Tip Tuesday: 5 Things Every Realtor Must do to Be Successful on Facebook
This Tuesday I am talking about one of my favorite subjects: Facebook. With an audience of over 350M people – Facebook is the top social media source that Realtors must be engaged in.
5 Things Every Realtor Must do to Be Successful on Facebook:
1. Post good content daily. This is the #1 one thing that I see agents NOT doing. They spend time calling or emailing clients, but they drop the ball on their Facebook page. You should be posting 2-3 times a day. A good formula for Realtors on Facebook is: 2 parts personal and 1 part business. Corcoran does a great job of this – they post interesting real estate and market data but also sprinkle in really cool and unique links to New York city, little known facts, places to eat, etc.
2. Have a plan and stick to it. Make a list of the top 10 sites you like to visit – include news sites (i.e. Inman News, NY Times, etc), recreational sites (gardening, travel, etc), and of course your website or blog. Visit this list daily. This makes it very easy for you to link to interesting stories and post good and relevant content daily.
3. Do it yourself. As a Realtor you can’t hire out someone to manage your Facebook account for you. You have to make time – every morning and every evening to manage your account. You can however hire someone to enhance your page and make custom tabs with HTML. Mike Mueller is a great resource for this.
4. Comment on what others post. This is KEY! It is not all about YOU! 
Take 5 minutes out of your Facebook time each day to comment on what some of your friends or fans have said.
5. Be engaging. Ask questions, post photos, be a part of the conversation. Remember Facebook is like the ultimate dinner party. At a dinner party you wouldn’t sit in the corner and not talk to anyone right? Nor would you JUST talk about real estate.
Here are some great examples of Realtors doing many of the right things on Facebook:
Sue Adler
The GoodLife Team
Julie Ziemelis
Do you have a great Facebook page you’d like to share? Leave me a comment here!
Check out the Inman Facebook Page here!
Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Make sure to follow Inman News on Twitter too!
31 Comment(s)
3 Trackback(s)
- From Friday Fun: Top 3 Things Realtors Will Learn from Super Bowl Sunday Marketing | Future of Real Estate Marketing | Feb 5, 2010
- From 3 Super Bowl marketing tips for Realtors | Facebook,Twitter,Marketing | Feb 9, 2010
- From Facebook Tips « Koenig & Strey GMAC Real Estate | Feb 9, 2010
Kelly Mitchell @HawaiiRealty | Feb 2, 2010 | Reply
Great points for agents. I often have to remind myself how critical it is to engage with others on Facebook and routinely. Your post gave solid information and backed it up with important facts. I would also recommend they have a Fan Page in addition to their own personal page. The Fan Page is more geographically and business centric, but I think can help with location based branding.
Aloha and Mahalo,
Kelly Mitchell
http://www.facebook.com/hawaiirealty
Bruce Dietz | Feb 2, 2010 | Reply
I am a fan of FaceBook and learning more about it everyday. Thanks for your tips to make this medium work harder for my business
Real Estate | Feb 2, 2010 | Reply
Nice 5 tips! Practically, use your realtor skills on facebook. It’s a great thing to do it there. Everybody is doing there business there.
guest | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Take the above article and substitute the word “blog” for “facebook”. That was last year’s mantra. Now it’s facebook – which, by the way, by it’s own terms prohibits commercial use except on fan pages. My experience has been that my “friends” abhor the real estate pitch on their facebook friend pages. I have ‘unfriended’ realtors who did nothing but talk about real estate on in my news feed. Fan page, maybe. If anyone cares. I take this all with a huge grain of salt as people become bored with facebook and move onto the next digital fad. Creating relationships and providing useful information are unquestionably valuable for a realtor looking to build business. But as was said long ago – the message is the medium. Facebook may not be it, at least not for all.
Craig Mische | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Does anyone have ideas for promoting a Facebook page in print if your page doesn’t have a vanity url? Most people will be able to find the page with a search on Facebook if the FB logo is used (with or without text such a ‘We’re on Facebook”) but until a page reaches enough fans to have a vanity url, writing ‘Become a Fan at facebook.com/pages/Edina-MN/Lakes-Sothebys-International-Realty/290066335458?v=wall&ref=ss really doesn’t look too hot.
Alyssa Gagen @ GenNext Media | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Hi Craig,
You actually only need to have 25 fans now (on your Facebook fan page) in order to customize your URL. I just checked out your page and you definately have enough people to do this. Go to: http://www.facebook.com/username and you can customize your URL to whatever you wish.
Hope this works for you!
Allan Kleer | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Very helpful post!
