Turn Your Facebook Profile into a Social CRM
Guest blogger and REALTOR® Bill Risser is a committee member of the Arizona REALTORS® Foundation for Housing & Community Outreach
Facebook is a source of business for many REALTORS®. Some run ads and boosted posts from business pages while others target the many barter/neighborhood groups.
An often overlooked strategy is to create custom Facebook lists on your profile so you can filter the incoming noise. Custom lists use Facebook in a relationship building way, which is what the majority of Facebook users seek: creation and maintenance of relationships.
Custom lists are simple to build. In the left sidebar, click on the header “Friends”. (Don’t see it? Click here.) This will display all the lists on your account. There are two types of lists, smart lists and custom lists. You will have some smart lists waiting for you; for example, Close Friends, Acquaintances.
Always create your own custom lists and do not use the smart lists. You should avoid smart lists because you then rely on Facebook to categorize your friends and smart lists are not as secure as custom lists.
Once in the list area, click the “Create List” button. The next step is to give the list a name. Do not use the same name as a smart list because Facebook will merge them together into one smart list. For example, you will already have a smart list called “Family.” So, create your own custom family list, but name it “My Family”.
The next dialogue box gives you the option to type in names of friends to add to this custom list. Rather than rely on your memory, click on Create. This will build your list, even though it will be empty.
Now, you will see a big button that says “Add Friends to List”. Click on this and the photos of all of your friends will appear on the screen. Now you can click on the pictures of the friends that belong to the list. A white check mark in a blue box will appear on the picture you select.
When done, click on the “Finish” button at the bottom of the photos. Hit refresh on the browser bar and your list will populate with posts only from friends on the newly created list, with the most recent post at the top.
Typical professional lists for the real estate industry include Clients (some break these down into an A, B, or C lists to mimic the referral-based model they use), Lenders, Affiliates, REALTORS®, and Future Clients. With these lists in place, it convenient to see posts from friends in a particular list with one click of the mouse. As a REALTOR®, you could follow posts and conversations from the source of most of your business: past clients!
Listening is critical to relationship building. Why not employ this on Facebook too? Use these custom lists to listen and reply appropriately. A simple like, comment or share keeps you top of mind with the people most likely to refer new business to you.
One more thing to remember. Sometimes, posts you read from a friend, family member or client require more than a digital response. In this case, pick up the phone, give them a call and foster the relationship further.
Related stories:
You Can ‘Go Viral’ on a Local Level – REALTOR® Magazine (August 2016)
Facebook Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business – YPN Lounge Blog (July 25, 2016)
How to Make Your Facebook Ad More Effective – REALTOR® Magazine (July 2016)
The Dangers of Live Video – REALTOR® Magazine (June 2016)
Bill Risser is vice president of digital strategy for Chicago Title Agency.
Tags: Bill Risser, Facebook