Facebook recently made a big announcement about changes on how the news feed will soon work, and a lot of questions have been raised about what it means for real estate agents and brokers.
Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement said, “The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups. Recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”
These ‘new’ changes aren’t really anything new in the grand scale of things, it is just what we already knew was coming. The thing is, if you are creating great content, you will get great responses. The feed however for personal pages will soon be showing less business posts, and less public content. What this means is that the stuff you post on your business page, (which currently reaches about 10% of your market without boosting or paid interaction), will reach even less people.
What do you do instead?
Well, business is going to need to become very personal. There is already a fine line between business and personal thanks to social media, however the key to the future is by using your personal account to connect with clients. It is very important to know though, that Facebook can tell if your profile is being used for commercial purposes and if they find you breaking the rules, you will be banned, so keep it personal.
Your business page is still relevant however, so don’t go deleting it just yet. It will still be useful for paid campaigns, and ad campaigns for people who want to find you, but of your existing page fans, less will see you, so you need to react, and now.
There is good news for real estate agents however, because the business has ALWAYS been and ALWAYS WILL BE about connecting with people. It’s always been about connections and relationships however now, it’s more important than ever for real estate agents and brokers to connect with clients on a personal level.
What you should be doing:
- Reach out to clients on Facebook
- Add them as a friend
- Message them to let stay connected
- Comment on their posts
- Engage in their content on a personal level
If you do this all the right way, they will connect you with other potential clients at the drop of a hat.
As a real estate professional, the best way to utilise your personal Facebook account is to be interested in others. Keep posting your content, listings and videos on your Facebook page, keep it active and it will keep momentum.
As a real estate agent in 2018, you should be well in control of your Facebook Live experience, and on a personal level it is very important to keep this charging forward. Live video gets far better engagement than any other posts. This is simple. Master it, and you will be in full control.