I’m new to this facebook stuff but I think I’ve got myself a pretty nice page. Actually I’ve got two. Though the first one is my primary one. The second one I don’t pay much attention to because I don’t think people are interested in finding out information about my company.
First: http://www.facebook.com/miamibeachliving
My Team Page: http://sl-si.facebook.com/pages/Miami-FL/The-Kleer-Team/18482868235
jack | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Is Julie Ziemelis a Realtor?.. not sure that’s right.
Brooke Sullivan | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the great advice! I have not made a Facebook page yet, but think it’s a good idea. Time to get to work. Thanks again.
Craig Mische | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Hi Alyssa!
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. You made my day (and woke me up from being asleep at the wheel) and I just grabbed a bunch of customized urls for pages I manage.
Take care,
Craig
Katie Lance | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback. Those of you that posted links to your fan pages – I am now officially fans of yours!
Aaron Knutson | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
I have been doing searches and finding real estate agents in my area and adding them as friends. I have been finding this to be very successful.
I like the part about commenting more on other people facebook profiles and not making it all about you.
As long as you are providing valuable content you are OK but don’t over do it!
Catherine Turner | Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
A very nice post it is but i have some confusion about using facebook as a mean for promoting any kind of business whether it is real estate or any other. I have heard that there are some rules to use social networking website and those rules should not be violated. Could any one brief me about that?
Jane Wallace | Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
My Facebook Fan Page
http://www.facebook.com/DowntownDenverLofts
jcorn | Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
This is super advice for those who are also into their homes and local realty, whether realtors or not.
Patrick | Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
Our Facebook fan page is really coming along. We’re real estate attys out of Mass.
http://www.facebook.com/TitleHub
Chuck | Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
Katie,
I keep hearing advice that we should keep business off of our personal Facebook pages, and only put it on the fan page. Do you agree with this?
Thanks,
Chuck
http://www.facebook.com/pages/WhiteOaksBlogcom/182856554258
Naomi | Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
I also find that sharing events going on in their local community draws in more people as well. This is a great strategy that I focus on in my upcoming Social Media Marketing for Real Estate ebook.
Jen | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
Facebook is essential to my real estate business! Simply stated article on how to be a force in the social networking world.
Heather Niemi | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
Thank you for the great information. I’ve had a fan page for being a Realtor since last month and sometimes I get great interation and sometimes I flop. Now I really know why. Thanks again!
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Angels-Camp-CA/Heather-Niemi-Realtor/231718040068
Sandy | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
I am realty but i never knew that it can possible to be successful in real estate business with facebook. Thanks for sharing such good tips
Shirley Kelley | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the great info!
Mike Mueller | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
I’m honored to be listed!
I love great pages that engage fans.
More and more “Fan Conversion” becomes critical.
When a visitor lands on your page you have seconds to convince them to become a Fan. If you do, they may never come back to your page but what you post on your wall shows up in their stream. If you don’t – they are gone forever.
Straightalk | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
Pretty good list..
assuming this person also has a good website!
And not, only FB or Blogspot.. web pages!
Thank You
Straight Talk
andy | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the post and the links to 3 examples on facebook. I will start to use this information. thanks again
Ben Roberts | Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
I’ve did my own custom fbml for my new site and it’s worth the time, effort and money you put into it.
I created a “launch offer” special and built my list up before the site every launched. Using facebook for business is becoming a mix of art and science. Mike is one of those that has got it down pat.
Richard van Seenus | Feb 8, 2010 | Reply
some good tips and guidelines, thanks.
Ashley Smith | Feb 9, 2010 | Reply
I’ve been working on my page & I’m pretty happy with the results so far. People have been responding quite well. My only regret is naming my page after me, “Ashley Smith – REALTOR®”, rather than after my market area.
http://facebook.com/VanCityRealtor
Would love everyone’s feedback ~ Thanks!
Ashley Smith
Royal LePage Westside
Vancouver, BC
Phil Caulfield | Feb 10, 2010 | Reply
I am posting twice per week. You can check out my page at http://www.facebook.com/mybuddythebroker
Alexandra Koch | Feb 11, 2010 | Reply
We are a Franchisor for real estate and we just opened an account and the fan page http://www.facebook.com/ERA.immobilien. It is hard to get our brokers convinced to open an account because this will be part of their future business. So thanks a lot for your good tips and guidelines. I will communicate this to them so they get convinced easier that this will be part of their future.
USARealestate | Feb 23, 2010 | Reply
Hi, this post is very helpful for me.
I am new for facebook but after I read this already I think I can got a nice page on facebook.
Thank a ton.