Although it may seem a bit dated in the age of TikTok, your real estate agent Facebook page is still one of the most important elements of your online brand. While Facebook (now Meta) traffic has taken a small hit recently, one group still uses Facebook more than any other platform—Baby Boomers—the very demographic who are statistically most likely to buy and sell real estate.
It’s not difficult to create a real estate agent Facebook page, especially with this step-by-step guide. We’ll walk you through the process and provide expert tips for creating targeted advertising, maximizing engagement and lead capture, and more.
1. Set Up a Facebook Business Page
The first step to setting up a real estate agent Facebook page is to head to Facebook and create a business page. You’re going to need a personal Facebook page, so sign up for one if you don’t have one already. And yes, you can keep your business page and personal pages separate if you want to.
To get started, go to Pages and click on “Create new Page.”
Next, fill in your business details: name, phone number, email, and address. For your name, don’t just use your first and last name. Instead, add something like “Realtor” or “Real Estate Agent.” This helps people differentiate between your personal and business pages.
For “Category,” choose “Real Estate Agent” as your page category. You could also choose “Real Estate Company,” “Commercial Real Estate Agency,” or “Real Estate Developer,” if one of these is applicable to you.
Once you’re done naming your real estate agent Facebook page appropriately and adding a description, click on “Create page.” You can then edit your page and add details. You might also get a pop-up offering to connect your page with WhatsApp.
2. Upload Your Profile Picture
Now you have a blank real estate Facebook page with your name and contact information. Let’s personalize it a bit by uploading your headshot. You can click right on the camera icon on the circle to upload a headshot.
You can use any picture that you’d like, but we always strongly suggest agents use a headshot that makes them look trustworthy, competent, and confident―in that order.
Real Estate Agent Headshots: 15 Industry Experts Share Their Best Advice
SPECS: As far as dimensions go, don’t worry too much about making it “high-res,” but we recommend at least 72 ppi. Make sure it’s at least 250×250 pixels. Your profile picture will be 170×170 on desktop computers and only 128×128 on phones, so make sure your head is centered properly and people can see your eyes—even on small screens.
3. Upload Your Cover Image
Now that you’ve got a headshot on your page, let’s upload a cover image—that large, rectangular image that sits behind your profile picture. A good cover image is one that’s attractive, complements your profile picture, and hopefully, says something about what you do.
For example, if you’re selling beautiful farm properties in the Carolina Piedmont, pick a pretty landscape photo. If you’re selling oceanfront in Hawaii, make sure your photo highlights a stunning view. You have a great opportunity here to visually convey your target market.
SPECS: Cover images should be at least 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall, with a recommended minimum image resolution of 72 pixels per inch (ppi). If you upload an image that’s too small, Facebook will stretch the image to fit their 820 x 312 dimensions. While that might not be a huge deal for an image sized at 800 × 300 pixels, it will make a 400 × 150 image look blurry and distorted.
Get High-quality Professional Cover Images
If you don’t have access to high-quality cover images (that you have the rights to use), you should check out Unsplash. They have 100% free stock photography that is head and shoulders above the free offerings on sites like Shutterstock.
You can also try Adobe Stock. It’s not free, but you can probably get away with only spending $30 or so for one month and download 10 images.
Adding Text or Your Logo to Your Cover Image
You can also add text or a logo to your cover image. Facebook will cut 90 pixels off the left and right side of your cover image on mobile, so make sure your text is centered and not too close to the side edges, as in the example above.
If you want to add a logo, slogan, or other text to your cover image, you have a few options. First, you can try your hand on a design app like Canva, or you can head over to Fiverr and hire someone to create a professional cover image for you (starting at just $5).
Canva for Real Estate Agents: The Ultimate Guide for 2022
Adding a Slideshow Cover Image
Slideshows are really easy. Put a few pictures you like in a folder and click on the little camera icon in the corner of your cover image. Next, upload your pictures in the order you want them on your Facebook page.
Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t scroll through your cover images automatically when a user visits your page (as the name “slideshow” suggests). Instead, they will have to click on the left or right arrows to look at your series of photos.
Once you’ve named your page, added a description, headshot, and cover image, and then click “Save.”
4. Add Call-to-Action Buttons to Your Real Estate Agent Facebook Page
At this point, we have a page that’s starting to look like something. We have your contact information, profile picture, cover photo or video, and some other basic information about your business.
Next, let’s add a call-to-action (CTA) button to give your visitors an easy way to reach out. There are plenty of different CTA buttons, so pick the one that’s best for you!
Click on the big blue “Add a button” button and get started.
Walk through the steps for whatever call to action you’d like to include. For example, if you want to let visitors contact you, you’ll get this prompt:
Visitors will get a call-to-action button that encourages them to enter their email address, allowing you to collect their contact information.
5. Create an Easy-to-Remember @Username
Now that you have your Facebook page mostly built, it’s time to give it a name. So go back to your Facebook homepage and click on “Pages,” then your newly created business page. Next, click on “Create @username” below your page name.
Don’t worry―you don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. Come up with something easy to remember that says something about your business. Some agents just use their business name, like “SansaStarkRealty,” while others get a bit more creative with their Facebook Page handle, like @SansaSellsManhattan.
6. Preview How Your Page Will Look to Visitors on Desktop & Mobile
Once you have your CTA buttons set up and you’ve named your page, click on the “View as Visitor” button.
Anytime you make changes to your page and want to see what it will actually look like to visitors, click this button. Make sure to check your page on a desktop and on mobile to ensure it makes sense and looks good on both.
If everything checks out, then congratulations! You’re almost ready to publish your page and start generating leads. Here’s what our test page looks like so far:
7. Set Up a Facebook Messenger Auto-reply
Facebook Messenger can be a powerful tool for marketing yourself. You can set up automated messages and even program simple (or complicated) chatbots to engage with your visitors’ commonly asked questions. Even better, Facebook offers a piece of code that will allow you to use Facebook Messenger on your own website.
While we can’t cover everything about Facebook Messenger marketing in this article, don’t worry—we have an entire article dedicated to Facebook Messenger marketing at the link below.
Facebook Messenger Ads Get Open Rates 242% Higher Than Email
For today, let’s just quickly go over how to set up a simple auto-reply for Facebook Messenger on your page. Facebook (now Meta) has a whole suite of integrated business solutions that work seamlessly as part of a larger marketing strategy.
To get started, simply click on “Inbox” in the “Manage Page” column on the left. This takes you to your Meta dashboard:
Select “Messenger” at the top.
Here, you can set up an auto-reply that will greet every person who messages you on Facebook from your page.
To set an auto-responder, click on “instant reply” and write your auto-reply message in the box. You’ll see a preview of what your message looks like on a phone to the right.
You can also set an Away Message:
real estate agent facebook page
8. Set Notifications to Push Notification
Instant response time is expected on social media platforms like Facebook, so you’re going to want to get notified as soon as someone “Likes” your page, comments on a post, or reaches out to you with a question. Here’s how to set that up:
In the “Manage Page” bar on the left, click on “Settings” and then “Notifications.” Make sure “Get a notification each time there is activity on your Page or an important Page update” is selected.
Then, scroll down and turn on text messages as a way to get notification of activity on your page. You can certainly use the Facebook app, but we recommend getting texts so you can stay responsive and engaged with potential leads.
9. Create Your First Boosted Post
No matter how many people “like” your Facebook real estate agent page, the odds of getting your posts regularly seen are small, and you might find your everyday posts struggling to get views, likes, and comments.
That’s where “boosted posts” come in. If you create a post about an upcoming open house, Facebook charges a few dollars to “boost” that post. Keep in mind this is not a full-blown Facebook ad, but can be very effective nonetheless.
For this example, we’ll create a simple open house post to boost. Go to your Facebook page and click on “Event.”
