Keeping up with social media is always fun, isn’t it?! Today we had the opportunity to attend Orange County Association of Realtors Real Social seminar to hear what’s hot and what’s not in social media for Realtors.
Katie Lance opened up the conference today – she *always* has great social wisdom. She encouraged us to be focused and strategic, and to stop the random acts on social media. Katie mentioned social is so powerful because it’s really a digital way to build relationships. Relationships are built with small interactions over the course of time…so are you in there building or have you been MIA?
Key point: Give to get. Katie’s LinkedIn profile even states that social media is not a one way street.
Social Strategies for Realtors
Post at all opportunities to celebrate clients.
Use Facebook lists to eliminate the noise. These are private, and people won’t know they are on your lists. At bare minimum you should have 2 lists:
- clients
- potential clients
Leave voicemail messages for friends / clients in Facebook. You can do this in messenger (click on the microphone) to surprise and delight your friends and potential clients. There is power in voice.
Not sure what to post to social media? Katie created a great content grid to help guide Realtors with ideas for posts. This is one of my favorite tools – download it 🙂
Not sure what time of day is best to post on your business page? You can find out by going to your Facebook business page and clicking: Insights -> Posts. Pretty cool data!
Katie ran out of time but threw in that Instagram is probably the best way to get in front of the millennial market. Here’s an article she wrote about how to Target Millennials on Instagram if you’d like more info.
Put the REAL in Realtor
Our next speaker was Leigh Brown, on the Art of Being You with No Fluff Training . Leigh is an actual Realtor in North Carolina and she shared secrets that are working for her today as a top producing agent. She’s absolutely hilarious, so be sure to connect with her!
Leigh can’t stand the average agent posts about open houses, 18 showings in a day, or the boring outside of a listing. She encouraged agents to look approachable, personable, and REAL. Be fun. Show the parts of the property that are cool, not just a boring outside shot.
She mentioned Pinterest is actually the social network with the highest average income – plus we all know the women are the decision makers in real estate – so get on it! Leigh’s seen Pinterest success with her ‘funny stuff in real estate’ board. She’s also doing great with her ‘Preparing a home for sale’ board. Leigh laughingly compared Pinterest to Facebook: Facebook is the crack, it comes and goes quickly; and Pinterest is the LSD. Pinterest takes awhile to kick in but is long lasting and has longevity…trippy, LOL.
Leigh offered the reminder that video is still where it’s at and highly under used. Just do it! Stop putting it off already..those prospects are going to eventually see you in person anyway.
The big takeaway from Leigh: HAVE an opinion. Don’t worry about offending someone. People want your opinion, and they will respect you more if you aren’t afraid to talk about it. Amen sista; preach!
Real Estate Facebook Campaigns
Our final speaker was John D. Reyes with SocialNetworx.
John had a great message about being authentic socially as well. He reminded the agents in the room to Google yourself and honestly look at what shows up, and the message it says to the consumer. People Google you more than they call you. (We have been saying this for years!) After looking at your Google results, would you even want to call yourself anymore?
Consistency is key to consumer comfort, so be sure to cross connect all your platforms. One way to really stand out is to make a 45-90 second video message on why someone would work with you. But wait…with what content? John suggests to keep it simple:
- State your name, and company name (if you’re not one of those switch it change it every year agents)
- 1 or 2 things about you that a consumer would want to know (tech savvy, work 7 days, etc)
Reyes also suggested to send your YouTube channel to new leads, you’ll train them without having to use all the hot air. Remember to categorize your YouTube videos so they’re easy to navigate too. He recommends addresses in the titles; whereas at Cal Coast we tend to go for community names in the title and an address in the description. Tomato, Tomatoe.
John also took a few minutes to just touch upon the demographics that you can do Facebook marketing campaigns to – which are absolutely endless. The agents who take time to master THIS part of Facebook are going to be laughing all the way to the bank. Don’t be afraid to pay to play. You can’t win if you’re not in the game!
It was nice to see John remind the group to hire a professional if they truly want to take success to the next level. It’s great all the DIY we can do nowadays, but let’s be honest, nobody can help polish your campaign like a professional!
A common theme among all speakers: people want to know about YOU, not your business. Social is such an interesting topic because what works for one doesn’t always work for another…because we are all such unique individuals. If you’d like help with a social system that could work for you and your lifestyle, tweet @CalCoast or contact Cal Coast at 888-281-7665 x 2.
