Facebook for LANDLORDS – Do You Use Facebook?

I am really not keen on FaceBook for a number of reasons.

1. I am added to Groups without my consent and then start receiving email up-dates from those Groups.

2. Certain people go around posting the same post in every property group on FaceBook and I receive a stream of identical emails. It feels very spammy.

3. It is mainly just a stream of chat with people adding to threads even if it is just to say "I don't know the answer to that".

4. It is very hard to search for previous discussions.

5. It blurs the line between personal/social and business and can be unprofessional as a result.

6. It is not searchable by google.

I don't see much point in trying to get "likes" on FaceBook either. It feels false and inauthentic.

Sorry Mark, I think FB has its uses, but it's not for me in a business context.

I agree with some of the points you have made Vanessa but not your conclusion. It's unlike us to have to agree to disagree. One of my project this year is to understand Facebook optimisation in order to reach out to as many landlords as possible. The viral nature of Facebook can not be disputed and I plan to utilise that to share knowledge and experience with more landlords. I have been researching Facebook and the keywords people have used to describe their interests. The potential Facebook audience for people with an interest in Buy to Let, Property, Lettings and Landlord is over 200,000 in the UK alone. Love it or hate it, Facebook can not be overlooked these days in my opinion.

What might interest you is that I don't like Facebook for personal reasons. I hate the thought of being caught on camera in innocence with a picture which could be interpreted in a different way and then shared by millions and even used or sold by Facebook. However, that can happen whether I subscribe to Facebook or not so I suppose I'm stuck with that just being a fact of life.

Fine Mark. It's okay to disagree! 🙂

The viral nature of FaceBook is often unwanted ... i.e. being added to groups without my permission.

Two other things about FB.

They are running a trial where people/companies can PAY to email you, even if they are not a friend of yours. This is not a social action at all and I do not agree with it.

I have also found that a token interaction on a FaceBook Group was taken by some people as permission to add my email address to their database and spam me with property deals!

I do not dismiss FaceBook, but just saying that I personally do not use it as a business tool and there can be a conflict when personal and business collide.

Many landlords, for instance, do not want their tenants to see what they are writing about in open property groups.

Furthermore, many lenders trawl the social web looking for people talking about BMV and NMD deals etc. and this can be a red flag to get mortgages in the future.

On FaceBook, many people seem to say stuff that they think is only for their friends eyes, not realising that they might be saying something that should not be seen by professional people or business contacts.

Hi Vanessa

Surely the last three points you have made relate to posting on all Social media, whether Facebook, Blogs, Forums or whatever. Not that I want to defend Facebook, however, they do at least have privacy setting which we can not use on Forums and websites such as Property Tribes and Property118

Yes, true Mark.

But FaceBook seems a hang out of marketeers who seem to abuse it for marketing, which is not a social action and never can be.

They spam all the groups with the same message.

These same people do not seem to come to P118 and PT because they know that we do not allow sales posts. Therefore, these sites do not have the same problems.

That's not the case for Facebook groups with good moderators though as they can block spammers. I've turned off my email notifications and just look at the groups I subscribe to as and when I feel like it or if I'm mentioned. Another alternative is to unsubscribe from groups or pages which you consider to be spam. We all have a different take on what spam is and Facebook Group and Page owners need to be mindful of that if they want to increase as opposed to lose traction.

Very interesting debate by the way 🙂

I regularly leave various groups, but they just add me again! People should join of their own free will, not be added without their permission in my opinion.

It's healthy for people to have a variety of options of where to get their inputs and FaceBook is definitely one of them. I do not deny that. I just seem to dislike the user interface on it.

Hi Vanessa

How can you be added to a Facebook Group without your permission?

I accept that you can be invited but I wasn't aware that you can be added unless you accept an invitation or request to join a group.

This is a great conversation for landlords like me because I too have reservations about FB as a business tool and yet I can see that there is potential to reach people who do not use other sites or join in discussions and I am keeping an open mind. For me to be a fly on the wall, when two people who I respect for their knowledge of on line marketing, are having this discussion is fantastic - thank you. The fact that you each have very different points of view is even more helpful because you are exploring areas that many of us have not thought of.

Many people say things on line, and in particular on FB, that changes my perception of them and I am not sure why they feel comfortable talking so openly and to be honest I don't really want to know some things. I also dislike the fact that some people feel that they can use my contact details to send me unsolicited information - I find this similar to telephone calls about PPI etc., and I block them after the first one. Having said this I often read property discussion, I don't usually post on them, just to keep up with what landlords are talking about . I get very nervous when people post, often with such authority, and the information that they give is wrong. Internet is a double edged sword while it is a great source of information there is also a lot of misinformation and for landlords this is very dangerous. I have noticed that people dont seem to concern themselves with the source of information but they do take notice if a number of posters say the same thing. I have witnessed discussions where someone gives information and several other people agree with them and they are all wrong. If this were happening on 118 or PT I would post and give a link to the source of the correct information but I don't do this on FB because it feels like laughing in church.
Please continue this conversation V & M it really is very helpful.
Follow me on Twitter@landlordtweets

Something I find very interesting is that discussion on Google+ Circles doesn't seem to appeal to landlords in the same way as Facebook. I'd be very interested in peoples thought on why that might be as logic tells me it should by now be a major rival. I always Google+ articles but the viral effect and discussion is just nowhere near the same as it is with Facebook and Twitter.