Today I share two social media advanced strategies that real estate brokers have used to build their business. If you’re not utilizing Twitter and LinkedIn to find more buyers and sellers, I’m going to reveal the secret sauce only known by a handful of agents.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to keeping it real podcast, the first podcast for real estate agents by real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host, if you’re not yet familiar with the show, what we do is we find real estate brokers. Realtors in the Chicagoland area that we feel are doing really interesting things and we interview them and have them tell their stories in hopes that it will maybe inspire you to further grow your own business, or just to highlight an area of opportunity for you. We’ve been getting a lot of feedback from people who are listening, who are asking us how can they be featured or interviewed. And we actually have a process for that. So if you know somebody that you think would be a great interview for the show, or you yourself want to be featured, you can actually visit our website at keeping it real pod again, keeping it real pod.com. And you can fill out a form and let us know why you think either you or someone you know should be considered to be featured on a future episode. Or also, if you are a sponsor, and you would like to maybe sponsor a future episode, you can do that there too. And so today, I wanted to do something a little different, I have had the opportunity over many years, I guess about seven years now of I’m well, what I do is I’m a recruiter for a real estate firm. And what I do is talk to brokers all day long, and try to convince them to come to our firm, but and we have a lot of brokers at our firm, we’re like over 500, almost 550 at this point. And so I probably have spoken to over 1000 brokers over that time. And, and over that time, it’s just from literally speaking to so many I’ve learned a couple of really kind of cool techniques, in particular around social media that other brokers have used to drive up their business through those those platforms. And I’ve it’s with our own brokers, it’s one of the biggest questions I receive is, hey, how do I use social media to actually get business or to get more referrals. And so over the years, I’ve heard a few really good techniques that I believe would be helpful to share that probably you have never heard of, or at least never considered. So instead of traditionally interviewing a guest, I’m just going to tell you a couple of real world examples of things you can do today with a couple of social media platforms that you’re probably not using. So I’m not going to do is tell you how to most effectively use Facebook, you’re probably already using Facebook. And I could probably devote a whole episode to Facebook, I probably will in the future. But we’re not going to talk about Facebook today, because you already know about that one. But we’re going to focus on two social media platforms that are incredibly powerful, and that almost no Realtors actually use to grow their business and they could be using them, one of which is LinkedIn. And the second is Twitter. And so you probably are familiar with both of those platforms, of course, but you’re probably not sure exactly how to use them. So I’m going to give you just one example each that you can take out into the real world today, right after listening to this and test and then see if it works for you. And I promise you, these are two techniques you are not most likely yet familiar with. So I hope that’s exciting for you. It’s exciting for me, so we’re gonna get started right now.
Okay, so the first social media platform we’re going to talk about today is LinkedIn. And I have to first confess something to you is that I have never actually used LinkedIn in the way that you’re probably supposed to, or that it’s meant to and I suspect most people have and I’m not even 100% sure what the best way to use LinkedIn is for the its intended use. Meaning connecting with people networking, I do know that it can work, although I’ve only heard it ever told to me that it works through people not in the real estate industry. So I’m not going to tell you how to traditionally use LinkedIn to connect with people and to I don’t call it friending, I guess it’s some you know, connecting, and then how to make those, you know, sort of relationships, I really just don’t know. But I’m gonna give you a sort of an advanced technique that you can use whether you’ve, you know, ever use LinkedIn in the traditional sense or not. I’ve never used it in the traditional sense. So I know this works. And it’s probably something that wouldn’t occur to you. Okay, and, um, let me give you some context around how I even heard about this technique. And it’s so simple. It’s almost be a bit of a letdown. I’m sure when I explain it, because it’s pretty simple, but it does, in fact, work and it’s something that wouldn’t have ever occurred to me while I was interviewing somebody who was interested in working here. And actually, this wasn’t even his story. It was his his best friend’s story, who also was a realtor. Now this this friend No. And again, I’m hearing this from from his friend. So I’m probably confused making this more confusing than it needs to be. But basically, this person is telling me a story about how his friend got involved in real