facebook marketing

Do you approach Facebook real estate lead generation strategically or tactically? Throw away the tactics and focus on the right strategies today!

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

You need an implementation strategy

Do you approach Facebook lead generation tactically or strategically? When it comes to using Facebook for your real estate business, too many times real estate agents focus on tactics without having a strategy in place?.

We focus on things like:

Trying to increase your reach
Trying to find the perfect post that gets engagement
Trying to find the best ad to run
Trying to find the best time to post on your page
Trying to build a community on your page

Best ads, perfect post, best times and reach, these are all Facebook tactics. They are not a strategic plan. In fact, for most of these, they aren’t even a good tactic to use within a strategic plan.

They are tactics that are a useless waste of time and energy and result in little to nothing, most especially over the long term.

Best ads, perfect post, best times and reach are all Facebook tactics — not a strategic plan.

Here’s what I mean:

I see real estate agents asking for help with their social media strategy, and then the ensuing discussion revolves around when to post, how often to post, where to post, etc.

I see them focusing on comments, post likes and shares and getting frustrated when their posts aren’t getting the engagement and reach reach they think they should be.

Stop making noise, start building a business.

I find them focusing on creating an ad they can run for a few days to bring in leads, only to end up frustrated when they get likes on their ad, but no viable leads.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. – Sun Tzu

When you focus on tactics without a strategy, you are creating noise, throwing away money and wasting your time. It truly is “the noise before defeat.”

In regards to business, too many times people focus on tactics without having a proper overall strategy in place. Utilizing SEO, social media or blogging are all tactics. These tactics can be extremely valuable when in the hands of the right craftsman, but not so effective without an overall strategy behind them. – David Brim

So before you jump on the industry bandwagon of using Facebook for real estate lead generation, get yourself a strategy first, not just an “I want leads” thought, but a real strategy. An implementation strategy.

You need to know how Facebook lead generation is going to fit in to your overall lead generation strategy for your real estate business.

A strategy has tactics involved, very specific tactics, strategically used to move you forward to your end goal.

Develop this strategic plan, and you’ll get leads from Facebook.

To develop a strategy, you need to know some specifics first:

Who you are going to target: And no, focusing on “everyone” because you “just never know” doesn’t work.

What you are going to say to them: You need to speak in their language, not the language of the industry.

What you want them to do: Yes, you’ve got to guide them, very specifically, to and through the step you want them to take.

When you are going to reach them: This isn’t just about running an ad on the weekends versus weekdays. It’s about knowing the season of life they are in, the season of the year it is, etc.

Where you want them to go:

You need to have a specific direction they should go.

Why you are doing this: If all you think about is “I want leads,” you’re going to fail. It’s much more than that.

Why they would want to do it: Yes, you’ve got to have a reason that resonates.

And finally, you get into the how (which is where most real estate agents start and why most agents fail); how do you implement your strategy?

This is where some of the tactics being thrown about come into play.

A tactic is only as good as the strategy behind it. Without a strategy, tactics are worthless.

Want more? Check out episode No. 52 of The #RIBBIT Show. I dive into this in the eight minute episode.

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

by Christina Ethridge Leave a Comment

Stop making phone calls! Do these 4 things today that will double your real estate business this year (and quadruple it next year)

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

I wrote this training article for you because I read something in a Facebook group that triggered this soapbox.

I’ve given you very solid, tangible, takeaways that you can implement immediately, but I also know that you need to know why I’ve done this. So hold on to something — ’cause here I go.

In one of the plethora of Facebook groups that are popular with real estate agents, someone recently said (and I quote)

It takes about 300 calls per day to get a listing, but if you don’t do that you get no listings. In any case, the personal contact always is the best way to go.

I’ll have to admit, no matter how many times I hear agents talk like this, no matter how many times I see this kind of arrogance, no matter how many times I listen to this fixed mindset — I still feel shocked.

