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Ricardo Bueno

Ricardo Bueno

Online Marketing Strategies for Real Estate

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April 9, 2010   |   by Ricardo Bueno   |   Get free new post updates HERE.

Case Study: A Successful 365 Things To Do Facebook Page

Dale ChumbleyMeet Dale Chumbley, REALTOR® extraordinaire in Vancouver, WA. Dale grew up in Vancouver and he comes from a generation of selling real estate. Needless to say he’s passionate about what he does for a living (selling real estate) and he’s passionate about the area he lives in (he knows it very well).

Now the reason I’m introducing you to Dale is because he’s one of the few agents (in my humble opinion) who is using a Facebook Page to market himself extraordinarily well.

The technique is simple:

  1. He writes a post on his blog: Clark County Real Estate Guide (he’s currently on Day 51 of 365 Things to Do)
  2. He publishes/links that post as a Status Update on his Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/WhyVancouverWA

Facebook FansThe Results:

  • 8,825 Fans to date (all local residents)
  • Referrals (a buyer lead on ~Day 23)
  • Significant recognition as the local expert from businesses and individuals

Let’s look at how Dale developed his idea, marketed his page, and his advice for other REALTOR®’s looking to market their business using Facebook Pages.

@Ribeezie: So Dale, how long have you been a resident of Vancouver, WA? And how long have you been a real estate agent?

@DaleChumbley: I was born and lived 100% of my life here (40 years). I grew up as a teen with a mom in the business and I’ve been a licensed agent for 16 years.

@Ribeezie: What motivated you to create your 365 Things to Do Facebook Page? Obviously you love Vancouver or you’d have a little bit of trouble managing the daily content, right?

@DaleChumbley: Several reasons. Yes, I love my community and I want to help encourage others to get out and experience it. I want to support local businesses, events and open spaces. I also wanted to create a resource for those living here, relocating here or considering relocating here and this is a way for me to accomplish all those things.

@Ribeezie: So did you invite anyone to become a Fan of the Page or did your Fans emerge organically?

@DaleChumbley: To this day I have not sent out one single invitation. I didn’t tell anyone I was creating it. All the growth has been natural and most of the fans are in the Vancouver (and surrounding) areas.

@Ribeezie: How has the community you’ve developed impacted your site traffic? More importantly, how has in impacted the way that you generate leads and create discussions with local residents?

@DaleChumbley: The fan page is averaging around 3,000 views per week at this time. That number seems to stay pretty consistent now. As for traffic to my blog (where the full posts live) my traffic has gone up significantly! Since the middle of February Facebook has sent over 6,100 visitors to Clark County Real Estate Guide. I’m getting people coming to me as the community expert and finding that I’m actually getting recognized when I go into local businesses. It’s been a surreal experience. People are more and more coming up to me thanking me for creating this great resource. Just yesterday a total stranger asked out of the blue if I was the “365 guy”. I smiled and said yes. They thanked me for the site. They moved to the Vancouver area in December and had been having trouble finding things to do. I’ve just created an encouragement for people to get out and explore.

@Ribeezie: You average 30 – 40 (sometimes more) comments per post on your Facebook Page. Do you actively police the comments and respond (in other words, do you have a particular system in place for managing the community you’ve created)?

@DaleChumbley: Yes. This is the most time consuming (and valuable) part. Actual blog post/video/photo creation takes about an hour each day. I try and read every single thing posted on the site. On rare occasion I’ve had to delete something. I don’t like that part. I’m cool with people disagreeing and not liking a particular thing. After all, this is simply things I like and do. I won’t tolerate outright vulgarity and destructive commenting. I’m also interacting and creating conversation on the site outside of the actual “Thing To Do” for the day. I’ll randomly post a photo I take while out and about and post them on site. Some of those things get more interaction and conversation than the daily post.

@Ribeezie: What advice do you have for today’s Real Estate Agent who wants to use their Facebook Page as a marketing tool?

@DaleChumbley: MAKE IT YOUR OWN! Do not try and copy me and what I’m doing. What I mean by that is really search yourself and figure out what makes you tick. What is your passion? What gets you excited? Really stop and think about what you’re going to do before doing it. Ask yourself if you can commit to it (if you’re thinking of something similar to what I’m doing). This is not a light, small project. I’ve committed to a post per day for 365 days. I still am not 100% positive what that will look like. I’m 51 days in so far and batting 1000. I still have a long way to go. I’m taking it one day at a time. Look at who your audience (or potential audience) is and how do you want to interact with them. What is your purpose for doing it? Do you actually care about it or are you just looking to “get business”. If it’s the latter, move on and do something else…

Do you have a Facebook Page? How are you using it to marketing yourself and/or your business creatively?

31 Days to Build A Better Blog

About Ricardo Bueno

I specialize in marketing and technology for the real estate industry. Currently: Marketing Technology Director at West (a Williston Financial Group company) West. Previously: National Trainer at W&R Studios.

Get more from me on and .

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Maureen McCabe says

    April 9, 2010 at 6:45 am

    Dale is my idol.

