Did you ever question the need for a real estate website?

Hopefully not.

How about real estate Facebook pages?

The idea that you can get by without a business page on Facebook is ridiculous. Even if you’re up to your ears in clients, you should still be on Facebook. My guess is though, that this isn’t the case.

It’s the first week of a new year, the year 2017. And if you’re reading this post it’s probably because you’ve been relying on your Facebook profile to get leads up to this point, or you created a page a year or two ago and haven’t touched it since.

Either way, you’re here because you know you need a stellar Facebook business page to push traffic to your website and land qualified leads. In most cases, it’s going to be your first point of contact to engage with your prospects. Real estate Facebook pages are essential.

To make sure your future clients get the best impression, we’ve created the only guide you’ll ever need to create the best business page on Facebook to represent your brand and real estate business.

You ready? Let’s do this!

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Before we get into the step-by-step guide, let’s make sure you’re set up for success. To start, you need a Facebook profile in order to create a business page. You’ll manage your page through your profile. So, each morning when you check your notifications you can easily get updates from you real estate page as well.

If you don’t have an account, do that now. All you have to do is sign up.

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Now then, let’s get move on to building a flawless real estate business page for you.

#1) Create your page

Head over to facebook.com/business and click on “Create Page” in the upper right hand corner of the screen to get started.

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#2) Choose the best category

Facebook will then take you to this page.

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You can now select the category that best aligns with your brand. If you’re not sure, go ahead and select Local Business or Place. With this category though, you’ll need to be prepared to enter a few details.

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Make sure that these details are accurate and as current as possible because when people search for you on the web they’ll find this.

If you don’t fill out all of the required details you’ll get an error message that looks like this.

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If you don’t have a physical address to list go ahead and select the Company, Organization or Institution category instead. Really though, as the local real estate expert in your area, being categorized as a local business will work in your favor.

After you choose your category, click Get Started to begin filling in your page details.

#3) The Basics

It may be tempting to skip filling in this section.

Don’t.

Facebook may very well be a lead’s first and only point of contact with you. Make sure they have everything they need to find out exactly how you can help them and the quickest way to reach you.

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Facebook has already started the first line for you. That’s where you’ll place the categories your business falls into. Other categories to include might be:

  • Real Estate Agent
  • Services Real Estate
  • Real Estate Investment

Next, you get to tell your audience all about you. You’ve got 155 characters so use them all and use them wisely. Below that you’ll insert your website and other social media links. If you’re big on Twitter, Pinterest or any other major platform feel free to include it, otherwise just make sure you get your website in there.

You’ll then insert a custom URL for your page. Make sure it’s something simple, clean and easy to remember.

#4) Your profile picture

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If you have a professional head shot, now’s the time to use it. Your profile picture is probably going to be the first visual any lead has of you, so keep that in mind. If you don’t have a head shot, consider making it a priority to get one because a selfie won’t cut it in this case. You can also just upload your logo here as a place holder.

#5) Add to favorites

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This is really just for convenience. Having your business page in your Favorites section on your profile will just make it more accessible to you no matter what device you’re using.

#6) Your Audience

You’ll now have the opportunity to define your preferred audience. If you’re not exactly sure who they are yet, that’s totally okay. Keep things simple. Start by narrowing it down by location and age. From there you can also search by interest, languages and all kinds of other behaviors. Keep in mind that you can always come back to this once you start to use your Facebook page regularly.

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#7) Cover Photo

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And now your page is live! Before you start inviting folks to Like it, let’s finish fleshing it out. Start by adding a cover photo. If you used a headshot for your profile picture, this would be a good place to put your logo. The image for your cover photo needs to meet certain dimensions to ensure the best fit.

The easiest way to set this up and get your cover photo or graphic looking sharp is to design it over at Canva.com. This site will also come in handy if you’re not sure what picture to use because you can simply use one of their free designs as well.

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#8) CTA Button

Below your cover photo, you’ll see the option to Add a Button. For all intents and purposes, this is a Call To Action. You get to decide how you want to use it. Just click it and you’ll be given a ton of options to choose from.

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You can take people to a video, your homepage, blog or a landing page. We’d suggest linking your CTA to a landing page and capturing leads right away.

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#9) Get to know your page

Take a break for a sec and get to know your page a bit better. Click around and get familiar with the different tabs and features. If you follow any other real estate Facebook pages you follow head on over to their page to see what features most appeal to you and start focusing on those aspects.

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Here’s a peek at Dustin’s agent Facebook page. You can see he’s got an attractive, quality profile photo, a captivating cover photo, educational Call to Action and a solid page name.

#10)  Add photos

Next, add a few photos to give your page some visual content. You can upload listing images, pictures of your area or a few glimpses into your daily life. Of course you want to keep things informative and focused on your business, but you can also use your Facebook page to connect with your audience on a deeper, more personal level. And engaging imagery is a great way to start doing just that.

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#11) Notifications

Navigate to the Notifications tab to keep up with everyone who engages with your page. This is where you’ll keep track of Likes, Comments, Shares and all other activity that happens on and around your business page. You want to make sure and respond to comments and interactions as soon as possible so keeping up with your audience here will help you to catch up with your viewers while you’re still top of mind.

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Big surprise, there’s an app for this. If you spend most of your time on a desktop, you may not need it right away, but if you’re an agent on the move, it’s a good idea to have it on hand. Like Messenger, you’ll get a notification on your phone every time there’s activity on your page.

