It’s also for promoting yourself as a REALTOR®.
I was recently working with a first-time homebuyer. A well educated, intelligent young lady born in 1993. While completing a FINTRAC form I asked her for I.D. She held up her phone to show me her Facebook profile and said “see it’s me!”
I then had to spend 15 minutes trying to explain to her why social media wasn’t a valid form of I.D. This experience made me realize something. Over the next decade we will be dealing with a generation of first-time homebuyers that truly believe that who you are online is who you are. So much so, that they consider it to be a suitable substitute for government issued identification.
Having a social media presence is more important now than every before. To some there is a perception that if you don’t exist on Facebook, you don’t exist. Essentially not being on Facebook is the modern day equivalent of not being in the phonebook.
Just like the phonebook, businesses can pay extra to make themselves stand out. The difference however, is that with the phonebook you had to deliberately opt out if you didn’t want to be found. With Facebook you have to deliberately sign up in order to exist.
There are so many different philosophies and schools of thought on how you should or shouldn’t use Facebook to promote your business. Personally, I like having a personal profile and a business page. I use both daily and in different ways. Just like in the phonebook, where you’d have a white pages and a yellow pages listing for your personal and business contact information.
Facebook has essentially become the index of our lives. When I want to know someone’s relationship status, birthday or job title I check Facebook. The little black book has gone the way of the rolodex, because Facebook has pooled together all my contacts, even the ones that I haven’t met yet.
I’ve been asked many times by social media skeptics, “does Facebook really help sell houses?”The short answer to that is “yes!”The long answer is, “yes, definitely! But, like all traditional forms of marketing (bus benches, print advertising etc.) a Facebook ad is just another ad that is placed where the public is already looking.”Facebook advertising is relatively inexpensive. You can set the budget, the time line, the age/location/gender of the users viewing the ad. You will get a return on your investment.
The key to success on Facebook is to generate interesting content. Post photos, or statuses that will engage people. Shareable content is key, otherwise you’ll get lost in the endless stream of selfies, cat videos, and inspirational quotes.
Einas Makki, YPN Committee Member and OREA YPN Guest Blogger
Leave a Reply