The Internet has really leveled the playing field for real estate agents. Years ago you needed a hefty marketing budget to be able to get your name out there in front of people often enough for them to remember you the next time they buy or sell a house. But using social media for content marketing has made it not only possible for every agent to market the heck out of themselves regardless of their budget, but also necessary to do so if you want to compete!

The tricky part for many agents is being able to come up with enough new, original content to share on a regular basis…

Frequency is key in order for you to stay top-of-mind with your audience. You can’t just post a piece of content every once in a while and hope that it’ll do the trick. Ideally you should share content daily, if not multiple times per day.

Think about it, how many times are you exposed to any particular brand’s marketing and messages per day? Probably more times than you can count! That’s how brands stay top-of-mind; they’re constantly making sure you’re seeing and hearing from them… whether you like it or not. And whether you notice it or not!

Many agents worry so much about people smashing the “like” button, commenting, and sharing their posts, but you shouldn’t expect that from every piece of content you share. Just constantly sharing content is working some quiet magic for you. Frequency allows you to subtly infiltrate peoples’ minds.

But man it certainly feels good when people do react to something you share, or it directly gets you a lead or client to work with!

Yet regardless of whether a piece of content seemingly flew under the radar of everyone in your audience, or got a ton of attention, most agents avoid sharing a piece of content more than once. They worry that their audience will get bored, annoyed, or even angry if they share a piece of content more than once, so they’re constantly trying to come up with something new to share.

Well, you might want to rethink that, and start re-sharing some of your content!

Old Content Is Always New to Someone in Your Audience

According to this Marketing Brew article, while regularly sharing new content is important, you should also re-share content as well — especially if it performed well in the past.

As much as you might be concerned that people in your audience will notice you’ve shared something before, there’s a good chance many of them haven’t! Sure, some of them might have, but just because some people saw it the first time you posted it, doesn’t mean everyone in your audience did.

In fact, they claim that somewhere between 68% and 88% of your followers probably haven’t seen a particular piece of content you’ve posted in the past, no matter how well it did previously.

First of all, you’re at the mercy of algorithms deciding how many people (and which ones) they’ll even show your content to. Even if you pay money to make sure your content is more widely shared by a platform, you’re not guaranteed that your content will be served up to your entire audience.

But even if they did, social media is a crowded place, with an endless amount of content being shared. And it’s not like most people are looking at their feeds chronologically, making sure they don’t miss a single post every single minute of every single day. The reality is, most people are quickly (and mindlessly) scrolling, and doing so on various platforms. Most people aren’t going to be able to remember the majority of things they see in a day, let alone what you share.

Will some people recognize that you’ve shared something before? Perhaps. But even if they did, they might actually appreciate it more the second (or third… or fourth…) time around!

People Notice What Matters to Them… When It Matters to Them

People take notice of what resonates with them on any given day or time in their life.

Let’s face it, real estate is constantly on your mind, but it isn’t something most people have on their mind every day of their life. Unless someone’s thinking about buying or selling a house in the near future, there’s a good chance they’re not going to stop scrolling and read every word of what you post about real estate.

For instance…

That great article you posted last year about preparing your home for sale might not have been something “Fred” even noticed last year, but now he’s thinking about selling to move closer to his aging parents and there’s a much better chance he’ll stop and read it.

Or “Sue” could have noticed the piece you shared six months back filled with tips on buying a house, but wasn’t thinking about ever buying a house again. But then she finds out she’s inheriting some money and is thinking about buying her dream house.

That doesn’t mean either of them weren’t aware that you were sharing real estate content; they just weren’t paying particularly close attention to what you were sharing. Frequently sharing content was doing the surface-level job of making sure they knew in the back of their mind that you’re an agent, but their interest in a particular piece of content only mattered once it truly mattered to them.

What Content Should You Re-Share?

If you want to make the most out of re-sharing your content, you should spend some time taking stock of the content you’ve shared in the past, and also keep track of any new content you share moving forward that will be worthy of re-sharing sometime later on. A spreadsheet, or simple list will do, but popping them into a content planner or calendar will help you visualize what and when to re-share content a lot better.

