“But, essentially, Samantha, it’s funny, because we look at people who run business pages, and I look at these every single day, and I see most of them don’t have a contact form on their business page! And I think to myself, would any business, any real estate or otherwise, anywhere in the world, ever have a website without a contact form or a way for a consumer to reach out to them? And the obvious answer is ‘no’, but yet this has become acceptable with Facebook business pages! It seems as though businesses say – lets have a page, and let’s engage – but then not have any lead capture mechanisms in place. Our passion for the last couple of months is trying to crack that code to make it easy for everyone to use.”
Back to the question about all the changes that Facebook has made recently, and how they will impact businesses on Facebook and Mackin thoughtfully continues, “You raise a really interesting point, which is it’s going to be harder for people to cut through and reach the people they normally were reaching. I agree with that assessment, I think creating valuable content is now even more important than it ever has been in the past, with the changes to the newsfeed and the ticker and the timeline.
A ‘like’ doesn’t carry the same weight it used to; a comment doesn’t carry the same weight it used to. We’ve seen a drop of impressions across pages since the changes, and it’s interesting, there’s an article recently written by one of my colleagues, and they reported across a sample size of about 1,500 pages that page impressions have dropped 33% across the board. That’s really significant in a lot of ways.
I think if you are right now marketing yourself on Facebook or Twitter, the thing you have to really ask yourself is, ‘Would I follow me?’ It sounds like a really basic question, but think about it, would you really follow yourself? Is your content that great, is it really helpful, is it really valuable that you could honestly say yes to that answer, and if so great. By all means do more of it! However, if you look at your last 10 posts and they are all about ‘I’m the greatest real estate agent in the universe, you should use me’ – there is a problem there! (laughs).
So yeah, the changes to Facebook, they are separating really the pretenders from the contenders in my opinion, where the good content is really floating to the top, and it’s going to get exposure, where as the ordinary stuff will just get ignored.”
I have no doubt he is right on the money. We continue to talk about all sorts of digital topics, and after a few awesome tips for me about how to use social media more effectively (which I will definitely take on board) I’m kind of sad the conversation has to end. But I know I needn’t worry; I’m pretty sure we will all be chatting again on Facebook very soon.
To find out more about the Lead Conversion App visit www.leadconversionapp.com. To connect with Jimmy on Facebook, www.facebook.com/jimmymackin.To follow Jimmy on Twitter www.twitter.com/jimmymackin.
Jimmy Mackin’s Top 10 Tips
- Post Daily
If you want to reach more of your fan base, post more often.I know this sounds like an obvious statement, but I find that most agents lack any consistency with their posting. ComScore’s white paper on “The Power of the Like” reports that pages that post seveb days a week reach nearly three times more people than pages that post once a day. - Post during Odd Hours
Buddy Media reports that 60% of brand posts were published between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM.Brands that published after normal business hours experienced a 20% lift in engagement. - Take advantage of the odd hours to capitalize on this opportunity
Buddy Media reports that 60% of brand posts were published between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM. Brands that published after normal business hours experienced a 20% lift in engagement. - Mediocrity is for Losers
I know virtually nothing about the Australian Real Estate Industry, but I think I can safely assume that it is very competitive. Given the choice of hundreds of agents to choose, why would anyone choose you? If you want remarkable results, you must do remarkable things. Break the mold of medoicrity and do something special.Warning:This will be uncomfortable and you could fail horribly. Proceed Accordingly. - You don’t need to like Facebook
Think Facebook is really stupid? Your opinion doesn’t matter. There is over 9,000,000 Australians on Facebook, spending an enormous amount of time logged in. We need to be where customers are. Period. - Use Insights to Appeal to the “Lurkers”
Have you ever posted something on Facebook and got no response? We’ve all been there before, luckily all is not lost. Log into Facebook Page > Click on Insights > Scroll down until you see your posting history. Sort the column by Engaged Users (High to Low). You now have visibilty to what these lurkers are doing, they may not like or comment, but you can now tell if they’re clicking. Then, make a list of your top five most engaging posts and do more of that. - Search out Inspiration
I’m not a particularly creative person, I have to seek it out.I am always in search of businesses who run super-successful Facebook Pages. Here are a few worth following
•Mission Biycle – https://www.facebook.com/missionbicycle
•Buffalo Wild Wings – https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloWildWings
•Aunt Bug’s Cabin Rental – https://www.facebook.com/AuntBugsCabinRentals?sk=wall
•The Corcoran Group – https://www.facebook.com/thecorcorangroup
•The Pampered Chef -https://www.facebook.com/ThePamperedChef - Heading: Sweat the Details
Buffalo Wild Wings runs a wildly successful Facebook Business Page with over 5,000,000 raving fans. They reported that the average Facebook Fans spend $616 more per year than their typical customer. In this chart, BWW breaks down the amount of interaction by total word count. Whenever possible keep it short and eliminate unnecessary words. - Establish a Fan Policy
In the early stages of having a business page, it was almost impossible to imagine our page growing to 1,000 fans.I learned early on, that if I could engage my small fan base (at the time it was around 50 people), I could attract more people. I decided to start my own Fan Policy.I sent a personal message to every new person who “liked” my page.I would welcome them to the page, tell them what we were all about, encourage them to comment, share and ask questions.In addition to that I would give out all of my contact information.I did this for every single new fan.As my current fan base started engaging, their friends started joining the page, and we began to see consistent growth. Going the extra mile is how you build real relationships, and real relationships lead to real business. - Embrace Change
Technology moves fast, you need to move fast. Wondering why Borders bit the dust?As Slate.com reports, they were done in by their own stupidity. Rather than invest in their online presence they “threw the keys”to Jeff Bezos Amazon’s CEO.
Faceboook is continuing its metoric rise to 1,000,000,000 users. I’m doubling down on Facebook, I suggest you do the same.
