How to Use Facebook for Real Estate Agents

It is likely that you are among the more than ninety percent of real estate agents who rely on social media to boost their business. In fact, you might already use Facebook as part of your marketing mix. Indeed, eighty percent of agents do. But what do you do to separate your business from the crowd? What makes your efforts on Facebook any different than those of the agent down the street or even across the aisle?

Face it. While there are half a dozen social media platforms that now boast more than a billion monthly active users, Facebook is still at the top of the list at nearly 3 billion! And unlike other sites that seem to appeal to certain demographics, Facebook is popular across a wide spectrum of the population.

For instance, 63 percent of adults in the US (listed as over 12 years of age) use Facebook, and three quarters of them log on to Facebook every day for an average of 34 minutes. Over 90 percent check their accounts at least weekly. And while the majority of, say, Instagram users fall under the age of 35, those who use Facebook cut across all age groups. The largest user groups range from 18-54, but seniors represent the fastest growing demographic, and Facebook is far and away their preferred social media platform.

And did you know that while women are more likely to participate in meaningful Facebook groups, more than half of Facebook users are men? Or that Facebook users are evenly distributed across income ranges? When you factor in the fact that Facebook ad revenue and general usage continue to rise, especially in the midst of COVID-19, you find a marketing tool that cannot be ignored.

So, how can you use Facebook to its full advantage for your business? Consider these four key principles for using Facebook, along with some strategies you might use with each.

1. Speak to the heart

People spend time on social media for a number of reasons: to find artsy ideas on Pinterest; to bolster their business networks on LinkedIn; or to relax and have fun following celebrities, getting inspiration, or connecting with the world through images on Instagram. According to a study conducted by Facebook, the reason users turn to their platform is to satisfy their need for empowerment, recognition, and connection. People log on to Facebook to connect with family and friends.

If people are looking for connection, then your goal on Facebook is to engage them emotionally, to speak to their hearts with your content. Draw them into a sense of community and belonging. Create a sense of excitement. Evoke a sense of local pride. Lend them a sense of security. Or of freedom, empowerment.

Just make sure that the content you share has purpose. It is easy to put up provocative posts, but that is not the same as providing content that both arrests attention and elicits engagement. What do you want people to do? Your Facebook content needs to be strategic in order to accomplish a goal.

While emotional engagement should run throughout all of your Facebook posts, here are some content ideas to help develop a sense of thrill, ownership, pride, and more.

• Highlight stand-out home features. Perhaps no one knows the power of emotional real estate photography better than Better Homes and Gardens. With every image of a family room, kitchen, or patio they capture readers’ imaginations and pull them into the page. You do not have to be BH&G to employ the same strategy. With Facebook, you can match properties with special features to the people who would appreciate them the most.
• Appeal to a lifestyle. Whether you are offering a seaside escape, a cozy cottage, or a budget bungalow, be sure to make an appeal to a certain lifestyle that the property can entertain. What will a home offer? Peace and quiet? Urban excitement? Affordability? Allow your posts to emphasize what life might be like for your followers.
• Highlight charity partnerships or community involvement. Of course, houses will probably not be the sole subjects of your posts on Facebook. Why not feature partnerships and initiatives with which you are involved in your community? Do you work with the local hospital, or maybe a family or senior support service agency? Do you participate in any local food, toy, or back-to-school drives? If so, highlight those partnerships. If not, consider joining up with one.
• Feature customer reviews and client testimonials. People want to know how others in the community relate to your business. What others have to say about you. So, why not go ahead and show them up front. Post a quote from one or more contented customers. Create a video testimonial featuring proud new homeowners or satisfied sellers. You can do the same with business and community leaders that are part of your professional network.
• Incentivize referrals. One way to generate a sense of excitement is to offer an incentive for action. Studies show that, while more than 80% of customers say they are willing to share a referral, less than 30% actually do so without prompting. To help them along, set up a rewards program through Facebook. Host a monthly giveaway where each referral counts as an entry. To make the reward feel more personal, offer up a gift card from a local business or entertainment venue.
• Include time-sensitive offers. Another method of generating excitement is to tap into the fear of missing out on something. Offer up an incentive that expires at the end of the week or month. Do you have a partnership with a local contractor or virtual home staging service? Dream up a discount voucher that can only be had for a limited time.
• Run a campaign to garner more followers. The more people who “friend” your Facebook page and follow your posts, the greater the potential to increase your brand awareness (more on that in a moment). Why not run an ad campaign dedicated to growing your base? If you want people to “like” your page, you really need to ask them. If you want them to follow you on Facebook, ask.

2. Maintain a consistent brand identity

How many real estate agents are in your market? Plenty. So how do you differentiate your business from the rest? The answer naturally lies in identifying, understanding, and highlighting what makes you unique in the first place: your brand. For your business brand identity, you cultivate a persona - a unique voice and personality - that emanates through all of your professional relationships and marketing efforts, including your social media presence.

When it comes to your brand identity, here are some things to keep in mind and some strategies that can help you promote brand awareness.