estate. And he was only I think, 23 or 24 got his broker license. And so he was young. Now, as we know, most, you know, brokers business comes from their sphere of influence their their network, well, not many 23 or 24 year olds have a ton of friends that are buying and selling homes. You know, certainly he’s probably had a number of friends that are, you know, renting apartments, but you know, he wanted to find buyers and sellers. And so he just didn’t have anyone who was in his sphere of influence. In fact, he wasn’t even from Chicago. But he, so he’s now this young man, he’s trying to build his business. And he’s like, nobody is going to let me sell their home. I don’t have any friends that are buying property. So what what do I do? Well, this was so simple, but it was really quite brilliant. What he did is he decided he needed to do a lot of outreach, right, expand his sphere of influence, but he just he was also somebody who didn’t like getting out in the real world, and meeting people all day, every day, right? That’s a very difficult and for some people very physically exhausting experience. Some of us are extroverts. Some of us are introverts. But if you’re a realtor, you need to, you know, meet people in order to build your business. So what he did was just so simple, and he could do it from the comfort of his home. Well, he had spent the four years in college at University of Illinois. And he thought, you know, I don’t really have a sphere of influence here. I
don’t have hardly any friends in Chicago, because I’m not from here. But maybe the only real connection I might have to people is that they might have gone to the same school I went to. So what he did is in LinkedIn has this tool, and you just have to search for it on Google, just type in LinkedIn alumni, and it’s its own section. And what he did was he went there. And he searched for every single person who lives and you can even break it down geographically in the city or in the suburbs, about specifically where you’re looking for alumni who went to the same school you went to so I just did this, I went to Miami University, and I just went in, there was, like 200,000 people in the United States that went to Miami, who you know, are, who have who have told LinkedIn, that’s where they went to school. And then you can drill down further to you know, who how many people who live in Lincoln Park, and who are those people who went to Miami or, you know, out in the suburbs, etc. So he did this in the city for University of Illinois, and probably even, you know, five times the number of people who went to U of I, that went to Miami. So he had this huge pool of people. So here’s where it gets so simple, and yet so brilliant. He said he would spend and he did this for two hours every day. So he woke up every morning. And this was the first two things he did. And he did it from his bathrobe and slippers, he would just find people who lived nearby him, I think he lived in Lakeview, if I remember correctly, and he would just search for those people in LinkedIn, it’s very easy to find them. And then what he did. So he’d find a certain number of people, I think he said, he tried to, I think his friend told me tried to 30 people a day. So he’d find 30, people who we thought might be a good fit, you know, for whatever his criteria was, but it’s basically just hey, they went to the same school I went to and live nearby. And he would then again, he choose 30. And that would take him, you know, 30 minutes or so. And then what he would do in this was the sort of the bulk of the work, he would then put those all people in a spreadsheet, you know, just copy and paste them in. And then he would go, because LinkedIn, of course tells you a few things about each individual in particular, you know, where they work now. And so he would then go to Google. And you know, when you do a Google search, there’s the tab for news. So you would type in the person’s employer, and he would see if there was any recent news stories about that particular employer, or he, you know, if not, he would just go to their company website and look to see what their blog had said, you know, it’s something interesting, or just maybe get a little feel for what the company is, we couldn’t find any recent, you know, stories or articles that were about that firm. So okay, you get the idea. So from there, he would then using LinkedIn email system, you know, they’re sort of messaging system. And I would almost maybe say, that wouldn’t be my recommendation, although it certainly worked for him. So I’m not gonna argue with success. But it My only concern is if you do use LinkedIn email system, there’s a very strong chance the other person will never see it. I mean, people email me in there every single day. And I like check it once a month. So I’m giving you a strategy that I wouldn’t even necessarily work on me. But you could also email the person directly by, you know, figuring out what their home email is, or their work email, maybe. But anyway, he did it through LinkedIn. So anyway, he gets that information. And then he just has a copy and paste, you know, basically a template. And the template goes something like this. Then again, this won’t apply to all of you because it’s a very specific situation, but you could modify it to apply it to your own situation. So you would say, you know, Hey, mister This is an excerpt for John.
