Everything You Need to Build a Facebook Real Estate Business Page

This is the first of many posts to come that are intended to walk you through a topic and show you a number of things.

First: Explain why this topic should matter to you
Second: Give you all the info you need to know about the topic
Third: Show you how to implement it into your business right away

The third step is the most important.

No matter how many new things you read about, nothing changes if you don’t put them into action! Taking action is the key to success in any area.

Action is the foundational key to all success. – Pablo Picasso

Over the coming weeks and months we are going to go over a bunch of different topics. Everything ranging from social media – and the different platforms that you should be using in your business – to web development, email marketing, and technology tools that can help you get more done in less time.

So what’s the first topic?

Facebook

The reason that we are going to start with Facebook is because it is a tool that many of you are already familiar with, and may be using for your business in some form already.

It is the largest of the social networks, and if used correctly can be one of the best sources of lead generation, customer service, and “platform building” available to you right now.

If you have been putting off jumping on the Facebook bandwagon in hopes that it just goes away – you are out of luck! Facebook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Currently there are over 900 million people worldwide who use Facebook every single day.

Take a second and let that number sink in… 900 Million!

Can you think of any other tool you have access to where you can connect with 900 million people on any given day?

I can’t.

Facebook is over four times as big as the next largest social media platform, which is currently LinkedIn.

If you are only going to use one social media platform – which I wouldn’t recommend – Facebook would be the best choice.

But being on Facebook for your real estate business is different from being on Facebook for personal reasons. To start with, if you are going to be using Facebook for business you NEED to be using a business page rather than your personal profile.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PROFILE AND A PAGE?

There are a number of differences between a profile page and a business page. If you try to use a personal profile for business you will be limited with what you can do, who you can connect with, and how much control you have over analytics and advertising.

Don’t get me wrong, not every aspect of a business page is better than a personal profile. In fact there are a few limitations of having a business page that turn many people off at first. But, the benefits of the business page outweigh the negatives all day long.

According to Facebook personal profiles are “for non-commercial use and represent individual people.” Based on their definition you will need to use a business page since you want to be using Facebook for commercial use.

You must have a personal profile to build a business page, so if you don’t already have a Facebook account you will need to start by clicking here to head over to Facebook to sign up for a personal profile first.

Each person can have 1 personal profile, and that personal profile can manage many different business pages.

WHY DO YOU NEED A BUSINESS PAGE?

There are a number of benefits to having a business page rather than a personal profile for your business interactions on Facebook.

Benefits of Business Pages

• Unlimited connections
• Access to analytics
• Greatly expanded ability to create ads
• More professional

Limits of Personal Profiles

• Can only have 5,000 friends
• No access to analytics
• Limited access to create ads (only have access to sidebar ads)
• Less professional

These are not small benefits, they are the reason that you NEED a business page. If you want to use Facebook to grow your platform, expand your influence, and increase your income you will need to use analytics and ads to do so. You can only do this with a business page.

CREATE YOUR BUSINESS PAGE

Did I convince you that you need to create a business page? I hope so!

Are you ready to get started?

The first thing that you need to do is log into your Facebook account and click on the downward facing arrow in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Now, you have to choose a category for your business page. Currently you get six options and each have their benefits. For real estate there are really only 2 categories to consider.
Local business or place
Company, Organization or Institution

However I would highly recommend that you go with “Local Business or Place.” The main reason you want to do this is because this category allows you to list business hours, your address, and it is the only category that allows you to receive ratings and reviews. As I am sure you know ratings and testimonials can be extremely powerful for anyone in the real estate industry.

After you click on the category that you choose to use you will have to fill out the basic info for your page.

After you have entered all of your info, click the “Get Started” button and Facebook will walk you through a quick 4 step process to finalize the creation of your page. Fill out all of the relevant info on each of these steps, and then click “save” on step 4 to create your page.

Upload A Profile and Cover Image

You now have a blank page to begin building.

First, if you didn’t do so in the last stage you will want to upload your profile picture as well as your cover image. You can use any photo editing software of your choice to create these images.

I recommend Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop it you have experience with either of these, or Canva if you are looking for an easy to use tool that is free.

If you choose to use Canva they have a pre-made template for your Facebook cover. If you decide to use a different image editing software you will want to make sure that your images are the following dimensions:

• Profile picture: 180px by 180px minimum (must be a square – it can crop it for you if you would like)
• Cover Image: 851px by 315px (use this exact size for the best fit)

Choose a Call-to-Action

Currently there are 7 options for the call to action button. This button allows you to link visitors to your website. Choose one of the following:

• Book Now
• Contact Us
• Use App
• Play Game
• Shop Now
• Sign Up
• Watch Video

The best options for real estate would be contact us, use app (if you have an app), sign up, or watch video.

The most common is sign up as you can use content in posts to encourage people to click the “sign up” button at the top of your profile to register for a home search or request more info about your services. Watch video can also be used well if you have a welcome video on your website that you want to send prospects to.

Complete Your About Section

Next you will want to click on the “about” tab just under the cover picture, and then click on the page info tab on the left side of the screen. Here you will want to fill out all the information that applies to you.

Finish Your Setup

You are well on your way at this point, there are just a few more steps to go to get fully set up.

You will want to click on the “settings” button in the top right corner and then work your way through the settings for your new page. If you need help deciding what settings are right for you I recommend checking out the Facebook Page Help Center.

There are a couple of settings that you will want to make sure are set correctly.

First you want to make sure that your page visibility is set to page published. You also will want to choose if you allow people to contact you through Facebook messenger, this is located in the message section. I would recommend that you allow them to as it allows you to best connect with potential clients.

If you would like to at this time you can add “starter posts” to your page so that when people begin to find your page there is already content there for them to take a look at. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.

You can also add a featured video if you would like. Videos show on the left side of the page on a desktop or laptop computer, and are featured above the timeline on mobile devices, so they can be a great resource to use if you like video.

The last key step to completing your profile is to manage your sections. This can be done by clicking on the more -> manage tab button in the main page navigation. You can then move your current tabs around, remove tabs, and add tabs to your page. There are a number of things that you can do by adding tabs, but that is something that we will go over sometime down the road.

ALREADY HAVE A FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE?

If you already have a business page, make sure that you have done all of these things to your current page. It is very easy to forget to optimize a page when it is being set up. If you have not done so, follow the steps above and make sure you have all the correct images and information on your page.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Now that you have a fully set up Facebook business page you are ready to begin working on a social media content plan.

Sound complicated?

Don’t worry it isn’t all that complicated. Next week we will be going over what it takes to create a content plan, including:

• Post types
• Post targeting
• Scheduling vs live posting
• Posting tools

Hopefully this has helped you to get your page built. If you still haven’t done so, take 10 minutes right now and go set one up. Remember, action is the key to your success.

Take action on this right now.

You need a Facebook business page for your real estate business, and if you follow the instructions above setting one up is extremely simple.

If you have any questions you can leave them in the comments below, or send me an email.

See ya next week when we will start to go into how to use the new page you just created!

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