Download Facebook Pages Manager for iOS or Android.

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#12) Insights

You don’t need to spend too much time on Insights right now, but keep this in mind for later because once you start running ads it’s going to becoming a crucial section to refer back to. You can export data reports from this section and also measure your organic and paid growth. Your organic growth is going to come from audience interaction that you don’t pay for through advertising. You can also measure your Likes, Reach, Page Views, Actions on Page, Posts, Events, Videos and Messages.

Don’t get overwhelmed here. Just take a look over everything and then move to step #13.

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#13) Page Roles

If you’re working with a team or social media assistant this part is really important. If you are the only one posting on your page you can skip this step for now, but you should still know what you can do with Page Roles. This allows you to assign other roles to people to help manage your page. You can be the admin and keep control over it, while having an editor, moderator or contributor help you run things more smoothly. This can really come in handy if you’re working with a team or if you’re considering bringing on a marketing intern or assistant.

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#14) Review your page settings

Now that you’re getting the hang of it, take a second to review your Settings. You’ll see the button to access this in the upper right hand corner of your page. Just click on it and you’ll be shown literally everything you need to manage your page.

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This is where you’ll control virtually every aspect of your business page. Feel free to adjust the General Settings now or leave them on default until you start using your page more.

#15) Posting on real estate Facebook pages

After you get your page completely set up, you’ll need to start posting content to make your presence known.

#16) Text-only status update

We recommend pretty much always including a photo, video or visual element with your posts. Plain status updates are well and good on your personal profile, but you’ll need to take that extra step to ensure folks stop scrolling to engage with your business page. In fact, the only thing worse than only posting text is to simply post a link with no text caption attached. This gives little to no information to your viewers and is likely to yield even less engagement.There’s a ton going on every second of every day on Facebook and a simple text update isn’t going to cut it anymore.

#17) Photo with caption

All you have to do to liven up your post is click the little camera icon in the bottom left-hand corner of the status update. You can share a recent blog post, listing or anything that you think your audience will find helpful and relevant. Heck, it doesn’t hurt to even just come right out and ask them what type of content they’d like you to share.

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#18) Video

In the same way that you can post a photo with your status update, you can also post video directly to Facebook. We’ve talked about video a lot and how stellar video content is for Facebook. Read up on any of these posts from Easy Agent Pro for more on how to upload your YouTube videos directly to Facebook:

Your videos will play automatically so you can track your views and see what topics are performing best.

#19) Event page

If you are active in your community, this may be a good tool for you to take advantage of. You can set up events hosted through your page and share them with your audience. Open houses, community gatherings, seminars and client appreciation parties… It’s easier than ever to reach your network, especially through real estate Facebook pages.

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#20) Location check-in

While you’re out and about, you can also start to connect with other local businesses and experts in your area by checking in to locations on Facebook. If you had coffee or a quick lunch at a local hot spot, let your audience know about it! When you tag the place, Facebook will let that location know and their audience will see that you checked-in and enjoyed your experience. This is an excellent and authentic way to begin cross-promoting with other local entities on Facebook and start building relationships within your community.

#21) Start engaging!

Now you’re reading to start letting people know about your real estate Facebook page! Get the ball rolling by first inviting your friends and family members to like your new real estate business page. You can also use any other social networks you might have to promote it and, of course, your website. You can even add a line to your email signature to let your network know that they can now connect with you on Facebook. Plus, you can start asking your clients to leave you reviews on your new page as well!

Leave a link to your page in the comments below so we can check it out! Or, connect with us on Facebook and request to join our Secrets Of Top Producing Agents Group to keep up with other agents like you and share tips and tricks!

Here are 5 great blogs about real estate Facebook pages to check out as well!

Brands Tap Into Emotion for the 5 Most Engaging Facebook Posts of 2016

If you’re looking for some inspiration for your first few posts, check out this article! Big-name brands are using video to connect with their audiences on a deeper, more emotional level.

Facebook Adding More Event Prompts to Boost Personal Sharing

Social Media Today recently put out this really compelling article about Facebook’s efforts to get users to continue to share even more personal details and stories by rolling out prompts to get folks talking. Who knows, maybe there’s some inspiration for your page waiting here as well.

Facebook Will Fact-Check Its News Feed and Shame Fake Posts With ‘Disputed’ Tag

You should always fact-check the news you read and articles you share and Facebook is now going to make it even easier to ensure the posts you share publicly with your audience are accurate.

Facebook Introduces Audio-Only Facebook Live Broadcasts

Maybe you’ve seen Facebook’s new Live broadcast feature? It allows people to record live video from their smartphone. If you’re not crazy about the idea of speaking live to your audience, they’ve also introduced another option an audio-only broadcast. With the rise of podcasting, we think this is going to be a great tool to follow and try out!

7 Ways to Stop Creative Fatigue From Killing Your Facebook Advertising Budget

If you’ve hit a creative block with your ad campaigns or are looking to begin advertising on Facebook this year, definitely give this piece a read. It talks all about the mental and financial frustrations that can come with this kind of burnout.


Owner & Operator,

Chad Hett

The Elite Group

 (800) 494-8998

info@eliteinspections.com

EliteInspections.com

Largest Home Inspection Company in North America

Best Selling Author Secrets Of Top Producing Real Estate Agents: And How To Duplicate Their Success.”

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