How a Real Estate Agent Should be Using Facebook

Today we talk about these main topics:

-  The importance of a dedicated Facebook Business Page

-  Being a character or a personality online

-  Not saturating your feed with house listings

Christian: [00:00:00] Absolutely.And I think the first thing is a lot of real estate agents don't have adedicated business page.

Aaron: [00:00:09] Iwould say 95 percent.

Franklin: [00:00:27] What'sgoing on, guys? Welcome back to the official podcast of BitBranding, theMarketing Natives, and today is episode double-O three, how a real estate agentshould be using Facebook. Now, guys, Facebook is a pretty broad topic, but Ithink we have completely nixed it down to a specific area where we can actuallyhelp these real estate agents actually grow their business using Facebook.Wouldn't you say?

Christian: [00:00:56] Absolutely.And I think the first thing is a lot of real estate agents don't have adedicated business page.

Aaron: [00:01:05] Iwould say 95 percent.

Christian: [00:01:08] Soreally? That high?

Aaron: [00:01:09] Yeah.So we've done just a back story. We've done a lot of talks and I've done sometalks just specifically to real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and I wouldsay most of them think that when we're talking about Facebook for business,they're just talking about their personal page and they post listings on theirpersonal page. That's most people. I spend most of the time telling them how toset up a business page.

Christian: [00:01:32] That'scrazy.

Narrator: [00:01:33] Thatis nuts because you would think that they would know and understand that theycould actually draw more traffic specific to their business and not they'repersonal, and they need to separate it.

Christian: [00:01:44] It'snot even just that. It's the- I think the two major things. Number oneanalytics, and number two ads.

Franklin: [00:01:54] OK.

Aaron: [00:01:55] Youcan't do either of those on your personal page. With a personal page, you onlyknow if people like, comment, share. You have no idea if people are reallyviewing it or, like, if you're growing your page. Did more people like thisposting? Did they do a particular post? Like are they tired of seeing yourlistings? Which we're going to get into. Don't worry about that.

Christian: [00:02:18] Yeah.But so basically, yeah, the main thing here is that a lot of realtors are notusing the correct page which would be a business page for their realtor. Eventhough they're a person, they still need to be using a business page for thosetwo reasons, the analytics and be able to run ads.

Aaron: [00:02:38] Justa side note, on our show notes we're going to put it on here. Christian's goingto link it. We actually created a video specifically for realtors to set uptheir Facebook business page that we've shared with people that we'll sharewith you guys as well.

Christian: [00:02:50] Yeah.Forget about that.

Aaron: [00:02:51] Yeah.Yeah, that's a great video.

Franklin: [00:02:52] Good.Great. Great. Now when you say posting on a business page though, what are someof the things that they can be posting? Or what are the type of posts that theyshould do? I know that we've said something about listings, but like what aresome other things that they can be posting or some things they can be doingwith that dedicated business page to get that engagement that they need toactually bring in potential homeowners?

Christian: [00:03:17] Soto me I look at it this way. Actually, I'm going to ask Aaron a question. Hemight not know the answer, but what is- are millennials- what's the- How manyare we now?

Aaron: [00:03:27] Whatdo you mean?

Christian: [00:03:28] Howmany millions? Is it the largest demographic?

Aaron: [00:03:30] Ohyeah. The largest percentage of buying power in the U.S. is-

Christian: [00:03:34] Ismillennials.

Aaron: [00:03:35] Ismillennials now.

Franklin: [00:03:35] Okay.Right.

Christian: [00:03:35] SoI mean if you look at that, and I mean these people millennials are going to bebuying houses pretty soon, you know? And they already are. There's a huge chunkthat is still not, but it's probably in the consideration stage. But I wouldlook at that. I would look at that huge demographic, and then I would look at howto specifically target that demographic. And something that I wrote down hereis to, and I say this a lot or we say this a lot, but to be unique and, youknow, to stand out.

Aaron: [00:04:03] Whatdo you mean with that though?

Christian: [00:04:04] Butmore specifically I'm talking about like being a personality, being a characteron the social media, and I have a little story. Because we went to, like Aaronwas saying a little bit ago, one of these Facebook talks that we did to arealtor group, and at the end of it, two realtors approached us and they werethere were talking to us about Facebook and all that. And they said that therewas a realtor friend that they had that stood out because of her videos, andthen we asked them to show us the videos. And it's just this crazy lady sittingin her car, talking about her day, what happened at a Starbucks.

