Allan McNabb, with Image Building Media, and Nadia Daggett, with Graystone Real Estate, join to discuss the top social media post ideas for real estate agents, which is also applicable for business across all industries. Learn about the best social media post ideas to get more traffic to your website, while growing your email list. Plus, if you are a real estate agent, get more people to your open houses.
Webinar Cheat Sheet
Here is the cheat sheet we provided to the agents who attended the webinar. Although we did not cover all the items during the webinar, we are making all the available information. Download the complete PDF of the webinar cheat sheet: Top Social Media Post Ideas for Real Estate Agents.
Video Transcript
Allan McNabb: I’ll introduce myself. I’m Allan McNabb, Image Building Media, and glad to have everybody with us tonight. Chat in and raise your hand. We want to have as much participation as we can. And I’ve got with me Nadia with Graystone. And Nadia, why don’t you introduce yourself and say something to get us started here?
Nadia Daggett: Great, yes, I’m excited about having this class with Allan. I’m Nadia Daggett with Graystone. I’m the broker of Graystone. And I’m excited to be sharing these techniques with you ’cause I know when we’re posting as agents, all the time you see basic, “I’ve sold this house. This house has been sold. This house has been sold.” And how many times do people get that excited about that? So today, we’re going to go over a little bit more about getting your traffic and be more engaged with your audience, and so we’re going to go over other things that you can post and to get more involvement in your social media.
Allan McNabb: 100%. So let’s go on and get started, and if you want to pull up our cheat sheet, we’ve got that in the chat box. You can go on and pull that up, and we’re going to get started. First of all, as I was thinking about this, and let me share my screen here. As I was thinking about this, the first reaction I imagined having was, “My goodness gracious. I don’t have a million hours a week to be doing all of this.” And I want to, first of all, alleviate your fears and put a little commercial in here for ourselves. This is our website for the services we provide in the real estate industry, and this is our social media plans. And you’ll see that our DIY tool is only $29 a month. This is the exact same tool that we provide to Graystone, and it will cut down your social media, the time you spend on social media by more than 90%. It is for just a few dollars, if you use it for a while, you’re going to say, “Man, this is the one thing that I get the most out of. It saves me so much time.”
Polls, Quizzes, and Contests
So don’t worry about the things we talk about, and you say, “My goodness gracious, I don’t have enough time for this.” Yes, you do because with a tool… Whether you use ours or there are several on the market, yes, you do. So don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about the time. Okay, so the first one is, Nadia, polls, quizzes, and contests. That’s the big thing. Those are hot. We’ll take the first one, polls. What are some cool polls that realtors could be running on their social media, sharing on their social media, that people just get engaged, they eat it up, and they’re just getting more and more people coming in their social media? What do you think? What are some ideas? And everyone else, please chat in something, so we can see your chat coming in. And Nadia, what do you think?
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, well, I know one of our agents was Brandon, he posted this great picture of this house that he drove by, and it was completely pink from the top to the bottom, all the outside to the everything, even the plants, they even look pink. And so it’d be fun. Post that out there and say, “What do you think?” It gets attention. It gets your audience engaged, and once your audience is engaged, they see more of your posts. So it’s kind of a… They respond to your posts. They start seeing more of your posts. So doing stuff like that is pretty fun.
Allan McNabb: Cool. And some polls would be, “What do you think would be the best color for this house? Pink, red, orange, green?” Take a poll. What are home buyers… What is the feature most home buyers are looking for? And then give them a list. And taking polls, doing contests, and also quizzes, they’re really hot. So what would be an example of a quiz? And I’m looking at my chat, you all chat in now. What would be some quizzes that you could be putting out on social media that people are just going to start gobbling up? They’re just going to come back. They want to take these quizzes and all of this. What do you think?
