How is your Facebook page doing? I know I’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the number of people that view everything I post on Facebook. This is due to a new algorithm change. Facebook is essentially forcing brands to pay for their posts to be shown. While this seems discouraging, there are tactics you can use to generate leads on Facebook.
Let’s look at an example of something that might not be as effective… Do you load up your Facebook timeline with posts by other websites? Do you use Buffer or Hootsuite to share this content with your audience?
That is probably not the most effective use of your time. You used to be able to share other content and gain a following on Facebook. But given the lack of engagement on brand pages, paying to promote clicks to other peoples content just doesn’t give you a positive ROI.
So what can you do?
Here’s my strategy:
1. Leverage Local Groups:
There is still a surprisingly small amount of information on the internet about local events, places, and activities. You want to be the person to create information about your local area. To do this, find groups on Facebook that are tangentially related to real estate. For example, it could be a Garage Sale Group or a Group for Local Moms.
Then you want to create content on your website for this particular group of people.
This content can then be easily shared in these groups! You can make videos about local events or helpful tips that marry real estate and the groups topic. This will get your content shared, viewed, and most importantly get people back to your website.
Why is that important? Simple. You cannot sell on social media but you can sell on your website. Have you heard of the book: Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk? That’s what you have to do! You have to give a lot of value and entertainment to people in your community. Then, and only then, will they visit your website.
2. Capturing Leads From Your Website:
Now that you’ve found a way to get significant traffic from Facebook to your website or blog, you have to find a way to capture this traffic and turn it into contact information. This second step of the process is called lead capture. There are plenty of free applications out there to help you convert this traffic, but the one I like is called SumoMe.
You can install the SumoMe plugin on any website simply by placing a code on the top of your site. What this allows you to do is easily add lead capture to your website.
The SumoMe plugin will allow you to add a pop-up and slide in lead capture device to your site. Now, I know you probably are annoyed by pop-ups when visiting other websites. I get that. But you can’t deny the numbers.
Even the most basic popup converts around 2% of it’s viewers into leads. This is an incredible number. Usually the number of people on your website that convert into a lead is under .5%. If you add a pop-up and slide-in lead capture device to your website, you will see a significant increase in the number of email address you get.
3. Making It Work
Now, your website should be converting social media traffic into leads at a much better rate if you’ve installed SumoMe. What you need to do is make what your lead capture says match what your traffic wants! What do I mean by that? Well, if most of your traffic is coming from a “Mom’s in Dallas” Facebook Group, make an offer that appeals to that demographic.
You can offer them an e-Book or a free cheat sheet on how to sell their home for more money! This type of offer does two very important things. One, it makes sure they are interested from hearing from you. And two, it offers them even more value in exchange for their contact information.
This is the exact same method Gary Vaynerchuk uses! You have given them two sets of value and are now asking for something. It works really, really well. And gets around the problem of how poorly Facebook pages are performing. You are able to help people in your community and even entertain them while growing the number of leads your business takes in.
What do you think?
Is social media promotion working for you in your business? Have you tried writing content and then promoting it via group social channels?
Ask any questions below and I’d love to answer them!
Tyler Zey writes about real estate over at East Agent Pro. He's passionate about helping Realtors see success online. (You can register for his free real estate marketing course here.)
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