As Facebook surges past half a billion users there can be little doubt the social media monster will play an ever increasing role in our personal and business lives. The most recent trends are interesting: The fastest growing sector is 35 to 50 year olds with the under 20 market static or falling as teens discover it's not cool to 'friend' your mum (“oh sweetheart... how long have you been smoking?”)
No doubt, the next Mark Zuckerberg is already on that and creating a social media product to capture the teen market.
So what's my point? It's now more important than ever for real estate professionals to leverage the power of FB. However, many are missing the opportunity or making non reversible mistakes. Here are a few essential things to get right before you begin.
For example, if you are looking to create a solid business presence in your area then you will need a 'Page' as opposed to a 'Profile'. With a page, you can have an unlimited number of 'Fans' who 'Like' you. A Profile will limit friends to a few thousand and there is talk this is going to be cut back as the business side of things for FB becomes way too lucrative to ignore. (Word is they are planning to float on the NYSX this year and investors want to see hardcore revenue streams from Cost Per Click ads... but I digress)
You also need to give some thought to a name. Can I suggest you forget your brand and go with either your name, the fact that you are in real estate (doh) and your area. So instead of Bill Smith First National, you will get a much better response (because the search engines will find you much faster and drive traffic to your FB page) if you went with Byron Bay Real Estate or Byron Bay Real Estate Bill Smith. I need to warn you that once you take a page name, you can’t change it. So if you select Bill Smith Century 21 Byron Bay and wake up one morning and decide to change agencies, you can’t change the name of your FB page.
Facebook Pages ARE Websites
Here's another interesting trend; Big business has discovered the power of Facebook and they're cleaning up. I'm a good example: I recently updated my car. Somewhere along the way I ‘liked' the Ford Edge fan page on FB and started seeing ads for The Edge on my FB page. I kept going back to the page and noticed lots of positive feedback and posts from Edge owners. (I’m not interested in hearing raves from Ford, I want to hear from actual owners) Next thing you know, I'm in the dealership asking about colors and features.
Take a look at the site and note the comments: It’s like the posts are mini testimonials on the site. We tend to buy into that and it influences us. The FB fan page has just become the company’s first point of consumer contact!
Now, take a look at what Under Armour, the sporting apparel company, are doing. They have taken the game to a whole new level. Check out the way they have featured cool graphics of their best selling products. You could be forgiven for thinking you have just landed on a $20,000 website. But what did it cost them? Only the time and knowhow to make it happen and the cost of creating the graphic images which are coded in a special Facebook language called FBML as opposed to the generic HTML but I digress... again.
So let’s think like the marketing gurus we are and give some thought to driving traffic to your FB business page: Why would property owners in your area want to visit and 'like' your page? In order to answer this, you need to think like them. What's in it for them? All your listings? Yawn. A Free Appraisal? (Stop it! You’re killing me slowly) You need to get a bit creative: What about a free market report for your area? Tips and trends etc... What about the Byron Bay Real Estate Priority Club? Be the first to learn about real estate results and news in your area etc. Get creative, Be different. Be the elephant in the room.
Confused? No? Awesome! Are you beginning to understand the power of this thing and how it can work for you? If you’re going to do this, you will need to hire a graphics person and someone that knows how to bring it all together.
Seriously, we are real estate agents, we find folks to do this stuff. We don't do it ourselves because A. We don't have the attention span and B. We want the easy shortcut right? So go and make 40 phone calls and get a listing and sell it then go to http://www.elance.com and hire someone to do it for you for a few hundred shekels.
Dream Big and Take Names, Ray
PS: For my non Australian friends and contacts, Byron Bay is a magnificent surf town (with magic coffee) on the New South Wales Pacific coast about a 10 drive north of Sydney. However I must caution you about visiting because you will never want to leave. :-)