Shocked that someone actually believes what is coming out of their mouth.

Shocked that someone is spouting out this nonsense expecting others to adhere to it and yet, doesn’t adhere to it themselves (because let’s face it, this kind of advice always comes from agents who don’t have enough transactions under their belt to substantiate their belief, mindset or advice).

I just have to shake my head when real estate agents start spouting this nonsense. Nonsense they act like this is the only way to build your real estate business — the one way to get listings.

And the crazy part is, they fiercely protect this fixed mindset. Fiercely! They insist there is no other way to do it.

Tip #1

Get out of a fixed mindset and jump into a growth mindset. There are better ways to lead generate, despite what our industry is focused on teaching.

The kicker: They say these things as absolutes. Absolutely stating that it absolutely always works. That it’s absolutely the only way. They’ve created boxed-in ideas about how to get listings and what personal contact is.

Forget cold-calling; build personal relationships

The irony in this is that they think cold-calling is personal contact and that it builds know, like and trust relationships.

Let’s face it. They are delusional.

Cold calling for listings is not a personal contact.

This mindset is dangerous.

It’s dangerous because its singular goal is to make sure that no one else transcends beyond them, that no one else does something better, in a new way, in a more effective way.

It’s so hardcore, and its influence so strong, that our entire real estate industry is affected by it. This mindset shows people that we are the smarmy salespeople with crappy reputations that they already mostly believe.

Come on, a cold call is a personal contact? Cold calling is the only way to get listings?

I’ve never made a cold call in my life, and guess what — I’ve taken my unfair share of listings.

The thing about this mindset is that it’s not scalable (purposefully not scalable), and it’s simply not true.

You only have so much time, and you have to trade time for each phone call.

If you do 300 phone calls a week, that means you would potentially take 52 listings per year.

Unless you can invent more time, you’ll be stuck at taking 52 listings each year. You won’t ever grow beyond that.

Cold calling isn’t scaleable — unless you can invent more time.

And what are you going to do? Just go through the phone book making phone calls? Really? How are you going to reach the households that haven’t had a landline in more than 15 years?

Tip #2

Rethink what personal contact is, and isn’t, and leverage it to build your real estate business.

We haven’t had a landline in 15 years, and most of our circle of friends hasn’t, either. And we are in that group of buyers and sellers that most people want.

The move-up-to-their-largest-home group. The group that has both a sell and a buy — at a price point that is statistically double and triple the area average home price.

Are you willing to build your business on a fixed mindset that not only is a ridiculous one but is also quickly disappearing in its ability to be used?

Build a scalable business

Yes, I know real estate agents that do this. But they never reach leverage. They never build upon previous actions they take.

When they are calling 300 new people every single week, even if they repeat through their lists every quarter, they aren’t actually building any relationships.

Their one sole focus is: Are you ready to sell? That’s it. They have no connection with the prospects for any other reasons.

And, the prospects have zero connection with them, which means zero loyalty — which means they’ve still got to convert the prospect over and over again.

During each phone call, at each appointment, the prospect has zero reasons to trust them.

This means that every single month they start back at zero. They aren’t looking for stages of the homeownership journey; they are looking for the close. That’s it. That’s an awful lot of work that never ends.

Why on earth would you get into real estate with the potential freedom, flexibility and awesome financial future to treat it like a non-renewable resource? This isn’t building a business; it’s being controlled by the business.

Tip #3

Start your business with the end in mind. Think “scale” in the beginning before it becomes nearly impossible to actually scale.

If you aren’t thinking scale now, when you first begin, you’ll struggle with scaling in the future. Seriously — most agents just think “Oh, I’ll hire someone from overseas as a virtual assistant to call all my leads and help me cherry-pick the ones most likely to take action right now.”

If you aren’t thinking scale when you first begin, you’ll struggle with scaling in the future.

