First impressions count
Social media often serves as a ‘digital first impression’. So, says Tara Dulake, it is very important to keep your profiles up to date with the right information.
UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION
It might sound dramatic but having out of date information on your Facebook page could cost you a lead. The wrong address, phone number, logo, website or name may deter homebuyers from liking and engaging with the page. Align your marketing strategy with your social media channels so that updates or changes will be implemented on all your professional platforms.
REVIEWS AND SERVICES
Referrals and client testimonials are a brilliant way to market your services. By enabling reviews on a Facebook page, this lets your clients rate your services that will hopefully generate interest from new customers. Facebook also gives you the ability to include a services section on your page, which is the ideal place to add your general day to day services as well as any deals or incentives you’re running, for example, a free consultation or valuation.
CUSTOMER SERVICE

Many consumers turn to social media when they wish to make a complaint or ask a question. With 69 per cent of these customers believing fast resolution of the problem is vital to good service, a public social media profile is the perfect platform to post queries/concerns on because firms are then under pressure to respond in a timely manner. This is why it is very important to answer all comments on a page, whether positive or negative, as this strongly reflects on your brand. Business pages on Facebook also allow you to turn on a ‘response time’ button which shows a percentage score reflecting the average time it takes for you to respond to direct messages on the page. This score will be another observation potential buyers will make when visiting your Facebook page and so it’s vital to respond to all messages within a reasonable time frame. To maintain a good score, you can set up the page to send you notifications when you receive direct messages so you can reply quickly.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photos on Facebook get 53 per cent more likes and 104 per cent more comments than text-based posts (Kissmetrics), quite fitting considering 8.3/10 homebuyers want to see photos of a property online (Contractually). Facebook lets you add photos in various ways, including single uploads, full albums and as carousel/slideshow posts. Use this to your advantage by uploading photos of new show homes, plots which ones are struggling, before and after photos and case studies. Consider who your target audience is when posting as users will probably not want to be bombarded with sales messages; photos of happy customers in their new home will likely perform just as well.
VIDEO
It’s no surprise that videos are taking over the Facebook newsfeed, with over eight billion average daily views (Sprout Social). Most videos are viewed on a mobile and 85 per cent are watched with the sound off, meaning subtitles can increase views by 12 per cent. There’s no limit to what you can do with video and no reason it has to be limited by budget or assigned to a social media team.
Videos are taking over Facebook’s newsfeed – 8bn average daily views, 85% watched without sound.
Facebook live streams can be taken on a smartphone and are a great way to showcase a property online. They allow potential buyers to see a snippet of the interior with the idea that they’ll then want to book a viewing to see the whole property. Alternatively, the ‘One Second Everyday’ app allows you to take one video snippet every day, which could be collated into a ‘day in the life of an estate agent’ video after a couple of weeks, making the perfect engaging content for Facebook.
Facebook also allows you to upload a video to the header on your page in place of a cover photo. A rotating slideshow of your most recent properties or struggling plots would be an eye-catching way to draw a user’s attention to the page.