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, there are so many things that you could do in real estate. You could take all kinds of quizzes from our stager, how to stage, things like that. Some kind of quiz that would get them involved. I’m trying to check out the chat. I haven’t seen anybody chat anything in yet, so I know Michael, you want to chat something in there. I know you’re typing away. So yeah, let me know if there is something that you want to add into this as well, and now go ahead, Allan.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, so quizzes like, “What’s the first thing you need to do when buying a house?” Most people are going to say, “Oh, I going to contact a realtor,” or something like that. No, no, no. The first thing you need to do is get pre-approved because your realtor can’t take you to go see anything until you’re pre-approved. They’re not going to waste their time. So quizzes, polls are really super hot. And contests, who doesn’t like to win something? And the word free, free is one of the hottest buzzwords. To have a contest, to have a poll, to give away some prizes these are some of the hottest stuff out on the Internet. And you say, “Well, my goodness, how do I do this?” Let me share my screen again, really quickly, and I’ll show you some little tools very quickly. I’ll show you the website. One that we are using right now is Woobox. This is used by some of the biggest companies out there. You can do polls. You can do quizzes. As a matter of fact, we’re working on a quiz for real estate right now, real estate for realtors.
So this is really super simple to do. Here is another one, viralsweep.com. We’ve used them before. They make it really easy. And here’s a third one, Gleam.io. We’ve got a customer that does gun giveaways monthly, and man just burns it up over the Internet. And he uses Gleam.io. So for a few bucks, you can get a tool like this. You can be engaging your audience. And when you… What value… I see we’ve got a chat in there. What value is it to do things like this? Why are we doing things like this? Nadia, see what our chat is, and then tell me what you think there.
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, well, the value that you’re getting from here is the engagement. So if your clients, if your people that are your social media network, is not engaging in your Facebook, then they do not see the post that you’re posting. So once they’re engaging in your post, they see more of your posts. They’re going to keep going back, and they’re going to keep seeing it. So you want them to reply. That’s why a lot of people put those posts out there that say, “Hey, say yes to this.” And then they actually get more people and more attraction to their Facebook pages. And Lisa K, she says, “Love engagement with real estate humor as well.”
Allan McNabb: Yeah, you could run a contest with… You can run a contest and have people submit real estate jokes. And then you can have people vote to what they think the best one is, and then you can give away a prize. You can also do picture contests. The picture could be the funniest picture, house for sale. It could be like, “Send the picture of the house you wish you could buy.” Just anything like that. And then have people come and vote and then give away prizes. This stuff is just… This stuff is really hot on the Internet. There’s websites. This is like… They just thrive off of this stuff. And when you do this, of course, somebody’s going to register. They’re going to register to do this. When they register, what do they do? First name, last name, email address, maybe phone number. And then what are you going to do with that information, guys?
You’re going to put it in your database. And so you’re going to grow your database. What is it? HGTV. They’re giving away these fabulous home homes. I think they gave away a home and an RV last time, sometimes a car, and they give away cash. And people go there every day, and they put in their email address over and over and over and over again, and so then you’re building your database. And as real estate professionals, as realtors, you know what’s more valuable than anything else. You know what’s more valuable than your website or your social media? And that is your database. This is a great way to grow your database. And then, of course, once you’ve got them in your database, then you’re going to market to them for years and years and years. Okay, Nadia, any other thoughts there before we move on?
Nadia Daggett: No, I think that is a great thing to do. All the little tricks to get people to get more engaged in your website and to your social media is great because then people will be able to connect with you, know you as a person, and they’ll see more of your posts.
Videos
Allan McNabb: All right. So now let’s talk about the next one and get ready to chat in y’all. And post videos, man, this is so big, so big in real estate. So what are you going to… What videos are great to post on social media?
Nadia Daggett: Well, Jorge, he likes videos, so he has definitely been a very good influence on us with real estate. So he’s been guiding us on different topics as we’ve been growing. But some great ones, of course, are on your own properties so that you’re selling them, especially during this time when people can’t go see the properties. So definitely doing those, doing some off-market and just letting people know who you are, anything that’s coming up on your mind. I know this is what Jorge says all the time, “Anything that comes up in your mind that you’re passionate about that day, go ahead and do a video because people want to know about things that are in the industry, and you doing those videos puts you in front of everybody.”
Allan McNabb: Yeah, social media channels changed their algorithm some time ago to give preference to video. So let me tell you what, if you’re not doing video, you’re missing the boat. You’re just totally missing the boat. And it’s so easy to do it. What is it? We got COVID and American Idol. What do they do? They had people competing at home. How did they put that on television? They used iPhones. If it’s good enough for national television to do videos with an iPhone or an Android or whatever else, I’m an Android user, we can all do that. And if we’re not doing video, we’re missing out. Videos about properties we just listed. Okay. What other videos? What other types of videos? Well, that is activated, yep.
