camera at the same level as your face, you don’t want it below your face, or you are going to look alot heavier.

You want it at an angle, right at about your forehead. That’s where you want it. A little bit of an angle, right at your forehead. That will take the best pictures.

Play around with the light. Take a lot of selfies, you can always delete them. Take a lot of selfies. You want selfies as your business page profile pictures, because you want people to connect and resonate with you.

Stop being afraid to do it, stop thinking it needs to be professional, it doesn’t.

Your page name, header picture, profile photo. If those three things are changed, your ad costs will go down, your ad conversions will go up. After that, I guarantee it will, it happens all the time and I have seen it hundreds of times.

Just those three things.

There are more. There’s more things, get the checklist. Just download it, it’s free. I ask you for your email and then email you the checklist/

It’s a couple pages long, there’s several other areas that you can go in, that each help your conversions, help your page, help your everything. So go ahead and do that.

Let me know! If you have made these changes and have seen real results immediately. would you please comment below?

I want you to be able to get Facebook to work for you. It will work using those three things I just talked about today.

Those will change those results on Facebook, almost immediately

Featured Download:

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