- Focus on the 20 percent of effort that brings you 80 percent of your results.
- Strategically understand the difference between profiles, pages and ads.
- Don't chain yourself to Facebook -- leverage key pieces to manage your time.
If you want to drive leads into your database from Facebook, you need to have a strategic plan — and implement that plan consistently.
First and foremost, your setup should allow you to generate and capture leads. Often the best way to do this is to have a Facebook page that produces leads combined with an email-specific database to drive them into.
In this case, I recommend MailChimp. (No, your real estate-specific contact relationship management is not the best place for your email database.)
Success is dependent on your foundation
Construct your Facebook page to act as a lead machine. Most likely, your page category is currently set as a local business. Well, I’ve got news for you — if you don’t physically own the brokerage and your name isn’t on the deed or lease agreement for the brokerage, you are not a local business.
You are a service, and your page category needs to reflect that.
It’s also likely that your page name is either your name, your brokerage name, your team name or another official business name.
It’s no wonder people don’t want to “like” your agent page. When your page is centered on you, your future clients won’t be interested. However, when your page name reflects what you can do for them and their future lifestyle, your clients will pay attention.
Let’s be real here: No one cares about you and your business. People do care about themselves and where they live. Name your page to appeal to the clients you hope to attract.
Your capture points — and there are more of them than you may think — also serve as key elements to a successful lead-generation Facebook page. Take advantage of all the available outlets to acquire leads, including your header photo, which is an insanely powerful tool.
You can also use your “about” section and Facebook-provided call-to-action button, just to name a few.
Indeed, you must have every capture point ready to go. But to make this happen, first make sure you’re categorized correctly.
A healthy Facebook page is always growing
Here’s the deal: After your page is organized for lead generation, it’s time to start thinking about growth. No, I do not mean ask and invite everyone you know to your page. And I do not advise you to connect with every real estate agent known to man.
You want beneficial page likes — not detrimental page likes. This is key. You need to decide who you most want to work with. Focus on that 20 percent of your business that gives you 80 percent of your success both financially and emotionally. Target that 20 percent.
Create a targeted audience in Power Editor, then set up and run the page like ads to that audience. Turn those ads on, and never turn them off.
You want your page to be always growing with your target audience. Why? For one, it shows authority. Strive for relevant and targeted authority in your marketplace.
Fresh fans also foster energy. They keep your page hopping. They keep it active. They keep interaction on your page alive. Having new fans excited about your page is essential in spreading the word about your content and reaching more leads — for free.
In a nutshell, driving a targeted audience to your page every single day improves your overall reach and engagement. Not to mention, your future ad costs will drop dramatically.
Consistently vet your page likes
First, change your mindset. Your Facebook page likes are another “database” for you. Always think of your page likes as a targeted database. Your goal is to build and drive that list both to your website and into your email lead compliation.
Now, you don’t own your Facebook page, and Facebook can change or take it away at any time. But while you still control it, stay focused on building your page-like community — with targeted page likes — and driving that community into your database.
You wouldn’t arbitrarily snail mail anyone and everyone — it’s a waste of your time and money. So don’t allow a buildup of page likes consisting of just anyone and everyone. (This includes your real estate colleagues.)
Your reach and engagement are affected negatively when your audience isn’t targeted or responsive. Your ad spend is higher when you are paying to reach people who aren’t your target audience.
Your ad relevancy and results are decimated when you have an unresponsive (read that as untargeted) audience. Determine if your targeting is on point so that your future ads knock your return on investment out of the park.
It’s much less expensive to test audiences with page likes. You can quickly and easily vet each one rather than blindly run ads to audiences that aren’t fully targeted. Vetting your page likes makes it easier to scale your ad spending with the assurance that it’s right on target.
Content must be consistent and frequent
I’ll bet you’ve heard, as recently as today, that you should post a particular type of status update on your Facebook page to get engagement.
Well, that’s fine and dandy, and it might get you engagement right now, at this moment. But, what about 12 hours from now? What about 12 days from now? 12 weeks from now?
Facebook applies multiple algorithms, and they are always changing. It’s absolutely impossible to stay on top of what works at a particular time. And what works for one business type and one audience doesn’t necessarily work for another.
Remember, you are focusing on the 20 percent of effort that gets you 80 percent of your return. Content expires in the news feed within about three or four hours.
And for most agents, because their page likes are so integrated with junk likes (i.e., real estate colleagues around the country), their content expires almost immediately.
Don’t waste your energy trying to game the system or beat the algorithm. Instead, be consistent, and be frequent.
Get interesting and relevant content up on your page at least once every four hours.
So, now that I’ve told you what you need to do, what is the first step you are going to take?
I want to help you, that’s why I created a Facebook page setup checklist — just for you. Click here to access it.
Christina Ethridge is the founder of LeadsAndLeverage.com.
