Getting The Most Out Of Facebook

Is Facebook dead?
3 tips for real estate professionals to thrive on Facebook.

Facebook is not dead, however, if you’re a real estate professional, the way you’re using Facebook might be. If you’re like me or most people in the industry you’re likely tired of seeing all of the just listed/just sold posts in your newsfeed. There is a common feeling of over-saturated real estate posts in our newsfeeds, those headlines of “who’s next?”, “Let me be your realtor!”, “Closing day!”, and more have started to become an annoyance and let’s face it, we’re all part of the problem.

But, is it really a problem or just a perception? I’m going with perception, you see, being connected to realtors, lenders and title companies is what is causing the perception. I’m not saying to disconnect from your tribe, I’m just imploring you to take a mental step out of your industry for a minute and think about the general public, those who are not connected to hundreds of real estate professionals. The general public is only connected to a handful of realtors, lenders, and title agents or reps, their news feeds are not over saturated with our real estate posts.

However, even though they have fewer real estate connections, the general public does see quite a bit of those posts, just not at the scale we do. Yesterday, I was on a flight home and chatting with a personal trainer from Destin, FL. When she asked what I do for a living she proceeded to tell me that she has quite a few realtor friends and gets annoyed with the constant posting as mentioned above and has considered unfollowing her realtor friends.

So, what can we do about this? How can we see fewer real estate posts without unfriending anyone? How can we continue to communicate on Facebook with our fellow professionals without the over-saturation? Most importantly, how do we engage with our friends, family and potential consumers without turning them off?


Join a Facebook real estate group – There’s no need to recreate the wheel here (unless you really feel the need to start your own). There are thousands of real estate groups and several of them are in your local market. If you’re not already connected to one, ask other professionals which groups they are involved in, which one they get the most out of and join it. This will help you connect with your fellow professionals when you need help selling that troubled listing, are looking for feedback or advice on a situation or excited to share a new listing. If you’re already connected to multiple real estate groups, leave a few, pick one or two that you really benefit from and leave the rest, this will help with the over-saturation of real estate in your social media space.


Create a community group- This group is for your friends and community members. Jeff Lobb of SparkTank Media and Coach52 has been teaching this strategy for years and it’s proven to work. Facebook itself decided to become more group-centric. The community group should be specific to your neighborhood association, community or small town. This group should have ZERO posts about your real estate business, ZERO. Read that again if you need to. The group should focus on local events and community news. For example, last Saturday I was driving through my city and saw a sign that said “free public shredding event at the library from 9am-12pm” it was 2:30pm and my first though was that if I were a realtor I would be announcing that event in my local group, heck, I would have organized the thing. The main point of the group is to provide value to your community and become a digital mayor. Opportunities to share that you are a realtor will arise, but don’t sell it in your group.


Post it forward- It’s not about your listing or your closed sale, it’s about emotion, it’s about the way you make people feel that attracts them to you. Learn to become the story teller of your buyers and sellers. Do this in videos and in context with photos. For example, with a photo of your buyer and the home they just purchased (or just the home if they decline to have their photo included) tell the story of how you got to closing day. “Joe and Jane were such a pleasure to work with, after having their third child they needed to move into a larger home that was in the school district they desired. They were so patient during the process, and with the lack of inventory we looked for several months, wrote countless offers and finally found the one! I couldn’t be happier for this sweet couple.” If you have a listing or just closed on a listing tell the story of the owner, the children they raised there and their need to down-size, etc. By story-telling about your customer you are not only engaging at an emotional level, you’re showing the consumer that you care more about the customer than the sale. You will be promoting the fact that you’re an agent without appearing to promote yourself, you’ll be setting yourself apart from the competition, and you will increase your visibility in the newsfeed, all of these things will contribute to growing your business.


Bonus tip! Create a hobby page, what do you like to do? Golf, bow, dance, softball? Whatever you like to do, create a page about it, become the expert, share articles and events that are associated with your hobby. By doing this you will connect with people that you share a common interest with, people who will relate to you and will want to do business with you!