Your Facebook business page is worthless
From Future of Real Estate Marketing
By Inman News, Friday, June 10, 2011.Editor's note: Guest blogger Maura Neill is a Realtor in Atlanta and the creator of 365Atlanta.com.
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at Inman's Agent Reboot in Atlanta. The topic: Facebook business pages. The title of my presentation: Your Facebook Business Page is Worthless. It's a little unnerving to take the stage and to start off by looking into all those eager faces in the audience and tell them that their Facebook business page is worthless. But it's true -- most of the time.
The majority of the agents I speak to express frustration with Facebook as a lead generation tool or as part of their marketing plan. But that's because, to quote one of my favorite (terrible) movies of the '80s, "Mr. Mom": "you're doing it wrong."
Read the complete article at Future of Real Estate Marketing.
Maura Neill is a Realtor in Atlanta and the creator of 365Atlanta.com, a hyperlocal travel site for Atlanta newcomers and natives which has become a referral resource for her business. She is also musical theatre geek, dark chocolate aficionada, lover of dark beer, and shoe addict.
Future of Real Estate Marketing is a part of Inman News.
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Submitted by Scott Nelson on June 10, 2011 - 12:36pm.
Not sure if I fully agree with this. Social media is a tough market. Unless you are willing to put in the time & effort it won't pay dividends. But you can't put all your eggs in just one basket. People have to remember that there are more people in the world NOT on FB than are on it. It's a wonderful tool but you can't rely 100% upon it. Too many RE "gurus" have convinced too many agents/brokers to "get on FB before it's too late" & they don't understand how to do it well or waste too much energy on this just 1 avenue of marketing. FB & Twitter are much better for branding rather than individual RE sales. But it does def raise your visibility & expand the potential exposure for your products.
Agents & brokers need to take a cohesive approach to social media with the understanding that nothing may ever come from it so it'll have to be a labor of love or something they truly enjoy. Just because you post a listing or that your service is on FB doesn't mean that anyone will even pay attention. You need to give people a reason to interact, share & involve themselves.
I've found FB, Twitter et. al to be a great bookmarking source to my main marketing efforts on platforms that syndicate to a multitude of sources for involvement.
Submitted by Maura Neill on June 10, 2011 - 2:51pm.
Scott,
It sounds to me as if you do fully agree with my post. You say that, "Unless you are willing to put in the time & effort it won't pay dividends." That is absolutely the point I make in the post. Additionally, no where do I imply or state that anyone should put all of their efforts into Facebook. For the majority of agents, it doesn't work at all. For those for whom it does turn into a lucrative referral source, it is simply a supplement to what they already do - and have done long-term - and is a way to facilitate face-to-face, which is, after all, the long-standing, tried-and-true method of relationship building.
You also state, "You need to give people a reason to interact, share & involve themselves." Again, a point reflected directly in my post.
I appreciate you commenting on the post - I think if you were to read it again you would find that your statements are in accord with the points I made.
Submitted by Michael Melfi on June 11, 2011 - 9:20am.
Hi Scott,
I think you have some legitimate concerns but it all depends on what you are using the sites for. As Maura is suggesting (provocative title by the way) we need to rethink how we are using social media platforms. There needs to be a clear, tangible goal from the start and also an understanding of where I want to focus my energy.
For my law firm (Sikora Law) we mainly use Linkedin strategies because we feel this is a strong network for our needs as a company at this moment. You have to be really honest and clear with your goals and expectations, while remembering it takes work.
Thanks for the post