Seriously? Don’t get caught up in the idea of using dialer services (or outsourcing to an overseas VA). You’ve still got to trade time for the phone calls, and it’s still focused on closing the immediate deal rather than on helping consumers through the journey and subsequently closing multiple deals.

I’d be willing to bet that the number of people who are turned off by the dialer services and broken English cold calls are infinitely more than the number of people who agree to an in-person appointment.

Again, a smarmy salesperson shines brightly in this case. Really? You care so little about the people you want to work with that you’ll toss aside any opportunity to build a tribe of people who are wild and crazy about you, just so that you can forever cold call. Forever? You will never truly scale this.

Let’s talk about that for a minute. When I say “scale” I don’t mean “just acquire more random leads and hire VAs to help convert them.” That is one type of scaling, not a particularly efficient type, but it’s still one type of scaling.

And really, it’s not scaling because you have to have a VA for every X amount of leads that come in.

Which means the more leads you have, the more VAs you have. And the more VAs you have, the more people you have to manage or pay others to manage. In other words, having more people does not equal scale; it just equals more people (and more money spent).

Don’t focus on vanity metrics

You know, the whole “my team is 24 people” bragaliciousness that we love to spout. If you can do double, triple, quadruple the business with a team one-quarter of the size and not be stressed and still have a lovely life, why would you focus on vanity metrics?

When I’m talking scale, I’m talking about the ability to scale your income producing time and efforts that create and build know, like and trust relationships.

Wouldn’t you rather bring on more buyer agents because every other phone call is a buyer that is ready and determined to work with you or your team?

Wouldn’t you rather bring on a listing coordinator (or three) because every other phone call is a seller who is asking you to come out and list their home? It would save you the time of multiple prospective listing appointments.

Don’t get caught up in the idea of using dialer services or outsourcing VA’s.

I know that I’d much rather outsource paperwork, signs, lockboxes, photography, etc., than outsource building relationships. And I also know that relationships are easily scalable, meaning, it’s just as easy and takes just as much time to create and build one relationship as it does to create and build 1,000 relationships when you know what you are doing.

It’s just as easy and takes just as much time to create and build one relationship as it does to create and build 1,000 relationships.

4 ways to create know, like and trust relationships

Guess what? Personal contact doesn’t just happen in face-to-face or phone-to-phone situations. In fact, personal contact happens in all mediums including:

1. Blog posts

Blog posts work well to create and build know, like and trust relationships. They are beautiful when it comes to creating a relationship in which the prospect simply connects with you and is ready to list their home.

They already know you. They already trust you.

However, putting up ghost-written, canned garbage isn’t going to help you. Not one bit. The consumer knows it’s ghost-written, canned garbage. They aren’t stupid. They know it’s monotone. They know it isn’t your voice. They know you aren’t having a conversation.

This is where we fail when it comes to blogging. We focus on keywords and SEO traffic, and that’s it. Flip that around and focus solely on solving the problems and giving value to your prospects.

You’ll build relationships and convert leads. You’ll also start driving the right, high-value traffic as opposed to every Tom, Dick or Harry doing searches for events in your area.

1. Email

Sending a real email, not the canned garbage we as real estate agents cling to so we don’t actually have to talk to anyone.

Not the canned garbage we use just to get the requisite number of touches in because, after all, a touch is all that’s needed, right? No!

You need to have a conversation. Again I say, stop touching your list and start having conversations with them.

Yes, you can scale this! Use an email marketing software, and have a conversation with your list at least once every week.

Twice a week is even better. And yes, these numbers are based on actual scientific evidence of billions of emails.

Yes, you can schedule these conversations. You don’t have to be sitting down at the computer every single week writing these emails, but you must be the one having the conversation.

You can not outsource relationship building. Don’t mix it up touches with building relationships.

3. Video

Yup, video. With the advent of live streaming on just about every major social media channel and people who are flocking to watch live streams, you have got to be doing video in some fashion. Live streaming makes it insanely easy.

