Realtors: 10 Ways to 10X Your Listing Views and Become the Requested Agent Using Smart Media

Okay. You’ve been using Social Media for a while now.

You post pictures of houses you have for sell (your company inventory), as well as MLS listings you want to sell.

In fact, every 2nd post on Facebook is something you’re trying to sell.

And it’s not working. At least from what you can tell.

So, it’s time to pivot. If something’s not working, we pivot, right?

First things first though. How are you measuring your Social Media engagement? How are you measuring the effects it has on whether or not you get additional leads for that listing, or become the requested agent for that listing.

Your social media strategy should make use of SMART goal-setting.

If you’re not setting SMART goals in your business – including your content and social media strategy – you’re missing out on traffic and leads and worst yet – wasting your time.

But maybe you are measuring, and the results just aren’t what you want.

Here are 10 Ways to 10X your listing views To Become The Requested Buyer Agent using SMART Social Media.

1 PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Your commission is what? 50% of the agency commission (though, I know some pay more)?

Let’s say the buyer agent commission is $7,500.

So, on a $250k house, the buyer agent is going to make $7,500. After the 50/50 split though, they’ll pocket $3,750, of which, they now have to pay taxes on, so they net $2,700 (roughly – full disclosure – not a tax consultant).

So if you know, going in, on this $250k house, you’re going to roughly net $2,700, why would you want to invest $200-500 of that into professional photography, leaving you $2200-2500?

Because your listing may sell for $3k-5K more, resulting in a $95-$300 income boost, directly to your check, to offset the cost of the photography while helping you churn listings faster.

Check out these stats from Rise Media:

• Homes with high quality photography sell 32 percent faster.

• Homes with more photos sell faster, too. A home with one photo spends an average 70 days on the market, but a home with 20 photos spends 32 days on the market.
• For homes in the $200,000 to $1 million range, those that include high-quality photography in their listings sell for $3,000-$11,000 more.

Hold up.

So that $100k listing sat on the market for 82 days (in my local area, per Zillow, that is the average age of inventory).

If you could sell that property 32% faster using professional photography, it would have sold at 56 days. (Now I know, at this price point, 100K homes will go a lot faster than this, but using this sell price for easy math – bear with me.)

Is it worth $200 to sell a property 26 days faster?

Let’s break that down. Would you spend $7.70 a day for 26 days so that you could:

• Grow attention for your listing – because these photographs would actually sell well on social media.
• Sell a home 32% faster and increase your notoriety (personal branding – becoming sought after in your area
• Get more listings – you just increased your personal and agency branding, and sold that home faster than average for your market area

It’s the idea that there is more out there than you think.

It’s the idea of trade-offs. By trading out that daily lunchtime fast food splurge (average $6-7), you could invest in yourself and your listings and get more listings and make more money.

By focusing on abundance mindset versus poverty mindset (yes, I get that the average salary for realtors is only $46K – I want you to break through that), you can increase your sphere of influence, sell listings faster, and make more money.

As the old saying goes, you have to spend money to make money.

TIP: Need a good real estate photographer? You’ll find them easily on LinkedIn and in some Real Estate Facebook Groups.

2 DRIVE-BYS

No, I don’t mean shootings. Well, not with guns. Maybe with cameras. Or cell phones.

When your homebuyer is looking to buy a house, they’re not looking at just the house.

Yes, they want to see the living room, the backyard, the elegant driveway…

But they also want to see the houses beside them, the house 5 houses down, the neighborhood, the neighborhood park where they can walk their kids to play, the historic house down the street, what the street looks like at dusk – beautifully lit with street lamps.

Okay. Right. But remember Dee, I’m only making $1k on this house. Only $800 if I get photography done.

Heard.

Your homebuyer is not looking for a professional quality video here. Well, not for most homes. For luxury, maybe. But for your average $100k-$500k house, use these tips to up your social shares (FREE advertisement) and continue to brand yourself as “the” buyer agent for your area.

Have your photographer include a video neighborhood tour in his package. He may charge a little more for this. He may include it in his packages if it doesn’t take that much more time.

• Don’t think it has to be super pro. Your photos should be. The video should be more personal. People want to see the personality of the neighborhood.
• If you’re doing your own video, using your smartphone, use an image stabilizer, like SMOVE.
  • Carefully walk around the neighborhood highlighting things you see – think of yourself as a tour director!
  • OR record a silent video (if there’s background noise, you can always edit it out pretty easily)
  • If you’re feeling a little edgy, you can record your video as you drive around the neighborhood – hooking your phone up to your image stabilizer and holding your phone out the window.
    • TIP: No more than 5 mph with this and be careful – do this in a quiet time of day – little to no traffic. I really limit this to suburbs and distinct neighborhoods, not high traffic areas.

