84% of real estate agents use social media to promote sales. 79% of those agents use Facebook. No other platform has reached a 50% usage rate. When it comes to social media marketing, Facebook is king; Facebook is Napoleon, Julius, Caesar, and Charlemagne all wrapped in one. The stats speak for themselves. Facebook is the face of real estate marketing.
Here are two central tenets of the platform for realtors.
Facebook has 2.07 billion active monthly users. Yet, despite that massive number, it’s the reverse of effortless to get the attention you want. There are a lot of users, but there’s also a lot of content. To stand out, some real agents buy likes. This is a mistake; it makes it harder to connect with your target audience.
The reason is Facebook's Last Actor algorithm. The details are arcane, but the Last Actor algorithm essentially does three things:
How does all that tie in with buying likes? Facebook has another formula that uses some information the Last Actor formula collects. This formula uses Last Actor data to determine how often your likes interact with your page. If they don’t interact too often with you, then Facebook concludes you have low-quality content. As a result, you show up less and less in your friends’ feeds.
As a result of these algorithms, Facebook may also conclude that you are guilty of buying likes. So keep in mind they have world-class engineers that work on complex formulas that punish people who do so. The logic for people who buy likes is that it gives social proof. People are more likely to pay attention to someone who has 100 likes on their last post and 1,000 friends than someone who is painfully obscure in the community.
Perhaps this is the case, but that argument is counterbalanced by two crucial points. First, people know how to determine whether or not a page is fake. Secondly, they punish people who ask for likes. What do you think they do when they catch people buying them?
Many times marketers don't squeeze enough juice out of Facebook Groups. Here are the top 7 general Groups that realtors should join.
Of course, you should also join Facebook groups for your local area as well. You can make a splash by posting high-quality content. Make sure you have permission from the admin to do that. To keep out spammers, some admins develop tough policies for new posters. Talk to them first so there are no misunderstandings.
One of the top resources for realtors is this ultimate guide. This is an amazing place to start. Also, remember the two guiding principles of this article: don’t buy links and stay local. What other social media sites do you use for real estate marketing? Share your thoughts below.