Representing over 200,000 REALTORS®, REALTOR® Associations throughout the United States have stepped up their Facebook initiatives by making it simple for consumers to find, learn about and connect with their members through their own association pages on Facebook.
Real estate is a social business. As supported by the recent growth, Facebook is quickly becoming the place to be for the industry. Since 2008, agent use of Facebook for business purposes has grown from less than 30 percent to over 90 percent today. Of the 150 million U.S. Facebook users, 100 million are between the ages of 30 and 55, a sweet spot for the industry. The amount of time users spend on Facebook has also grown to staggering levels. The most recent estimate is U.S. users spend collectively over 100,000 years of time on Facebook each month.
To attract Facebook users interested in real estate, many REALTOR® Associations are adding consumer-facing apps to their own Facebook pages. Using apps, such as the member directory, visitors to an association’s page can search for REALTORS® by geographic area and service specialty, connecting directly to the member’s Facebook page. From their page, members can showcase their services as well as market and promote their listings through Facebook.
For many agents, having a presence on Facebook shortens the distance to potential customers. Consumers like it because connecting with an agent through Facebook is a natural extension to the social environment they live every day. More importantly, research has shown that consumers are more transparent in the Facebook ecosystem than on the Web, which helps agents make connections and engage with consumers.
“We’re seeing an open and cooperative attitude among all levels of the industry about how Facebook can be a game changer for the agents,” said Mark Bloomfield, CEO of N-Play, a company which develops Facebook real estate applications. “One of the hardest parts of an agent’s job is connecting with prospects and cultivating new customers, whether they are buyers or sellers. Facebook is changing the paradigm on how this can be accomplished on many fronts. It’s an exciting time for the industry,” Bloomfield said.
To view the associations that have added the Directory or for associations interested in adding the Directory to their Facebook page, visit http://www.facebook.com/realestateagentdirectory.
