As of March 2017, there are over 1.94 billion monthly active users on Facebook, which is more than WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram combined. Every 60 seconds, 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded.
With the right marketing strategy, Facebook can be a goldmine for leads no matter what real estate niche you are in.
Rachel Adams, who hit the top 1000 agents in the country list for the Wall Street Journal, sold 58 homes last year from Facebook alone. In our recent conversation, she outlined her simple strategy that any real estate professional can instantaneously apply to get more leads.
Rachel’s social media strategy consists of 4 rules:
“What I’ve done is I created kind of a business model around social media,” Rachel said. “I post 3 to 5 times a week. I make sure that when I post, I’m asking questions, and asking a question so that someone wants to interact with me. And I’m really intentional about what I put out there. What I suggest to people is to pick five things they are passionate about.”
Rachel finds that a lot of people have a hard time figuring out what are those five areas to post about. She said, “I always say take your five passions. Five things your passionate about. One of those – easy peasy – is your business, real estate investing. And the other four, that’s up to you. It could be your family, it could be sports. It’s really up to you.”
For Rachel, her passionate categories are obviously her business, but also, health and fitness, motivational posts, her relationship, and healthy eating. “For me, if you know me at all, you know that I’m all about fitness and health. [Also, I do] motivational posts. I’m getting married this year so I’m very intentional about my relationship and sharing some of the things that work for me. I love cooking so I talk about healthy eating, and I also talk about business. However, it’s not always ‘Do you want to buy or sell a house?’”
Rachel’s final rule is to always follow up with comments, or what she calls don’t post and ghost. “If you take the time to make a post and you ask a question and people take their time to respond to you, then it is your job to respond back to them, to engage with them. It’s not like, ‘Poof! I made a post. You just need to make 3 to 5 posts. I did it!’ That’s not quite it. Follow up with what they say because people work with people they like, and they like you, and they want to know you.”
Rachel received 19 referrals in May 2016 through Facebook by posting about a vulnerable personal experience where she was called out by her business coach. She was behind on her goals so her business coach asked her what she was going to do, to which Rachel replied, “I don’t know.” Her business coach said, “that’s not the answer I want to hear. What are you going to do?” After going back and forth with her coach, Rachel decided to print out 500 fliers and knock on doors. As a result, she received four leads in two hours, and three of those leads resulted in sales.
Rachel used this experience to create a Facebook post. She said, “I decided to just be honest and I was like, ‘Listen guys, I got called out. Just because you see this fancy mega agent persona, you need to know that if I stop generating leads today, I stop being a mega agent. And guess what? I’m behind [on my] goals.’ I shared my story and I also said, ‘By the way, if any of you want a copy of my script or a copy of my flier, leave your e-mail below.’”
As a result of this honest, transparent post about how she was able to turn a mistake into three deals, Rachel received 580 replies. “That’s 580 people I could add to my database,” she said. “Because I’m the type of agent who does what I say I’ll do, I wrote them an email, I gave them a copy of the script, I gave them a copy of the flier.” She received 19 referrals that month because at the end of the email, she said, “By the way, if you got any value from this, I hope you remember that I’m your gal in Northern California if you have any referrals to send my way.”
Another non-business related post that received a lot of engagement is when Rachel posted about radishes. Yes…radishes.
“I showed a radish recipe – grilled radishes, which is so bizarre,” she said. “I had 23 shares on that post. 23 shares. Not just comments. This is like people actually sharing my post. And you know that’s the most powerful thing. It’s one thing to have a like, even better to have a comment, but when someone shares it, then you have a whole other audience you’re tapping into.”
The main idea behind the Facebook posts are not what can I get? but I’m going to ask questions, give and then say by the way, I happen to be in the business of buying and selling houses.
“It’s all about leading. It’s also called stalking,” Rachel said. “I believe people want to be asked questions and they want to know that you care. If you’re that person who’s constantly contributing to their lives, giving back, and caring about them, you’re the person they go to.”
Did you like this blog post? If so, please feel free to share it using the social media buttons on this page.
I’d also be VERY grateful if you could rate, review, and subscribe to the Best Ever Show on iTunes by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/2m2XyM1
That all helps a lot in ranking the show and would be greatly appreciated. And if you have any comments or questions, leave a comment below.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.