Remember when Facebook first launched business pages? It felt like a digital gold rush. All you had to do was set up a page, get people to like it, and voilà—your posts were shown to everyone who clicked the thumbs-up button.
Businesses rushed to claim their pages and worked hard to get as many people as possible to like them. Organic reach allowed us to message our contacts at zero cost. The more likes we racked up, the more popular we became, and we had an avenue for sharing daily messages and musings. It was a dream come true for marketers and business owners alike.
The great organic decline
As Facebook grew and more businesses created pages, the game changed. As competition for space in the Facebook news feed ramped, Facebook switched to its ultimate goal: pulling the pin on organic reach as paid posts appeared.
In his 2015 article, The Four Horsemen: Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, NYU Marketing Professor Scott Galloway called it “the biggest bait-and-switch in marketing history.”
“Winner: Facebook. The company that changed the nature of friendships also pulled off the biggest bait-and-switch in marketing history. After convincing brands to invest in building Facebook communities, it started charging for access.” – Professor Scott Galloway
Reality check: The audience you may have worked hard to grow hasn’t seen your updates since 2012. In many cases, those who like the page never see posts on real estate pages. Want to know if this is the case for your real estate page? You can check your page stats by opening the Insights tab within Facebook Business Suite.
Visit: https://business.facebook.com/latest/insights/overview to see yours. You’ll no doubt be disappointed by what you find.
Below is an example from a client Meta account I run. Over a seven-day period, their posts were seen by 38,600 people (a fantastic result for a budget of only $17 a day), but as you can see below, most of those people came via the paid ad, not organically. The number of page followers who saw their post on Tuesday (organically) was a measly 5. This is why I don’t worry about how many followers the page has.
TikTok changed the game
When TikTok came along, it completely flipped the script on distributing social content. You no longer needed a massive follower base or deep pockets to make an impact. If your content proves popular with your small follower count, TikTok will push it out to a broader audience.
TikTok’s success forced other platforms, especially Meta (Facebook and Instagram), to rethink their social media strategies. To keep up, Meta started tweaking their algorithms to focus on content discovery and less on follower counts, trying to emulate TikTok’s content-first approach.
The like trap: why page likes are worthless
Why do we still have likes and followers if they are irrelevant?
It’s easy to think that your follower count equals the number of people who will see your posts. After all, that’s what Facebook told us in the beginning. This is a common misconception by real estate people who lack an understanding of how social media platforms have evolved over time.
Likes and followers are a vanity metric. Having a large number makes us feel good, and the perception is that we are popular. But it’s just perception, not fact.
Queensland company Social Status tracks and benchmarks Facebook’s organic reach each month. Below is the average percentage reach for the past year. At best, Facebook pages had an average organic reach of 2.16%, but we’ve also had times when less than 1% of fans and followers saw posts for free (i.e. without any ad budget).
Consider this scenario: You have 1,000 followers. If only 10 people (1%) of your followers see your posts, what’s the value in building 1,000 followers in the first place? You might as well focus on paid advertising and spend $2.50 to reach 1,000 prospects. That is my philosophy and why I am not concerned about how many likes, fans, and followers our pages have.
Marketing expert Neil Patel has millions of fans who have liked or followed his pages across various social media and digital platforms. He often shares that while his follower numbers might seem impressive, they do not deliver tangible results for his business.
What social metrics matter?
Rather than getting caught up in the number of fans and followers you have, it’s crucial to focus on what really matters—reach and engagement.
Ask yourself this. How many people does a $100 ad budget help you reach? Out of those people (or prospects), how many people do the one thing you hope they will do? I.e. click a link to visit your website, watch your video for an entire minute, or check you out (by viewing your profile page).
These metrics paint a more accurate picture of your social media strategy’s effectiveness, how it contributes to your overall visibility meaning how many people know you and your services exist.
Big brother Al (aka the algorithm) is watching
One of the most significant shifts in recent years is how social media platforms decide what we, as individuals, see in our feeds. The algorithm bases its decision on our past behaviour. Every like, share, or time spent reading a post provides valuable insights in determining what we see next. Their goal? To keep us hooked, engaged, and on their platform for longer.
For instance, if someone spends significant time interacting with posts from real estate pages, Facebook determines that this person is currently interested in property. As a result, it will start showing them posts and ads from other real estate pages – even ones they don’t follow.
Gone are the days when people consciously sought out brands or business pages to follow. Today, the algorithm surfaces content we might want to see based on our past actions. Even if someone doesn’t follow your page, your content can still land in front of them through suggested posts or paid ads.
