Q & A: How Can I Use Facebook for Real Estate Farming?

By Pat Hiban for Inman

Real estate farming with Facebook can be a great way to pull in new clients, but it isn’t as easy as some would have you believe. In fact, it can take months before your efforts on Facebook start to pay off.

Regardless, when your client pool starts to grow without having to spend additional money on advertising, it will be worth it.

Mark Simone, experienced solo agent and proven master of Facebook marketing, recently discussed his secret to marketing success via Facebook.

Listed here are a few of Simone’s top real estate farming with Facebook tips.

Tip #1: Cater content to clients

When you’re running a Facebook page for your real estate business, you want to ensure that the content you put out is 100 percent professional. Don’t use your business page to rant about politics or the hassles of day-to-day life. Instead, treat it as a reflection of the excellent service your clients can expect to receive if they hire you as their agent.

If you’re having a hard time determining what type of content to post on your page, ask yourself this: What will my clients value? For many clients, endless posts of listings aren’t useful or what they are looking for on social media.

Mortgage information and local market news, on the other hand, are often pertinent to potential real estate clients.

Tip #2: Capitalize on clients’ happiness

When you focus too much of your content on the successes of you or your business, you may come across as conceited and only caring about your success.

So, how do you market your services to potential clients and communicate your competency as an agent without focusing on your wins as an agent? You focus your content on your clients’ wins.

The next time you close a sale and your clients are ecstatic about their new home, ask to take a picture of them and share their story on your Facebook page.

While the focus is on their success, the content will still convey your incredible ability to help clients meet their real estate goals.

Tip #3: Engage your audience

If you want your Facebook marketing efforts to pay off, engage your audience! Sure, it’s important to post content on your business page regularly, but it’s the interaction with buyers and sellers that really creates connections.

When it comes to balancing time between the two, committing about 20 percent to content and 80 percent to user engagement seems to be the most effective.

One of the best ways to engage your Facebook friends and followers is to comment on relevant posts regularly.

Always try to respond when someone asks you a question; it shows others that you are active and involved with your clients and the local market. And remember this important tip: Giving a Facebook post a “like” takes no effort, but taking a moment to actually comment goes a long way to show that you care about helping others.