Nadia Daggett: Well, does anybody have… Yeah, what kind of chats do you guys want to chat in some of the videos that you guys have done?
Allan McNabb: We got new properties listed. We’ve got…
Nadia Daggett: We got the new properties listed. We also have… When we’re doing an open house, those are really good. I like doing those when we’re doing an open house ’cause you’re seeing the people coming through and getting the interaction. So those are kind of fun where you just get people involved as well because you’re sitting at home for a long time; it’s kind of fun to do. So yeah, those are a lot of fun. I enjoy doing those as well.
Allan McNabb: The open houses, the live videos, the new properties, the education. Now how many of you, if you can chat, chat in, how many of you follow your competitive real estate agents to see what they’re doing? Chat in. If you follow your competitors, do you get their newsletter? Do you watch them on social media? And do you look at some of the biggest in Tampa Bay? I’ll tell you one that I follow, besides Jorge and Graystone, is Duncan Duo. Love them or hate them, Duncan Duo. Because man, they sell a lot of houses. And you know what I get every week from one of the owners? A video email every week. And I don’t know if you’ve ever… Have you ever been to their website? All over the website is video, video testimonials, hundreds of video testimonials from happy clients.
That’s another good one, video testimonials. When you sell a house, my goodness, the people are so happy. They’ve just closed. They’re in their brand new home, and guess who the hero is? It is you. So video is really, really super hot. And live video, the algorithm has been changed both by Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. There is a preference for live video. And what’s a good example? What are some good things to do live video for? What do you think, Nadia?
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, so some good live videos are if you’re going to go ahead and view a property and go see the status of the property, showing it that way. That’s a good live video. Meeting with some of your other agents that’s something that I know we’ve been doing a little bit with. I’m doing one tomorrow with Lisa, and kind of showcasing each other. So those are really good live videos as well. Kinda just break in; if you guys are together, you guys have an idea; let’s do a live video. And I know doing live videos is a very, I guess, out there thing to do. So like you’re saying, the algorithm is huge to do live videos versus just staged and setting up. So I completely agree.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, guys… And Realtors, they’re professional talkers. And there’s no reason not to be doing live videos. You would be talking in front of somebody live. There’s no reason not to do live videos. And quite honestly, more people are going to see it when it’s live. And instead of, you might get four, five, six, 10 times more people because you’ve done a live video. Facebook is going to push more people there. And you may not have that many people watching when you do it, but afterward you could have thousands of people watch that video. So sometimes I tell clients, I say, “Look, you going to understand how the game is played. It doesn’t matter if you like doing videos. It doesn’t matter if you like doing videos at all. It doesn’t even matter if you like social media.” Personally, I spend zero time on social media personally, zero. It’s not something I’m going to do. But business-wise, you are going to do it, and the videos and the live videos, you just going to do it. They’re hot. They’re hot.
Nadia Daggett: Yeah. And Lisa K says she loves doing videos on model homes, I believe, and her favorite team is the Bohannons. So she watches that as well to keep her up to date on what’s going on.
Allan McNabb: Cool, I’m going to check that team out, man. That’s awesome. You are going to watch your competitors because it’s about competition. We’re competing, and you’ve got some of the big teams, even in Tampa Bay, that are spending a million plus a year in marketing. So they know some things we don’t know because they’ve spent a pile of money. They have made a lot of mistakes. It’s cost them a lot of money. They might be paying people piles of money to help them out and to tell them what the newest and whatever is. So, man, you are going to watch what’s going on. And you don’t have to invent the wheel; you just going to get on the wheel. All right, so Nadia, let me check our list here to see what we’ve got next. All right, so posting new listings. You did make a good point about that because that can be really boring. So how can we do… Post our new listings so that they’re just not totally ignored.
