Social Media: How to Make It Work for You As A Real Estate Agent

On today’s episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. We’re talking about social media and how to use social media as a real estate agent to get the results that you want to get, which is not likes, not more followers, but if you’re using social media as a real estate agent, I think that actually what you want out of it as clients. So that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. I’m your host, Jennifer Myers, listen in, as I share exactly what I did to go from not being able to sell a house for years to becoming one of the top 1% of agents in the U S even opening my own brokerage full of agents taught me serve all the clients that were coming my way. I taught those agents the same strategies I use in date two became top producing agents. Now through this podcast and agent grad school.com, I’m sharing those same modern marketing and business strategies with you. Most of which I learned from looking outside the real estate industry, no fluff, no theory, no outdated sales techniques or paying for leads, just the exact steps to get you the real estate business you’ve always wanted. And the life outside your business, you’ve always wanted to let’s make it happen. And dive into today’s episode. All month long inside agent grad school, we are focused on social media and how to specifically use a strategy for social media as a real estate agent to get results. And the results that we’re looking for is not more visibility, not more likes, not more comments and not more followers. The results that we’re looking for as real estate agents when we’re using social media is growing our business and getting clients. And so that’s what we’ve been talking about all month long inside agent grad school. And I’m going to share some of those strategies that we’ve been talking about, and that have been working for our clients. One of our students has said she got 16, 16 new clients this year, which it’s June. So it’s the beginning of June. So in about five months, she got 16 new clients just from applying the strategy that we teach inside The Agent Grad School to her tic-tac account. So here’s what we’re going to talk about on today’s podcast. First and foremost, The very important difference between using social media as a tactic versus having a proven strategy that you apply to social media, but a huge difference between the two. And we’re going to talk about that and why having using social media without a specific strategy is always going to fail. You’ll be spinning your wheels. You’ll be posting, you’ll be exhausted and you won’t get any clients from it. And then I’m going to share my three-step process to apply to social media or frankly, any marketing vehicle of which social media is just a marketing vehicle. We’re going to get into that. I’m going to share a very, very easy three-step process that you can apply to any marketing vehicle. And today we’re specifically talking about social media so that you actually get the results that you want. And again, I want to remind you that the results you’re looking for is not more comments, not more likes, not more anything other than growing your business and getting clients. That is why we market ourselves as business owners, as real estate agents. So first, let’s talk a little bit about social media. I really want you to be thinking about social media as just one vehicle or one tool in your marketing toolbox to get the results that you want. So social media is, is light, is like postcards. It’s like doing open houses. It’s like knocking on doors. It’s like an email newsletter. It’s like a website that actually brings you clients. Okay. It is a thing that you choose and you use to find and attract clients to you who want to work with you. Okay. So in essence, social media is a thing, but it’s not a strategy. And so, so many of the agents that I talk to, they’ll say things like, oh, I tried YouTube, or I tried an email newsletter, or I tried social media and it didn’t work for me. And or that’s what I’m being told to do. It’s not working for me. And so I really want you to separate in your mind, whatever the tool you are using. And then today we’re specifically talking about social media. So the tool is social media that is different than a strategy that you apply to the tool to actually get the results that you want. So think of this analogy, think of social media as kind of like a tool, like literally a hammer or a drill, right? That tool is only going to produce the result. When the person applying the tool has an actual strategy, knows what they’re doing and knows how to get the results that they want. Another way to think about this is think of any marketing tool. Again, today, we’re talking about social media specifically, think of it almost as like a vehicle. It’s like the thing that you use that you drive to get in front of people, right? It’s, it’s like your, your vehicle for getting in front of people, but you can’t just stand there in front of people. You actually need a strategy so that people a notice that you’re there be care and see, see that you can actually get into conversation with them. And if you can get into conversation with them, then you can see what you can have. You can talk to them about how you can help them and then tell them what to do next. Okay. So social media may or may not work for you. It’s not about social media itself. It’s about the strategy you apply to social media that is going to term determine whether you’re spinning your wheels, whether you’re wasting a ton of time or whether you’re actually using it for business growth client