With social media being one of the easiest ways to touch clients and prospects these days, it really makes sense to have a system in place for handling that area of your marketing plan.
Yes, that’s right people. As silly as it may sound, I just told you that you need a plan for facebook.
In real estate, it’s all about building that all important “know, like & trust” factor. Without it, you wouldn’t have very many clients and you certainly wouldn’t have any referral business. What better platform is there right now than facebook?
I know, there have been a billion blog posts devoted to facebook, but hopefully this one will be a little bit different. I’d like to show you some of the actual steps that I use for my clients that pull people in, make you more credible, and hopefully give you that coveted expert status. The best part is, it shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes per day.
First on the list? Don’t hide your profile. Don’t post what you wouldn’t want your clients or your mother-in-law to know or see. Why? I don’t know about you, but these days if I’m hiring someone who will have virtually unlimited access to my life, you can bet I’m going to google them. I want to learn as much about you as I possibly can. If I come across your locked facebook page I think two things:
- She’s hiding something.
- She’s not utilizing a very powerful marketing tool. She sucks is really missing out. (See below).
You may not be hiding anything at all, you may just be a private person. I don’t that really matters. You’re not a plumber, I’m not asking you to fix my toilet and then leave. I’m asking you to hold my hand through a lengthy and emotional process. I want to know YOU.
The second thing that I’ll ask you to do is to keep your status updated throughout the day with a mixture of business and personal information. One of the really wonderful things about being an agent is that you can talk about what you’re doing in your business without sounding too salesy. “Veronica is getting ready to show a client some really beautiful homes in Newport Beach”. With this one simple statement, you’ve effectively reminded your network that you are a real estate agent who shows homes in Orange County without sounding like a salesperson. Easy peasy. Update it one or two more times with some business and some personal information and you are really using it to your advantage.
Pick out your pic. You’ve got a few choices here. You can either choose a fun and flattering profile picture that shows the real you, or you can use your professional picture so that people will connect you to your brand. This is your choice, but try to add lots of different types of pictures in your albums to show how well-rounded you are. Family pictures, vacation pictures, pictures of you and associates attending networking events. You get the picture (haha, pun).
Another important aspect of facebook is commenting. Join in the conversation, be SOCIAL! How else are people going to get to know, like and trust you? If someone posts a cute toddler picture hit the “thumbs up” and say “Hey, that’s a cute toddler picture”. If somebody posts about their really bad day, you can commiserate with them or try to be uplifting. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you care enough to post it. Post a quick Happy Birthday on their wall, or Congratulations when it is in order. The important thing is that you make a few comments everyday so that when you do decide to peppering your posts with some real marketing, your friends will be not be bothered or annoyed, but hopefully drawn in.
So now you have a listing that you’d like to share with your friends. If you haven’t been following my advice so far, I don’t think now is the best time to jump in with pictures of your listing. Most of your network won’t even remember that you’re in real estate. But, if you’ve been following along and easing them in, now is the perfect time. When I post for clients I use vflyer for a couple of reasons. The look nice and professional. They look like you actually took the time and effort to put something together. I really like the fact that I don’t have to clutter up facebook albums with pictures, that they’re stored on vflyer instead. And it’s a lot cleaner than “HEY, I’M SELLING THIS HOUSE. LOOK AT THE PICTURES!!!” Here is an example of what you get with vflyer:
Another good idea that I always try to implement is thanking friends when a new connection is made. Example: My client, Karen received a friend request from Michael, a guy she recently met at networking event. After I approve the request for her, I jump on over to Michael’s wall and post: Hey Michael, I’m so glad that we’ve connected on facebook. See you soon! and then I add a link to her website. Now, some people don’t want to go this route because it can come off as a little pushy, but we limit it to those people that we are truly networking with, not necessarily your high school buddies.
If you can’t think of anything to post ask you friends a question. Get them involved, get them speaking and most important, get them thinking about you. If you don’t want to post a question, you can always find a cool and inspirational quote. Most people like getting those, and at the very least you’ll get some “thumbs up”.
And the very last piece of information that I’m leaving you is this: These are EXTREMELY quick and easy things to include in your daily schedule that will work if you commit to making them work. If you don’t want to do them yourself, hire a Virtual Assistant. I’m just going to throw in that if you can’t find the time to implement this tiny little system, then you probably need a VA anyway. 😉
Real Estate Virtual Assistant Chick 