Here’s what you want to look for when choosing content to re-share on social media:

• Content that got a lot of “likes” or other reactions. If people gave it the literal thumbs up, it’s a no-brainer that other people will probably like it if you share it again.
• Ones that got a lot of engagement with your audience. “Likes” are nice, but sometimes a piece doesn’t get many reactions, but gets a ton of comments. Anything that started a discussion and gave you the ability to interact with people should definitely be on your list.
• If a piece directly or indirectly got you a prospect, client, or sale. Even if a piece of content didn’t get many (or any!) reactions or engagement, but you know it got you business, make sure you plan on re-sharing it. For instance, you get a call from a prospect and they mention having read an article that stuck in their mind. Or a client tells you how they knew what to do or how to think about an issue because of a piece you shared about the buying or selling process.
• Re-use ones that are seasonal. Content related to buy or selling during the spring market, or over the holidays (as long as it isn’t specific to a certain year) is great to share year after year.
• Things you shared before you grew your audience. If you’ve made a concerted effort to grow your audience, re-share things you posted prior to the bump up in followers.

Need Content Worth Re-Sharing?

If this all sounds great, but you don’t really have much content at all, or you have a ton of content but not enough of it is worth re-sharing, you should check out our Inner Circle membership!

It’s about the easiest way for you to crank out content that looks like you created it yourself by just clicking a few buttons to add your own name and branding onto it. You’ll have access to:

• Over 1,500 existing articles, with more added weekly. We have ones for each season and many holidays you can use each year, but also ones that are entertaining, or resourceful you could share and re-share for years to come.
• Close to 2,000 memes. These range from funny and witty, to useful ones that give tips about buying and selling.
• 20 how-to booklets you can use to generate leads by offering the free booklets on the articles you share.

That’s just the stuff you’d use for sharing (and re-sharing!) for your social media content marketing. There’s also hundreds of email and letter templates, and a ton of super creative real estate postcards. And if that isn’t enough…

…you’ll be saving yourself a ton of time thinking up ideas and having to actually write content you hope will be worth resharing, for about the price of a cup of coffee per day!

The post Here’s Why You Should Re-Share Real Estate Content You’ve Shared Before… Again and Again appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

LinkedIn has been around since 2002, quietly trucking along. It’s not a social media platform that you hear a whole lot of people talking about spending much time on, despite the fact that there are over 900 million users, according to LinkedIn stats.

You might not even consider it social media! Many people treat it more like a static business card or resume for people to check out, and see it as a tool for people who are looking for a job. The chances are you have a profile, but you probably only find yourself on there occasionally when you’re low-key stalking a potential real estate client, or to see if an old classmate ever made anything of their life.

Well, if you think about it, as a real estate agent you’re constantly looking to be hired! While you might not think of it as a place people go to find and hire one, you’re going to see it as an amazing platform to generate connections and business by the end of this article.

LinkedIn Is a HUGE Source of Leads!

According to Hubspot, a recent study revealed that LinkedIn generated 277% more converted leads than either Facebook or Twitter. Leads from LinkedIn converted at nearly 3%, versus 0.69% from Twitter, and 0.77% from Facebook.

Why is that?!

• When people are on LinkedIn, they have a more business-focused mindset which helps your content (which we’ll get to in just a few seconds) perform better.
• There’s less content and clutter to compete with on LinkedIn, which makes it easier for people to notice and read what you share there.

Simply put: Your business related content has a better chance of getting seen and read on LinkedIn, than it does on other social media platforms where more people are constantly posting pictures of their pets, kids, dinners and dates. And because people on the platform are in more of a business frame of mind, they’re more likely to be a source of leads or referrals, and you’re more likely to convert them from a lead to a client since there’s less competition for their attention.

Posting Content Is the Key to Those Leads…

A spiffy profile alone isn’t going to get you those leads. People need some substance to chew on beyond your profile picture, career history, and contact info. You also need to share amazing content in order to set yourself apart from other agents when a prospect checks you out on LinkedIn, and to nurture existing connections and develop new ones on the platform.

Out of the 900 million LinkedIn users, how many of them do you think post content?

According to this Kinsta article, only 3 million LinkedIn users share content on a weekly basis! That’s less than 1% of all users worldwide netting 9 billion monthly views!