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, there’s a few things that we’ve been doing. And one thing that’s exciting for us here at Graystone is that you actually don’t have to be doing this. We have our Social Media Manager that is doing this for you. So that’s why we have, like the first sales, we have that group in WhatsApp. So when you sell something, all you have to do is put the picture in there and then we can go ahead and submit it for you across the board for you. But you can make it a little bit different. I would say, when you’re saying… Posting about new listings, do a video, do a video, do a live video about a new listing. Once it goes onto MLS, showcases it, ’cause basically, all we are are marketers. We’re just advertisers. So you want to be able to market this higher than any other realtor out there ’cause it’s a home. So you want to show it to be more than a home, more into advertising, push it more as you’re that advertiser, you’re not just a seller of a home, so…
Allan McNabb: Yeah. Realtors, real estate professionals, they’re salespeople. You could go sell anything. Because marketing is marketing, selling is selling. And so that’s what it’s about. We are currently… One of the other real estate agencies we’ve helped for some time in Tampa we ‘re running ads right now for luxury homes. And they’ve just introduced a luxury home for sale, a little bit over a million bucks. And so very simple… We did a very sophisticated post that says, “Introducing this property for sale.” And it’s not the same thing, “Hey, I’m selling a property, buy my property, da da da da da.” This introduces this very… This luxury property that is on the market and running ads for it, man.
And it is doing great, and so just things like that. Try to think outside of the box. Don’t try to do what everybody else is doing and get the properties out there. And I’m going to… I find it funny sometimes. Sometimes I’ll hear from a customer, from a real estate agent saying, “My website’s not doing me any good. I don’t get anything out of it.” I say, “Well, are you sending people to your website?” “No.” “Do you put it on social media?” “No.” I say, “If you had a business card and never handed it out, would a business card to you any good?” Well, let me show you what I’m talking about. So, let me share my screen. So when you’re putting out your properties, if you put your properties on your website, where should you be seeing… Where should you be sending people to see your property? Here was the one I’m talking about right here. So we’re running the ads, and where do we send people to see this property? Of course, we send it to… We send them to the realtor’s website. And what can they do when they go to see this property? They can click on a virtual tour, they can schedule a showing. They can save it as a favorite. And when they save it as a favorite, they submit their contact information, and they…
Nadia Daggett: Allan, we don’t… Are you sharing your screen, Allan?
Allan McNabb: Oh, I thought I was; hang on one second.
Nadia Daggett: No.
Social Media Posts with Links to Your Website
Allan McNabb: Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, great. So we send them to the website to see the property, and when they go to the page, they can see the virtual tour, they can schedule a showing, they can save it as a favorite. They can send and request more information. And by doing this, it is all about capturing the lead. So if you send them to the MLS to see it, in essence, what are you doing? Are you… If you send them to the MLS, are you capturing the lead? If you send them to realtor.com, what are you doing? Who’s advertising on realtor.com or Zillow.com? It’s your competitors. You’re sending them to look at the property where they’re going to see all of these other agents you’re trying to compete against. If you can put that on your website, send them to your website, and then you can collect that lead. So that’s a great way to work it. So Nadia, any other thoughts on posting properties?
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, no, I think that’s a great idea being able to post and have it linked to your website, and that’s something that you offer, that you offer these websites to the agents.
Allan McNabb: Yeah. Thanks for asking. Yeah, absolutely. And even you don’t have to have the IDX on your website. The IDX is the subscription service that pulls in the MLS properties. And it starts like 45 bucks a month just for the IDX. And Graystone does have the IDX for theirs. So, but you can still put the property on your website, and with the free websites, that is a perk for being a Graystone agent. There is a very simple way to add those properties right into your website. You put the images in there, you put the information about them, and you can still send them to your website and collect those leads. So, yeah, absolutely, Nadia, Graystone provides those websites at no charge, and they can put those on there, they can get them all over your social media and collect the leads. Yeah, super, super great thing that, Graystone does. All right, Nadia, any other thoughts there before we move on to the next one?
Nadia Daggett: No, I think you’re… This is a great topic to have for the agents.
Allan McNabb: All right. So some of the other ones, posting pictures of neighborhoods, featured neighborhoods. And that’s always great because, Nadia, do you find that agents become experts in certain neighborhoods? It’s like they’ve got a few neighborhoods, they’re experts, they’ve sold a bunch of houses, they get a reputation, etcetera like that.
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, absolutely. There’s some agents that want to stay in their neighborhood, and there’s some that do want to expand, but they specialize in certain areas. Absolutely. So we do kind of know everything about one little area, but also we can expand out as well.
Allan McNabb: Yeah. So, and that’s great if you are the go-to person for a community, and that would be multiple, many multiple neighborhoods, if you’re the expert in that community, and then you’re getting out pictures… And let me ask you, Nadia, so even if I’m not the listing agent for a property, should I still be getting… Should I still be posting properties on my social media that are for sale in the community where I am the expert? Should I still be posting those properties on my social media?
Nadia Daggett: Well, absolutely, ’cause not only are you looking to get a listing, of course, and especially in this market, but you’re always also looking for the buyers. So if you’re posting a house that maybe is not yours, it’s similar to doing an open house to a property that you’re not listing; you’re still getting the buyers, you’re still getting that constant feedback from people looking in there, and you become the community lead.
Allan McNabb: Exactly. Exactly. And it’s really super easy to get these pictures. It’s super easy to get them, it’s super easy to be getting them out on your social media and just be that expert. And the images are beautiful oftentimes. All right, Nadia, let’s go to the next one. Okay, let’s talk a little bit because we won’t get through all of this list. It’s a lot of ideas just to give the agents, and I doubt any one agent would do it all, would do all of these. These are just different things. Nadia, how important and what is the value of promoting other businesses or your partners or referral partners and all of that on your social media? Talk about that, would you?
Nadia Daggett: Oh, goodness. I think this is huge, when… As an agent, I think the most important thing for you to be is a network. So when you have… When you’re working with your clientele, and you have your backup network behind you, I know it happens to me all the time when I have a friend of mine asking me, “Hey, I’m doing something on this property. Do you have an insurance agent that can help me?” Yes, of course, I can pass that over to them. Same thing about a lender. I might not be getting the referral at that point. I might not be making any money, but I become their network. They know to come to me for real estate, real estate services, and then they know that I have that ability to keep growing and giving them the leads that they need, the information that they need. So now when they want to sell their house, or they want to buy their house, they come to Graystone because they know that we have all of those parts that are needed, because when you invest, we do the rest. So it’s so important to be able to have that network behind you. It’s kind of like having all your soldiers backing you up to make sure those transactions go smooth.
Importance of Having a Website
Allan McNabb: Yeah. And the most influential people in a community is going to have a website. The ones that are really aggressive with their marketing, they’re going to be posting articles on their website, one, two, three, four articles a month on their website. So to share them with your network to engender goodwill can all be automated from the exact tool we use with Graystone. Graystone does the exact same thing, right Nadia?
Nadia Daggett: Mm-hmm.
Allan McNabb: We’re sharing articles from Bigger Pockets, Zillow, realtor.com, some local news agencies, Forbes, Entrepreneur, etc., like that. That’s all automated; not a person touches it. It just all happens automatically. It takes just a few minutes to set up, and then you are sharing with the influencers of your communities. Maybe you’re an expert in six communities throughout Tampa Bay. And so then you’re sharing from your influencers, and you know how much time it takes you to do that? Zero, zero. This is like free stuff, man. It’s just waiting there just to be done, zero time. And you get to be the influencer. You get to be the person that’s knowledgeable and sharing all this stuff. And it takes zero work to do that, zero. And that’s using the same tool we provide with Graystone $29 a month. It’s just like dirt cheap. So that’s like low-hanging fruit. All right. Nadia, any other thoughts on that?
Nadia Daggett: No, no. I think it’s really important to make sure you have that network so you can share with them as much as possible. But yes, the RSS feed is very simple to have so that you can… It’s just, it’s easy for you to… You can be out there networking and doing the jobs you need to do, but yet you’re back there posting. And that’s something that Graystone offers to all the agents, which is one of the biggest perks, I think, with Graystone because it takes so much time to do social media and to publish things out there on your platforms.
Allan McNabb: Absolutely. 100%. 100%. And Graystone takes up… It does a lot of that. However, Nadia tell me this, Graystone is doing this from a very broad base. And you do it for the agents, very important, saves a lot of time. But the agents should also be doing it for their niche, for their network also. And just not rely completely on Graystone to do that because Graystone’s doing it on a very broad basis, right?
Nadia Daggett: Yes, absolutely. So ours is done on a broad basis where we are sitting there and sharing multiple different things out to the public. But a lot of your network is looking for stuff specifically from you. So some of the stuff that we are going to be doing is posting your “Just Listed”, your “Just Solds” for you, but also, we’re going to be posting multiple other things. But one thing you need to do is make sure that you are on there and take stuff that’s from your business site and post it on your personal and do that, maybe at least once a week, I would say, find an article that you really like and put it onto your personal. I know I’m not as good as I would like to be on that as well, but it makes a huge difference. It’s kind of reminding your network that you are a realtor and half of those people, maybe they’re not looking to buy or sell, but those are your walking billboards. So you want them to be able to push that for you.
Allan McNabb: Absolutely. 100%. And Nadia, and of course any of the agents here, chime in. Let me hear your stories and everything, and Nadia, you probably have some too. I’ve got a networking friend. She works for a competitor. She is a real estate agent in Tampa. We help her with her social media. She just listed six homes, just listed six homes. And you know what? Her website, she needed her website from us. Her website’s broke, and it’s down. We do her social media for her. She relies like 99.99% on networking and just people remembering her name and just referring her out. And this is so important when you talk about networking and, you are networking social media, you are networking email, you are networking face-to-face, and the business just comes to you when you’re networking. Your thoughts, Nadia?
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, I completely agree. One thing that I’ve always been a big fan of is making sure that everybody knows what’s going on and what you’re doing because you want your client base, or your… Basically, your network to be able to push you, because a lot of them are not really into the market maybe right now buying or selling, but they’re going to know somebody that knows somebody. And so you want to be in there. It’s called reminder media. Basically, go out there and remind them who you are. And we use social media to do that so that they can be your walking billboards to bring leads to you. And it’ll just be, it’ll be a rotating door. Just say they start bringing them to you. So it’s just like seeding them, and then the flowers grow.
Social Posts About Homebuying Tips, Decoration Tips, Renovation Tips, and DIY Tips
Allan McNabb: All right guys. Okay, so let’s press on here. Nadia, how about posting homebuying tips, decoration tips, renovation tips and DIY? Let’s talk about all of those types of things.
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, for us in the market, that’s huge because you’re showing them that you’re the expert in the field. So, one thing, I know it’s hard for us when we have a lot of things going on to be current in this field. We do have a designer that we work with, her name’s Amy Stachowski. So she’s going to be doing some teachings with us, some training that I hope you are able to attend. So she can give you some updated ideas on what’s going on in the market. And then you can go ahead and share that on social media ’cause people want to know and want to know what is going on in the market, what is new, is the barn door finally out? Or, what should you put in your house to be able to sell? So I think that’s a huge topic that people do want to hear about on social media.
Allan McNabb: Yeah. And I want to hear from some of the agents here, and I’m just brainstorming out loud, guys. And agents, please chime in. Nadia, there’s no reason why Graystone couldn’t be doing this and going out for all the agents on their social media, right?
Nadia Daggett: Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. We do that most of the time. Do you mean for the design and staging?
Allan McNabb: Well, yeah, well, yeah, for the design tips, for the DIY tips, and stuff like that. And, I don’t know if we’re doing that. Is that being done? I don’t think so.
Nadia Daggett: No. I think right now we have just started doing the “Just Closed” and “Just Listed,” but we are moving into that, where we’re going to be starting to post a little more personal, not personal, but a little more stuff like designs, and what’s trending in the market. We’re going to be starting to do that advertisement as well.
Allan McNabb: All right. So, agents, I want to really hear from you here. Do you think that’s a great idea? Graystone, the DIY, the design tips. I think that would be really, really great. So it’s great to have the properties, and it’s great to have properties sold and all this, but it’s great to have the other stuff too. That’s awesome.
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, it also shows that you’re the expert in the field, so it keeps everybody… And you’re on topic. And so people know that you’re out there and that you’re able to help them in one way or another, so we definitely want to keep pushing that as well.
Allan McNabb: All right, and sorry my camera’s messing up and my background and all that, but such as it is here. All right, Nadia, how about seasonal home tips? What would some examples of that be?
Nadia Daggett: Since these are home tips, what I thought about that when I saw your topics is basically the seasonal home ideas are basically, “What’s in the market right now? What’s going on?” Right now, it’s spring. People are starting to come out. So absolutely, giving them some tips on when people are buying when it’s slow. Right now it’s a seller’s market, hands down. We can’t keep anything in inventory. So keeping them to know what’s on topic at that point as well. Things change very quickly, but being able to let your clientele know what’s going on or your network to know what’s going on seasonally is huge. And also, being able to promote the seasons and showing the holidays, it’s an easy way to do marketing that way as well.
Social Media Posts About Local Events
Allan McNabb: And here’s another one. Here’s another one, and let me hear from the agents here. Nadia, I’m just looking at this list, and I’m saying, ” I think there’s… This one also would be local events.” All the agents here, for the most part, are Tampa, right?
Nadia Daggett: Yes, everybody, all of our agents are in Tampa Bay at least within an hour. Yep.
Allan McNabb: So, there’s no reason why Graystone couldn’t be doing some of the local big events, and getting that on social media and also helping there with that.
Nadia Daggett: Absolutely. I know for us as well, we participate in some community service as well. We can be promoting that and promoting some of the stuff that’s going on in our community. But the things that we’re involved in, our open house or things coming up or doing some live videos, stuff like that. Yeah, we need to be promoting that as well.
How Does Posting to Social Media Help Agents Make Money?
Allan McNabb: Well, Nadia, so let me ask you. We’ve got just a few minutes left here. I don’t want to run out of time. So this is great stuff. Okay. But how does this help agents make money? ‘Cause at the end of the day, it’s great to be a good person, it’s great to be involved, but at the end of the day, we are going to make money. So how does this help the… Why should an agent get up in the morning, and they’re going to spend an hour on social media, and they know it’s going to help them make money and feed their family?
Nadia Daggett: Well, I think this is a very interesting thing to talk about because I know a lot of people; when they start real estate, it takes a while to start making money because they’ve spent too much time on social media. They’ve put too much work into it, and they’re pretty much doing that the whole time. And they’re not really connecting. They’re doing stuff, maybe promoting themself as, “This is listed, this is sold,” but really, they’re not connecting with the people. So I think not only do we need to focus on how much we are doing on social media but making sure we’re using that time wisely engage with them. Because, yes, when you’re engaging, it’s kind of just like they’re trickling in. People are to just starting to trickle in. You’re getting the listings. You’re getting the buys. Social media is where it’s at. Especially right now, during COVID when it’s hard to connect with people, people are more apt to talk to you digitally.
So if you’re doing live videos, you’re interacting with them. Some people don’t want to meet with you. You’re going there and doing… Showing homes where you’re doing them digitally. You’re doing them by Facebook. You’re doing them by FaceTime, sorry. So right now, being able to use the social media platform, people are going to start connecting with you more now than ever. Before, people used to look at social media and say, “Well, I want to talk to this person. I want to go in, and I want to sit down and talk to them.” Right now, this is their way to connect with you, so during this period of time. So right now, using this as a platform is the best way to get people to bring their clients to you and to get more money, and then you’re able to get your listing agreements. Sometimes I get listing signed without even meeting with them because they’ve met me on social media.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, you know what? You feel like a lot of time… And we get the same feedback in our industry. People feel like they know you. They feel like you’re friends, and I guess this is true in the real estate industry, also. We’ve got… I would say the majority of our customers I’ve never been face-to-face with. And a lot of people just prefer it that way. And so it is so important to develop this rapport. And how about messaging? Do you have people that message you on Facebook? That’s another thing, right?
Nadia Daggett: Absolutely. I do a lot of my off-market on Facebook Messenger than most anything else. I would say probably about 10 requests a day for people asking me questions about homes. So Messenger is a huge thing to have, which brings us into the bot class that you had. It’s a great way to communicate, and I think on Messenger, it has become one of the hottest ways to communicate with your client. Am I right?
