social media

Agent Facebook Success: Rules of Engagement

Social Media Strategies

Feb 13, 2019

Your Facebook business page is useless for lead generation if you insist on using your posts to sell listings and advertise open houses to the exclusion of being, well, social.

Rule number one: Be of value

Use “value” as your cornerstone. Here’s an example.

I love LinkedIn for real estate agent marketing. Its users fall under the ideal demographics for the average home buyer and seller. But it’s one place you do NOT want to be salesy. People use the platform to network, not be sold to.

Which is why I stopped following a certain virtual assistant service. Everything she posted was an ad for her company. And, I mean, everything.

Demonstrate your expert knowledge (Available in the Postcard section under Content Cards).

Ads aren’t of value to me. At least not at LinkedIn. Not at Facebook, either, come to think of it.

To be of value to a Facebook follower, your posts need to be, above all, social.

They don’t need to always be real estate-related, just interesting, surprising or helpful.

Chicago’s Dream Town Realty nails it in the “interesting” and “helpful” categories. All posts (at least the ones we saw) are locally-oriented and full of pride for their city. The recently had a post on “Where to Go Sledding in Chicago” with a great photo of kids sledding at a local hill. This is a post that’s highly shareable and ultra-local.

Yes, they share open houses and the occasional listing, but “occasional” is the operative word. And, they don’t use the typical “salesy” jargon when they do share these items.

Where do you find these hot social media topics? Start with your hometown newspaper, your city’s magazine (such as Dream Town Realty did), or another local source.

Scour the internet to see if your town or city made it onto the many “best places to retire,” “best places to raise kids,” or “best places to live” lists. Just enter into Google, with the quotation marks, “best places,” “best neighborhoods or “best cities.”

Trulia recently put out a list of the “best” neighborhoods in the country, broken down as best for kids, best for friendliness, etc. Maybe your market made it onto the list.

Compile your own, like the Dream Town Realty list. Here are some ideas:

The best yoga studios
Top spots to watch the sun set
The best dog parks
Best restaurant patio dining
Top hiking, biking, walking trails
Do a series on day trips from your town
Best restaurants for date night
Top staycation ideas

Provide valuable information (Available in the Postcard section under Content Cards)

The list of local topics is just about endless when you start brainstorming. And, people love local topics.

Rule number two: Engagement is key

Real estate pros, by and large, do an admirable job posting to Facebook. Sadly, most aren’t engaging their followers.

So, why do non-profits on Facebook have such a high rate of engagement with their posts? This is just my opinion, but non-profits, because they aren’t selling anything, are non-threatening. But, the top organizations are also posting the right content.

The number one non-profit on Facebook is Ted, an organization “devoted to spreading ideas”. It’s a place you can find answers to your most burning questions.

Which makes for excellent Facebook fodder. A recent Ted Talk video post showing ‘how to do math in your head’ received a decent amount of engagement (nearly 700 comments, so far), it was shared more than 3,000 times. It was viewed 387,000 times.

Who knew so many people wanted to learn how to add and subtract in their heads?

When you’re stuck for content, share a post from Ted, or NPR, number 3 on the list of most popular non-profit Facebook pages.

Don’t make every post all about you. Nobody cares that you’re willing to help them “buy or sell a home.” Few care that you’re holding an open house or that you took a new listing.

Keep them informed of what’s important (Available in the Postcard section, under Content Cards).

Think about what makes you interact with a Facebook post and head in that direction with your real estate page.

Engage your audience by sending at least 100 Demand High, Inventory Low postcards from the Content Card Series to an area where you want more listings.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are Free ways we can help you have an INVINCIBLE 2019!

1. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar

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Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. – Click Here

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! – Click Here

Social Media – From Time Waster to Winner

Social Media Strategies

Jul 30, 2018

Create a Lead Generating Hour of Power

When you reach the end of your life, will you look back fondly on the five years (based on studies) you spent on social media?

Probably not. I mean, it’s when our time is up that we decide, darn it, we should’ve spent more time on the truly meaningful things in life. Unless, of course, you find social media truly meaningful.

…but meaningful enough to spend 2.25 hours every day on it?

