Here is a great article by the Folks at Inkling Media as they lay out how Facebook can hurt your business:

1) You ignore it – If you think social media is a fad, you run the risk of falling behind your competitors who ARE on Facebook and have a well executed plan.

2) You don’t update your page – Maybe you’re on Facebook, but you just update it every once in awhile when you think about it. Remember: you are only as good as your last update. You know…crickets. Having a Facebook page you don’t use is worse than not having one. Same goes for…

3) You don’t monitor your page – You might post the occasional update, but you never really read what’s happening. As a result, you miss out on the comments and questions people are posting, which brings us to

4) You don’t engage – You check in, you update, you read. But do you really engage? If people are writing, and you don’t respond, they’ll leave. Even worse, they might start talking, and you might not like what they are saying.

5) You’re spammy – Remember, it’s not about selling. It’s about building community, relationship, and trust. If all you do is push your products and try to sell, you are no better than junk mail, spam e-mail, or one of those calls that always seem to come during dinner.

6) It’s all you have – A Facebook page all on it’s own won’t do you much good. Social Media isn’t the panacea for your sales and marketing problems. But Social Media can be an integral part of your overall marketing campaign. It works great with other media, including a well designed, content rich website. You might cover a lot of ground with your Facebook page, but rarely will it work well on its own.

What you need is a proper approach and a strong plan.

It’s your decision: will Facebook hurt your business, or help it?

This is a question successful agents ask themselves at the beginning of every work day.  Ninja Realtors, who enjoy a high income per hour and a life/work balance, use a scheduled HOUR OF POWER each week to plan their business development activities, and leverage their time.  And, at the end of each day, they study their daily planner or appointment book and make sure they have scheduled activities on the books for tomorrow.

Take a few minutes to look at your appointment book today.  Do you have scheduled confirmed appointments such as face to face meetings with buyers and sellers?  Have you scheduled preparation time for these meetings?  What about scheduled activities to insure you’ll have new buyers and sellers to work with next week?  Do you know who you will make FORD calls to this week?  Have you scheduled Real Estate Reviews for this week, and who do you need to schedule Real Estate Reviews with for next week?  How many personal notes will you write?  What if each work day you made a 20 minute appointment with yourself to write 2 personal notes, check the hot sheet, and review your data base for the FORD calls you’ll make that day?

Working on your business is your first priority to having business to work in!

What’s on your schedule?