Aaron: [00:04:43] Starbucks.We remember like one Starbucks.

[00:04:45] Yes.

Christian: [00:04:45] Ithas something to do with Starbucks, and she was just a character. I mean, shewas funny. She was sharing a personal story, and it stuck with us. I mean, thisis like, I don't know, three, four, five months ago-

Franklin: [00:04:57] Itwas.

Christian: [00:04:58] Andwe still remember the story.

Franklin: [00:05:00] Andspecifically, I know all three of us did. Before we left there, we all followedthat lady just because of how interesting her story was, and it made herrememberable. Not specifically with the house she was going. Not specificallythe area that she was selling in. It made her rememberable which will in turnmake her the go to person. You know what? I need to call that lady whenever itcomes time for us to buy our house or at least to go to open house or two.

Christian: [00:05:28] Right.I mean it's top of mind. You know?

Franklin: [00:05:31] That'sit.

Christian: [00:05:31] That'sthe main thing here. You are top of mind, but going back to, you know, ifyou're doing something like that, we tell this to everyone to do video. Videois just the way the world is going to. So I would definitely do video, and ifyou're going to target that millennial audience, then you have to stand out andhave personalities and characteristics that make you, you know, stand out fromthe rest.

Aaron: [00:06:01] Right.I would say that a big thing that needs to happen with your business page isjust to have a strategy behind what you're actually creating. So if you arecreating video, don't just go out there and just create videos to createvideos. If you're going to do tutorials, great. Walk us through an open house,but do it with a funny accent. Do it with like, you know, cool clothes. Beknown as the realtor. Like there's a realtor here in Allen known for the redshoes. Realtor with the red shoes. She says just known. That's a personality.Everybody knows that about her. She's really nice with red shoes, but whateveryou end up doing maybe you're the guy who uses a drone inside of a house toshow it. Whatever you end up doing, think of something that stands out, and ifyou feel uncomfortable doing it, then that's the key.

Christian: [00:06:43] Exactly.

Franklin: [00:06:44] Right.Right. Now what are some things that they should not do?

Aaron: [00:06:52] Numberone, and we have this on here in like all caps, is to only post your listings.Yes, we know you need to ask for the sale. You need to get people to buy, butit just makes you look desperate. And for people like, you know, us, I maybe inconsideration for a house, but at the end of the day, if you just keep shovingthese things in my face, I'm going to go find somebody who's a little bit lessinvasive with the way that they're doing it.

Franklin: [00:07:17] Right.Right.

Christian: [00:07:19] Yeah.So do not saturate your feed with listings. We see that all the time. All thetime. Like we said just be a little bit unique. And if you are going tosaturate your feed with listings, do what Aaron said. Do a drone video insideof the house and show me that or a 360 video. I don't know. Something, like,that nobody else is doing. Not just a typical link with a picture of a house.

Aaron: [00:07:47] Andthat's it.

Franklin: [00:07:47] Andthe linked to where you can purchase the house or set up a meet and greet.

Christian: [00:07:51] Right.

Aaron: [00:07:52] Right.I think this is kind of off the cuff of what we're talking about here, but I'dlike to at least if we can, brainstorm a couple of ideas because I did come upwith the drone idea through the house but a couple of ideas so that people whoare listening can maybe- even if they just steal these ideas to help them growso they don't just keep posting the same pictures of themselves on thosebusiness cards and those, you know, those headshot pictures of them there andsaying hey, this is how we do an open house, but we kind of brainstorm someideas to stand out because we are all millennials.

Franklin: [00:08:22] Well,one of the things that I think that goes along with what Christian said aboutbeing a personality and stories, the platform that the lady was using beforewasn't Facebook stories because Facebook hadn't really stories at that time.But now there are Facebook stories to where you can actually do the same thingthat she was doing and it be all in the same platform and actually get sometype of engagement. Christian, you're making a face right now.

Christian: [00:08:50] Ijust don't know, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can dostories from a business page, can you?

Aaron: [00:08:56] Youcannot.

Aaron: [00:08:56] Youcannot.

Christian: [00:08:57] I'mguessing that's coming.

Aaron: [00:08:59] That'son a personal page. It is. There are some things that I've been reading, thiskind of a side note, is depending on how the engagement goes over the next sixmonths is what they're going to roll out with. But it hasn't been as effectiveas what people were experimenting with. They thought that moms and all of theolder demographics who are on Facebook are going to pick up to it more, but ithasn't caught on as much as something like Instagram stories has.