Ok, so you do it for your business. But if you don’t have a social media strategy you may be wasting valuable business time as well.

If you find yourself trying out idea after idea, hoping that someday one of them will work, or if yours is the type of “strategy” that leads to reading and responding to every post, following links and, generally, wasting time, quit it!

The “why” behind your use of social media

Social media—at least some platforms—seem tailor-made for the real estate industry. Take Facebook, for example. The user-demographics align with the average real estate consumer, it’s easy to use and, if you don’t buy ads, it’s free.

To not be on Facebook is just plain silly. But, to avoid having it suck your time you need to understand how to best use it and then get clear on your goals.

Here are some agent goals we typically hear:

To keep in touch with your sphere. Staying top-of-mind isn’t easy but reaching out on Facebook makes it easier.

To reach potential clients. Unless you are doing this strategically, it may be a major time suck. Hoping your posts get shared isn’t a strategy.

To keep up-to-date on the industry. To do this typically requires joining groups. If you aren’t careful, activities in these Facebook groups can wipe out a good portion of the day (or night).
To drive traffic to your website.

Manage your time wisely

Consider scheduling social media time. Like blocks set aside for follow-up and lead generation, set aside a certain amount of time that you’ll spend on social media. Then, stick to the schedule. Use an alarm, if you must, to remind you when to stop.

At first, the amount of time you wasted will be painfully obvious. When the alarm sounds and all you’ve done is read posts, you may need some motivation to remain mindful of why you’re on the platform in the first place.

Create, don’t consume

“There are so many talented entrepreneurs out there who focus on just consuming all day long instead of creating,” laments Jason Sadler, founder of IWearYourShirt.

Your first creation should be a social media strategy. Decide which platforms serve you best and let the others go, at least for now. For instance, Facebook is a must for agents who want to keep in touch with their sphere of influence and entice folks to visit their websites.

Instagram and Pinterest, on the other hand, don’t have the demographics that fit the average real estate buyer and seller and they are far more time-consuming than a quick, daily stop at Facebook.

Then, decide how much time you’ll devote to social media each week, set an alarm while visiting and leave when the time is up.

Skip the groups and communities, at least during work hours. They’re fine for garnering business advice and socializing with colleagues but save those visits for non-work hours.

Other strategies to consider:

Ditch the notifications. Do you really need the distraction of being alerted every time someone posts a comment on a post you’re following?
Use social media scheduling tools to automate the publishing of your content. Yes, there are cons to this as well as pros, but if you’re easily distracted and find yourself wasting a lot of time on social media, it’s a tool you may want to consider.

Take some tips from Laura Monroe, real estate marketing whiz, who explains her brilliant social media strategy.

She schedules her company’s social media posts the night before they will be posted. “ … that way I’m not distracting myself from important tasks!”

During the day, she avoids additional distractions by turning off notifications “until I have all my important work-to-dos completed first.”

Around lunchtime, she takes “time to engage, respond to messages, and reach out to my network. More scheduling in the afternoon, and more engagement in the evenings when I’m planning the next day.”

It’s a strategically-planned social media schedule that allows her to remain engaged yet still attend to her important business tasks.

Social media can be a powerful way to generate leads and keep in touch with your Sphere. However, only if the time spent is managed wisely and not allowed to dominate your workday.

Another effective way to keep in touch with your Sphere is to send the popular Chill Out postcard from the Content Card Series.

It’s a fun and informative way to let your Sphere know you’re thinking about them this summer.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 2 free ways we can help you CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

2. The Free Online ROI Calculator.

Also…check out these cool tools

Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone

MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Want to Refer a friend or colleague? Refer them, Here. THEY get a Free $25 Gift Card and YOU become their hero (BTW, you also get a $25 Gift Card too, now that’s what I’m talking about)!

Social Proof: Why Agents Need It

Social Media

Feb 27, 2018

In case you haven’t noticed, real estate is no longer your father’s industry. Every year, technology takes it, at warp speed, in directions Papa could only dream about.

In his day, driving the latest Cadillac was proof enough of his success.

Not today.

Your years of experience, impeccable customer service skills and even your über expensive website are no longer enough to convince potential clients that they should work with you.

They believe little of what you tell them and they demand proof.