You know, I, my name is so and so. And I was reaching out to you, because I saw that you’re an alumni with the University of Illinois, I also went to school there. Let me tell you a little bit more about myself. I’m a realtor, and I’m pretty young, and most of my friends are at the stage where they don’t really need my services. So I’m in the process of trying to, you know, meet more people who might benefit, you know, people looking to buy or sell or rent, and I and so that’s the reason why I’m reaching out, Hey, by the way, I see that you work at XYZ firm. That’s really interesting. I was just reading about that firm. And I saw that, you know, and then he would reference the news article, I saw that you guys just had a great third quarter, that’s really cool, or you merged, or just something that’s interesting about that, hey, anyway, I’m sorry to bug you, but just wanted to reach out. And if you’d ever love to get grab a cup of coffee, I’d be honored to try to earn your business. Okay, that’s it. So you get the general idea. So basically, what he’s doing is writing a personal email, through LinkedIn to a person who’s loosely connected, at least they went to the same school. And he’s writing something personal to that individual based on where they work, right. And that’s all he’s doing. And he’s, you know, very intimate. He’s also being very honest, right? He’s also saying, Hey, I am new, I’m young, I need business, can you help me. And that’s pretty much it. So he would spend the next hour and a half crafting those emails, and you really aren’t crafting that. You’re not modifying much, you probably two sentences, you’re modifying of basically where they work. And also maybe something of note to let them know that you actually did a little research. And it’s not just a copy and paste job. But it largely is, right. But it’s also authentic, you’re doing some some, you know, you’re doing a little bit of research to be able to have a more genuine conversation. So that’s all this guy did. So I’m hearing the story, this person I’m interviewing, say, That’s what his friend did. And I said, How did that work? Like, what were the actual results? Because to me, again, I don’t even read my LinkedIn emails. And I thought, what’s a good idea, but I don’t know if that’s actually going to work. And the guy goes, he did 27 sales in his first year. That was his entire marketing strategy, by the way, never left his house, at least, you know, not in this for this. And that’s all he did. And I don’t know what his hit rate is, you know, if you’re doing like, 30 a day, it’s probably not that great. But even if 5% of the people write you back, I mean, that would be amazing, right? So if you wrote 100 Of those, and five clients came out, I mean, that’s like, a client a week, right? Or client every two weeks. So the idea is, I’m guessing be more like two and a half percent return, but whatever it is, it’s not a horrible idea. And nobody does it that way. Right? You know, in my experiences with LinkedIn, you just get a lot of random sort of, you know, emails that are really very cut and paste, and don’t feel personalized at all. So anyway, that’s the LinkedIn idea. And now we’re going to move forward into the Twitter idea. And trust me, this one’s actually a lot more exciting and high tech. And so I want to spend a moment and just give you a framework of how to best think about Twitter before you start using it. Because oftentimes, that’s the number one question people have around Twitter is like, they don’t get it. How do I get followers? How do I? How do I meet people? Because remember, it’s really very, very different almost in some ways, like the diametric opposite of Facebook, Facebook is existing connections, and strengthening those relationships, right? Or staying in touch with people you already No, Twitter is almost the exact opposite. And as far as what it’s best at, which is meeting new people. So they give Twitter is almost like its own city, where you can literally just go out and meet anybody you want. So, okay, well, how do you find people looking to buy or sell homes? Or even maybe rent apartments on Twitter? Well, the good news is those people broadcast it themselves, if all you have to do is get that information so that you can connect with them. Right? Make sense, right? They’re going to tweet out, Hey, I’m moving to Chicago, or I’m looking for a realtor looking to buy or sell a home, any looking for an apartment. And all you need to do is set up a one tool that will automatically notify you in real time. Anytime somebody tweets out those particular keyword phrases, like looking to buy a home looking to move, moving to Chicago, need a realtor need a real estate agent. Okay, so how do we do that? I recommend a tool called Twilert. And it’s it’s Willert. Or, anyway, I’ll spell it it’s T w i l e r t and what this system does is allow you to set up keyword notifications in the specific geographical locations you desire. And then then you’ll get notified in real time via email,
