So, you want to promote your real estate business on Facebook. What’s all the hype about anyway?  

In last week’s Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinar, we featured real estate technology expert, Jimmy Mackin, who blew us away with his pointers for using Facebook to market your brand.  Mackin, featured contributor for Inman NEXT, Co-founder and Chief Frugylist of Frugyl.com attracted thousands of real estate professionals who had an overwhelming response to his strategies.  They were so interested that they followed him to our Facebook page for a live chat! (Click here to view a recording of the webinar).  As a follow-up, we’ve elaborated further on a few of the common questions that came up during the webinar and the live chat.

Setup a Content Calendar: Jimmy recommends advance planning when it comes to the content you post on your Facebook page.  He suggested referencing this content calendar created by Katie Lance, contributing editor and social media director at Inman, for more examples.  Come up with “theme days” like “Trivia Tuesday” to pose relevant questions or unique stats about real estate.  This will prompt fans to interact with you and keep them engaged and coming back on Tuesdays.

Engagement Matters:  According to Jimmy, keep it short, simple and use engaging photos and videos with strong calls to action. Ask questions and elicit a memory to prompt interaction with ‘likes’, shares and comments (i.e. “How old were you when you bought your first home?”).  Use multiple choice questions, fill in the blank and open ended questions for drawing out conversations on your post.

• Which house do you like better – A or B?
• Fill in the blank: My favorite room in the house is ______.
• Can you guess how much this 3-bedroom house in Denver, CO just sold for?

Personal vs. Business Pages: Jimmy says, “…use your personal profile to network and build meaningful relationships with people in your database (or sphere). Networking is not selling and it’s not a violation of Facebook Terms of Service.”  He continues, “focus on building a strong personal profile on Facebook, then move onto experimenting with Facebook business pages.  I wouldn’t tackle both of those challenges at once.”

Do’s and Don’ts for Promoting your Listings: If you’re using a personal page to promote your listings, avoid syndicating your listings, don’t randomly invite people to an Open House and don’t just share links.  Post your listings by personalizing the message to tell a story about the home.  It’s NOT a listing to the seller or buyer – it’s a home; “The American Dream”.  Highlight special features about the home using vivid pictures and vidoes which will prompt your network to interact.

Timing: Be consistent and don’t overanalyze when you should and shouldn’t post.  Try to manage your account under 30 minute each day.  Jimmy suggested a schedule that starts with scanning your news feed and grabbing a photo or video from an interesting article and posting it to your page with a strong call to action.  Next, interact with your network by commenting on five people’s posts, send two private messages and make two new connections. While you’re out, check your mobile app for updates and messages. Ultimately, these tasks will allow you to grow your brand online, build an active network of followers, connect with prospects and stay current with these people and conversations that are taking place in the social media realm.

Other References for Getting Started: Jimmy suggests Lynda.com and his friend Mari Smith’s book, “Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day“.  And check out Homes.com blog posts like Real Estate Pros on Facebook – 5 Best Practices  and our HomesConnect product which automatically import all friends, contacts and network connections from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google to HomesConnect. You can manage your social contacts, along with your prospects and leads, in one place with Homes Connect’s Lead Manager.  Also, check out Jimmy’s site at www.frugyl.com and click on video training (in the header) to review their Facebook Course and other videos on that topic are available for our premium members.

There you have it in a nutshell. We hope this makes it easy for you to get on the Facebook train to market your brand. Let us know how these tips have helped you optimize your brand on Facebook!