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Facebook is a valuable tool in the world of real estate. A well-built Facebook business page can pop up in different online searches, capturing the interest of house hunters. But even as 77 percent of REALTORS® use social media networks, only 3 percent say it has a good return on investment, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ Technology Surveypdf, released last September. Facebook can, however, provide a good ROI for real estate agents.
Facebook pages show up in Google searches, which provides a prime opportunity for you to capture SEO value. Furthermore, it can get potential customers clicking back to your website, where they can become real leads. But Facebook pages must be kept fresh. It’s important to revise your Facebook page every month or quarter to ensure this social network is working for your business.
Consider refreshing the text and imagery on your Facebook page, and check analytics monthly or more, if possible. This will ensure you have updated, searchable content, which will then be categorized by Google and other search engines. Here are tips on how to start a Facebook audit to update this social media tool and improve its ROI.
Make the text actionable. You should have a business page as well as a personal page. This will identify you as a “business or brand” and enable geolocation services, such as adding a map to the page. If you’ve already done that, look at the text you have on your business page. Make sure to fill out each section of your profile, including the “mission,” “company overview,” and “about” pages. In each of these sections, you can use keywords from your website, such as neighborhoods you serve and your business specialties. The page must include a business address and links to your website.
A crucial factor is a call to action. Facebook offers a variety of page buttons that allow the viewer to take an action. Some businesses choose “call now” with a phone number prompt or “book an appointment” with an online booking system. You could put your website’s contact page with a button that says “learn more” in order to drive traffic.
The text in a Facebook page helps improve SEO rankings, so carefully filling out each section is important. Furthermore, since many people search for local businesses, putting in a physical address will help get you in front of more people.
Update and categorize images. Images and branding are other factors to consider when updating your Facebook page. You want to come across professionally, so your profile and banner images should be the correct size (at least 1,200 pixels wide and 628 pixels deep) and include some branded elements, such as your logo.
Go through your image and video posts as well. While it’s a good idea to have many property photos on your page, buyers want to know which homes are available. You can put images into albums such as “just sold” or by neighborhood so potential buyers know what they should browse. And while Facebook is image-driven, remove poor-quality photos from your page, as they add no value for prospects.
Revise the analytics you use. Any Facebook audit should include a review of analytics. Facebook Insights is a valuable tool for understanding the impact of your page. But while there are a wealth of numbers reported for each page, not all of them are important. One useful metric is “actions.” This measurement tells what actions people took on your page, such as clicking on your call to action. If no one is clicking on it, it’s time to change it.
Another useful metric is “audience.” This tells the demographic information of the people who come to your page, such as age, gender, and location. If you plan to run ads on Facebook, this metric provides invaluable information for creating high-performing ad campaigns.
You can also look at the “posts” metric to see how each of your posts performs. Since you can schedule posts in bulk, it’s always a good idea to review them to see which ones did well. Try to review this at least on a monthly basis to see which posts get people to click or comment. While readers’ “likes” are nice, they don’t really tell anything, as they don’t mean that person clicked through to your website or contacted you. Instead, focus on the posts that received the most actions, and try to duplicate those.
