USING YOUR PERSONAL FACEBOOK

I'm sure most of you use your personal Facebook accounts to connect with your family and friends, but having a personal Facebook that is used for business is so imperative in our industry. For starters, you remove that business atmosphere of a page that most people already come in hesitant on. But when it comes to having friends on their personal pages, it's a more relaxed atmosphere, which actually makes hooking buyers and sellers a lot easier. It's "Oh, this is a random agent's business page," vs. "Hey this agent is on my friend's list, let me get in touch."

Now if you're wondering, "Well Facebook doesn't allow us to use our personal pages for business or they will close it down," well, yes, that's true, but that's only if you're using it in a way to spam people. Just because it's used for business doesn't mean every post will be a link to your website to get a home valuation or a list of homes for sale. No, it's still a personal page. So your job is to make your business personable. Share photos of your closings, or go live on video when you're touring a home. Share the funny side, any strange things you saw, etc. Make it fun, show them how dedicated you are to your job. Every now and then throw in a non-business related snippet. Like the date night at a local restaurant that just opened up, or taking your kids to the city park. So it's not an in your face business post, but it still shows you're out an about in your community, and you are the EXPERT in it.

If you use your personal page to share very opinionated/political content, yes I encourage not changing who you are, but if it's a bit much, it will be worth the time to create a new personal page to be used for business. Because you are going to want to start adding a lot of local community members to your friends list, and if you want to separate the two, a new page will be necessary. If done right, your personal page can be one of the best tools in your marketing. And guess what?? These new friends on your page, you can also add to your group. Because they are local and you'll be adding the right group of people, and they'll invite their local peers to join as well. And you can only make posts in groups with your personal page anyways, so having it set-up properly, will put you on the right foot when people come to stalk to your page. Your personal page is free, so you'll essentially be getting new business with no money invested, just time.

And please, please, please stop being a secret agent! So often I see profiles that have 0 indication they are in the real estate industry, and if you want success on social media, that just baffles me. Be sure your bio is filled out and your real estate profession is public in your job title. Go to your about section and fill out the best ways to contact you for business, including a website if you have one. Even put your Facebook business and group page links in your bio. Make your short about me tag above your personal details a statement of your real estate business, but in a fun way. Like "Let's talk real estate, Nashville! I'm your gal." Something that fits your tone.

Don't overthink or complicate the process, just have fun. Treat your audience with professionalism but show your character, and as I consistently repeat, build relationships, aka friendships.