Facebook Apps for Realtors

Facebook may be the single greatest tool for Realtors – period.

Still not sure how to use Facebook for your real estate business …

… We get this from Realtors all the time!  No worries, we have put together the below list of some of the top Facebook apps to help you get the most out of Facebook. 

Each one serves a different purpose, marketing, productivity, traffic analytics, branding and overall client relationship management.  When you put it all together you will see that you have a pretty complete marketing plan.

The key to success for Realtors is in the Implementation & Follow Through!

Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook fan pages may be the most under valued tool available, don't let this be true for you.  Think of your Facebook "business" Page as your online office or central command center.  It is much easier to get your prospects and clients to become a "FAN" than it is to get them into your "brick-n-mortar" office.

Once people have become a FAN of your Facebook page you must engage them with conversation!  But how do you do this?

Some simple ways to engage your fans:

• Send them a direct message to say Thank You for becoming a Fan
• Comment on their status updates,
• Wish them a Happy Bday on that special day

Another great reason to use a Facebook page for your real estate business is, you can easily send your fans a message.  Maybe you have a new listing, a price reduction, a new product launch, etc…

Facebook Notes & Tagging

I am just beginning to use these features, to be honest I am a little late to the game on this one.  Oh well, "better late than never" as the saying goes. 

So what is Facebook Notes & Tagging and how do you use it effectively to gain more business?

In a nutshell … you write a note or import a post from your blog, tag up to 30 of your Facebook friends in hopes they will comment.  The goal is simple, to engage your audience (friends).  If your note or blog post is not relevant or interesting people will not respond.  This idea comes from the whole "chain letter" philosphy.  When done correctly, it does work well..

Why do you want your friends to comment on your note … Each comment builds social proof that you know what you are talking about.  The more social proof you have, the more trust and authority you will have among your audience.

To Do List

Like I said earlier, Facebook may be the single best tool available for Realtors in today's business environment; and this app is just one small indication that I may be right.

Facebook apps like the To Do List could be making it the worlds largest CRM system.  The ToDo list helps you organize all of the tasks you have to do, calls to make, faxes to send, etc…  It allows you to create different lists: personal, business, etc…

Check it out and let us know your how you like it.

Files

Successful Realtors understand the need for collaboration … With Facebook Files application you can now collaborate with the best of them.  Access your files from anywhere and share important work files, photos, and music with your friends using the Facebook Files application, powered by Box.net. Facebook Files is like a virtual thumbdrive that is always within reach and impossible to lose!

You can register with Box.net for free to get 1GB of storage space.

If you would like more space, feel free to upgrade and gain other benefits such as additional collaboration folders.

Facebook Events

Facebook Events is an incredibly easy and effective way to market just about any event you may be hosting. 

Think about it, no 3rd party site to manage, all of your contacts are already on Facebook (to the tune of 300 Million and growing), it tracks every invite sent out, response received and even let's your invitees share on their wall.

Click for more info on Creating your next Facebook event

Insights

Ever wonder who all of your Facebook fans are and what value they see in your Facebook page?  Sure you do.  Well that is exactly the kind of stuff you can learn from reviewing the Insights provided to you with your page. 

You can quickly see things like:

• How many fans have been active on your page this week
• Demographics of your fan base: male/female, age, etc…
• Post Quality
• Interactions per post
• Total / Unsubscribed Fans

Learn more abour Facebook fan pages here.

Facebook Advertising

If you have been in the real estate business more than a few months, you have most likely experimented with Direct Mail or Print Ads and if you were smart you incorporated the 800# with recorded messages so that you could track-n-measure your results.

So you know how costly and time consuming this can be, not to mention how poor the results are.  Well with Facebook you can actually target your ads so that only your target audience sees your ad. 

The great thing is that they see other ads as well, so they don't see you as that pesty Realtor who is always sending them junk mail with their ugly mug on the cover.

Let's say you work with first time home buyers and your target audience is school teachers.  Facebook allows you to target your advertising so that only those who work in the school systems you select will see your ad. 

Or maybe you want to target Doctors … just target your ad so that only those who work for the hospitals in your area will see your ad.

Facebook advertising can be paid for by:

1. Pay per click
2. Pay per impression

My thought is to pay per click since you get the benefit of impressions but pay for only clicks!

Facebook FBML

This is a must have application!  Basically this app lets you write basic HTML into your facebook page.  HTML allows you to customize your Facebook page so that it looks more like a website. Another cool benefit of using the FBML app is that you can use it to embed lead capture forms. 

Here are some cool examples of how you can customize your Facebook page using FBML:

• Web Real Estate Tools
• The GoodLife Team
• The Official Realtor Referral Group

Check out our page at www.facebook.com/webrealestatetools and sign up for our FREE Email Course, it will help you understand how you might want to incorporate it into your site.

Have a Facebook Fan Page? Mention it here in the comments and gain extra Google juice!

Tagged as: Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Facebook Events, Facebook Files, Facebook Notes and tagging, Facebook Pages, FBML, Insights, real estate, social media, To Do List