Chesterton Humbert is claiming to be the first – and only – national estate agent to offer a property search function on Facebook.
The firm has relaunched its Facebook profile with a new property search function that allows users to remain on the Facebook site while browsing properties.
The firm says that agents’ Facebook pages require users to navigate away from the website in order to perform property searches or view search results, but maintains that this is unpopular with regular users who prefer to stay on Facebook.
Once someone becomes a Facebook ‘fan’ of Chesterton Humberts, they can use the company’s Facebook page to search for property according to area, rooms and price, and then view and share the results of their search with friends and family.
They can also book viewings and valuations and browse the ‘wall’ for news stories and market comment from industry experts.
Robert Bartlett, CEO of Chesterton Humberts, said: “Our new Facebook page provides a new platform for our sellers to showcase their properties to the online community and house hunters to find their next property with the involvement of their friends and family.
“We understand that looking for a new home is an essential but often tiring and frustrating process, and are continually working on projects like the Facebook search and our mobile App in order to make it as simple, accessible and as hassle-free as possible.”
The page is now live and you can take a look at it here:
www.facebook.com/chestertonhumberts
Comments
Nice design. The level of interaction on the page is impressive, with like and share buttons, even a request a viewing/valuation form. Some other Apps i've seen don't offer this, which does kind of miss the point of spcial media. If you can't like or share it, what's the point!
Certainly not the first, but the best out there that i've seen so far.
nothing to brag about as they just showing that they are behind the independants
we have had this function for over a year now
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ME-Lettings/145856778837529
Nicely branded but certainly it has been offered by many for a while. Whilst the design for the property search is all very nice, people shouldn't forget that a company page on Facebook, and indeed Twitter to a lesser degree, shouldn't be a poor representation of you own website. The whole ethos of social media is to engage through interesting content. Whilst every agent on Facebook should have a property search, a Facebook page should be used as a branding tool through conversation and place for interaction - linking back to your own website and providing content that perhaps separates you from 'The Bandwagon'. In an age where social media is the new 'word of mouth', surely it's more important to give across your own views and expertise as a company to an audience you'll perhaps very rarely interact with otherwise. This way you can gain a 'following' that at least knows why they are following you.
Pbro agent - Its not 'Rubish' [sic]
Good SEO means understanding how Google works. We top all our search terms yet spend NOTHING on SEO - how - we do it ourselves.
Facebook is not about searching for companies. Its about information finding you and the impact the content has on your organic search results. Look into it more and you may be surprised.
@ Thomas - You'd just need to offer a decent level of customer service, fair pricing and a good product. RM manages only 1 out of 3 so there's certainly room for a competent competitor.
You may have to offer a free period to get agents on board en mass but we're all sick and tired of being squeezed for every penny and expected to feel grateful.
@ JS
It's nice that we are being asked by agents south of the border, but a lot of work left still to do here in Scotland !
Can anyone realistically enter this market at this stage and hope to win market share? Would need to be something a bit special. We are open to suggestions !
@ property portal watch
I never knew Allagents even had a property portal let alone a Facebook app. Im impressed indeed.It even allows you to draw a search!
@ Thomas - yep we're all too afraid of being rumbled for skiving!
Any news on rolling Citylets out nationally?
"you should do both. If you dont, in time, no one will find your website" Rubish, people will always find your website with correct SEO and good use of Google Adwords. The majority of people if they want to search for a company will search using Google/Yahoo, not Facebook.
I can see some benefits of having a Facebook page, but to me it all looks just a little bit cheap. I know people who have their businesses advertised on Facebook, both agency and non-agency, the vast majority of people following them are their friends who they've asked to "like" them - and there seems to be little in the way of genuine customers.
This is a good implementation of a full search facility on Facebook.....it should be easier to do than it is and the behaviour of such facilities can still be a little erratic- hopefully facebook will make it easier going forward.
We implemented a watered down version of this at Citylets about a year ago that took the visitor back to the website...good to see things are moving on.
ps- am i the only person who uses their real name on this forum? lol
PbroAgent - No - you should do both. If you dont, in time, no one will find your website
A Facebook search - why do all these companies think that subjagating their brand and marketing to the whims of Facebook is a good idea? Far better to have a decent website that you can control and use to highlight the positives of your business.
People - knock it all you like. If you understood the power of FB and what you can achieve with it - you wouldn't be so scathing - But I am not telling competitors how to benefit.
Anonymous Coward - steady
We get 3 times the traffic from FB when compared to Primelocation. Its also great for SEO.
Rubbish. We have had it for over a month and our software company provided instructions on how to put the property search app into our page long before that.
Took me about 30 mins to put it on our fan page.
I can just imagine my 16 year old daughter being all over this one.
I can just see all of the ROFLs, LOLs and LMFAO right now.
What an absolute coup.
Consider the Band Wagon thoroughly jumped on.
BTW, not the first ;-D
Nice one, but I found this on Facebook on January 4th 2011 http://apps.facebook.com/allagents/
1st agent... rubbish loads are doing it
shame they didnt test it 1st as many say awaiting image
idiots
nice beats the property place hands down well done
This is the best facebook property page l have seen so far.
Own branded page - Looks great but also allows fans to request viewing/valuation/call back etc .
And l nice map search facilty with floorplans.
Impressive l am cancelling my current property search.
Love it