Add the date, time, and location for your open house. Next, add pictures or videos—you might want to go with a great photo of the listing, or maybe a graphic with event details. You can create one or hire someone on Fiverr to create it for you (starting at $5—hence the name of the platform).
To make your event live, click on “Create Event.”
OK, now your post is published, but you won’t get many people to see it without boosting it. Here’s what our published open house post looks like:
To boost the post, click on “Boost Event” on the right side of the page next to the megaphone graphic.
Under “Format,” you can use a single image or a slideshow of pictures. For our ad, we’re just going with one static photo, so we’re selecting a single image.
Next, click on “Audience.” While you used to be able to target people by many different demographic categories, now you can only choose basic categories like age and location. For our open house, we’ll choose 25-65 as the age and “People in your local area” as the audience.
The ability to laser-target your audience is one of the most essential benefits of Facebook ads. This feature is being refined all the time, but as of right now, you can segment your audience based on their location (community, city, country), age, gender, education, job title, interests, consumer behavior, and Facebook connections.
Next, select how long you want the ad to run and your budget. So maybe set your duration for five days, and your budget for $20. It will give you an estimate of the audience based on your budget. You can always tweak this once you find out how many leads you get from your ad. Choose your payment option, agree to their terms of service, and then click “Boost” to boost your post.
Congratulations! You now have a boosted post on Facebook, which is an excellent way to drive traffic to your open house.
How to Create Real Estate Facebook Ads That Actually Generate Leads
Bonus Tip: Conduct a Personal/Team Branding Audit
Before you start any social media marketing campaign for your real estate business, your first step should always be to assess your personal branding honestly and thoroughly.
I know what you’re thinking: You put a lot of work (and maybe money) into your branding already, so chances are everything’s hunky-dory, right? (Overestimating the quality of work you’ve put time, money, and effort into is so common that behavioral economists have a name for it: The sunk cost fallacy.)
Don’t worry―we’re not suggesting you spend millions on rebranding. Chances are that your branding really is great, or maybe you could spend $100 dollars to tweak a few things. Either way, commit right now to reviewing what you have created and developed—honestly and objectively.
To get started, here are a few things you should assess:
Your Headshot
Is your headshot working? Does it make you look trustworthy, confident, and competent? How’s the lighting? Is it blurry or out of focus? Are you dressed professionally enough? How about your smile? Is it genuine or forced?
Your Logo
While agents don’t necessarily need a logo, having one can give you that little push over the edge that might help a homeowner decide to send you a message on your Facebook page.
The Best & Worst Real Estate Logos of 2022 (+ Pro Design Tips)
Your Slogan, Tagline & Marketing Copy
Like logos, a slogan and tagline are nice to have, but not absolutely necessary for most agents. However, you should be aware that a slogan is more advertising-focused and designed to sell you and your brand, whereas a tagline is more public relations-focused, indicating the promise of your brand.
At the very least, you should craft some copy that describes your unique value for your clients. If you don’t, no sweat. You can work on it as you build out your Facebook page.
107 Best Real Estate Slogans & Taglines (+ Slogan Generator)
Revisiting Your Mission, Vision & Values
They say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today. This is especially true when it comes to your business. That’s why there is no bad time to sit down and revisit your mission, vision, and values. After all, this is the core identity of your brand.
Knowing what difference you want to make in your community (your mission), where you see yourself in 10 years (your vision), and what you value will greatly increase the likelihood that your brand will resonate with people in your community, and lead to them hiring you.
How to Create an Inspiring Mission, Vision & Values for Your Brokerage
Examples of Real Estate Agent Facebook Pages We Love:
Over to You
Setting up a real estate agent Facebook page might be one of the most impactful lead generation and marketing projects you can do. Once you have a basic page set up, you can start promoting open houses via promoted posts and start placing laser-targeted ads to generate buyer and seller leads.
Tell us about you so we know what to send.