    I saw a page in a Texas city and started one for Columbus about 30 days ago I want to say. I was thinking I could write the post on my WordPress blog and feed it with RSS but my RSS feed is busted. Fix it? While my FB 365 Things To Do page is tiny in comparison to Dale's it is bigger than my first two pages which are real estate and just really RSS fed… I am so bad when it comes to FB… lazy…

    I have had glimpses of Dale's page and I was impressed.

    @StephenWolfe in Birmingham Alabama have been talking about these FB pages for a couple of days.

    Reply
  2. Ricardo Bueno says

    April 9, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    Maureen: thanks for dropping in to comment! Dale has certainly done something amazing with his page. He admits that a lot of it was unexpected (the results have been fortuitous and amazing).

    What makes Dale's so impressive is his commitment to continuously engage with the community that's developed. Most people would miss a day or fail to communicate with folks in the comments. But not Dale. He knows that it's his commitment to his community that's contributing to it's success.

    Would love to hear Stephen's take on it! Bring him on over…

    Re: your RSS feed. Double check your Feedburner url destinations. My guess is there's an issue there with the site your pointing the url to. Let me know if you find anything there.

    Reply
  3. irinanetchaev says

    April 12, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    Wow… I'm in awe of Dale! That's quite a commitment… You can feel his passion… definitely food for thought… Great case study!

    Reply
  4. Cierra says

    June 3, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    Very incredible story! (there's someone in Austin that took your idea..I guess that's what happens w/ a fantastic idea). I am a social media consultant, so the last part about “making it our own” rings very true to my heart. So many people use social media tools as simply a direct mkt campaign, instead of finding content related to your industry that truly provides VALUE to the target audience.

    VERY well done and nice to see something coming from the heart working so well!

    Thanks for the post!

    Reply
  5. Cierra says

    June 3, 2010 at 8:50 pm

    Very incredible story! (there's someone in Austin that took your idea..I guess that's what happens w/ a fantastic idea). I am a social media consultant, so the last part about “making it our own” rings very true to my heart. So many people use social media tools as simply a direct mkt campaign, instead of finding content related to your industry that truly provides VALUE to the target audience.

    VERY well done and nice to see something coming from the heart working so well!

    Thanks for the post!

    Reply
  6. Eric Hempler says

    July 11, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    What's the difference between this one and the on in Texas that was started a lot sooner found here – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amarillo-TX/365-T…

    Reply
  7. Ricardo Bueno says

    July 11, 2010 at 4:41 pm

    The biggest difference is Dale too the time to answer my questions 🙂

    There are tons of other Facebook Pages similar to Dales and with larger numbers. In this case, I happen to know Dale as a blogger and we've had the opportunity to connect and deconstruct how he uses the Fan Page to drive traffic back to his blog and as a result derive business from it in more than one instance.

    I'm not sure how others are doing it and how they're tying it into their blogs if at all. This is just one instance of one agent, who's doing it well.

    Reply
  8. Ricardo Bueno says

    July 11, 2010 at 4:41 pm

    How is yours coming along? I'm proud of you for keeping up-to-date even with the vacation (that's impressive and committed!).

    Reply
  9. Kathleen Sheridan says

    July 11, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    I'm so impressed with the dedication to post everyday, and to figure out all of the technical parts of getting everything to work together, and then keep up with selling real estate too.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Kylie Batt says:
    April 10, 2010 at 11:37 pm

    Я думаю, что Вы не правы. Предлагаю это обсудить. Пишите мне в PM, поговорим….

    Now the reason I’m […….

    Reply
  2. Kylie BattName says:
    April 11, 2010 at 3:51 am

    Извиняюсь, ничем не могу помочь. Я думаю, Вы найдёте верное решение. Не отчаивайтесь….

    Meet Dale Chumbley, REALTOR® extraordinaire in Vancouver, WA. Dale grew up in Vancouver and he comes from a generation of selling real estate…..

    Reply
  3. Are You Measuring Ego Instead of Results? :: Ribeezie Media says:
    June 2, 2010 at 12:30 am

    […] the Fans (followers, etc.) relevant? When we wrote about the success Dale Chumbley was having with his 10,000+ Facebook Fans, you know what’s […]

    Reply
  4. Cha…Cha…Changes! | Ribeezie Media says:
    June 21, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    […] Dale Chumbley for example is someone who’s rockin’ it in the social networking space by making good creative use of a Facebook Fan Page to drive traffic. I want to share more examples like this (at least once a week). […]

    Reply
  5. Tweets that mention Case Study: A Successful 365 Things To Do Facebook Page | Ribeezie Media -- Topsy.com says:
    September 15, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ricardo Bueno and Michael McClure, Geoff Thomas. Geoff Thomas said: RT @Ribeezie: Case Study: A Successful 365 Things To Do Facebook Page – http://su.pr/2BEwZO #agentrb […]

    Reply
  6. P1Fran.com | Leavin' Las Vegas | Professional One Franchising says:
    September 17, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    […] and his presentation was excellent. Ricardo did a cool interview with Dale you can read here (full disclosure: Ricardo was another speaker who talked about Dale). That’s Ricardo at […]

    Reply

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