But (there is always a but with me, isn’t there?), the thing is, it’s not about live streaming your open houses (though you can), and it’s not about live streaming marketing stats (though you can).

It’s about being available and authentic — a bit raw, in fact. It’s about getting on and solving problems for people — for your prospects.

When you start showing your expertise, you become the expert. And most importantly, you become trusted, approachable and relied upon.

When you stop pitching you, your services and your listings and start helping, your results will be dramatic. Your tribe will become unstoppable.

<span style=”background-color: yellow; font-size: large;”><b>Live streaming makes creating video content insanely easy.</b></span>

4. Repurpose

And guess what the best part of all of this is? Each of these three things is repurposed. What do I mean?

Start with video. Do a live stream on a topic that is close to your prospects’ heart. Help them. Dive deep with them. Give them the answers and resources they need to overcome the obstacle.

Then, run that live stream replay as a Facebook ad to your page fans (remember, your page likes must be highly targeted, none of this ridiculous ask-everyone-on-planet-earth behavior that we tend to dwell on in our industry).

Then, get that live stream transcribed. Use a source such as SpeechPad.com to transcribe it. And then, edit that transcription and set it up as a written blog post and go deeper on what you might have missed in the live stream.

Then, talk to your list via email and share the topic with them.

Drive them to your blog post (where, of course, you are pixeling that traffic so you can later run Facebook ads to them) where you help them in the blog post and offer a “content upgrade” that allows them to download a checklist, template or something that congruent with what you just helped them with.

Then, run a Facebook ad to everyone who visited your blog post and share the live stream with them so they can get more information, via a different medium, on the topic.

Then, run Facebook ads to cold (but highly targeted) traffic driving them to that valuable blog post, where everything is repeated.

And, for an added boost, upload that Facebook live stream to YouTube and optimize it, so you drive traffic back to the epic blog post you created for them.

So in essence, while you are creating the content, you are simultaneously leveraging the content. When you do the live stream first, you set the ball into motion.

One more crucial note

Your lead generation foundation on Facebook must be built, and built well. This means that your Facebook page likes must be highly targeted page likes — they can not be colleagues from around the country.

They must be people in your area who are most likely to use your services, which means you have to build a solid Facebook page like tribe before you can truly leverage this.

Why? Because your Facebook live streams are pushed out to your page likes and bring them in to connect with you while you are live.

And, you must be continuously building that tribe. In other words, the first, most important Facebook ad you should be running — and never stopping — is your page-like audience ad. However, you don’t want to run Facebook page like ads until your page is set up for leverage.

Featured Download:

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

by Christina Ethridge Leave a Comment

Which works better for getting real estate leads.?…. your Facebook personal profile or a Facebook business page?

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

Today, I’m going to talk to you about something that is still going on. I started writing about this and teaching about this five years ago. Not kidding. Five years ago in September I wrote a post about your Facebook personal profile versus your business page.

Which one works better?

Which one should you be using?

Which one gets you more leads?

Guess what? This is still something that you guys are struggling with today. We’re going to talk about that today. Which one is actually going to help you build your business better? Is there one that’s better than the other, etc.

If you’re using a business page or a personal profile for your business or both, tell me about that.

And of course I’m giving away the Facebook page set up checklist so you can go ahead and request that right now.. But let’s go ahead and talk about this a little bit.

I’ve seen agents say things like, “You know what? I actually get more leads or more engagement and more reach, or whatever the heck on my personal profile.”

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Your Personal Profile Is Not Your Page

Please note it is a profile. It is not a page. When you say the word page, people think you’re talking about like a business page. It is your profile. It is about you as an individual.

So our profile is really great for people that we already know. That’s how we use … Our profile is an extension of us. So it’s personal. It’s meant for going deeper with people that you already know. It’s meant for sharing your check ins around town, your zany personality, your crazy passions about things.