getting purposes. Okay. I think of it also social media kind of like a party, right? You can’t just show up in a group of people or a networking event or anything right. Into a group of people and just kind of stand there and talk to yourself or start shouting at people, right? You have to start conversations with people, and there are specific ways to do that. You need to understand that it’s just a thing you use and it’s separate from the strategy you apply. And it’s the strategy that gets you the results, not the thing, not the vehicle, not the car, right. A car can can’t get it. Somebody anywhere, unless you dial in the GPS coordinates. Right? And you have somebody who knows where they’re going. Same thing about social media. Okay. So it’s really important to actually have a strategy. And sometimes our students will say to me, you know, you don’t specifically teach social media and I go, no, I don’t. I teach you a very specific step-by-step strategy that you can literally apply to anything, to get the results that you want. And it’s your job. As the agent, as the business owner to decide is social media, the right place for you. This is actually this podcast episode is actually kind of part one of a two part social media class that we’re doing here on the podcast. And actually next week, we’re going to talk about whether to determining whether or not you even need to be on social media based on what you learned today. We’re going to apply this to yet another podcast episode to first decide, do I even need to be on social media? And number two, decide where on social media, you need to be. So today we’re done to talk about the strategy. So you can start thinking about it. And then we’re going to apply that strategy to picking which social media platform is best for you, because here’s a little secret. You don’t have to be everywhere. You have to only be a certain place. And that certain place is where your clients are. So we’re going to be talking about that next week. And if you don’t want to miss out on that episode, I highly recommend that you join The Agent Grad School inner circle. That’s where I give you an email. Every time a new podcast episode comes up. And I all sorts of other things that I don’t share here on the podcast. So if you’re interested in that, go to agent grad, school.com forward slash inner circle, totally free. And it’s just a way not to miss anything. And I definitely don’t want you to miss part two of this episode. Okay? So let’s now talk about the strategy that we are going to apply to social media. So my hope is that by now, in the episode, you understand that you actually do need to apply a strategy, right? That it’s not the tool. It’s not social media itself. That’s going to work for you or not. It’s not about showing up and yelling at people and posting, but it’s actually about applying the strategy. And so this is the strategy that I want you to apply to your social media account and truly any marketing piece, any marketing tool, whether that’s your website, whether that’s your email newsletter, whether it’s postcards, whatever it is that you do best. I want you to apply this strategy. Okay? The three step strategy. First, you need to know who you are talking to. Who are you trying to reach and are you in the right place? So now let’s take that a step further. So as you guys well know here, and for the student, are my students listening, you know, that everything I talk about when it, when it comes to strategy always starts with who are you trying to reach? Who are you talking to? Okay. So if you, for example, are helping first time home buyers, right then social media could be, might be a very good, very smart place to talk to people about first time home buyers, especially if everyone that follows you on social media, like your friends, your family, right, are all about to buy their first homes or all have just bought their first homes. Okay. Then it makes total sense for you to be on social media. But let’s say that you are trying to reach downsizers people who are down, who are, who are looking to downsize or retire, that kind of thing. They are probably not going to be on Tik TOK, not to say that they won’t be on Tik TOK. But if you actually look at the statistics, there’s a very small percentage of people who might be downsizing, who are on Tik TOK. Okay. And so you might think to yourself, well then how do I use social media to find my downsizers? If that’s the goal that’s like, who I’m trying to reach, then you might want to think about being on places like Facebook, for example, instead of Tik TOK, or maybe even YouTube could be a good place for you because YouTube is like a search engine and LinkedIn might be a great place for you. If you specifically, you know, let’s say you do a lot of relocation or you do a lot of sales relocation based because people are moving into the area based on like jobs, right there. A lot of people are moving to a certain area because of jobs. Well, LinkedIn would be an amazing platform for you, especially because LinkedIn doesn’t just show things to your followers. Like Instagram. It actually goes beyond that. You can go to second and third people. So really deciding who you are trying to reach is a really important first step to knowing are you even showing up in the right place? Okay. And really we’ll tell you whether or not being on social media, is that important, right? Like to this day, many of my real estate clients, aren’t on social media. They aren’t active on social media and they don’t really necessarily want me to be on social media all the time. Okay. There’s not a match there. So, you know, you just