How can you utilize facebook for new clients
Things are progressing nicely since I started selling real estate again after my six month hiatus. I have contacted a few people and let them know what I am doing and my commitment to great service. Yesterday, I decided to start looking at facebook as a source of leads for my real estate prospecting. Here is my process and thoughts on how to use it without being “that guy” who just spams everyone on his facebook page for business and referals.
I have had a personal facebook page where I can keep up on my friends and family and they can do the same with me. When I started really utilizing the internet for marketing my real estate services, I consulted a highly revered internet marketer about how to proceed. His name is Robert Stanley and he made some good recommendations.
1. Use your personal page for personal contact. It is recommended that you don’t mix business with this page too much so you don’t come across as that person who is always looking for business from your personal contacts. People are sensitive to this as no one likes to be sold too, especially when they are on facebook for fun and contact with their friends and family.
2. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have some passive selling on your personal facebook page. You can certainly reference your job and career on your personal page. Be sure to have your job title and contact information along with your real estate website link on this page. Before I left on my trip, I actually sold a home to someone who saw my real estate information on my facebook page. They were out of state clients who needed a good and recommended agent where they wanted to live.
3. So how do you use facebook as a real estate agent? Create a facebook page specifically for your real estate business. Utilize it to the fullest and know the best keywords for your specific target market. For some time now, facebook has allowed you to have a specific address such as www.facebook.com/arcadiarealtor so that people can find your site directly. This is important because it can help with keyword searches and ranking in google. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions about this. I am happy to share what I know.
Yesterday, I went through some of my contacts on facebook and decided to contact one specific person. They are someone who I think could be a great referral source for the market that I want to target. This is specific and targeted so that I can acheive the results I am looking for. I didn’t ask him for business in my message, rather I asked him for a lunch meeting. Feel free to ask for their referrals in your message but know your audience. Once again, no one likes to be sold to but most people are happy to help you out. I am going to take him out to lunch and spend time with him to know what is going on in his life. I need to earn his trust and the right to earn his and his friends business. The conversation will naturally turn to what I am doing and then I will be able to communicate what I want to ask him.
I’ll let you know how it goes!