Social media has certain etiquette and certain rules. On Facebook you are effectively entering into someone’s personal space, even though this personal space is very public.
A personal Facebook page consists of a list of someone’s friends and contains details about different aspects of their life, their problems and their wins. The last thing we want to do is to invade people’s space, unless you consider it appropriate because you know them and have built a rapport with them.
Here are the top seven things that you should avoid if you want to be successful building relationships on Facebook.
1. Business Page Invites
Instead of sending a blanket invitation to your entire ‘friend’ list asking them to ‘like’ your page, target specific people. Consider whether the person knows you, or if they would have any interest in you, your company, or what you are offering. If you own a real estate office in Sydney, why would your entire ‘friend’ list worldwide want to join your page? If you are going to send page invitations, send them to people that you really think may be interested. Work out ways to entice your target market and make people want to join you – this could be personally, on a community page or on a business page.
2.Event Invites
Please don’t invite me to a three-hour event in Florida when I live in Sydney – I won’t be able to make it! Your three-hour event might be fantastic, but chances are I’m not going to fly 24 hours there and 24 hours back. Make sure you put some thought into your invitations. Target the right person with a personal message; this looks a heck of a lot more professional too.
3. Posting nothing but your listings on your page
Yawn! There is nothing worse than being friends with a real estate agent and all they want to do is sell me their listings. What’s even worse is when they post their listings to MY page! (Yes, this happens!) Social media is about storytelling; it’s about letting people see the real you and get to know you. Sure, show us great pictures of amazing properties, funny photos or some of the things you see on your travels. Keep it interesting. Just don’t sell, sell, sell. It’s monotonous and boring.
4. It’s not private Don’t think that because you are in a private group on Facebook that you can say anything that you want
Be careful of offending others. Be careful how you react with other people and what you say publicly. Even if you’re in a private group on Facebook with 1000 other people, it’s still public. Don’t bad mouth people. You could very well offend people and not even know it. Other people in the group can take screen shots of the things you say and send them to others (including your competitors). I have received plenty of screen shots! Think about what you are writing. You don’t want your posts to become viral. Once you put something in writing, it’s there for all to see and judge. Also, remember that anything you say can be used in a court of law. Be professional at all times. Don’t swear and don’t defame people.
5. Don’t always talk about work and don’t always sell yourself. Put other things into your social media topic mix. Don’t always just talk about work. Show us how funny you can be, show us your hobbies or show us how talented you are. Let us get to know you. Build relationships. Get social and meet people.
6. Don’t operate your business from a personal profile page
This is covered more completely under Facebook’s guidelines, but some people still get annoyed. Facebook has two main types of pages: your personal profile page and your business page. Under Facebook rules, you cannot operate a business page under a personal profile. The way to tell the difference between the two is whether people ‘friend’ your page (it’s a personal profile) or if they ‘like’ your page (it’s a business page). If Facebook becomes aware that a personal profile page, they could close your page down. You don’t want to do all that work building friends and so on only to get closed down. Set your pages up correctly to start with.
7. Don’t friend someone then automatically post on their page asking that they ‘like’ your page.
If someone has agreed to accept your friendship on Facebook, and they are prepared to get to know you, it’s quite disrespectful to then post a link to your business page straight away asking them to ‘like’ it. Get to know someone; get to know if your product may suit their needs. ‘Liking’ someone’s page can be seen as an endorsement, so give someone a reason to endorse you.
Lastly, if you have friends on Facebook who do any of these things, send them a link to this article.
It might help them and you!
I wrote this article for the Sold magazine – please reference here.

If you are interested in building your online profile, making more money and working less hours – Check out my online course made especially for real estate agents. Step by step video tutorials on how to build your online profile and make more money using the internet.
What drives you nuts in social media?
