So many people will tell you that facebook is "yesterday" when it come to marketing. However that's not been my experience. Now, I don't "pay" to be on facebook. Nor do I have a credit card connected to my account or boost or promote ads. But I run a community group. And said "community group" suggests my business page to the members.
The Group is called Lake Sinclair area community page.... it's a place where referrals can be asked for, businesses can be promoted, reviews of local businesses (good and not so good) can be posted, lost animals, found animals, local news, and it was recently a great place to get updates when lots of people in the county were without water when we had 72 hours of below freezing weather which was great for next year's peach crop and bad for old pipes. As a community service I've done things like offer water when we have outages, offer phones to be charged when we have lasting power outages or a place for morning coffee when the power is out in subdivisions. I'm fortunate that my office is on the same feed line as the fire department right down the street, so my office getting power restored has always been priority because the fire department needs power so they don't have to manually open doors when they get calls.
I have allowed other local agents to always participate and advertise their listings. I try to answer consumer questions in a timely manner. And it has 
helped bring me business. I always invite new buyers to join the group and in the years since I have had it I have been recommended over and over by these past clients to people who ask "who's a great agent?" in the group. Recently a past client said "they treat you like family". I can't think of a greater comments than a past client who feels like they are "part of the Lane Realty family".
I haven't done it lately, but always when I have a "contest" on our business page I 
share it there and it always brings people to my business page. I know a LOT of people have moved on from Facebook and are using instagram, tictok or even linked-in for business, but my office does a large amount of business with seniors who are looking to retire to a nice lake community. It seems that facebook is still a favorite among the age group we seem to do 75% of our business model with.
So without "in your face" advertising I "advertise" by hosting the group. I have had lots of business come from clients who have said "I see you on Facebook a lot". And hosting the group doesn't require THAT much attention. I would say I'm there 15 minutes to an hour each day and that totally depends on the day. We had an earthquake recently and I was there a LOT that day. Most days it's just popping in to add new people (approving those wishing to join) and it's fairly easy to spot spammers. When new people join they can post unless it's approved by me and so if it's CLEARLY spam I just block them.
So sometimes you can "advertise" without buying an ad. I've been doing it for years. I often go to other small businesses and share things. I also go to official postings when we have road closings, road work, power outages, water outages and share the information from the source to get the information to local homeowners. I always try to be helpful and not make it about Lane Realty, yet offer my business as a place that will help the community. The time and effort I put in has come back to me in the way of business. So while I'm not "advertising" anything other than the occasional listing there, it still puts me and my company at the top of mind to local folks often.
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