• Separate professional and personal. Here, it is important that you separate your business brand from your personal one online. That does not mean you should be anything but genuine and consistent as a person, it simply means keep your business accounts and your personal accounts separate on social media. Create a Facebook page (and Instagram, for that matter) dedicated to your business.
• Separate yourself from the crowd. Everyone wants to do this! How might you do it with Facebook? How about creating a video that captures why your business is unique? Or above average? Can you boast the best sales record in your community? Then boast. Do you cater to a select clientele? Then say so. Do you offer the best solution for a certain problem your customers are likely to face? Explain how.
• Know your niche. In order for you to stand out from the crowd of realtors all around you, you must first know who you are, what makes you different or special, and what you can do better than anyone else. You also need to know who you serve. Maybe you are a jack-of-all-trades, but you are more likely to stand apart if you specialize in something. Do you serve the over-fifty crowd looking for simple retirement resorts? Or how about first-time buyers looking for affordable housing in nice neighborhoods with solid schools? Are you the go-to guru for downtown rental properties? Or for sales in gated communities? When you know your niche, you can more effectively target those potential customers through Facebook.
• Include at-a-glance info. Whenever you post to Facebook, you should showcase your brand identity. Let your brand show through your posts. One way to do so is by including your contact information at the bottom of each post. That signature line of sorts should be consistent in terms of font, color, logo, and other elements of your brand.
• Offer up only high-production-value videos and images. Another way to showcase your brand and set yourself apart from other agents is by providing only high-quality real estate videos and photographs. Mobile devices are capable of delivering high level content these days, but cheap cell phone pics do not promote professionalism. Know the difference. (Too many agents do not!). Post content that is consistent and has the appearance of professional photography, videography, and editing even if you choose to do it yourself.

3. Use professional photos, videos, and virtual tours

While this may seem redundant, it really deserves to be underscored: keep your content consistently professional. Whether you hire a professional photographer and editing service or you prefer to do your own work, remember that what you post reflects your brand.

Here are a few ideas for how and what to do with the imagery on your Facebook site.

• Use plenty of pictures. Facebook is not quite the image-centric platform that Instagram is, but that does not mean that you shouldn’t offer up plenty of visual content for your followers. Some posts may require only one image to support the message. But visitors want to see an assortment of pictures of a property. Make sure to give them precisely that.
• Show 360 degree images and videos. A single and simple photograph might pique interest and even generate ad clicks, but might not be enough to hold interest for very long. Additional images help to do that. So do panoramic ones. 360 degree pictures or videos allow visitors to view a room from multiple angles and imagine themselves in the space with ease.
• Share a virtual tour. To go a step beyond pictures and videos, you can feature a link to a 3D virtual tour, like the Matterport “Digital Twin”. The main goal of a real estate marketing campaign on Facebook is to get people to interact with a property - at some point in person. A Matterport virtual tour comes as close as possible to the real thing, placing people inside the space without requiring them to leave their own living rooms or kitchen tables.
• Feature actual listings. One component of your brand identity ought to be authenticity. Where too many agents might include posts of pretty stock photos in their ads, you can go much further in developing confidence in your brand by posting content of actual listings. Keeping it current with fresh content that reflects properties on the market is better than cookie cutter copy.
• Show off images of homes “just sold”. Homeowners who are considering putting their homes on the market are interested in what their neighbor’s home just sold for. And home buyers are equally interested in the prices of recently-sold homes in their areas of interest. You can leverage those curiosities by featuring properties “just sold”. Better yet if you can highlight how fast they sold.
• Include inventive infographics. Another way to feature content on your Facebook site that departs a bit from photography and videography is the use of infographics. These ads can help viewers make decisions about when to rent or buy. Topics can include anything from market conditions to the benefits of buying a tiny house and everything in between. But, just as you would with pictures and videos, make sure your infographics are presented with a professional touch.

4. Refuse to be limited to a single strategy

While it is entirely possible (and perhaps minimally beneficial) to relegate your Facebook page to your listings, there is so much more that you can do through the platform to engage your audience. Be creative. Here are just a few more ideas to get you started.

• Leverage your Instagram account. Facebook is the parent company of Instagram and the two dovetail nicely. By linking the two accounts, you can share posts from Instagram instantly on Facebook, including your Instagram Stories.
• Run Carousel Ads. Whether on Facebook or Instagram (or both), you can showcase up to ten images in a single ad, each with its own link, to highlight different properties, rooms within a home, events, promotions, details, and more. You can even tell a story across each image in your carousel card that helps you to build your brand.
• Show off a floor plan. In addition to showing off images of a home, you can post blueprints or a floor plan for a property to give an overview of the structure and square footage of a home.
• Display an area map. If you can show a map of a home (floorplan), why not a map of the surrounding area to detail where important destinations are in relation to a listing? Point out the neighborhood school or park, the local restaurants and sports venues, or any other attractions of interest.
• Set up an event. Places of interest are important to showcase on your Facebook page. So are events of interest. Point to an upcoming community event. Or plan an educational event, like a “home buying basics'' seminar. Or inform followers about your open houses.
• Offer helpful content. Savvy agents use all sorts of strategies across different media to help their clients navigate the world of real estate. Just as you might send out direct mail postcards or brochures that feature helpful homeowner tips, do the same with your Facebook posts. Demonstrate how to select a contractor or declutter a kitchen, how to build a raised-bed hugelkultur garden, or raise a bat house to decrease the mosquito population in the yard.
• Create a Facebook Live Event. One way to provide educational content is to host a Facebook Live clinic or webinar for your clients. But Facebook Live can be used for all sorts of purposes: property sneak peaks; q&a sessions; neighborhood walk-arounds; client interviews; and live tours, for example.
• Highlight market trends. If property values have risen sixty-five percent in the region, point it out. If homes are selling at an average of four days in your area, feature it on Facebook.
• Target first-time buyers. 50% of buyers talk to only one agent before deciding who to do business with. If you want those buyers to talk to you, go after them specifically with your Facebook posts. Explain why you are the agent to work with and ask for their business.
• Retarget visitors to your page. With dynamic ads on Facebook, you can retarget people who looked at particular properties. Use the Carousel format to highlight the listings that a person already looked at, as well as others that might be of interest.
• List on Facebook Marketplace. Facebook users are already searching for properties on the Marketplace, so why not make use of the mobile-friendly opportunity? You can list your inventory at no cost and promote them with Facebook ads.
• Use Facebook for Business. A Facebook business page is similar to a personal profile but with the tools to help you better market your business and your properties.