This leads to the next big question: if likes and followers don’t matter any more, what should real estate professionals focus on?
1. Using ads to reach the right audience
If you’re putting time and effort into creating social media content, you want to ensure it gets seen. But, even with today’s limited organic reach, there are still ways to make this happen if your content isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
Running social media ads is the smartest way to get your content in front of the right people. It allows you to target specific demographics, locations, interests, and behaviours, meaning your content reaches users more likely to engage with it.
Ads are especially useful for expanding your reach beyond your current followers. By running targeted ads, you guarantee your content is shown to people in your database or who live in the suburbs you serve, increasing your chances of finding potential prospects and converting them into leads.
2. Paid reach: the real goal
Today, paid reach is the most important metric for social media success for real estate professionals. Paid reach is the best way to build brand awareness of your business, not just with your followers but also with people who will be genuinely interested in what you offer, namely property owners with homes in the suburbs you serve. If they aren’t seeing your posts, what’s the point of them?
Think of your posts as the modern-day version of TV ads but much more intelligent. Unlike TV ads, you’re not shouting to the masses and crossing your fingers someone in your core suburb is watching; you’re speaking directly to your target market.
So, instead of building a big follower count, your goal should be to increase the paid reach for your social media accounts. The larger your audience, the bigger your fishing net and the more fish (prospective clients) you’ll catch. Even more important is how often your target audience sees your social media ads because the more they see you, the easier it becomes to recall your name and remember you when they are finally ready to enlist a property professional.
3. Building awareness with valuable content
Forget about the ‘like our page’ competitions. Shift your energy to providing practical, insightful content that helps build your credibility. When your audience sees that you consistently offer value, they’ll take note and will be more likely to engage with your posts.
You could provide monthly market updates or advice on the home sales or leasing process. You could prepare checklists for annual DIY maintenance jobs, share details of an upcoming community event, or plug a new cafe or restaurant that has just opened. By offering valuable insights and advice, you position yourself as an expert, which is far more important than stressing about your page’s number of likes and followers.
4. Quality over quantity
It’s tempting to think that the more you post, the more traction you’ll get, but the quality of your posts is far more critical than the frequency of posts. There is no need to post every day, and certainly no point posting more than once per day. People are becoming more selective about what or who they engage with as they scroll through the never-ending social stream.
Your prospects don’t care about you; they care about themselves and what you have that aligns directly with their needs or the type of property they own. Photos of your annual team building day might interest you and your colleagues, but they are irrelevant to your prospects. Your audience will unlikely be interested in your gut health or how much you bench-pressed at the gym. Save these updates for your mum because they won’t grab a property owner’s attention or get you a listing. Updates about purchasing a brand new car, holidaying on a superyacht in Europe, or stating that you closed a gazillion dollars worth of property deals in the past year may feel like success to you. Still, these things could alienate you from a proportion of the market that doesn’t live life in the fast lane. Intelligent agents stay humble and discrete about their wealth.
Your goal should be to post less but better value-packed content. Each post should serve a purpose: to inform, educate, or entertain your audience.
5. Driving traffic to your website
Social media is excellent for reaching prospects, but the platforms’ algorithms and policies control it. To regain control, focus on driving traffic to your websites or use lead campaigns to collect valuable contact information. Offer enticing content like downloadable reports or exclusive insights, and use lead magnets such as free consultations or webinars to incentivise visitors to give you their contact details.
Building an extensive contact database is essential for real estate business growth because it allows you to manage your marketing efforts more effectively and reduce ad costs over the long term. Direct access through email or SMS will enable you to bypass platform restrictions and ensure steady engagement. Moreover, having your data provides deeper insights into audience behaviour, like precisely who engages with your content—allowing you to hone in on warm leads more accurately.
The bottom line on likes and followers
So, are likes and followers still relevant today? Not at all. In a world where algorithms control who sees your content and organic reach is nearly nonexistent, focusing on these vanity metrics wastes precious time and energy. Instead, focus on building meaningful connections, increasing paid reach and engagement, and driving real results.
It’s not about being the most popular—it’s about being the most relevant to the right people at the right time. Stop chasing likes and create content that speaks to your audience’s needs, builds a fan base, and helps you achieve your real estate business goals.
Ready to get social media advertising help?
If you’re a real estate professional who wants to take your business to the next level with marketing tailored to your brand and clientele, book a free 1-hour consultation with me, Melanie Hoole. I’ll give you on-the-spot recommendations specific to you and show you how digital marketing can help position you as a local real estate expert. I look forward to talking with you.
Written by Melanie Hoole
My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.