have to know who you’re trying to reach and where they are, and you need to show up where they are. So that’s first step, okay. Who are you talking to? And are you in the right place to actually find them? Now, the second part of the strategy is asking yourself, what do they care about? What is on their mind? And the only way that you can answer that question is, again, first having utmost clarity on who you are talking to and where they are, then you ask yourself, what do they care about? So deciding who you are going to help and how you are going to help them make sure your messages and the solutions that you offer. And the information that you’re posting are in alignment with who you’re talking to and what they care about. What’s on their mind. So, perfect. Another example I like to use, I’m using these two kind of pieces of the spectrum, right? Like first time home buyers versus downsizers, there’s so many different versions of this. And as usual, I’m making the disclaimer that I’m not talking about violating any fair housing rules or anything like that. I’m just saying, if you’re, if you’re thinking about helping people who are about to, to buy their first home, you’re going to have to post and show up differently. You’re gonna have to post about totally different things than people who are downsizing. Okay? Because people who are downsizing have a whole set of different problems than people who are buying their first home. They have a totally different set of things that are going through their minds, things that they need help with. Right? First time home buyers, really, you need to talk about things like affordability and interest rates right now and what the market’s doing and all that kind of stuff where downsizers right. They might not even care interest rates because they might not even need a loan when they’re downsizing. Right. So see, just that little tiny difference, knowing who you’re talking to and what they care about will then dictate what you post, because what you post is the thing that’s going to attract people to you and say, I want you to, I want to work with this person. They seem like in alignment, they seem to know what I want to do. They are sending me relevant information and they can solve my problem or help me reach the goal I’m trying to reach. Okay. So step three in this, in this strategy is you have to know, you have to make it clear, what should they do next? Okay. So step one, who are you talking to that allows you to show up in the right place and make sure that you are in the place that the people you want to talk to are there. Then it also dictates what you’re posting about. Okay. Don’t post about random stuff. Don’t post about, you know, the national association of realtors conference, right. That doesn’t help your clients in any way, shape or form don’t post about, you know, how great your company is. Your clients don’t care. What they care about is can you help me solve my problem or reach the goals in some way that is that I can’t do on my own. Okay. That’s what they care about. They don’t care about, you know, that your company just went public. They don’t care about like, right. Like certain things. So talk about what they want to talk about and then make sure it’s clear. What do you want them to do next? This last one is the thing that really like unlocks the key to having people reach out to you and want to work with you. This is a formula that you can apply to your social media. One of our students was doing house tours. She was kind of just looking like going through listings, her own listings and saying, you know, it’s three bedrooms, two bath. And if you’re interested, you know, DME for a tour, right. And I was like, but it’s not what really you want them to do. And we talked through it and know what she wanted to do was demonstrate how somebody in her audience could purchase that house. Right. And so we totally switched around what she posted and then made it clear what they should do next. And that is how she turned her social media around so that she was actually getting people, reaching out to her, to work with her. So many that like in a couple months she had over 16 new client appointments just from this, these social media posts. Okay. So really this, what do you want them to do next? And really be asking yourself, like, why am I posting this? What is the person on the receiving end going to get out of this? And if, and if they am I making it clear that if this is resonating with them, is it clear what to do next? Okay. So these are, this is the three-step strategy. And listen, I know all of you want me to be like, first do this, then do this. But I’m literally giving you like the keys to the kingdom right here. This three-part strategy. Yes. You need to think about how does this apply to me? How can I apply this to my social media or my, whatever I’m doing from a marketing perspective. But if you can show up with where your people are showing up, know very clearly who you’re talking to, and then be able to tell them who you help and how you can help them. And you make that so irresistible. And then you tell them what to do next. That is the formula for getting clients out of your marketing. And that formula can be applied to social media. So I’ve seen how these tiny little tweaks and really just thinking through this and not throwing up your hands and saying like, I have no idea, or I feel overwhelmed. None of that for our students who are actually applying this, these tactics to their social media, they’re getting results and they’re getting results quickly and it’s tiny little changes. Okay. So definitely staying tuned next week for