Have you abandoned your real estate Facebook business page?

I have a question for you . . .

What do you see when you look at other real estate agents Facebook business pages?

Lots of likes? Lots of interaction? Lots of activity?

Or, something a little less exciting . . .

a static, abandoned page collecting cyber dust.

Why is this do you think?

I have a theory . . . (of course I do, I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t!)

Here’s my theory:

Most real estate agents aren’t overly active on Facebook to begin with. Of the small percentage that are, they are bringing “the box” with them.

What’s “The Box”?

“The Box” is the real estate agent’s idea on how they are supposed to promote their business.

The problem? Most (and I say most meaning nearly 100%) real estate agents have no idea how to effectively market themselves.

They are still jumping on the “get your name out there” train, thinking that “name recognition” is the coup de jour.

All of this is called “push marketing”.

Many agents are even still promoting their awards and their sales recognition. If they don’t have their own experience they are jumping on the “use the brokerage’s” bandwagon.

Here’s the thing . . .

I’ll let you in on a not so little secret . . .

The consumer . . . DOES . NOT . CARE .

They don’t care if you are #1 in listings this month.

They don’t care if you’ve made “circle of excellence for your real estate association”.

They don’t care one single iota about your “specialized” designations.

They don’t care about all of your “accomplishments”.

Consumers (and everyone else on this planet) are selfish.

They care about themselves.  They want to know “what’s in it for them”.

They care if you can help them get what they want.

And even then, most consumers simply use the first agent they come into contact with. This statistic simply blows everything else out of the water.

Know what it means?

It means you must switch from push marketing to something much more effective.

What’s more effective?

Pull marketing. Pull marketing is bringing the consumer to you.

Get the consumer to become your fan, before they even use your services!

How?

By focusing every single marketing tactic on tangible, trackable, return on investment.

EVERY . SINGLE . ONE .

Here’s an example using Facebook . . .

Most agents set up a Facebook business page and then . . . they wait.

Some even go through their friends list and ask anyone and everyone to “like” their page, thinking that the likes will help them, make their page appear more popular, etc.

Some agents even use those mass produced “status updates” to create the element of “noise” on their pages. Oh, I know, they don’t THINK they are creating noise, but they are.

The posts are focused on shallow engagement – which leads the agent to think they are having some success on Facebook because after all, they are “engaging” with people on posts. Some agents even think it’s getting them leads. Why yes, every now and then, a prospective lead will come through.

The thing is, agents must STOP the thinking that it’s about lots of activity and then waiting for the consumer to need your services.

You can keep doing that – you can even be happy with it.

However, if you are like me, you are going to want to see something truly tangible for your efforts.

You’ll want to see a solid stream of leads coming in (not just a few each year).

You’ve got to have your Facebook sales funnel set up so that while you are simultaneously gathering targeted and niche focused likes, you are ALSO gathering that same consumers contact information, at minimum their email address.

And then, you’ve got to stay in communication with them. Constant communication. A lot more communication than you are likely comfortable doing.

While you are simultaneously gathering likes and email addresses, you need to be running your page with a LOT of activity, as in 3-5 updates each and every day.

Your secondary goal on your page is to get anyone who slipped through the cracks, into your email database. This is why you must have a lot of content, all the time, relevant to your consumer, going across your page.

Long term nurturing is never your goal on your page, it’s simply a side benefit. It will happen in some cases.

You’ve got to have your sales funnel set up so that you can CONSTANTLY be IN FRONT of the consumer.

You can’t just go for “name recognition” or “branding”. They won’t remember you.

What will they remember? They will remember if you are right there, right then, right now. They will remember if you are right in front of them the minute they are ready to use your services.

It means that exclusively using push marketing is D.E.A.D.

You must focus on pull marketing when it comes to your Facebook business page.

It is this lack of focus that is the key reason real estate agents have abandoned their Facebook business pages. They have no idea that this needs to be their focus and they have no idea how to accomplish it.