Real Estate Marketing with Facebook Groups
Are you looking for ways to market your real estate business that help you to grow your network and impact your community? I love using Facebook groups for marketing, especially for real estate agents, to help them grow their network, email list, and sales!
Why Use Facebook Groups for Marketing?
Facebook groups are a great location to virtually meet people, share content, and engage in conversations. Facebook groups can be the starting point of a relationship where someone becomes aware of you. Usually, a Facebook community is a great marketing tool by utilizing groups to have more conversations and expand your network.
Types of Facebook Groups
There are 4 main categories of Facebook groups to use for marketing:
- Buy and Sell Groups
- Community/Neighborhood Specific Groups
- Interest/Niche Facebook Groups
- Client/VIP Groups
The way you approach using each of these types of Facebook groups is slightly different, but overall, you can still network, brand yourself, and grow your email list with all four of them.
Start your own Facebook Group or Use Others?
When you want to implement using a Facebook group as a part of your real estate business plan, you’ll want to decide if you’re going to start your own Facebook group or use existing groups. There are pros and cons to each.
The pros of starting your own Facebook group are:
- You get to brand the group however you want
- You have more control of the members, rules, and guidelines
- You can advertise at your discretion
The cons of starting your own Facebook group are:
- It takes time to grow your own group
- You have to commit to cultivating a community
- You are responsible for maintaining the group
The cons of marketing in other Facebook groups:
- Other groups likely have limitations on your advertising/promotion schedule
- You always have to double check that you are complying with the group rules and policies
- Other groups can remove you or close and you have no control over that
Pros to marketing in other Facebook groups:
- You don’t have to wait for a group to grow and get established
- Your can start connecting and creating conversations in comment sections right away
- You don’t have to focus on group growth or maintenance
- There may be opportunities for you to have exclusivity with an established group
Goals when Marketing with Facebook Groups
Once you’ve decided if you’re going to start your own Facebook group or use existing groups, here are your top 3 goals.
First, you want to establish new relationships and connections using Facebook groups. The best way to do this is to not just join a group but actively create posts and comment on others. If you get a conversation going, you can try to add that person as a friend to stay connected.
Second, you want to create conversations. Again, commenting and group discussions are a great way to do this. If you continue to show up in a group like this, you’ll likely create more conversations for yourself. You can take some of these conversations to messenger.
Third, grow your database or email list. Ultimately, you want to get people’s contact info to stay in touch with them. You can do this by offering a lead magnet, connecting in messenger, or doing meetups.
So often, I see real estate agents and business owners make the mistake of trying to close with a post or a comment inside a Facebook group. But, the best thing you can do is establish a connection and relationship, then stay in contact, and then close naturally. If you try to sell someone who isn’t thinking of selling their home for 2 years, they will believe that’s all you care about and won’t be as inclined to connect. But, if you establish a relationship and then real estate (or business) comes up naturally, it will open up more opportunities for you down the road.
Facebook groups are a great way to grow you email list and network, when they’re done right! Remember that you are developing relationships which take time. And with more time, you earn more trust.
If you are ready to start your own community building group, grab my free mini e-book all about starting a Facebook group. I also have a video and group coaching program that you can join. If we’re not in a live round, you still get access to the replays and Facebook group.