part two, how we’re going to apply this strategy and I’m going to help you with the first part. So I’m going to help you specifically about how to know where to show up with social media. And let me tell you, it is definitely not everywhere. That is not realistic. Anybody who’s telling you that, like, there’s no way that you can build a scalable business. If you’re just full time being on every social media platform, it’s not sustainable, it’s not scalable. And you wouldn’t have time to actually do all the other things that, that need to happen when you actually get clients. Okay. So I want you to, I’m going to show you next week, how to pick the right social media channel for you and how to know with utmost certainty, where you should be showing up. And then all you have to do is show up there and apply this strategy. Okay? So just to recap with each tool that you use to find and attract clients, whether it’s Instagram, YouTube, a postcard, your website, email newsletter, Tik TOK, I don’t care where it is, but whatever tool you are using, you need to make sure that you aren’t doing what I call vanity plate marketing, where you’re just showing up and saying like, I’m here. And I look pretty and just sold, right? That doesn’t work. Especially these days, you need a strategy, the three-step strategy that I gave you here. And you need to apply that to any marketing that you are doing. Any marketing vehicle, like specifically social media that we’re talking about today. Okay? The tool itself, social media and email newsletter, your website, none of those tools, either work or don’t work, what matters and what will determine whether you get the results that you want is the strategy and the tweaks you make to your strategy to actually get results. Okay. Success and results depend on what you’re doing, not just where you’re doing it, but what you’re doing it. So don’t just think I have to keep posting. I have to keep showing up on Instagram every day. That’s exhausting and it’s not actually strategic. It’s just being around. And yes, that, that is a, I guess that’s a strategy, but it’s not a very effective one. And it’s one that will burn you out. Okay. So everything I teach I’m like, how do we squeeze the most juice? Like how can we do as little as possible and get the biggest results? Okay. So it’s very poignant. Okay. So the three steps, again, you have to be in the right place. You have to talk to the right people and you have to talk about what’s on their mind and you have to tell them exactly what you want them to do next. Okay. So you have to know what that is. And hint, it’s always some version of ‘schedule a time to talk’, okay. And sometimes you need to put steps in place before you get there. But ultimately that is where you want people to go. You want people to give you, give you their email address and schedule a time to talk because with those two things, you can actually convert leads or interested people into actual clients. Okay? So we’re focusing on social media all month long inside The Agent Grad School. And if you’re interested in joining us, you are welcome to, you can go to The Agent Grad School dot com forward slash enroll and inside agent grad school is where I show you what I did to build first, my six-figure per year real estate business. And then my $1 million per year real estate business. And I did that while having a life outside, taking six to eight weeks of vacation out of town every single year and doing all that without a team. So if that is the kind of business that you’re looking for six or seven figures, a lifetime for a life outside of your business, and if you’re not necessarily interested in building a team, that is what I’m here to teach you at Asian grad school. And it’s exactly what I did. So feel free to join us@agentgradschool.com forward slash and roll. All right. I hope you found today’s podcast helpful. I want you to be really thinking about these three steps and how to make the tweaks to your social media so that you have this strategy. The first thing ask yourself, am I showing up in the right place? Am I showing up where my people are showing up? Okay. And we’re actually going to talk through that in a lot more detail next week. So definitely show up here next Wednesday or join The Agent Grad School inner circle. It’s totally free. And I’ll send you an email when that episode comes out. That’s The Agent Grad School dot com forward slash inner circle. All right. Can’t wait to see you then and talk more about making sure you’re showing up in the right place, which is step one, because once you figure out who you’re talking to, and then you show up in the right place, truly that is half the battle with any of your marketing. Can’t wait to see you next week and talk about that. Then have a good week. Thank you for listening to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. We purposely keep this podcast sponsor and commercial free so we can focus solely on providing real estate agents with the content that will help them grow their real estate business. And how about like, they love outside the business too, but we need your help to get this podcast in the hands of other real estate agents. So please, if you liked this episode, leave a review on iTunes or wherever you’re listening, and also tell your agent friends to listen in to thank you so much for supporting the show for being a listener and supporting other agents along your way to success. That’s what this is all about. See you next time. On another episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. And until then come hang with me over at agentgradschool.com. I’ll see you there.