By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS®
Facebook recently overhauled their page insights tools to help page administrators better measure engagement on their business pages. The new tools let users measure how viral a post is, the number of people talking about a page, and the cumulative total reach of a page — in other words, a bunch of stuff most real estate pros really don’t need to know.
A lot of importance has been placed on engagement. Opening and maintaining lines of communication with clients is tried and true, so of course this makes sense. But ask yourself — do I want my clients to:
- Like me on Facebook?
- Follow me back on Twitter?
- Comment on my blog?
- Buy a house?
When measuring a return on your investment, be sure to count the stuff that helps you attain your goals. If having more friends on Facebook is the goal, so be it. But most agents are trying to sell houses. Their engagement strategy should be to build real, lasting relationships with people who are likely to refer them business. Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, or the number of times someone clicked on a QR code may not reflect anything more than a shallow layer of casual and even lazy engagement on the part of their sphere of influence. Measure the stuff that really matters.
