As a real estate investor, it's important that I realize my own limitations. I'm a real estate expert not a social media expert. However, as a real estate investor, I do stay on the cutting edge of real estate marketing developments. As such, I am very much in touch with the networking and marketing power that this new frontier brings to real estate investors.

 

Facebook is the Social Media Powerhouse

There can be little doubt that Facebook is the clear social media leader. You may ask why I believe Facebook to be so important? These facts are very convincing:

 

• There are more than 1.1 billion active users.
• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on FaceBook.
• 71.5% of all USA internet users are on Facebook.
• The average user has 130 friends.
• The average user connects to 80 community pages, groups, and events.
• More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook.
• Over 80 of the U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of the Global Top 100 websites are linked to Facebook.
• There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
• People using Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

 

How You Can Market Real Estate on Facebook

Those numbers cannot be ignored. You won't find that many participants on any other media - anywhere. In comparison, there are 115.9 million TV households in the USA. As we all know, TV marketing is very expensive. Facebook and other social media marketing are free. It's a no brainer.

There are many strategies for social media marketing. Four of the most effective are:

1. Viral marketing with a catchy video delivering a subtle marketing message.

2. Contests and discounts that excite your audience and convince them to pass on your message to friends and family.

3. Offering new apps that appeal to your target audience.

4. Offering insightful information based on your business expertise.

The last one is the one that most real estate investors prefer. Sharing information with multiple links back to your own webpage where visitors will find more information and real estate opportunities you offer.

Setting up your own Facebook site isn't complicated and can be accomplished in a short amount of time. For a business, you want to begin with a Facebook page rather than a profile. Profiles are generally used by individuals and can be either public or restricted. As a business, you want everyone on the internet to have access to your top page, which is why you go with a Facebook page. It should be composed of a quick summary of what you want others to know about you and your business. You include a current photo of yourself and/or current business interests.

The wall page can either be set to public or private. For a business page, it makes sense to keep it public. This is where visitors or "friends" post short message and links for you and your other friends to see. Wall posts are an intricate aspect of social networking. This is where both you and readers interact to keep everyone informed of new business developments or update status of current projects.

For semi-private discussions, you want to go with a private discussion board with limited access for both reading and posting comments. This is a good option for collaborating on business projects you're not ready to share with the world or as a high-level networking platform. You will soon discover other uses specific to your business.

Don't wait until you've learned everything there is to know about social media marketing. Since it has already proven to be THE POWERHOUSE for online marketing, it's time to jump in and get your hands dirty. You may just figure out the next silver bullet to social media marketing.

 

Author bio: Brian Kline has been investing in real estate for more than 30 years and writing about real estate investing for seven years. He also draws upon 25 plus years of business experience including 12 years as a manager at Boeing Aircraft Company. Brian currently lives at Lake Cushman, Washington. A vacation destination, a few short miles from a national forest in the Olympic Mountains with the Pacific Ocean a couple of miles in the opposite direction.