Real estate training and coaching guide for social media marketing for real estate

1. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
Copyright 2014, The Paperless Agent 1

2. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
Real estate customers have changed their behaviors significantly in the last
decade. On major shift is housing consumers use social media and use it to
connect and make decisions… in fact, about 3 in 4 Internet users is on
social media. And Facebook is the largest, single most used social media
site out there. As a real estate professional, you can use Facebook’s
business features to grow your database and communicate with your Digital
Sphere of Influence. Because of its magnitude, Facebook is absolutely
necessary to adopt in order to market your business.
Facebook use is cross-demographic, ranging from newly formed
households to individuals well into
their senior years, all driven by the
camaraderie of online social
engagement and the ease of use on
the platform.
The ability to reach your prospects
in this realm has the potential to be
more fruitful than many other
methods that you may be using… as
long as you’re using Facebook *the
right way*.
When marketing your business, Facebook isn't necessarily as self-explanatory
as it is when using it for purely social purposes. There is
definitely a certain strategy you will have to take, and it's not the obvious
strategy you will find when doing an elementary Google search.
In fact, most of what’s being taught in real estate about using Facebook will
no longer work! It will involve a bit of money (though relative to other
marketing services, Facebook is very inexpensive) and some
experimentation, but it’s worth the small effort.
Copyright 2014, The Paperless Agent 2

3. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
Due to the lack of good education about using Facebook for Real Estate,
The Paperless Agent has put together this guide to help you understand the
importance of using Facebook.
Hopefully you'll find our guiding principles useful and valuable, and see how
Facebook marketing works will boost your advertising and engagement
effectiveness.
After reading through this report, you be able to:
• Understand the power of using Facebook to promote your business
and develop your database.
• Be able to use Social Media to Connect with your Consumer - the
Home Buyer and Seller.
• Avoid the common Facebook Trap most real estate professionals get
caught in.
• Have a proven, yet simple Facebook strategy to implement in your
business to grow your database.
Why Facebook is No
Longer an "Option"
According to the Pew Research
Center's Internet Project
Library Survey (2013), 73% of
all Internet users are on Social
Media (this includes such
networks as Facebook,
LinkedIn, and Twitter).
According to the survey, these
age demographics had their
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4. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
corresponding social media site usage statistics in September of 2013:
• 30-49: 78%
• 50-64: 65%
• 65+ : 48%
As you can see, every major housing consumer demographic has a
significant social media presence - even as much as nearly half of senior
citizens engage in social media. Being that our consumer is cross-demographic,
this means that all of our consumers are using social media.
As a general sales and marketing principle, we have to be where our
consumers are if we want our marketing to connect with them. Which is why
every business has to actively engage in Facebook use in order to maintain
our audience and clientele.
As Facebook membership increases, this need to connect with a broad
Facebook audience will only grow… so it's best to master this platform now
Copyright 2014, The Paperless Agent 4

5. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
and get ahead of your competition's curve. Furthermore, of all social media
properties, Facebook is the most dominant in the marketplace, and has
been for some time.
Since at least 2012, Facebook
has had the largest share of
users of all social media
properties, with three times the
users compared to its closest
competitor. 71% of online
adults use Facebook as of
2013 - Facebook's closest
competitor, LinkedIn, only has
a share of 22% of online adults
in the social marketplace.
Additionally, Facebook is the
most frequently used social
media property, with 85% of its
users checking in once a week,
and 63% checking in daily.
You might be wondering who the other "competitors" in the social media
marketplace are (even though they are only competing amongst themselves,
and none come even close to being competition for Facebook). There are
quite a few - LinkedIn, Pintertest, Twitter, and Instagram are the top 4 below
Facebook - but just because there are 5 major social media platforms out
there right now doesn't mean you should spend time, energy, and resources
on each of them.
We recommend you master the most important platform and do it well,
rather than spread yourself thin by spending small amounts of effort on sites
that don’t have as many of your current and prospective clients.
Copyright 2014, The Paperless Agent 5

6. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
3 Reasons to Use Facebook for Business
1. As a real estate professional, one of the reasons people look to you
are because they don't have industry knowledge, and we do. They
need to come to us for guidance. Facebook is a way to demonstrate
that you have authority and market expertise in the industry in the
ways that you reach out to your connections. You can post market
statistics and trivia, post your listings, and offer consultations in order
to establish yourself as the industry expert in your digital sphere of
influence.
2. You can expand your targeted
digital sphere of influence. One
of the things Facebook allows
you to do is focus enough on
your digital sphere of influence
that you can bring individuals
into your personal and business
spheres of influence.
3. Facebook is an alternate communication channel. It's one more way
to reach your fans, clients, and prospects outside of the normal
methodologies while simultaneously demonstrating that you're up to
speed on current technology and standards of communication. It's
also an additional way to share information and market your listings,
as well as expand your direct communication network.
Meeting the Unique Interests of Today's Housing Consumer
Facebook allows you to meet the current unique needs and interest of the
modern day housing consumer - from their need to list their homes online,
to researching their real estate professionals that they want to work with.
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7. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
According to a recent survey
conducted by the National
Association of Realtors, the most
dominant expectation that sellers
have of their agents is that they
want you to *market* the home to
potential buyers. Sellers will
expect you to use social media (as
well as other specific listing
services) to market their homes.
This can be addressed by posting
your listings on your Facebook
business Page to demonstrate
your knowledge of the need to
market the home to other potential
sellers.
Additionally, sellers are selecting their agents based on their reputation. In
the information age, reputation is formed by so much more than word of
mouth and in-person referrals. This includes interacting with your audience
on social media, as those interactions will spread across your social network
for others to see. Building up your online reviews and fan base on Facebook
will enhance your professional appearance and solidify your reputation as a
desired real estate professional in the industry as well as brand yourself as a
market expert.
Finally, you can offer value after the transaction as a means to remain
connected with previous clients. This keeps you fresh in their minds, which
will help you generate more referrals and keep your reputation current and
positive.
Copyright 2014, The Paperless Agent 7

8. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
Most Common Facebook Trap – And Why It Doesn’t Work!
If you do an online search for basic Facebook marketing strategies, the
most common strategy you'll see is the "Build it, and they will come"
strategy. The advice tends to say that as long as you regularly post good
content, engage your audience, and stick to a few rules of what to post and
what not to post, your audience will generate itself and you will keep people
engaged.
Unfortunately this does not answer the problem of driving traffic to your
page and keeping people engaged enough to "Like" it. Having good content
and engagement techniques is not enough, as it will still be the equivalent of
speaking to an empty room. This ties directly in with your reputation. For
example: What looks more reputable - a page with 117 Likes, or a page with
5,218 Likes? The more people that are fans of your Page and the more you
engage them, the more reputable you will appear, and thus more business
will generate.
3 Facebook Tips That Work
1. Proactively target new people to grow your database. Use
Facebook's Advertising tools to expand your sphere of digital
influence to get more people to opt-in to your database.
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9. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
2. Use Facebook Ad tools to get posts seen by fans so your message
gets into your Fans Newsfeeds.
3. Promote your business in ways that you can't do using your
Facebook profile - such as listing advertisements, boosting posts,
and running contests.
Building Your Database Using Facebook
We use a tried-and-true formula that we've tested to build our database
using Facebook.
1. Acquire Fans. You can build your fan base using Facebook’s Ad
tools, such as Custom Audiences or Friends of Fans Campaigns.
2. Share information on your page. The information that you share has
to be valuable and thoughtful, and also establish your credibility as an
authority in the industry.
3. Interact with your audience. Interacting with your audience regularly
shows both your availability to their inquiries as well as establishes
your knowledge and enthusiasm for the real estate industry.
Additionally, interactions on each post will get them seen by more
people (for instance, if someone comments on a post and you
Copyright 2014, The Paperless Agent 9

10. Guide: Facebook Marketing for Real Estate
respond, there's a higher chance that the interaction will appear on
another member's newsfeed).
4. Promote posts. Promoting posts is inexpensive and increases their
visibility to others on Facebook (which will lead to more interaction,
and thus, more visibility). When you promote posts, you'll want them
to link to….
5. An opt-in to your database. Promoting valuable posts to share
solid, thoughtful information in exchange for an opt-in is a tried and
true method of expanding your database.
What's Next?
Now that you’ve had an overview of using Facebook Marketing for Real
Estate, there are 4 things you can do:
1. Create your Facebook Business Page
2. Provide Good Information on Your Business Page
3. Get More Fans using Facebook’s Ad tools
4. Get Your Posts Seen by Promoting Posts
Using Facebook’s Ad Tools are easy once you get a handle on how they
work. But if you don’t do it right, you can waste a lot of money trying to
figure it out.
If you would like help, access a complimentary webinar where we are going
to show you exactly how you can use Facebook to grow your Digital Sphere
of Influence and get your messages seen.
http://thepaperlessagent.com/learn-facebook
Copyright 2014, The Paperless Agent 10