Christian: [00:09:21] Right.Yeah, I only see like two or three people on Facebook stories. That's right.

Aaron: [00:09:26] Yeah.I mean, we'll see. This podcast is done in- well, it's July 1st. July of 2017when we're recording. So the answer may be a little bit different by the timeyou listen to this.

Christian: [00:09:38] Verytrue. Now to go back to that, I think to me- I know we say video and the easything to do is is to create it like a show or something like you do everyMonday, but to me for some reason, I don't know maybe I'm just the onlymillennial that thinks this way, but I don't like that. I don't like the, youknow, that's going to be the same thing every time. It's going to be, you know,you're going to have your coffee in your hand and you're going to give us atip.

Franklin: [00:10:03] Right.

Christian: [00:10:03] Andthat's it. To me, I just I feel like something more spontaneous. I mean, stillin the back of your head, like you can plan this stuff up ahead, but to make itmore spontaneous. I feel like to me that will attract me a little bit more thanto do like Monday morning motivation videos. You know what I'm saying?

Aaron: [00:10:22] Right.Or if you do that, that's not- we're not saying that's a bad idea, but youcan't do the same thing every single time. Like if your motivation is, like,you're on vacation, they're kind of like following you on vacation or doingsomething motivational. That's different than just sitting in front of yourdesk or, you know, like he said with your coffee, or maybe you just switchsomething up with it. So I'm trying to think a couple of things here as far ashow to stand out as a real estate agent, and we have someone we work with in Friscothat has kind of stood out because they say that they're going to sell theirhomes for free. And he's not necessarily a personality, but he's kind of went adifferent route with it. You've just got to stand out. Make yourself differentor differentiate yourself. Especially since I think there's like a hundred andfourteen thousand or a hundred and yeah, 14000 or 40000. Something like that.It's a ridiculous number of real estate agents just in North Texas.

Christian: [00:11:17] Whoa.

Aaron: [00:11:18] Yes.

Christian: [00:11:20] Imean I know that the housing market here is booming, and obviously you know,you get that. A lot of- a bunch of realtors. But yeah, that's insane. And Imean I guess I can tell because of all the realtors that we meet and see everysingle day.

Franklin: [00:11:35] Right.

Aaron: [00:11:35] Likeliterally every day a new realtor.

Christian: [00:11:37] Yeah.

Aaron: [00:11:37] Yeah.

Franklin: [00:11:38] Yeah.I got two cards yesterday. Thanks. I don't have the money to buy a house rightnow, but whenever it comes time, I'll give you a call if I can still find yourcard.

Aaron: [00:11:51] Allright. One last thing to talk on real quickly is to don't be afraid to do someFacebook advertising. I know that a lot of real estate agents spend their timeon Facebook, and they're like well this doesn't work because they try to doboosted posts or Facebook posts themselves. Try to reach out to somebody inyour area to look at Facebook advertising as an avenue and stop using so muchprint mail. And one, kills trees, and two, it doesn't really work. So try- notsaying to completely cut that out, but try to do some Facebook advertising andreach out to a marketing company in your area to test that out because it's alot lower cost, and you can actually track results with it.

Christian: [00:12:30] Andjust test it out. Spend a little bit of money first. See how it works for you.Then jump into something bigger.

Aaron: [00:12:37] Right.You sounded a lot like calming Mr. Rogers voice right there.

Christian: [00:12:41] Well,thanks. I'm trying and testing new voices.

Aaron: [00:12:45] Allright. The frequency for this- All right. Thank you, guys. This was a quick andeasy Facebook advertising- Facebook advertising. This is a quick and easyFacebook tutorial, if I could talk, for real estate agents on what they shouldbe doing for Facebook. I think we recapped it pretty well by just saying thatyou should stop selling all the time, create a unique voice, and try out someFacebook advertising. If you get those three things out of this, you're reallygoing to be on the right track as an agent.

Franklin: [00:13:19] Right.I agree. So if you guys are listening and you've gotten this far into theepisode double-O three, how to utilize Facebook as a real estate agent Icompletely changed up the titles a little bit, but leave us an honest review.And if you can, give us an honest rating as well so we can learn ourselves howwe can make this better for you guys. As usual, thank you for listening, andthat's it.

Christian: [00:13:53] Andalso don't forget to subscribe.

Aaron: [00:13:57] Pushthe subscribe button.

Christian: [00:13:59] Yeah.All right. See you guys.