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I recently met with a Realtor and spoke to them about their internet traffic. The conversation always comes back to Facebook for some reason.

I don’t know if you know this, but  I’m not a fan of Facebook Fan Pages because they require the owners to be diligent, sociable and engaging. I’ve found few able to do it well 6 months down the line.

So the question was asked, should they link their YouTube account, where they post all their real estate videos, to their Facebook account so that it automatically alerts their Facebook fans that a new video was uploaded. Here were my thoughts:

It’s an OK to post links to videos on Facebook. It’s a better idea to actually upload the videos to Facebook.  Here’s the good and bad:

If you connect your Facebook and YouTube accounts, the videos show up on Facebook automatically as you load them up.  Good?

Facebook is a social vehicle – it’s not a broadcast engine, a radio station or an e-mail blast. The reason people are on Facebook is because they want to socially engage with people on their list.

An automatic upload has no personality, inspires no comments and eventually is just annoying because these random “property videos” show up in people’s streams. People might be “fans” of a Realtor but that doesn’t mean they’re looking for a house.

Think about your own habits, when was the last time looking at houses for sale sounded like a good use of time? Probably the last time you were looking to move – and that was it.

Also, there’s nothing about YouTube links that grows your list except for the people that “subscribe” to your YouTube channel.

This is a slightly better idea. 1st you have to be on Facebook to do it, which means you can start the comments by putting your own there. You can create engagement by showing others how to do it, or even using the comments section to ask a question to engage others.

Another good thing about loading up the video yourself is that there is a “like” button in the top corner of the video which means you’ll start to get more followers.

So let’s talk about a good Facebook video strategy. How about making videos of topics that are interesting to people? I just got called by some window manufacturer who said if I buy his windows I’ll get a government “green” tax credit. How about researching exactly how that works and then making a video telling us?

Stick to topics that are somehow tied to property so you can extend your brand as being experts in property.  But don’t just post property videos or links to homes for sale. No one goes to Facebook for that. They want engagement Engage. Engage. Engage. Or just delete your fan page.  (ooh, I think that rhymed.)

For more on Common Marketing Mistakes click here.