I think They might even also do texting, text messages rather. So it’s really quite simple. So you just go to twilert.com, they have a free trial, I think the actual services, if you end up deciding you want to use, it’s like $9 a month, it’s very inexpensive. But basically what it’s going to do is allow you to put in certain keywords. So I just tested this, and I’ve, I’ve also used this myself over over the years, I know it works really well. But I just did one for moving to Chicago, because I wanted to see how often people are tweeting, I’m moving to Chicago. So in the last five hours, five people have tweeted that exact phrase on all of Twitter, you know, scanning the entire Twitter universe. And so here we go, one person says, I am seriously considering moving to Chicago next year, okay? Another person says, Now this is in reference to somebody else, right? This is someone else’s reply that goes, Hey, if you weren’t already moving to Chicago, I might have to kidnap you and bring you here. So probably just making a joke. So that person is replying to somebody, and you can see who they’re replying to. Another person says, My best friend is moving to Chicago, another person talking about someone else. And actually, here’s a realtor who says, Hey, are you moving to Chicago, let me help you. So there’s even Realtors posting their own sort of ads out there. But so I just gave you like two or three people in the last five hours, who have tweeted out that either they’re moving to Chicago, or they know somebody moving. Alright, what do you do with this information? Well, hopefully you don’t need much help here, you would want to reach out. And again, you know, if it’s not clear who they’re talking about, you could just send them a either a direct message, which you may or may not be able to do based on their privacy settings. But you could always just send them a tweet, public tweet as well say, hey, seems like your friends moving to Chicago, or you’re moving, and I’d be honored to try to help you, are you looking for an apartment or a house or you know, buy etc, you get the idea. So it’s this is so simple, and so easy to set up. So I just think it’s an absolute no brainer, and I’ll bet you 99.9% of brokers Realtors haven’t ever thought to do it. So and again, there’s probably other tools that will let you do this. But what’s so cool about it is you can put in a number of these keywords. So you might even put in like 20 or 30 different keywords, phrases about moving to Chicago, you know, maybe you could even do one that says, I dislike my realtor or just, you know, looking to sell my house or buy a house, or does anyone know, a realtor or a real estate agent? You know, all you have to do is set these up once, right? You can create as many of these keyword phrases as you want. Twilert is going to send you an email in real time saying, hey, so and so just, you know, tweeted out with these particular keywords. And then from there, I mean, you should have a pretty good in for starting a conversation with a stranger that you didn’t know before. Now, how often is it person going to write you back? I don’t know, most people, when they tweet out gets almost zero responses in general. So the fact that you’re replying at all, is probably you know, at least going to catch their eye because they’re gonna get real time notified most likely on their phone, that someone replied to their tweet. Now, just as a quick, you know, suggestion when you are replying, I wouldn’t start with it with the big sales pitch. You know, I don’t think most people want a sales pitch right away, especially from a stranger, I just, I find it. I don’t think most people in life kind of want that. But certainly on Twitter, their problem, they’re not going to be interested because they don’t know you. So you might want to say instead of just hey, I’m, I’m a realtor, I can help you, you may want to say, Oh, that’s really cool. I live in Chicago, where is your friend thinking of moving to? Right, or how awesome I’m in Chicago, we could use another, you know, fun person or whatever you may want to say start the conversation there. And again, you know, building rapport back to the LinkedIn idea, you maybe look through that person’s Twitter profile, even if it’s their friend that you’re applying to, and see what they’re into, you know, and maybe even referenced something like that. So again, I don’t need to tell you how to build rapport. You already know how to do that. But I wanted to give you an idea about how to use these two social media platforms in a way that you probably aren’t using, but that you have a sneaking suspicion you could do if you just knew what to do. Right. So thanks for listening on the show next week where we’ll be back, and you won’t listen to me drone on for 25 minutes, we’ll be interviewing another guest. And if you have any social media suggestions, or any marketing tips, or like I said if you want to be interviewed, please visit keeping it real pod.com. Also, you can stream all of the episodes right there in case you’re not somebody who’s traditionally listening to podcasts on their podcast app on their phone, you can stream it all on the website. So let us give us feedback. Let us know what you like what you don’t like and also if you know anyone that you think we should be talking to for a future episode. Thanks so much and I hope this was helpful.
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