Message to All Realtors: Stop Using Your Personal Facebook Account For Your Business

A common mistake I see real estate agents make when it comes to using Facebook is to use their personal page as a way to promote their real estate business.  What’s even worse is when agents make a poor attempt in combining a personal page into a business page. If you have an extensive list of friends or clients already linked to your personal account, I can at least see the logic behind simply posting real estate news, links, or photos from your personal Facebook account that you know people will see.

But if you’re one of those Realtors who combines your actual name with a business or service—Joe Heath Chicago Realty Company—it’s time to convert over to an actual Facebook Business Page.  First of all, not only is using a false name against Facebook’s Terms of Service, but following this format also gives users the perception that you are completely out of touch when it comes to using social media for professional purposes. Business pages are nothing new to the social media world. In fact, LinkedIn recently re-launched their version of Company Pages and Facebook Pages have been around long enough that it’s now almost common for users to follow just as many large or small business pages than friends, colleagues, or clients.

In addition, Facebook has made extremely easy and convenient to update and manage your business pages. Of course there’s always the opportunity to log into your personal account and proceed to click the tiny drop-down arrow next to “Home” to use Facebook as your business page; but along with that, users now have the ease of  updating, posting, and checking their business pages using the new Pages Manager iPhone App.

There’s no excuse for misusing social media. It’s a free tool that’s useful, engaging, and will certainly drive business and exposure, as long as it’s used correctly. So do yourself and your followers a favor and distinguish how you want to use social media and proceed using it the right way.

Joe Heath is a graduate of Indiana University and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from Drexel University. After working as a Market Research Associate and writing published Market Snapshots for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, Joe now works as a Web Marketing/SEO Specialist and is a managing partner at Real Estate Web Creation, LLC.