I’m having GREAT success using Facebook pages coupled with “old fashioned” neighborhood farming… getting to meet so many people in our neighborhood, and providing lots of cool stuff for them.
Here’s what I’ve done:
- Created a neighborhood page on our website. I include photos, videos, listings, neighbor testimonials, etc.
- Created a neighborhood Facebook page with lots of photos.
- I went door-to-door (yep, I know this is where I lost almost all of you) – using clear door hanger bags and a 5×8 postcard with two pieces of candy – promoting the Facebook page for the neighborhood. I didn’t knock or bug people, I just hang them on the door handles. My kids did that while I drove with the supplies.
- I did this 4-6 times over the course of a 3 month period.
- I watched my page numbers grow.
- Started interacting with neighbors/residents – from yard sales, lost pet notices, HOA info, etc. and including photos, videos, etc.
- I throw little contests – I did a drawing for a $25 gift certificate for a local restaurant. All they had to do was ‘like’ the post and share a comment on what they love about the neighborhood. I drew a winner – did it on video, met the winner in person, gave all of the other participants ‘consolation prizes’ (candy bars) everything of which I delivered IN PERSON.
- As I deliver things in person, I ask them to do video testimonials of what they love about living in the neighborhood. I put those testimonials up on our web page and push a couple through to the Facebook page.
- I ran another contest – this one was simply a promo on who loved a particular yogurt store in our neighborhood. This gave me another 14 people I got to meet in person (I gave everyone a $2 gift certificate) and the owner of the store saw it and gave me 50 excellent coupons to give out in future promo’s.
- I’m starting to do direct mail to our neighborhood to capitalize on the door-to-door and Facebook pages. I’ll keep promoting the Facebook page – then use the Facebook page as our way to meet people IRL and build relationships with them.
Our goal is to become THE neighborhood realtor – the one everyone knows – the one that loves the neighborhood. I have lots of other plans for the next 12 months. AND, most recently I just added Jimmy Mackin’s leadconversionapp.com to my pages, oh my heaven, I haven’t even put a video up yet and I’ve got people’s names and emails from them signing in!
I’m building trust relationships with people – so that when I have something real estate related, it’ll be looked at and considered, not just thrown away.
In all my years of farming, I’ve never had this much contact this quickly with home owners (this inexpensively!!).
Catch Christina live at Agent Reboot Boise where she will be on a panel about Social Media Insights – Making the Smartest Investment of Your Time.
October 17, 2011 at 8:02 am
Way to really make your Facebook page a success. I’ll admit, I’m not one to do all of those things to make it successful. Interesting timing on this post next to what Chris just wrote!
October 20, 2011 at 8:11 pm
Thanks Ben! It was a whole strategy, one we are still working. You are right, most people will just throw a mailer or two at the neighborhood and call it good.
October 17, 2011 at 8:23 am
This was all part of our neighborhood farming goal this year – to own our neighborhood. We don’t own it yet, but we certainly will. It is funny about the timing with Chris’s post!
October 17, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Christina this is exactly the type of thought and strategy that is REQUIRED for social media and Facebook success. Thank you for this breath of fresh air.
I would highly recommend NOT deleting your pages
October 21, 2011 at 9:12 am
October 21, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I’m not quite sure what to do with all of the agents that are now “liking” the page… thinking about disconnecting them from that page LOL!
October 17, 2011 at 8:26 am
Love this post! Great tangible tips that show how a page can be an evolution of your more traditional farming activities. It’s also a perfect example of quality of likes over quantity of likes.
October 17, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Stacey I couldn’t agree more. This article is why I love Facebook. It allows for those with a clear vision and execution strategy to be successful. To my earlier article this is NOT what is happening on most pages.
October 17, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Exactly Stacey. It’s under 100 people but over 60 LIVE in the neighborhood.
October 17, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Wow, this was an awesome post! Great ideas, Pamela and I will for sure add this to our farming strategy.
October 17, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Good luck! Have fun with it! I sure am!
October 17, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Thanks for these great tips and for being willing to share them.
On a side note how come there is no option to “retweet” this article? or am I missing it?
October 17, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Jarred we are experiencing technical difficulties buttons should be up soon.
October 17, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Thanks Jarred! I hope it helps someone in their endeavors.
October 17, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Great Idea, have been thinking about doing this was not sure how to do it. Did you get much reistance to start with.
Anne
October 17, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Anne, what kind of resistance are you referring to? From whom?
October 17, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Now, that’s what I call a modern marketing mix. Excellent post.
October 17, 2011 at 10:23 pm
John, that’s the goal! I want to use the tools to make engagement more effective.
October 17, 2011 at 3:04 pm
How many homes are in your neighborhood?
How many transactions have you completed as a result of the Facebook and other campaigns?
October 17, 2011 at 10:22 pm
There are 561 parcels in my neighborhood, 12 of which are vacant lots. Each year, 30-32 homes change hands in our neighborhood, making 60-64 transactions. Since starting this campaign we have closed 3 listings and have a 4th listing pending in this neighborhood.
October 17, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Oh, plus one high end buyer that found us because of the SEO from our website page and blog posts on this particular neighborhood. It’s a whole strategy.
October 17, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Thanks Christina for the great information. I am slowly building a FB following myself however it is a slow process so I am doing it on top of my regular monthly farming duties. I just spent two hours hanging my clear plastic door hanger bags with 2012 calendars in them. Usually get my children to help also but today I felt like I needed the exercise plus it was a beautiful 85degree day here in Frisco, North Texas.
