Hate Door Knocking? Consider a Facebook Community Page

The thing I always find so interesting about door knocking is there are no agents that are kind of okay with it. Real estate agents either love door knocking or hate it. The fact is that if you want to succeed in a farm area, you need to work your hood. If you don't want to get out there and knock doors and get face time with homeowners that way, the good people over at Facebook the perfect solution for you: Community Pages.

What Are Community Pages?

Specifically, according to Facebook's official description of community pages, they are:

Community Pages are a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it. Just like Official Pages for businesses, organizations and public figures, Community Pages let you connect with others who share similar interests and experiences.

The key words in this description are that the pages revolve around a dedicated topic, and they are owned collectively by the community connected to it. Now I know some of you are thinking to yourselves, "Well that sounds just like what Nextdoor.com does." While this is very similar, it's not. Nextdoor's neighborhood pages are overrun with banner ads, cater to people that simply like to go online and be negative about practically everything, and at the end of the day aren't run by an actual person.

While Facebook Community pages are "owned collectively," as the founder of the page, you do have control to curate the experience on your neighborhood page, making it a positive forum and experience for every homeowner that wishes to participate.

How Does a Community Page Differ from My Facebook Business Page?

Remember, unlike your Facebook business page, community pages aren't about you. They are about the community. You DO NOT want to feature your listings or sales or client testimonials on this page. Instead, you want to get people in your neighborhood active and communicating with you and others about things they are concerned about, are looking for solutions for, or even want to announce.

While it is imperative that you don't overtly promote your real estate brand on your community page, you can passively do so just by jumping into the conversations and offering your expertise, experience, or resources. For instance, let's say a homeowner on your community page is needing referrals for an interior house painter. Surely you have at least two or three great resources. Jump in that conversation with them and get the homeowner directed to the right person to call. If you start getting involved in similar type conversations and helping your fellow neighbors, over time, the natural question for those that haven't already figured it out will be, "What do you do for a living?" Then, you can tell that person you are a Realtor.

Jumping in and flexing your "expertise muscles" in order to help your neighbors is a great way to not only gain recognition, but also to get these homeowners to think of you as the thought leader in your farm area when it comes to all things home and real estate related.

PRO TIP: One other FANTASTIC difference between your Facebook Business Page and your community page is that you can actually determine who is and who isn't going to be able to become a member of the group. This will let you screen homeowners, ensuring that they do in fact live in the neighborhood. It will also allow you to keep competing Realtors in the area from trying to gain access to your group to try to steal some of your thunder. You can make this happen by making your group a private group.

So there you have it. This is a great solution for all you Realtors out there that want to work your hood, but just can't stomach the thought of door knocking. In my next article, I'll share with you some great strategies to get homeowners to join your neighborhood community page and get involved.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.