The fact that you went and saw The Avengers yesterday. I did that. My husband actually tagged me in that post, but it’s meant for that kind of personal stuff. It’s meant for actually taking pictures of your food. I know people are like, don’t want to do that, but that’s what it’s meant for.

So it is meant for everything personal. It’s meant to share stuff that’s personal about you, etc. Here’s the piece right if you do it right way, without the smarmy pushing, stop selling on it because two things.

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Tip #!

Number one, if you do it right, if you use your personal profile the right way, you’re going to get business from it. If you’re not getting business from your personal profile, you’re not doing it right. You’re not engaged with people. You’re not using it as an extension of yourself.

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Tip #2

Two: if you’re pushing sales on it, you’re breaking Facebook terms of service, and I know there’s a lot of people were like, “I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m getting away with it. So and so’s getting away with it, blah, blah, blah.”

Just know Facebook is coming after you, because they have Facebook business pages for a reason. They want our profiles to be personal. They want our business pages to be whatever we want them to be, but so that we can run ads, so just know that.

Know that if you’re building your real estate, AKA your real estate business on your personal profile and you’re breaking Facebook’s terms of service, it’s going to actually hurt you in the long run, in a big way, because you’ll be spending all this time and money and energy and getting nothing from it, so you should be getting leads.

Not just leads, but you should be developing relationships and going deeper with people on your personal profile. Period. Plain and simple. If you are not, number one, you’re either not connected to enough people that you know.

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Tip #3

Number three, you’re probably not actually revealing who you are or doing anything on it. You’ve just got the profile sitting out there and it’s not doing anything. Guys, this is kind of a no brainer to use. Your personal profile is one of those. It’s your no brainer, it’s where you’re … it’s your networking event.

It’s like going to a BNI event only it’s better, because you’re involved in people’s lives and you’re having conversations with people on it.

So you want to make sure that you are absolutely sharing. Share that you’re at different events, but don’t share it from a business-y perspective.

Share it from a … I don’t know. Let’s give an example here on your personal profile. If you’re at a real estate conference, let’s say you go to a RE/MAX convention or Keller/Williams family reunion or Coldwell Banker convention or whatever, and you’re at the convention, you’re at the conference and you kind of want to show people that you’re here, you’re expanding your knowledge, you’re getting better, but you don’t want to say it like that, because people don’t care about that.

What you could do is just say … say something more along the lines of, “Hey, I’m a Realtor and I go to these conferences. What’s your industry? And do you go to conferences too?”

That’s a way to share that. Share the adventures that you’re having while you’re at the conference. Share the different things you’re doing. If you’re trying new food … A lot of you know one of my favorite things is sushi and wine. So every time I go anywhere, I’m always looking for good wine tastings and I’m always looking for good sushi. So I share that, you know?

Why are you in Phoenix, Christina? Oh, I’m here for a conference on XYZ. But because they’re talking to me because I found a sushi place that I like. So you’re making connections on your personal profile with people through connections you have in common.

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Your Personal Profile Is Meant For People You Already Know

That’s what your personal profile is. It is not direct business. It is indirect business. It is building relationships with people in a way that you already know. Your profile has meant for people that you already know.

Here’s a few things about your profile. It is not indexable. What do I mean? It means that Google is not going to index it. They’re not going to spider, they’re not going to rub out like they do your website.

They’re not going to index your personal profile, so if people are doing searches on Google, they’re not going to find your personal profile through Google, okay, through any keyword searches or anything like that.

You’re not able to leverage any audiences or any ability to advertise using your personal profile. You have to have a business page to do this. You have to have a business page to be indexable.

So in other words, if you want to target ads to anybody who’s commented on any of your posts or watched any of your videos, you cannot do that if you’re doing it all on your personal profile.

Those are audiences that are really great to target through retargeting, so that’s really great.