October 17, 2011 at 10:20 pm
I love to share. I hope it on some way helps your farming activities!
October 17, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Brilliant love your thinking outside the box ideas!
October 17, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Thank you Mary! The goal was to engage my neighbors. I’m achieving it better than ever before. I love social media!
October 17, 2011 at 6:18 pm
At the risk of repeating Mary, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Great job defining your target audience and figuring out what they respond to. The recipe is not going to look exactly the same for everybody, but you are spot on with how you approached creating your strategy and how you’ve paid attention to the response. I’m curious, though, why no MLS listings on your FB page?
October 17, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Tracy, thanks for your comments! The neighborhood Facebook page is about our community. While I will periodically provide real estate data (emphasis on periodically), my whole intention for the page was community engagement, not sales. Yes, I want to be the agent of choice. However, people hate being sold stuff. So I’m there to facilitate easy exchange of communication amongst our neighborhood. HOWEVER, everyone who likes the page I go ahead and personally connect with. I add them to my personal Facebook and, if they aren’t an agent, I add them to my snail and email campaigns. It’s even more effective after I’ve met them in person.
October 18, 2011 at 8:48 am
Wow! Fantastic Idea and great tips! My community is very small, but I live in a little pocket town of only 3800. I could become the expert in my town…. Thanks again for posting GREAT info!
October 18, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Jennie – you absolutely could become the “go-to” resource for your community! Have fun doing it!
October 18, 2011 at 8:51 am
Thanks, Christina! Great ideas here. We currently send a mailer every month to an area but are not seeing great results. I think if we integrate the Facebook page and all of the other ideas, we should see a significant increase.
October 18, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Danny – that’s exactly where we were. I was tired of the dismal farming results, the amount of time and money it took just to get some engagement – I thought integrating Facebook would help. It did. A lot.
October 18, 2011 at 8:59 am
Awesome! Thanx for sharing. Let’s hope that every city / neighbourhood has an agent that cares this much for their area and their business.
Greetz from The Netherlands.
October 18, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Thanks for reading Han. Hope it helps you in some way!
October 18, 2011 at 9:05 am
Awesome! Thanx for sharing
October 18, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Thanks for reading Bhoma!
October 18, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Thank you Christina for sharing such innovative, out of the box ideas. Do you have social media marketing (relation ship builder) individual or do you do it all your self?
October 18, 2011 at 1:53 pm
ALL engagement is myself and my husband/business partner. Always. There is no way to outsource true engagement.
October 18, 2011 at 1:48 pm
you absolutely could become “the” go-to resource. have fun implementing!
October 18, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I ran a “like” contest and gave away a dozen bagels and coffee from the new bagel shop in town to the winner. It increased my pr (personal ranking) with the owners of the shop and also brought a little excitement to my community page.
October 18, 2011 at 8:26 pm
I LOVE having the little contests – and so do the page members. It’s fun!
October 19, 2011 at 12:56 am
Hi Christina, Just found your blog post shared on a real estate group for Aussie Agents. Well done, As you well know, Social Media Marketing is about interacting with your peers, not selling to them.
I wish you every success in your neighbourhood
October 19, 2011 at 8:37 am
Thanks jeroen! It’s just like IRL (in real life). We don’t just stand around like rocks, we talk and connect!
October 19, 2011 at 4:53 am
I absolutely LOVE your idea! Much success to you! Beth
October 19, 2011 at 8:40 am
Thanks Beth. I hope you found something you can use.
October 19, 2011 at 8:11 am
You’re a superstar Christina! Thanks for sharing your helpful tips.
October 19, 2011 at 8:43 am
Thanks Jimmy! I have to say, I’m in LOVE with your leadconversionapp.com ! I’m working on getting it fully functioning to its highest level.
October 19, 2011 at 3:43 pm
It really is a great idea, appreciate the article!
October 19, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Thanks. It’s a strategy and we are still working on it.
October 20, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Great Ideas -Sounds like a plan!
October 20, 2011 at 8:12 pm
Thanks Gladys – hope it helps you in some way.
October 21, 2011 at 9:25 am
Clear strategy yielding results! Thanks for sharing Christina!
October 21, 2011 at 2:31 pm
That was the goal Rajeev! We are still working it – adding more layers – going deeper – connecting with our neighbors.
October 21, 2011 at 9:29 am
Christina, great strategy. To truly have synergy between one’s online and off-line marketing strategy is something we should all strive off. Way to go! What you described is the personal touches that can get clouded and missed behind technology. We get online to get offline!
October 21, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Thanks Angie! That’s exactly my focus – use online to get offline.
November 3, 2011 at 2:31 pm
That’s one of the most comprehensive plans I’ve heard about in a long time. Great job!
November 9, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Thanks Greg! There’s a lot more to it – but this is definitely a foundational piece.
November 8, 2011 at 2:59 pm
I was just in the process of figuring out how I was going to utilize a Facebook page I started a couple months back and bingo, your article has given me direction!! Thanks a ton for sharing!.
November 9, 2011 at 2:51 pm
I’m glad I could trigger some brain juice for you Rusty!! Good luck!!
December 9, 2011 at 2:09 pm
I am curious, have you thought about passively profiling local small businesses(eg eateries, shops, bars) and also thought about profiling the local schools?
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