Even smaller neighborhoods can look beautiful when captured correctly.

3 OPEN HOUSE VIDEO TOUR

Here’s the thing about Open Houses. They’re a lot of work. You know that. There is something special about them though – your potential buyer gets the full-on tour from you – the expert. Hello positioning!

But why do for one what you can do one time, for all?

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in being personable and establishing personal relationships.

But we live in an instant age. Yesterday I ordered my groceries to show up at my door – so that I didn’t have to take my kids out in the rain to spend 1- 1 ½ hours grocery shopping for food we physically need to live.

Why? Why would I pay someone extra to do this thing for me?

It’s the same reason that open houses sometimes work, sometimes don’t.

Some people value their time.

Why would I take time off work, away from my family, away from hobbies to maybe go see a house I might be interested in so a realtor could try to sell me on it?

Ugg….No thanks.

(If I’ve just turned you off – keep reading. I’ve bought two homes and sold one in the last few years and I’m giving you the insider view.)

Can I get the loan? Easily.

Am I in the market? Soon.

If I saw my dream house, could I get it? Yep.

By isolating your audience to those people who are only available for in-person showings and open houses, without knowing much about the house itself, you’re missing out on a WHOLE audience.

There’s a whole group of people who could be softly looking right now, and could pull the trigger easily, but they have busy lives.

They need you to tantalize them.

It’s why the Bar-B-Que restaurant in the neighborhood near me puts a giant fan in front of their smoker – blowing the smell of freshly barbecued meats out into the neighborhood all day…

What you do for one, do for all.

If you’re going to show this house to one couple – show it to 50 – without exhausting yourself.

Personalized video tours can be done via Facebook Live (<—do this if you can – so much more traffic and audience), or even recorded if you’re a bit shy on camera.

HERE’S HOW:

• Introduce yourself – selfie style. State who you are, what agency your with, and the best way to contact you for a showing.

• Flip the camera
  • Go through the entire home tour-guide style, talking about and pointing out the highlights.
    • Be helpful, personable. Don’t be salesy.
    • “I love these marble countertops. They’re <insert style here> and the homeowner had them installed just last fall.”
  • Keep tours short. Think 5-7 minutes.
    • 3-5 minutes is optimal, but if you’re doing a live, you may not be able to walk through a larger home in that time.
    • This is not a FULL-ON tour. Your prospects need to book a showing with you for that.
      • This is an appetizer tour. This is you, blowing a fan of deliciousness out into that social media world so they can smell what you’re cooking.
  • Using Facebook live? If you know how to do this correctly (nailing down your audience and targeting) – boost that video for $1/day minimum. (Not free, per say, but very nearly. You could probably find 3 days worth of ad spend under the cushions of your couch.)

4 INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, PINTEREST, SNAPCHAT, AND # CULTURE

I’ll keep this one short, because it really ties into Point 5.

Know thy audience.

If this is a starter home – a great fit for Millennials – they may not be all on Facebook. Striking, but true. While Facebook and YouTube still dominate social media, some audiences are moving away from these more popular platforms.

Better still, in this research article by Pew Research,

“Roughly three-quarters of the public (73%) uses more than one of the eight platforms measured in this survey, and the typical (median) American uses three of these sites.”

Meaning, you should be using SMART goal setting and analysis to determine the top 2-3 channels you should focus your efforts on.

If your channels include channels that use hashtags, take a little time to learn about trending hashtags with your audience and think through how you could use these hashtags in your posts.

Including photographs and video work well here and if you do the Video Tour mentioned in point 3, keep your teaser video to 60 seconds or less.

Why?

You can cross-post that Facebook live video to Instagram if it’s 60 seconds or less. Two-for-one exposure boost #ftw.

5 KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Aside from knowing where to post your awesome photos and video, you need to know:

1. The tone, social etiquette, and pacing to use when addressing your audience
2. Their tribe speak
3. What they’re interested in
4. How to target them on Social Media

You don’t want to spend 60 seconds talking about countertops to a guy who’s more interested in the garage “aka man cave” out back.

Think through and plan out your audience before making your video or posting. Use language they would use. Take videos they’ll share.

Most importantly – make it fun. No one’s on Facebook to look at ads. Seriously.

6 UP YOUR PROFILE GAME

People are looking at your stuff! Go you!

Now they navigate over to your profile and find…a 1990’s corporate headshot and a bio that looks very, well, stunting.