Also, your profile requires that you actually know people before you connect with them, and here’s what I mean by that because I realize I am connected with people that I’ve never met in real life. However, there is a connection with them already. They’re requesting to be my friend or I’m requesting to be their friend because of a connection that we already have.

In other words, we already know about each other. So in some way, whether it’s because I attended a conference like they did or I met them here locally or they’re in a show that I’ve gone to because that’s, that’s another side passion, performing arts, or I met them at a wine tasting, you know, somehow I have a connection with them.

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It’s A One on One Personal Connection

Okay, so I am limited on my personal profile by my own personal connections made and like literally it’s a one on one or this person introduces me to this person.

It is a one on one slow progress. It’s also where people see parts of your life, a lot more of your life, etc. and you should let them in, but that’s the difference. That’s a profile versus a page.

Now a page. The page is … number one, it’s indexable. Okay, that’s absolutely. If people Google your business, they’re going to find your page. If they Google different keywords that you’re using through posts and updates on your page and you’re interacting that with your website, guess what? You’re going to pop up at the top of Google.

You are able to advertise. You can advertise to all of the different audiences. You can advertise to all kinds of different people. You can target people who have visited your website, target people who have emailed, like giving you their email address, et cetera.

You can do all kinds of targeting that way and you want that leverage. It’s a powerful, powerful leverage, so you’re going to need a business page. Also, business pages don’t require any type of connection. You don’t have to know them from Adam.

In fact, if you want to grow your business, if you want to physically grow your business and you want to scale and you want to get bigger, you must have a business page. A Facebook business page.

Your personal profile will keep you going. It’s the referral-only type thing. Your business page expands your sphere. It gets more people into your pipeline that would never have gotten into your pipeline otherwise. So if you want to scale your business, absolutely you have to have a Facebook business page. It’s that simple. I mean, the difference is that simple.

Your Business Page

So here’s the thing, your business page? It’s networking. It’s a way of networking and how to meet more people. It’s really powerful. But here’s where a lot of agents are like, “Well, okay. I don’t want to manage both. I don’t want to have to put stuff on both profile and page.” Well, you’re going to have to do that. You’re just going to have to get over that.

But here’s the other thing, what you do on your page, you do want to share lots of things about the lifestyle in your area, on your page.

You can also tag your personal profile in your page posts, so you get exposure on both.

You can take up a page post and share to your personal profile so you get exposure on both, but you need to have that local lifestyle-focused content so that when people come to your page, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I do want to connect with them. Yeah, they’re not really just pushing crap at me, they actually want to help me.”

What Do You Put On Your Business Page?

You want people to know that and one of the things that I see a lot of people struggling with is what to put on their page and also how to get people to react to it.

I see a lot of pages that have the Realtor name, real estate agent, brokerage, etc. and you know, I’ve seen a huge increase just in the last three or four months in ads in my own feed from Realtors like that and I’m like, why would I want to connect with you?

I mean, aside from the fact that I like what people are doing on their pages to like to watch do that as a local, why would I want to connect with you because you’ve done nothing to give me anything of value.

No. Offering a home value is not value. No, offering a free home staging consultation is not value.

Guys, what’s value? Value is when you teach people about the lifestyle, when you educate them about the area, when you give them an insider’s peek to certain neighborhoods, etc.

Let people know about what life is like where you live and work. Let them know that. Give them value in that regard.

There’s a lot of different elements here so you do want your personal profile, but that is for people you’re already connected with. That is for your personal stuff. That is for where you can share elements of your business, but you have to share it in a personal way.

Your business page, if you physically want to grow, if you want to expand your business, you must have a Facebook business page, because that is how you meet your unmes.

That is how you get people connected to you that would have no other reason to connect to you. So it’s really important that you have both and that you’re engaged in both and that you are meeting people through both.

If you have any other questions, let me know. Comment below.

I want to help you as you move forward in building your real estate business and you’ll want to take advantage of Facebook as quickly and as much as possible before it becomes cost prohibitive because yes, it will.

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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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