Take Facebook to the next level

By speaking to one of Australia’s leading social media experts, The Royals, we find out exactly what you need to know.

While 54.1 per cent of brokers recently told The Adviser they use social media in their business, only 18 per cent said it has directly improved their bottom line.

Facebook is the preferred social media for 47.3 per cent of brokers, with LinkedIn the second most popular at 28.4 per cent. Only 1.2 per cent nominated Twitter as their social media of choice.

In the first of a two-part series on social media, we look into the practicalities of Facebook, before exploring how to use LinkedIn in the January issue of The Adviser.

Steve O’Farrell, director at social media experts The Royals, says the main advantage for brokers looking to include Facebook in their marketing mix is the reach and depth to which you can engage with consumers.

“The fantastic thing about digital is that consumers can go from not being aware of a brand or product, to becoming a customer and brand advocate in just a few clicks,” he says.

Mr O’Farrell says Facebook can be used to achieve a variety of goals, but for brokers it is best to focus on just one, such as improving client relationships.

“Real estate transactions are high involvement purchases, so it’s best to focus on the one primary objective wherever possible,” he says.

How can you ensure your page is viewed?

It can be tough to attract existing or potential clients to your Facebook page, given the amount of distractions on the site.

Mr O’Farrell says large Facebook followings generally don’t build organically, and brokers need to employ a couple of different tactics to encourage customers to land on their page.

“Including links in directories, emails and other branded collateral will make a difference, albeit minimal,” he says. “Beyond that, Facebook display ads and sponsored stories are a great way for people to view your Facebook page and content, while running Facebook competitions and promotions are ways to drive deeper engagement.”

Facebook ads are highly targeted, reaching only specific users based on filters such as age, gender, location, education and interest.

Mr O’Farrell says “because buys are generally done on a CPC [cost per clicks] basis, you only pay for ads that people actually engage with”.

Cost wise, Mr O’Farrell says Facebook CPCs are generally pretty favourable when compared to more expensive and competitive CPC-based buys such as Google AdWords.

“Costs totally depend on what you’re trying to do, but CPCs can vary from $0.50 to $1.50, depending on the level of targeting required,” he says.

In the past, however, Anthony Alabakov from My Mortgage Freedom has spent money on Facebook ads and says he found the exercise to be unsuccessful.

“We just weren’t getting clicks from the ads; we found that Facebook wasn’t a great generator, so now we just focus on using it to build our presence with existing clients. For us, Facebook is really just about generating trust and better relationships,” he says.

However, Mr Alabakov says certain segments of the market are more responsive to the ads, with younger buyers more likely to click on a paid advert.

“If you were targeting first home buyers aged between 20 and 30 years, and that was your demographic, then I think you could do really well,” he says.
Aside from Facebook ads, there are other ways to promote your Facebook page – and they cost nothing.

Tiffen & Co’s Stephanie Brennan, who placed eighth in The Adviser’s Young Broker 2013 ranking, uses Facebook without spending a cent.

“For me, Facebook is about keeping top of mind with the people I know to remind them of what I do, to get business that way, and it has been quite successful,” she says.

“I try to get all my personal Facebook friends to like and share my professional page, and from that alone I get referral business.”

Ms Brennan says there are other ways to get your Facebook page out there, such as satisfied clients tagging her page in their status updates or photos when they get their loan.

She also says her professional network of real estate agents, accountants and financial planners help to promote her page.

“I send referral gifts to people every now and again and they tend to take a picture of it and tag me,” she says.

These tactics cost no money and therefore only need to deliver a small benefit to be a positive tactic for a broker’s business.

Mr Alabakov says while it is very difficult to measure things such as benefit to client relationships, he knows it is there and is confident Facebook is improving his bottom line.

Measuring the value of a Facebook page is more complex than just recording loans directly generated through the site. According to Mr O’Farrell, brokers should try to use Facebook to monitor client perceptions and where they sit in the marketplace.

“Through free or inexpensive third party apps and monitoring tools, businesses are able to measure and evaluate things such as the success of their own content marketing activity, their share of voice relative to competitors, a perception or sentiment shift – not to mention the volume of traffic driven by social media,” he says.

How can you ensure a broker returns to your page?

Engaging customers not only encourages them to actively seek out your page in the future, it will also increase the likelihood that your page will appear in their news feed. According to Mr O’Farrell, engaging customers is all about the frequency and relevance of the content you post.

“Ideally, content should be posted at least three times per week – but only if it’s worth sharing, based on content being either entertaining, informative, or both,” he says.

“The greater the prominence and relevancy of your content, the higher your chances of fans clicking on one of your links, thereby driving them to your page, your website, or a promotional tab.”

Ms Brennan says she tries to post content at least a couple of times per week. The type of content she posts varies, but usually includes things like Reserve Bank announcements and articles of interest to her target market.

Facebook provides traffic reports to show how many people are viewing your page and Ms Brennan says from this, she can see just how important it is for her to be active in posting content.

“It depends on how active I’ve been on the page as to how much traffic has gone through,” she says. “Some weeks are better than others and they tend to be the weeks when I’ve been active in posting content.”

Dealing with the negatives

It is the nature of the business that despite all best efforts, some clients may be left dissatisfied and want to vent their feelings in public. Unfortunately, a broker’s Facebook page is the perfect place for this.

Negative feedback is often a sensitive issue for business owners, as nobody likes to hear negative comments about themselves or their business.

“Our advice to brand owners is to clearly and objectively state your case, with the aim of turning any negative comments into a positive experience for your customers,” Mr O’Farrell says.

If this isn’t possible, there are some other options. Facebook allows for business owners to hide negative posts, meaning the comment is only visible to the poster and their friends, and of course, posts can always be deleted.

However, Mr O’Farrell warns that deleting posts isn’t usually the best-case scenario and should only be undertaken “as a last resort”.

“The ‘law of the crowd’ says that people who have had positive experiences will generally come to your defense when up against the dissenters … and your business will ultimately be rewarded for this type of transparency,” he says.