Remember the rule of sales – people don’t buy from companies, they buy from people.

Be a people. Be a real person.

Be genuine.

Don’t make every 4th social share a house you’re selling.

Again, this goes back to knowing your audience, but here are a few general, fun tips.

• Show you at your kids little league game.

• Photos of a night out and dinner with friends.
• Show yourself in the photobooth with that funny cardboard mustache stick in front of your face.
• Show you’re a real person and not a creep.

It’s really that easy.

7 GET A NEW HEADSHOT

Remember that dated photo in your profile from a few years back? Time to update it.

Many photographers offer a headshot-mini session service.

What’s a headshot-mini session?

Depending on the photographer or service, a 15-minute to 30-minute session, maybe with one shirt or blouse change (or add a blazer/jacket for a different look), with a digital image, and your option for prints.

They’re generally not very expensive and do WORLDS for your personal branding.

I suggest getting this done at least once a year so that your audience has a fresh view of you regularly.

8 FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM STORIES

According to e-commerce giant, Shopify:

“(Instagram) stories are a quick, engaging format perfectly suited for mobile experiences. Brands have taken notice, with Instagram’s data showing that a third of the most viewed stories on the platform were created by businesses.”

Woah. These are numbers I LOVE to see.

And because Shopify did SUCH a great job with this post, I’m just going to direct copy/paste my Top 3 favorite points about stories from their article, here:

• An active user base: Instagram reports there are more than 400 million daily users for stories.

• Stories effortless creation: No one expects you to invest half an hour on a post that’s not going to be around after tomorrow. While Instagram posts require the perfect lighting, angles and hashtags, a good Story just requires a quick idea or an interesting moment, and some creativity.
• A testing ground for ideas: Instagram Stories aren’t as exposed as regular Instagram posts, and that makes them great for testing ideas. If it’s received well (positive replies and people watch your entire Story without dropping off), you can consider re-posting it as a permanent Instagram post or adapting the idea for another channel.

Hey, remember in the beginning when I said your social media strategy should be using SMART goals?

The “M” in SMART stands for measurable. It’s a bit like high-school science. Remember the scientific method?

Step 3 is conduct a hypothesis. Step 4 is Test your hypothesis using an experiment.

STORIES ARE YOUR LAB! <Insert mad scientist laughter here.>

Use Stories to test ideas of things that you want to show your audience. Are they really into counters, or is the garden area more their thing?

Use Stories to offer “teaser” videos leading up to your Facebook Live Home Tour to get more viewers on your live.

Own. Your. Market.

9 HAVE SOME PERSONALITY

Recently, I went in to have a personal branding photoshoot.

I researched my market – realtors and luxury realtors – to see what poses they used in their photos.

Every other female realtor had this pose.

So, I know my audience, I replicated that pose in a few of my branding shots.

But if you know ME, I’m a little silly, nerdy, goofy, and serious all-in-one. So I took a few of those also.

Why?

Refer to Point 6 – people buy from people.

If you look like every other realtor out there – what should make me pick you out of all the noise? How can I tell you’re not a carbon copy of every other realtor? What makes you different?

Really want to up your game? Take a tip from this guy and do cheerleading flips in the backyard of a home you’re touring.

10 KNOW YOUR USP

Your USP is your Unique Selling Proposition.

It’s what you do, that no one else does.

I write and direct content for realtors to help them increase traffic and be known as the experts in their market.

That’s my USP.

I serve a specific audience, with a specific offer, delivering specific results.

The key? You already know.

Specificity.

What do you do, what services do you offer, who do you serve, what farm areas are you the expert in?

Write them down.

Now research your ideas.

Ask yourself these questions:

Who can I help?

Would I like to work with them?

Can they afford me?

Once you find an audience that supports all three of these, craft your offer and test it in your market.

Use Facebook Stories, and Instagram Stories to test. If the test fails, try a different spin until your message matches your target market.

Develop your USP and you’ll stand head, shoulders, and crossed arms above all the other realtors in your market.

CONCLUSION

Let’s be real. There are some CRUMMY, SLEAZY real estate agents out there. I know. I’ve used them.

And then there are the good guys. The ones really care about their clients and do their due diligence. The realtors that show up. That care. The realtors that invest in their communities and have hearts to serve.

If that’s you, and you like what you’ve read, I invite you to check out my site and book a call with me.

My goal is to elevate the good guys – to make the realtors that show up the kings of their areas – overshadowing the realtors that just show out.

Use the tips I’ve provided above to take the first steps to owning your market.

The market is shifting. Shift with it.