So, who do they trust?

Your clients—present and former. So, make sure to appreciate and acknowledge your past clients and their referrals with our Customer Appreciation postcard series.

This will be the year that, hopefully, agents finally understand how important reviews are to their bottom line and focus on not only getting more of them but how to present them as well.

What is social proof?

Apparently, the urge to follow the crowd, whether you’re a sheep or a human, is instinctual. It’s why we look skyward when others do. It’s why we stop to look at a car wreck.

“We often imitate others’ actions when making choices with limited information about what’s best,” claims David Stipp at Fortune.com. “It’s almost a law of nature,” he concludes.

“To learn what is correct, we look at what other people are doing,” explains Rob Henderson, an Eli Whitney scholar at Yale University, at PsychologyToday.com. “Advertisers don’t have to persuade us that a product is good, they only need to say others think so.”

This, in a nutshell, is social proof. And, the cornerstone of social proof is your brand’s reviews. Or, “testimonials,” as the real estate industry insists on referring to them.

While it’s a bit embarrassing that our tendencies are so uncomfortably close to those of animals, it’s also an opportunity to cash in when it comes to marketing your brand. A great way to market your brand and showcase the good you are doing for your clients is our Property Showcase Just Listed/Just Sold Postcards.

Need proof that social proof matters?

About five years ago, Jeremy Stoppelman, a former PayPal employee, needed to see a doctor. Understanding that he’d find the best doctor only through word-of-mouth, he became frustrated at how little information he could find online.

As a result, and with $1 million in investor money, Stoppelman and Russel Simmons, another former PayPal employee, gave birth to Yelp.com.

“What we realized was word-of-mouth is the way we wanna find great local businesses,” Stoppelman tells Inc.com’s, Daniel Wolfman.

“That’s what we all naturally do. And if we could create something online that could capture word-of-mouth, that would create an amazing resource to find only the best local businesses.”

That was nearly 15 years ago. Today, research shows that, in their efforts to avoid buyers’ remorse, more than 70 percent of Americans rely on reviews of products and services before making a purchase.

By the way, younger Americans, including Generation X and Millennials, rely on reviews far more than older folks. Social proof, therefore, is imperative for the real estate agent hoping to capture the attention of tomorrow’s real estate consumer. Our Millennials Postcard Series is a great start in that direction.

Like it or not, you may already have a rep

You can always hope that your negative reviews are hidden with the “dead bodies” on page three of Google, but why not be certain? Be aware, though, that polishing an online image takes time and effort unless you have the means to hire a company that specializes in online reputation management.

DIY methods include searching for yourself on Google and Facebook and you’ll find a walkthrough of several ways to clean up your online reputation posted by Alan Henry at lifehacker.

Let’s get you some positive social proof

Most real estate consumers seeking to learn more about you will check online for information first. If you don’t have a “testimonials” section on your website, create one.

Keep in mind that consumers will scrutinize the testimonials’ authenticity. In fact, a 2017 BrightLocal survey found that the “authenticity of reviews is the most important factor for consumers to trust the reviews they read.”

Think about it—how likely are you to trust a review that doesn’t include the reviewer’s name? Or, contains only the reviewer’s initials or an obviously made-up name?

Consider adding your clients’ photos (ask for permission) to the testimonial to add veracity. A study conducted by Olapic, a global software company, found that more than 75 percent of consumers “believe the content that average people share is more honest than advertising from brands.”

Another study finds better conversion rates when the photo is positioned above the text of the testimonial.

BrightLocal’s study also reveals that consumers will seek you out on more than one site before making a decision and most of the time, they’ll check a review site, such as Yelp or the review section on Zillow and Google.

Since the latter is likely to show your review as a result of a search of your name, start there. You’ll find a walkthrough of how to create your free Google listing here.

Use them in your offline marketing

Pick one or two of the most glowing testimonials and use them in all of your offline marketing efforts, from postcards to newsletters to listing presentations and everything else you use offline.

TIP: Use care when soliciting testimonials from clients. Yelp, for instance, has a strict policy against asking for reviews. Furthermore, while most review platforms explicitly prohibit offering incentives for reviews, it’s also against the law.

