Understanding Facebook Algorithms to Grow Your Real Estate Business

Facebook has always been the preferred social media platform among internet users. For a long time, this popular site was primarily meant for people to simply engage with other people in their network — generally, just their friends, family, colleagues, etc. Though it’s still certainly used for these purposes, nowadays, Facebook is used for so much more. It’s a place to start a business, sell products, start conversations, grow communities, and broaden your audience beyond just those people in your immediate circle, especially as a real estate agent. 

How? 

With comprehensive algorithms created by Facebook, agents like you can use those to their advantage. However, before you delve in too deep, it’s important to understand how these algorithms work. 

The Basics of Algorithms on Facebook 

Facebook gives users lots of ways to advertise their businesses. Unfortunately, these tend to cost a decent sum of money, from choosing to boost your posts to paying for Facebook ads. Many people think that they must utilize these avenues in order to see any results. But, that’s not necessarily the case. 

The whole point of these algorithms is to keep users engaging with people or businesses that they likely want to engage with, based on their past history on Facebook. Again, this typically means that you’ll continue to see posts from family, friends, and colleagues, as that’s probably what you interact with most. 

Therefore, by understanding how this works, it’s fairly easy to manipulate that algorithm to benefit your business. All you need to do is alter who you engage with, and how often you engage with them. This is, of course, where having your own business page comes in handy, as you shouldn’t have to stop liking or engaging with the people you care about on your personal page. With a business page, you can choose to only engage with the people or other businesses in your network that are valuable to you as an agent, and purposely stay away from other interactions. 

Facebook is Smarter Than You Think 

While playing this algorithm game seems like an easy way to bring in clients, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Facebook likely knows what you’re up to, and if it’s fishy, they’ll stop it. After all, how is Facebook going to encourage people to pay for their business services and profit? They are keeping an eye on users like you, making sure you follow some basic fair-business guidelines. 

Therefore, it’s important that you avoid using your business page as an in-your-face sales pitch to everyone who engages with you via that same algorithm. Instead, you should be focusing on what it is you are posting, leaving the option to engage ultimately up to others. 

What To Post 

Do not — we repeat — DO NOT treat your Facebook business page as a place to hound potential leads. You’re a real estate agent, and therefore, you already have a ton of great content you can share without turning people away.  

To get that algorithm to work in your favor without breaching Facebook’s guidelines, you need to get active — really active. You want people to see your business on their feed all the time. Of course, they won’t want to see you there unless you’re providing real value you to them. Facebook isn’t necessarily a place to make sales. It’s a place to engage with potential leads by letting them come to you. 

So, how can you provide value to your Facebook followers? Think — videos, memes, conversation starters, interesting content (re-posting from other feeds), and, of course, information about your open houses! Change it up, post frequently, and take a look at what’s doing well in terms of engagement. Thankfully, Facebook provides free reports for business pages, so you can see what posts are working well in terms of engagement. 

Tips on Appropriate Engagement 

If you’re not a ‘social media’ person, then it’s time to change that. Facebook should be downloaded on every device you have. It is an excellent tool to gently bring in leads for your real estate business. 

But, that means you need to get involved. Here’s how you can engage appropriately and see results: 

• Try to like and comment on other posts that are similar to yours. This makes you visible to others and encourages other users to do the same to your posts. 
• Make sure you like and reply to EVERYONE that comments or likes your posts. 
• When a new person likes your page, give them a shout out, and encourage them to engage. 
• Post a weekly thread to let others get involved in a conversation, for instance, sharing what they are looking for in a new home. 
• Create “online events” for “offline events.” Host an event where people can actually meet each other, and meet you physically. That’s where you can start selling.  
• Engage with other businesses and people locally. As mentioned before, Facebook algorithms work by displaying posts in your feed that will likely be relevant to you. In addition to showing you what your friends and family members are up to, they will also use your location to show you what’s going on in your area. If you’re active enough, this will also work the opposite way, having your business displayed on other people’s feeds as well. 

Going Beyond Just a Page 

Facebook gives business owners many ways to get involved with their audience beyond just having a page. While your page is essentially the foundation holding the other things up, you should definitely create other platforms within Facebook to give those algorithms more to work with. Create Facebook groups or communities, make sure you’re on messenger, and keep your personal page professional. 

There’s no question that Facebook is an excellent tool for advancing your real estate business. That being said, it’s important to understand how these algorithms work so you can really make the most of your social media presence.