One well-known marketing expert claims that there are only two reasons nobody is engaging with you on Facebook:
- You aren’t posting the right content
- You’re posting at the wrong time of day
Fixing the second problem is a no-brainer; there are tons of websites with information and statistics on what day, and even what time of that day, to publish your Facebook posts.
The right Facebook real estate content, however, seems especially challenging for real estate agents. Far too many are peppering their feeds with listing after listing, open house after open house and nothing of value or interest to clients and potential clients.
If you’re using Facebook to find buyers for your listings and as an advertising medium for your listing clients, soldier on with the endless listing photo routine.
But if you want to use Facebook to its maximum potential as a real estate lead generator, you need to switch up your Facebook real estate content to stuff that’s more shareable.
So how can you craft Facebook posts that generate engagement? Let’s dive into some ideas.
Skip the Facebook video
Unless you’re not a busy agent, videos aren’t among what our aforementioned marketing expert calls “the right content.” Take a look at where “real estate” videos fall in BuzzSumo’s “Average Interactions by Topic” chart, below.
If that doesn’t convince you not to waste your time and money on video Facebook real estate content, we don’t know what will.
Learn more about why video, in general, for real estate agents isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
If it’s interesting, funny, shocking or immensely local, it’s shareable
It’s hard to admit, but humans have a herd mentality. At any given moment, groups of people are like-minded, following the same trends, watching the same hit TV show or movie and using the same coined phrases.
Shareable Facebook real estate content meets these interests. Find ways to connect these topics of interest to real estate, even if it’s only vaguely related.
Let’s take the hit show Game of Thrones, for instance. In the weeks leading up to and following the series finale, bloggers found unique ways to work some element of it into their posts. The Los Angeles Times, for instance, published this story:
“In LA, first-time home buyers face competition akin to ‘Game of Thrones’”
Here are a few others we found that could easily fit in a real estate agent’s Facebook feed:
- Buy a ‘Game of Thrones’ Location for Cheap—There’s Just One Catch – Realtor.com
- 27 YA Books to Read Based on Your Favorite Game of Thrones House – EpicReads.com
- Game of Thrones’ Castle Riverrun Is Up for Sale – People.com
- “’Game of Thrones’ home decor: 12 items to shop now” – Curbed.com
Or, use little-known trivia from the show to create a quiz. For example, there’s a brilliant Ikea hack used throughout “Game of Thrones.” Is it:
- The Iron Throne
- John Snow’s fur cape
- “Needle,” Arya Stark’s sword
Answer: John Snow’s fur cape (in fact all of the Nights Watch capes) were made from Ikea SKOLD rugs.
No, this one doesn’t have anything to do with real estate, but not all of your posts need to be centered on buying and selling homes.
Tap into that hometown pride
If you’ve ever visited BuzzFeed.com you probably did so because of clickbait title that grabbed your attention. BuzzFeed excels at “the art of the blog title,” and very few other sites come close.
BuzzSumo recently studied more than 15,000 top-performing BuzzFeed stories and among many findings, they learned that “titles that leveraged feelings around individual or collective identity” did extremely well, “earning outstanding shares,” according to BuzzSumo’s Kristin Tynski.
“The essence of collective identity,” says David Snow, author of the study Collective Identity and Expressive Forms, “resides in a shared and interactive sense of ‘we-ness.’”
While it’s often applied to politics, an interactive sense of “we-ness” most certainly describes pride in community – the old “hometown pride,” stuff.
And who better to serve up shareable community Facebook real estate content than a real estate agent?
You’ll find that folks who live in the areas you serve make connections with anything local, from restaurants to charities and everything in between. Your local community may even have a Facebook group you can join. If it’s local, write about it and post it to Facebook.
And, if it’s local and reinforces their pride in where they live, all the better.
Looks DO count
While the quality of your Facebook real estate content matters, how it’s presented is just as important. Think of it as your content’s curb appeal.
And you know how important photos are. The more compelling your photo, the more likely your story will be shared.
And, since pet stories are huge on Facebook, when you post your “10 things every dog-owning home seller should know,” piece, use the cutest dog photo you can find.
Facebook is changing, but it’s still one of the best ways to generate organic online real estate leads.
Looking for more creative ways to generate leads? Here are some lead gen tips you can’t afford to miss.
How do you market to Facebook groups? Here are some tips to help get you started: