Who has success using facebook and myspace for lead generation?

[jamesww]

I have had some success with lead generation from social media but would like to ramp up my efforts in a more organized manner. I have heard that some agents are having success generating leads via facebook and myspace. I was hoping some of those agents are on this forum and that I can get some guidance of how to set up pages there that will generate leads.

I also have an interest in Hub pages and Squidoo as well but am not sure what type of pages work on those sites. If someone can give me some examples I would be very much greatful.

[Tsena]

The only type of leads I have ever received were referrals from other agents. I just don't believe consumers use sites like these when they are looking for a real estate agent.

With that said, sites like these should be used for branding. Building your brand is just as important as generating leads. Growing your brand will lead to more leads in the future!

[rmasse10]

I would recommend the use of sites like Facebook and myspace as more of a referral base, or to expand your sphere. Dont push yourself on to people and like minded people will want to interact with you and eventually think of you for what you do

I hope this makes sense

[jamesww]

I was thinking very much the same about these avenues but had been hearing of how agents had been using them to generate leads and was trying to get an idea of how others were doing so.

[Mark Z]

Facebook has brought me 8 listings this year. I just joined Facebook about 4 or 5 months ago. It's not like random strangers are going to find you on Facebook and get in touch with you to list their home. The proper way to use Facebook is to get touch base with people you haven't talked to in a long time. Naturally they will ask what you are doing in life and then take it from there. It has been great for putting me back in touch with old high school and college friends. Most didn't know I was in Real Estate now they do. There is also a function on Facebook where you can "share a link" with someone when you communicate with them. That leaves a link for everybody that communicates with that person to see "your website."

Facebook takes 4-5 months to get it where you have built a decent amount of friends. After awhile it starts to snowball.

[topsearchresult]

The proper way to use Facebook is to get touch base with people you haven't talked to in a long time. Naturally they will ask what you are doing in life and then take it from there.

This is absolutely the best way to leverage Facebook. In fact all social networking should be something you do primarily for fun, not for business. If you're just in a community to promote your own priorities, people are just going to ignore you anyways.

[JohnHerrigel]

I have been using the face book PPC advertising for the past couple of months and have had good success from it in 2 ways. 1) cheaper PPC than Google for driving traffic to my site and 2) Many friends have commented that they see my ad and thus gain general exposure.

[The Koitz Group]

Facebook has worked well for me along the same lines as Mark pointed out (not the volume, the paradigm). You can build a large audience, perhaps even a couple degrees of separation away who would trust you...many are even past clients...so done right (not screaming every second that you're an agent), and with some luck, IMHO it works!
@John - Love to hear more about your experiences w/ Facebook PPC. Pretty cool program...

[Discover Davis Homes]

Mark that is a great success. I think facebook is a good way to keep in touch with people you know as well as get back in touch with people. I find people my age are just finding facebook while the 20 somethings probably have most of their friends already linked up. I think it is easy to find people you already know on facebook because you can look them up by name.

[Scott.Hack]

I've run some PPC ads on Facebook as well, but I'm not sure that I can say that it was cheaper then google. It is however more targeted. For instance, I read that the average new home buyer is a 26 year old, female. So I created an ad targeting first time home buyers and marketed it to 23-31 year old females who are single.