Chose at least 100 of your past clients and send out Thinking of You postcards from our Customer Appreciation Series. Keep your name top of mind for the next time they are asked for an agent referral.

Need assistance taking your marketing to the next level? Call our support team at 866.405.3638 today!

PLUS: Whenever you have a moment…here are 3 things to check out that will help you CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. The Free 2018 Real Estate Business Plan

Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan – Click Here

2. The Online ROI Calculator

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

Also…check these out 🙂

3 Click Postcards – Just snap, tap, send all from your mobile phone

MLS Mailings – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Social Media – Avoid The Time Stealers

Real Estate Marketing

Nov 28, 2017

Spend Time Here, Not Here

There’s only one you. There are just 24 hours in a day. Put those two together and you have an insanely busy schedule.

And, it’s all too easy to get distracted by the next shiny object.

Social media is shiny. It’s distracting. And, some platforms are completely unnecessary – at least for real estate professionals.

As we head into 2018, and you’re contemplating your business plan, you’ll be prioritizing where to spend your time and money.

Take a hard look at which social media platforms you use and whether or not your time is better spent elsewhere.

Facebook – it’s not free

You may think that marketing your business via social media is a fabulous free way to get your brand in front of people.

If done strategically, it can be.

But, consider this: The majority of agent’s average about three hours a week spent on Facebook, according to a 2016 Inman.com survey.

Sadly, that doesn’t tell the whole story because more than 21 percent spend twice that amount of time – a whopping six hours a week – on the social media giant.

Ask yourself this question:

Is six hours each week better spent chasing after new business on Facebook or reaching out to former clients and those in your sphere?

Both are “free” in terms of money, but the latter isn’t as much of a time stealer and the return on time invested has a better chance of being higher.

Multiply your time spent by the number of social media platforms you’re currently using. While they all have something to offer, they aren’t all worth an agent’s time.

Instagram – A waste of time?

Unless you have an in-house marketing person, don’t feel guilty about not being on Instagram, and don’t listen to the hype saying you should be.

Here’s why.

Most online articles pushing the use of Instagram for businesses point out “In 2016, Instagram grew its daily user count by 100 million users and now has more than 600 million active users.”

What they fail to do is dig deeper. So, let’s do that right now. First, however, let’s take a look at your average homebuyer.

According to the NAR, “the typical home buyer is 44 years old, married, no children at home, and has a median income of $88,500.” Keep these statistics in mind while taking the deep dive into Instagram.

Who’s hanging out on Instagram?

80 percent of Instagram users don’t live in the U.S.
Of the users who do live in the U.S., only 28 percent of them are on Instagram, according to Pew Research.
The largest demographic of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29 while only 18 percent are between the ages of 30 and 49 – the most likely buyer pool.
The largest demographic earns less than $30k
The average Instagram user “misses about 70% of the posts” in their feed, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

Until Instagram begins attracting an older, wealthier demographic, it’s an ineffective use of time. Your time is better spent on other lead-generation strategies.

LinkedIn – A good investment

No, it doesn’t have the largest share of online users (only 29 percent of American adults), but LinkedIn’s demographics are ideal for real estate marketing.

77 percent of users are age 30 and older
50 percent are college graduates
45 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $75,000 per year and only 21 percent earn less than $30,000.

Again, recall the profile of the average homebuyer and seller and you’ll realize that this is the demographic you should be chasing.

Not only are the demographics ideal on LinkedIn, but Hubspot gathered data from more than 5,000 companies and found “LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation than Facebook & Twitter.”

Hubspot’s Rebecca Corliss points out that “because most of the content posted on LinkedIn is of a marketing nature, as opposed to family photos or social ‘chatter,’ there is less clutter…

…so business’ marketing posts are more likely to be noticed on LinkedIn than somewhere else.”

Social media is an ever-evolving resource.

What’s hot this year may die next year.

When choosing where to spend your marketing time, don’t judge a platform by its number of users – that figure is useless for real estate agents.

Do a deep dive, periodically, into the demographics of each to decide when the time is right to jump in.

Related: 3 Tools That Drive More Business

Need help? Call our team today at 866.405.3638 to put the best marketing tools in place to build your business easily, and cost-effectively.

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