3 Ideas to engage your Facebook Fan Base

By Laura Price, Marketing and Communications, Keller Williams Realty International.

Facebook Fan Pages have drawn attention to themselves because, when done well, they can be extremely effective. It’s a great outlet to create raving fans and win more business.

Gaining a friendly following isn’t about posting quantity, however, it’s about quality. Moreover, the “If you build it, they will come” mentality doesn’t apply anymore. Today’s consumer expects meaningful interaction that can benefit them. If you can successfully do that, you’re fans will be more likely to repay the favor in the form of loyalty and sending business your way.

Here are three ways and a few great ideas to create raving fans on your Facebook page.

Gotta Be:

 

BE Information-based. As a real estate agent you have a wide variety of topics to discuss on Facebook. Here are some ideas to incorporate into your posting plan.

 

• Local market data including days on market, current inventory, mortgage rates, and the average or median listing price in your area. There’s no shortage of data and statistics out there – get creative!
• Activities happening in and around your area or events you’re attending. When you’re posting, find out who in your sphere is coming. If you’re at the same event, why not make it a point to get some face-to-face interaction with the people who are following you?
• City-wide issues positively or negatively affecting your neighborhoods. Sue Adler, associate with the Summit, N.J. market center got the conversation going when she posted about a recent hot-button issue in her area.

• Seasonal topics of interest – time changes, back to school dates, best place to catch fireworks on July 4^th, getting your home prepared for winter, Thanksgiving tips or recipes, local pumpkin patches for Halloween are a few ideas.

BE Yourself. You wouldn’t start a dinner party conversation with “HEY YOU: 3 bedroom, 2 bath home; just reduced!!!!!” That would be awkward, right? You are more than a real estate agent. Introduce yourself, talk about your hobbies, family, friends, and the latest books you’re reading. If real estate is on your mind, or you have an open house, absolutely post about it – just remember that it should be a two-way conversation. Talk WITH your sphere not AT them.

BE a Success: Buyers and sellers base their decision to work with you on several qualifications. And while not all clients will choose you for the same reason, many will look at your reputation. Your Facebook page is an excellent way to let potential clients know that you offer the best customer service in your area. Reputation-based posts are to be used sparingly – no one likes a bragger. Clients do like seeing how you can help them. Some example posts might include:

• Happy clients. Did you help a family purchase their first home, or perhaps successfully sell a home that was about to be foreclosed on? Talk about it. Better yet, ask your client if they’d be willing to post something on your wall.
• Briefly describe a challenging sale and how you and the client worked to get the home sold in the least amount of time and for the best price. (Remember to use your discretion on details, and ask your clients if it’s okay to post about their experience).
• Add the “Review” application to your page and ask recent clients to post reviews of their experience with you and your team.
• Set up a Yelp Profile and add a link on the notes section of your page. (Make sure you balance who you ask to post on your Wall and on Yelp. Not all of your clients will be willing to post on both sites.)

 

Jonathan Osman, associate with the Charlotte – Southwest market center is a good example to follow.

BE Consistent. Now that you have new ideas for posting, it’s time to get organized. Create a posting schedule so that you can participate in the social media sphere while doing job no. 1: helping clients buy and sell homes. Try this one:

• Monday: Local market update or an  interesting article on real estate
• Wednesday: What you’re doing that day or something interesting you’ve done that week. Make it real estate related or not! You choose.
• Friday: Highlight a weekend event. Ask who’s going!
• Saturday/Sunday: Post about a successful open house, a quote that inspired you that day, or something fun your family did over the weekend.

If you’re having trouble remembering to post, try HootSuite. Using HootSuite’s unique social media dashboard, individuals or teams can collaboratively schedule updates to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Wordpress and other social networks via web, desktop or mobile platforms. Hootsuite also lets you track analytics on your updates. Schedulers aren’t for everyone, try it out and see what you think!

 

Key takeaways: E-I-O

Ol’ McDonald had the right idea. E-I-O.

Engage your fans.

Influence others.

Open the conversation.

 

If you can successfully execute these three strategies, you’ll be on your way to more fans.

Comments

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Thanks for the tips, I've just opened a facebook fan base and what you posted here could be really helpful in spreading it. Kudos!