Building Your Database of Contants
Allan McNabb: It’s one of the hottest. We’ve got clients that just constantly are just messaging us on Messenger and sending stuff and attachments. And it’s becoming more and more popular along with WhatsApp and text messaging. And it’s the way people communicate. And so again, people, we become friends. We contract business. And being present on social media and networking, just like you would anywhere else, so super important. And, of course, some of the techniques we’ve shared before, like posting in marketplace and say, “Send me your email address.” People are just dropping those email addresses like crazy and then having that database and building it up. At the end of the day, it’s all about building these relationships, building your database, and you use social media to do that. You use your website to do that, and it’s about building your database because email marketing has the highest return on investment at the end of the day. You are going to get them into your database, and boy, that’s… Jorge isn’t with us today, but in that, he’s so big on that, right?
Nadia Daggett: Oh, it’s the most important thing is building that database, and that’s actually what I do. The first thing I do when they Messager me on Facebook, I say, “Absolutely, I’ll send you some more information on this off-market property. I need your email and phone number first.” Because then I get to put it in that database, and right now, I believe we’re way over 30,000 in our database. And I know Jorge; he’s had people in there for years. He just closed on getting a listing for someone that was 10 years ago had joined his database. And he’s been following them all this time, and now it’s his time to start investing. So building that database, maybe they sit there quiet for a while, but those are your leads that you have, and then you’re able to pull from them. 30,000, I believe, is in our ActiveCampaign.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, guys. I want to give you a link right here. I’m going to go back. I’m going to put it in the chat. If you do not have a database, HubSpot provides a free unlimited CRM. Now you can’t do everything with a free CRM, but man, it is better than nothing. And there’s no reason for everyone not to have a database, not to have a CRM, and that is the number one thing above all others. All of these other things are just to build that database. And that’s where you make your money. Build the database, be marketing and engage them, social media, website, articles, information, all this other stuff. But at the end of the day, if we’re not building our database, we’re missing, we’re totally missing the boat ’cause that’s where the big money is at. All right, Nadia, we got other things on our cheat sheet folks can check that out and everything.
I think we hit the biggies and all that, some of the little ideas and everything. Guys, get in any closing questions, any closing thoughts. Get those in here, so we can… We’d like to hear that, and we’re going to be getting out of here soon. Nadia, start giving us some final thoughts there.
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, I know. Lisa K, so she said that definitely to keep going with this because it’s very important to stay on trend. So I think this is a great topic about social media and how we can gather more people this way. And I totally agree with you on the database. We’re going to be doing some classes on what we use for our database so that you can use it as well, ’cause, without a database, it’s kinda like collecting business cards and just throwing them around your room and not using them down the funnel. So you definitely want to be able to have a database, so you can keep moving forward, getting those people and then turning them into buyers or sellers and not just business cards. So yeah, I think this is a great topic. And thank you so much, Allan, for spending this time with us and giving us this information. I think this is huge as we grow, and we’re just going to keep building with Graystone. So thank you so much for doing this for us.
Allan McNabb: You’re so welcome. And guys, with the database thing, I don’t want everybody to freak out and say, “Oh, I don’t have time to deal with all this email.” Again, there’s automations. You put them in place just like with your social media, and does it take a little bit to set up with your CRM? Yeah, it takes just a little bit to set up, but man, it takes care of these problems. When you put somebody new in, it automatically launches an automation. They get a drip of a few emails, and then you have them automatically go up where they get… Maybe they hear from you once a quarter or something like that. You’ve got an automation for a happy birthday or a happy anniversary, and it’s like no work.
It’s just a little setup, and it’s no work. So these things, take advantage of them. They’re just really, really hot. Okay, everybody. Thanks so much. Appreciate the great comments, and tell you what? It’s been a great reminder for me. We can sure do a better job with all of this too, and I’ve appreciated being with everybody. And we’ll go on and close out. I’m Allan McNabb with Image Building Media. And our branded website for real estate services is expertrealtymarketing.com, so if we can help you out, check us out. We got a lot of education on our website, so we’re glad to do that also. Nadia, you want to close out on your end?
Nadia Daggett: Yeah, thank you so much for helping us with this. And yes, we are Graystone Investment Group, where you invest, and we do the rest, and I’m the broker of Graystone, Nadia Daggett. And if you ever want to buy or sell or look for off-market properties, we are here for you, and you can check us out at graystonefL.com.
Allan McNabb: Thank you guys for being with us. We’ll catch you next time.