Tags
advertising, auction, auctioneer, auctioneers, auctions, bidders, buyers, client, Facebook, facebook.com, groups, Internet, marketing, online, real estate, real property, seller, website
There are auction calendars — where the public can — and does — go to find auctions and property selling at auction. We wrote about such calendars here back in 2011: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/internet-auction-calendars/.
It’s now 2018 and about seven years later from this above article. Facebook ranks as the #1 social media platform and in the top five most visited websites in the United States. So, is there no better place to advertise auctions? Auction items? Yes, today with paid advertising targeting particular demographics auctioneers are reaching new heights in marketing prowess.
Relatedly, Ryan George recently posted this article concerning Facebook marketing budgets: http://www.ryangeorge.net/facebookbudget/. He suggests upwards of 75% of an auctioneer’s advertising budget be put towards Facebook ads, coupled with careful analysis.
However, can’t we just create Facebook groups, and post our auctions there? Actually we can and do, but I would submit with minimal gain. Facebook groups are ideally designed for “like-minded” people who center around a topic or product.
I’m a member of a “1969-1970 Cadillac” group for example where people post pictures of these dreamy Cadillac models, discuss repairs, parts, shows, ask questions, etc. This is an ideal use of a Facebook group. Now, if an auctioneer had a 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham in an upcoming auction …?
On the contrary, Facebook groups are not designed for merely a dump of auction listings. The effect of such postings? They probably only reach people in those groups, and possibly friends of group members … not the audience auctioneers are typically seeking. You might have noticed Ryan’s article didn’t advocate (nor even mention) posting auctions in Facebook auction groups, either.
Too — of course — once someone goes into that group to search your auction they see other auctions … and is that really what auctioneers want? We discussed here: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/look-at-my-auction-auctionzip-auctioneer-id-9281743/.
I’m not suggesting necessarily that posting auctions in Facebook auction-groups is a waste of time but I am suggesting it might be, and there are far better ways to spend time and money marketing auctions — Facebook ads, signs, mailers, auctioneer’s website, other websites … to mention only a few.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College of Business, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and Faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer Blog 
Facebook yard sale groups are invaluable for free advertising. Just be sure and follow the rules the gruop administrators have set up. They usually allow advertising for local businesses.
Another great place to advertise is estatesales.org. I find that people who go to auctions are already going to estate sales, but people who go to estate sales don’t always go to auctions. Great place to bring in new buyers!
There are many types of groups on Facebook. Professional, organizations, associations, neighborhoods, but the biggest groups are buy/sell groups that exist in all types of shapes and sizes. The power of groups can be found in three areas. 1. You can add anyone, and invite anyone to a group making popular groups range in the thousands and are great for reaching local organic traffic. 2. Notifications from groups arrive in every members inbox as the person who sent it with a Facebook extension. Why is this important. Let me be brief… Facebook beats spam filters making email providers such as MailChimp obsolete. We’ve all seen the decline in opens and clicks through due to spam filters. 3. Facebook gives priority to groups. Groups can be linked to professional pages which have been throttled due to Facebooks desire to entice more paid marketing. Because groups are accessed through a personal profile notifications and reach are greatly enhanced when a professional page incorporates them into their Facebook strategy. Attached is an example of an auction post where we applied an organic strategy as well as a paid media. This auction in particular only has 45 fans. So you can see that using an organic network “groups” has a lot of power when it comes to creating more engagement and interest for the auction.
I agree — groups centered on certain topics, property, ideas, etc. are perfect for posting such — as I tried to suggest with my 1969-1970 Cadillac group.
However, creating a group such as “Put your auction here” with a bunch of auctions from various auctioneers has little value from where I sit.