Numbers matter here, and make no mistake, if you have a Facebook page for a neighbourhood where 200 people live, if you have 150 likes on your page, that is a big deal! Then post about the garage sales, post about local events, post about your local two for one coffee offer available for this weekend; and then post about real estate sales and trends and data and things like that. Remember, Facebook pages are free, you can have more than one. So if you have 5 different neighbourhoods that you are working in you could create a community for each, and you may get 100 people for each, but now you have 500 people that are so focused and targeted.
The key thing here is to remember the rule with everything we teach: give those people a reason to say thank you. If you are letting them know about a deal they did not know about that is right down the street, that is a reason to say thank you. If you are letting them know about a community event or the best place to watch the fireworks, or if you are letting them know what homes are selling for, (because this affects the prices of their home) it is a reason for them to say thank you and it is a massive opportunity for you.
5. Video
The idea of video polarises some people, but I like to teach people to leverage video in multiple ways. It is 50% more likely that a video is going to reach page one of Google rather than a non video, and that a big opportunity! I could make a quick video about property values in a particular neighbourhood, and you could write a blog post about property values in the same neigbourhood; and there would be a 50% more chance that my video is going to go to page one of Google than your written content will. 73% of sellers in the US recently told the NAR they would be more likely to list with an agent offering video. Only about 1% of agents are doing it currently, so there big supply and demand void over here. So agents need to be using video, and we recommend three different ways:
* Video tours of the home.
There is no doubt that the “second showing” is now the showing in person. The best client that you could have is the one that wants to go on a second showing. The first showing should be on the web, the second showing is in person. Get a great video of the property, insert some great transitions (apple have some terrific inexpensive and easy to use products to do this), and give your prospects the experience of having been to the home, before they go to the home. It is so much more effective than a slideshow of 25 photos!
* Video testimonials.
We are living in a peer recommendation world – if you have a video of yourself on your site saying that you do a good job, that does not stand out so much if you can get as 5 or 10 clients on film with a very short (less than two minute) testimonial like “Chris did a fantastic job, he negotiated a deal better than we ever thought we’d find and he was a pleasure to work with….or another saying “when we worked with Samantha, we were super afraid to buy, but she was great, set our mind at rest” and so it goes on. Get a library of testimonials – have a first time buyer, investment buyer, plus some other clients, and ask them when you have closed the sale if they would give you a brief video testimonial. If you have done a good job, this should be no problem!
* Video blogging.
This is simply pulling out the video and looking at the camera and people can get to know you before they reach out to you. If you have been asked a question three or more times about real estate offline, just do a short video and answer that question for your site. In doing this, you are potentially answering that question for thousands of people and not just one. If people ask you how the market is, or what’s happening with interest rates, take the camera out and build a library of answers. The other thing that is really cool is video screen capture using some free tools like Jing for example, you could pull up a market report on screen, record a voiceover and again it adds more meaning to whatever you are showing on your screen. Video screen capture is a very good and cool options.
In early June 2011, Chris was hired by the largest real estate media company in the US, Inman News, and will be continuing his outstanding work in Technology for Real Estate Agents their “Chief Evangelist”. We wish Chris all the best in his new endeavour and look forward to hearing some big and exciting things from Inman news in the future! For more on Tech Savvy Agent, visit www.techsavvyagent.com. For more on Inman news, visit www.inmannews.com.
