What’s happening is that they are marketing to others the way that they don’t like getting marketed to! If you went to a party, and the first thing a person did when they came over to you, before they even said hello, was to hand you a flyer of a listing, what would you do with that flyer – it would go right in the garbage right? So tell them that you like their dress, tell them their hair looks nice, tell them that their kids go to school where you went to school, normal things that you would do offline! The offline relationship building methodology is not that different to online, although online will take you longer, because there is a screen between the usual person-to-person interface.
Instead of embracing and nurturing relationships over the long haul, agents are also trying to score to quickly, close too quickly and the first time they see a tweet from someone who is looking for a home, they get all excited and say, “Hi! I’m a Realtor, what would you like to see?” instead of doing what they should be doing, which is using their common sense and building a relationship first.
Do you have any advice for Agents who wish to improve their social media strategy?
You can’t look at Facebook or Twitter as any sort of “silver bullet” that is going to find you another five deals per year.
With Social Media, agents should be listening, helping and then – and only then – selling. At the moment, some are just trying to sell without listening or helping which is not the best strategy!
We are seeing some interesting patterns here in the States. You really have to be a good Realtor before you can be a good Realtor and be good on Social Media. Because social media makes everything so public now, it’s just becomes more obvious who is good at marketing and who isn’t.
If you look at most Realtors Facebook pages you will most times see a pattern of status updates that have some sort of famous quote, followed by a listing, followed by sale; rinse and repeat. But, would you ever go up to someone in person that you hadn’t met before or seen in a while and, before you said anything else, say “John – The early bird gets the worm?” This is not holding a conversation; this is broadcasting – and bad broadcasting at that.
With facebook always recommend the 10:1 rule. That is, for every one time that you update your status; there should be ten times that you comment on somebody else’s status.
Consider this – what is more powerful – telling someone you are going to an open house, or telling someone that you are also proud of the fact that their son or daughter did a great job at their weekend baseball game?
Instead of making cold calls for an hour, if you wrote on peoples walls for an hour, what would that do for your relationship building in general? Remember, when you write on someone’s wall, it alerts them that someone wrote on their wall, and it also emails them that someone wrote on their wall. So for most people who are just doing status updates of listing, listing, and listing – is anyone seeing it, or even caring? The answer is probably not.
The next question is that clients also ask me what they should write on walls. My answer is — always look at the persons information tab! This tells you heaps about the person that’s relevant to starting a great conversation – ie what their interests are, what schools they went to, how old they are, what music they like and much more. You can also read their recent updates to see what they have been up to. So my advice is to use this information to engage with people like a real person!
Real Estate is not rocket science; it’s a people business. If you like people and you interact well with them, they will call you when it’s time to do something, or they will refer someone to you.
What do you say to Agents that don’t have time for social media or blogging, or think it’s a waste of time?
If there is a transaction in front of a Realtor, like a listing or a sale, then they will always focus on that transaction. And the good agents are always focused on their transactions; and quite rightly so. But, it is a shame to say that they are “too busy to blog” or “too busy for social media”.
However, the time spent on transactions versus the time spent on technology and social media is a bit like the difference between a “savings” and a “cheque” account.
We are always so focused on the cheque account because that’s where we complete our day to day transactions. Social Media is more like a savings account, where you can be building quality relationships today that you will be able to leverage at some point in the future. So if you don’t focus at least some time and energy on your savings account; you may find your pipeline in a weaker position than it needs to be at some point in the future.
A really great quote from my days writing mortgage loans is that “Money and numbers follow” (ie they don’t lead!). I believe that Tech Savvy Agent is proof of that. If you are able to focus on nothing but genuinely caring about your potential customers – look what can happen. We are well beyond wondering it will work, it works! I have some great opportunities in front of me at the moment – is it because I am a blogger, or because I am on Twitter? I don’t think so, it’s because I love engaging with people, and selflessly helping thousands of people. Build the relationship first and the reward will follow.
Next Issue: Chris talks about some of the core tools that are needed by all Agents and explains the difference between these “core tools” and the “shiny objects”. He also gives us some insight into how he believes technology in Real Estate will evolve over the next few years. To find out more about Chris and Tech Savvy Agent, visit www.techsavvyagent.com. Follow Chris on Twitter: @techsavvyagent.
