Transform Transform August 2014 | Page 7

your readers will like and share your content, which also adds more fans to your Facebook page. To grow your audience faster, use advertising. Facebook ads can be targeted to a specific age group; in this case, between 25 and 50, the range in which most people are looking to purchase their first home. If you can’t afford advertising then take advantage of free advertising by participating in Facebook groups. Since most cities and neighborhoods have their own groups, joining in and posting about available homes in that area can reach an audience you might have otherwise missed. 3. Diversify with Email It’s long been an adage of marketing that nothing reaches readers better than direct mail. In today’s virtual world, that means building an email list. Facebook allows you to add a form on your Facebook page that will allow readers and fans to sign up for your email list. Take a look at a new app designed to make it easy for non-techie people to add forms to their fan pages. You can even offer incentives, such as a free market analysis, to encourage readers to sign up. The better the incentive, the better your conversion rate will be. If you can offer something that feels high-value readers will flock to your list. 4. Include Calls to Action At the end of your Facebook posts, do you invite the readers to take additional steps, or do you simply end the post? Including a call to action serves multiple purposes: on one hand, it lets readers know that there are more steps they can take. On the other, it provides a clear, succinct way to end the post. Many people struggle with just cutting off the information they provide in a way that doesn’t come across as awkward, and a call to action solves that problem. 5. Use Events to Create Leads You can create a Facebook post, and it will generate some interest and possibly even leads for your company. However, an event is much more visible and allows people to sign up. As the event grows, so will the interest it generates – as more and more people see that an event is growing in popularity, their curiosity will mount. Anything you do, whether it’s an open house, a webinar, or a special event that is open to the public, can be made into an event that will result in much greater visibility than a normal post might. Just because Facebook isn’t traditionally thought of as a way to generate ton ́