I get it…
Real estate agents struggle to make social media work for them. It’s a problem.
But there’s something I saw this week that really made me upset.
There are just so many courses that try to train agents on social media being promoted HEAVILY right now.
And here’s the problem…
Social media is NOT something
you can learn from a course.
Now, this isn’t an attack on anyone’s business. But I think a course is completely the wrong way to go about learning how to use social media.
Here’s what a course does:
- A course teaches you one way to go about posting to social media
- It teaches you the stuff that might work now
But guess what?
The game is literally always changing. For example, today I found a new type of Facebook Ad that’s already averaging 50% the cost per lead of other normal ads. You won’t find blogs, videos, tutorials, or courses out about this new stuff. Why? Because it changes too fast.
So, what are you to do?
Well…. instead of buying this course:
Or instead of buying this course…
Or even this course…
I think the real solution for agents is mentorship.
Don’t Get A Social Media Course
Find A Social Media Mentor & Reverse Engineer What They Do.
Let me walk you through a classic example of what I’m talking about….
You might remember this video from over 1 year ago with Ryan Fitzgerald:
Ryan wanted to build a business via blogging and social media. So, he reached out to Andrew Fortune.
Andrew mentored him. And now Ryan’s become super successful with social media & blogging.
In my opinion, courses with 40+ video training modules, 40 downloadable materials, and more simply cause indigestion. We see this with our LeadSites clients all the time.
They’ll get a LeadSite. And want to do EVERYTHING at once.
Then two weeks later we’ll check back in…
???And they’ll be 100% burned out.???
So to help you avoid indigestion…
I’m going to give you for free today the only social media class you’ll ever need.
Here it is…
Step #1) Find someone generating leads with the tactic that you’d like to use to generate leads
Step #2) Study everything they do. Study when they post…how they post…how often they post…what tools they use to post…what blogs they write…who they link to via their blogs
Step #3) Create something unique following all the rules you could pull from studying them. And publish it.
Step #4) Reach out to that mentor and get their feedback on it. You’ll also want to make sure to mention them in your blog posts and social media posts.
That’s it.
That’s the only social media marketing course you should ever need.
If you disagree with my “SnapChat is Crap” article and want to make it work for you, reach out to Dustin Brohm.
If you’d like to master blogging, reach out to Bill Gassett.
These are the true masters of social media. So, in order to help you find your mentor and start your own social media course, I’ve rounded up a few awesome examples of agents using social correctly.
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#1 Facebook
No matter your personal feelings on Facebook, is still remains the most successful social platform for driving traffic to your real estate website and converting qualified leads. Let’s see how these agents are using it.
Adrian La Fosse
Adrian La Fosse of Columbia Homes and Lifestyle is a stellar client of ours and is constantly killing it on Facebook.
He’s gathered nearly 3,000 fans and several 5-star reviews on his page. A testimonial page on your site is irreplaceable, but having great reviews across the internet is only going to help you establish trust and build credibility with leads. Just as you might ask a satisfied client to tell their story for your website, you can ask them to review your services on Facebook as well.
And take a look at Adrian’s pinned post. It’s a video that has over 2K views. As with all Facebook video, it plays automatically and will be the first thing folks see when they visit his page, which is also a great way to engage new audiences.
In the text of the post, you’ll also notice that Adrian is offering a free report to new homebuyers when they follow the link. This allows him to directly drive qualified leads to his website where they can opt-in to see the report and Adrian can take the next steps to further the transaction.
Dustin Brohm
Another of our awesome clients who is completely dominating the social media game right now is Dustin Brohm. Not only does he have a killer blog, but he’s also ranking on the first page of Google up with Trulia and Zillow.
While Dustin’s Facebook audience is smaller than Adrian’s, he’s got a ton of cool stuff going on that is definitely worth checking out.
One thing Dustin is doing to stand out from the crowd is using Live video to engage viewers and expand his audience and network. By doing this, he’s introducing himself and his services to leads before they even reach his website or he reaches out to them via phone or email.
The video featured here introduces a new series Dustin is launching that will stream live both on Facebook and Youtube. I would definitely recommend adding live streaming to your 2016-2017 marketing strategy. Overall, video is a huge part of the social media experience, with Facebook reporting more than 8 billion video views each day.
Inman News
In the spirit of calling people out, I’m officially issuing a challenge to Inman News for their Facebook Page. Their page is literally a list of links to their blogs. And honestly, they’re getting like 5-20 likes per post. This is ridiculous considering they have over 70,000 people that like their page.
Want to know why that’s happening? It’s simple. They didn’t switch to video quick enough.
As I tweeted yesterday….
Facebook should change it’s name to #VIDEObook b/c all they WANT to show are videos. If you’re a Marketer, you NEED to be uploading video.
— Tyler Zey (@TylerZey) June 14, 2016
Example (link to post)
Gary Vee‘s Facebook page is living proof of the difference that video makes. He has so much more engagement because Facebook simply is showing videos more often than blog post links these days.
At Easy Agent Pro, we’ve seen this trend and are continuing to up the percentage of videos we post to social instead of links.
This is an example of the type of learning you’ll get by studying people on social media rather than taking a course.
