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For the first decade of my career, I was relentless on the phones in my pursuit to be a top real estate agent. Nobody spent more time calling leads and potential clients in hopes of landing another real estate deal. At one point I even considered changing my license plate to “FSBO KNG” to show the entire world who the best phone prospecting agent was. I worked tirelessly to pull as many clients toward me as I could.
Fast forward a few years to 2020, and I haven’t had to pick up the phone and make a cold call in over five years. Yet my business is still growing month by month, and for the first time ever I became the top-selling agent in my marketplace in 2019. The key to this change? Social media, a tool so powerful yet so underused in the real estate profession. The secret is quite simple. It’s the easiest and fastest way to attract clients to you so they come to you instead of you trying to pull them over your way.
Here are a few of the key social media strategies I have utilized over the past several years that all real estate agents can and should be using in their digital marketing strategy.
Utilize Video To Build A Relationship
Home buyers and sellers are looking for one thing in an agent: somebody they can trust. They need to trust that you are honest and will do your best for them. But they also must trust that you actually know what you are doing.
On the Rex Real Estate Team, we utilize video on a daily basis to teach our clients about potential investment deals and share with them the ins and outs of the real estate process. Through simple trainings like this, real estate agents can position themselves as experts in the area and the most knowledgeable people to help home buyers and sellers.
Another benefit of video is that your followers will start to feel like they know you better. If they know you better, they’re likely to trust you more. I’ve met clients in person for the first time and had them ask me about trips I took six months, a year or two years ago. We have a built-in relationship of trust and familiarity because they have heard me speaking openly so many times on video before ever meeting face to face.
Use Content To Attract And Offer Value
There are two purposes to everything you post on social media. The first is to attract people to you. You post exciting or interesting content so that they are intrigued and want to know more. They want to see more of what you post, and they will start to share it with friends and other people in their lives.
The second purpose of anything you post is to provide value. Too often we see people posting photos or videos that show nothing about the poster and do nothing for those scrolling through social media. If you want to gain followers and raving fans, you need to provide value through the content that you post. Agents tend to post listings or quotes that really don’t give the followers any reason to reach out. Think instead of what you would want to know more about if you weren’t in the industry. What would you like to see? Post more of that.
Create A Community
If you are a full-time real estate agent, you shouldn’t be using social media to try to be an influencer as much as you should be using it to earn clients and sell more houses. In order to do this, you want to create a community.
If you look at one of the most beloved movies ever made, Avengers, you will notice one thing that stands out: a collaboration of all the Marvel superheroes. The most successful people on social media collaborate every day and post each other’s material. They go on each other’s vacations and podcasts and create content that can be shared on both of their pages. This is the key to building a community: creating a loud and loyal fanbase. Look for and create opportunities to share your lives together online.
As you begin to bring value to the lives of your followers and fans, they will want to reach out and share your business with others. They will send others to follow you and see the content you put out. This is the beginning of a community that is based around your personality and your content online.