Facebook Brings in 2% ROI for Real Estate Agents

I went to a Women\’s Council of REALTORS® luncheon in Houston’s Galleria area today and had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Ted C. Jones, Senior Vice President-Chief Economist for Stewart Title Guaranty Company.  His presentation was so enlightening. As usual, he did an amazing job at showing the real estate community how fortunate they are to be Texas REALTORS®.

For me, being a Technology Coach, what stood out was his report on Facebook as they relates to real estate.

I have to say that I agree with Dr. Jones’ statement that Facebook brings in 2% of Real Estate Agents’ business usage. This does not mean, however, that Facebook, or other types of social media cannot have a significant role in the real estate industry.

What it does mean is that:

1. Realtors need to understand the difference between Facebook Fanpages (business pages) and Facebook Profile pages.
2. Realtors need to have a business plan as to how they are going to use social media for their real estate business.
3. Realtors need to define Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as totally different social media platforms and to use them accordingly.
4. Realtors need to measure the effectiveness of their social media marketing campaigns.
5. Realtors need to learn how to manage their accounts and the options provided for privacy.

There is a future for social media in real estate. Future home owners, investors, renters and sellers are using social media for an average of an hour per day if they are on a computer – and if they are on Twitter, they are using their smart phones consistently to find information about literally every subject.

Facebook Business Pages (Fanpages) can be viewed by anyone – anyone that can get on the internet, with no Facebook account. Facebook business pages are websites with search engine optimization opportunities.

If you would like to know the pulse of the world on any subject, go to http://search.twitter.com and type in what you would like to know about. (Tell me, what does the site look like?” Freaky, isn’t it? Use a Hashtag (the pound sign: #) before a key word to search on that particular subject so as to narrow down on results. These are not old results – these are the most recent Twitter users shouting out their thoughts! Try #realestate as a search. Now try #houston #realestate as a search. You will see that the second search provides less and more focused search results.

Social media is not the answer to real estate business success. It’s a part of your marketing campaign…because some buyers and sellers use it exclusively to communicate. It levels the playing field for the world!

By the way, you must check out Dr. Jones\’ Videos and subscribe to his blog for great real estate and business-related updates!

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