The reason why this annoys me so is because no-one ever thinks to give a reason WHY I should like your Facebook page. Remember, people go on Facebook to chill out and catch up with friends and family. They don’t go on Facebook to be sold to, they go on Facebook to be entertained.
So when I get emails from letting agents or estate agents or property maintenance firms saying on email, “Like our Facebook page” and gives me absolutely no reason why I should, it is completely reasonable for me to expect that they just want me on there to sell to me. Am I really going to let you invade my leisure space that way just because it furthers your own agenda? Sod off more like. Why should I? What’s in it for me?
So what should you do instead?
The first mistake small businesses make around Facebook pages is to build a little shrine to themselves – and that doesn’t work. Facebook is the medium which brings togehter people around a common interest. When you use Facebook personally and privately, that common interest is YOU. That’s why (if you use Facebook properly) all your Facebook friends are your family and your real life friends. You very rarely meet new people through Facebook (although it is possible, and I have done so – but it is the exception, not the rule).
However, if you want to use Facebook for business, you have to be a Apple or a Jaguar in order for this approach to work. If you or your business is to be the common interest around which you unite people, then you need a legion of existing real life fans – and let’s be honest, who loves letting and estate agents? If you don’t have loads of people who already love you, then the trick is to find something that people DO already love, and tap into that. Why should we? No-one knows who we are. That will take loads of work to make people know about us, and then love us.
So what do landlords love? Well it certainly is every property you have put on the market .. so why the hell do you agents insist on posting every listing on your facebook page. You are wasting your time and more importantly, wasting my time .. If I did like your page, I will soon be un-liking it. Landlords love property though – they love hat is happening to their property market. So Southampton landlords love the Southampton property market, Uxbridge landlords love Uxbridge property .. so on and so forth .. but they don’t love you Mr(s) letting agent. So why don’t you make a Facebook page about that – your local property market. Tap into that pre-existing love. It’s a lot easier. When we invite people to like our Facebook page, we tell them why, we tell them exactly what they can expect: a place where they can share and indulge their love of local property
So what does this mean for you Mr(s) Letting Agent?
If you’ve survived in business this long, then I know you’re not so selfish and clueless that you would expect the general public to love you and support you for no reason. There’s got to be something in it for them. So, if you want people to like your Facebook page, get over yourself and give us a reason to. Don’t expect something for nothing.
So, ask yourself … As a landlord, who lives in Southampton, whose Facebook page would you be more likely to like: the letting agent who says, “Please like our Facebook page” (implied: so we can sell to you)? Or the letting agent who says, “Pop over to our Facebook page for daily tips where the buy to let bargains are in Southampton”? (Just change the location to your town and I think you will get my drift)