Darin Bjerkenes
From CWRealtyMN
Darin did an awesome job with this Facebook video review of playgrounds in the area. Check it out here…
#2 Twitter
Joe Manausa
Agent Joe Manausa has a great presence on Twitter. He’s got a solid and engaging bio, is consistently active and has a ton of followers!
Take a look at the recent tweets Joe has put out to his huge network. He’s publishing original content every couple of hours.
People are then retweeting his content and sending leads to his website. Pretty cool, right?
Staying relevant on Twitter takes a lot of hard work and discipline, but then again, so does being a successful real estate agent.
If you’re putting out original content on your blog each week, you should also share it on Twitter. You can use an app like Buffer or Hootesuite to automate your tweets and schedule them as you like, instead of having to remember to tweet something every two hours. You can also tweet the same thing multiple times over the course of a week or a month, just be sure to position in it a fresh way.
Kyle Hiscock
It’s super exciting for us to see how many of our clients are ruling the social sphere and Kyle Hiscock is a great example of this. Kyle uses his Twitter account to give away a ton of free knowledge and resources and his audience is taking notice.
Kyle is well on his way to becoming a go-to source for buyers, sellers and agents alike on Twitter. You can also see that he has over 7,000 images and videos listed to accompany the majority of his tweets, making them all the more helpful and share-worthy.
Amy Chorew
Amy Chorew wears many hats and in addition to being a real estate agent, she’s also the VP of Platform Development at Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate.
On Twitter, she writes that she’s an author, farmer, chaos creator and fan of authenticity. I’d suggest checking out Amy’s account to see how she incorporates fun aspects of her personality into her content.
Ultimately you’ll need to decide, hopefully before you start posting, how your brand voice is going to be conveyed on social media, but letting aspects of yourself come through in your content can absolutely help you connect with your audience and become more “human.”
The more direct way to achieve this is through Youtube, but on a platform like Twitter where you’ve only got 140 characters per thought, it can be nice to put your own unique spin on things to help your audience pick you out from the flood of incoming tweets.
#3 Pinterest
Bill Gassett
Bill Gassett has a humongous presence on Pinterest and it’s only getting bigger. These are only half of the boards Bill has created to share with his network and as you can see, he’s covering a ton of topics.
In addition to maintaining many, many quality boards, Bill also invites agents to contribute to a few of them. This means that as a contributor, you can pin your own pins to his board. He’s doing our community a huge favor in this way because it’s going to get your content in front of so many other people.
Definitely sign up on Pinterest if you haven’t already!
Lynn Pineda
Lynn Pineda has some excellent examples of board topics that will get you more followers in no time! Like Twitter, you’ll need to decide what your Pinterest is for.
Many agents include boards that are relevant to the real estate industry as well as to buyers and sellers, while others may target one group or the other. Lynn’s Pinterest includes a nice mix of each of these from advice for agents, commonly asked questions, information about her market, and more overarching themes that will be valuable for her diverse audience.
That’s the thing about Pinterest, you can create as many boards as you like and engage with people based on their interests. Lynn also has a board dedicated to pets, delicious recipes, and a few dedicated to families.
Stephen Oblian
Stephen Pineda has a really excellent Pinterest account as well and his boards will be particularly helpful for you if you’re looking to broaden your reach in your market.
Stephen is an agent based out of Los Angeles and provides several boards to help buyers navigate their move, such as visual neighborhood guides, restaurant recommendations, and things to do in LA.
He also has more general boards for sellers to provide tips on staging and home improvement. Stephen also uses his boards as a way for viewers to get to know him by including an About Me board and also one where he posts quotes and the like that motivate him personally.
#4 Youtube
Jessica Riffle Edwards
Jessica’s channel is awesome! She creates advice-based videos and films on-the-go.
Sure, it’s great to have access to a stellar camera, mic and studio space, but you don’t need all of that to start making awesome real estate videos and Jessica proves this.
She posts regularly and her content is authentic on every level. Vlogging can definitely be intimidating, but it’s okay to relax and be yourself while you’re recording! Folks are watching your videos to see you, so be genuine.
Tom Ferry
Coach Tom Ferry has it going on! You may already be familiar with him, as he is recognized as a top real estate coach as well as a best-selling author. He publishes a video weekly on his Youtube channel and offers some great advice for agents while covering a variety of topics. If you’re still having trouble starting your own channel, definitely pull up a few tom Tom’s videos when you can for some inspiration.
Kevin Ward
Kevin Ward is also a coach, author and speaker and shares tons of free knowledge and tips on Youtube.
He uses his channel to speak directly to clients and agents alike and also provides a lot of motivation and inspirational videos that agents can watch when they’re feeling less-than stellar. He films his video is a variety of locations, some outdoors, some in the studio, and some while he’s out and about.
His videos range in length from just a few minutes to more than twenty and he uploads regularly.
No matter the type of content you aspire to create, committing to a regular uploading/posting schedule across platforms will definitely help you succeed in digital marketing.
On Kevin’s channel, his 19K+ subscribers know that they can look to him for insight and motivation every week.
Where to find Easy Agent Pro:
Last, but not least we certainly hope you’ll check us out across social media! We’d be glad to follow you back!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/easyagentpro
Twitter: https://twitter.com/easyagentpro
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/easyagentpro/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLQhB0aWwl7OrP5EG5vp1NA