Now, drill down a little further… How many of those content-sharing users are likely to be your local real estate competitors posting real estate content on a regular basis? Probably not many, if any at all!

It’s mind-blowing to think that there’s still a well-known place online with that much opportunity for you to stand out from the crowd of other real estate agents, and all you have to do is post content.

But What Type of Content Should You Share?

No matter what venue they’re on, the go-to “content” for many agents often boils down to posting one of their listings, an upcoming open house, or some form of humble (or not-so-humble) brag about how much business they’re doing. All of those things are fine on a limited basis, but if you really want to tap into the potential LinkedIn offers, there’s one type of content in particular you’ll want to post!

The Kinsta article mentioned above cited a study done by OkDork which analyzed the best performing types of content on LinkedIn and found that “how-to” and list posts performed came out on top. Ahhh, the good old “listicle”…

Even on professionally-minded LinkedIn, people still like an enjoyable, easy-to-read article—as long as it teaches them something in the process.

So why not give ‘em what they want?! Let’s get you pointed in the right direction with a starter pack of articles we’ve published which you can share on LinkedIn:

This one will appeal to people who may be buying in the near future…

10 Things to Bring With You When House Hunting

Let potential sellers in on a little secret about what they should keep secret when they sell…

8 Things Home Sellers Should Never Reveal (Except To Their Realtor)

Not everyone on LinkedIn is a homeowner yet! Make sure to share things that will catch the attention of renters, like this one…

Top 6 Reasons Renters Have for Not Buying a Home (And Why They May Be Wrong)

On the other hand, there’s a good chance a LinkedIn user might be in the market for a second home, so why not share some tips on buying one…

3 Things to Consider When Looking for a Vacation Home

Those will get you off to a nice start, but once you’ve posted all of those, make sure to search our site for even more “how-to” listicles you can share for free.

If you want access to even more content than we have on that site, and be able to add your branding to the articles, check out our Inner Circle membership where you can access close to 1,500 articles already written for you and ready to share on LinkedIn with the click of a button!

And of course you can always write your own if you’re so inclined! No matter what you decide to do, just make sure you’re spending more time on LinkedIn nurturing your existing connections, and developing new ones by sharing content!

The post LinkedIn Can Be a HUGE Source for Real Estate Leads (If You Post the Right Content…) appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Social media is a blessing and a curse for real estate agents. It has made it so much easier (and less costly) to stay in touch with — and market yourself to — your sphere, past clients, and prospects. But it takes time…

• Time to figure out what to post.
• Time to create (or at least find) content to share.
• Time to actually post the content.
• Time to interact with people who react to your content.

So as much as social media marketing is an easy, low-cost way to stay top-of-mind for a real estate agent, it leaves some agents wishing it were even easier.

Agents barely have time to take a bathroom or lunch break most days, so spending time creating and posting content online isn’t that easy, no matter how much an agent knows it’s a smart thing to do. And if you don’t know, consider these stats from an article The Close recently published:

• 38% of agents polled said that posting on social media got them new clients.
• According to the survey, that’s the second highest source of business for agents, with referrals being the top at 83%.
• The agents surveyed felt that the best social media platforms to use were:
• Facebook (92%)
• Instagram (72%
• Youtube (37%)
• TikTok (18%)
• Twitter (14%)

Despite the fact that there’s no question that content marketing on social media is a money maker, many agents still struggle to find the time to manage their online marketing.

It’d be great if you could hire a full-time content writer and social media manager who handle your online marketing, but very few agents have deep enough pockets for that. So when you come across a company that not only creates real estate social media content for you to post, but also says they’ll post it for you, well, that can sound super appealing. In fact, a lot of agents look for companies who will do that for them.

But is it the way to go?

The 10 Drawbacks and Flaws of Auto-Posted Content

We’ve been creating real estate content for agents to share on social media since 2013 here at The Lighter Side. Over the years we’ve probably been asked daily if we automatically post content for agents on their social media profiles. The short answer is no. The long answer is we gave it a lot of thought before (and ever since) we started our content membership site, and there are a lot of reasons why we don’t think it’s a good service to offer, or for agents to use. (Even though it’d be a heck of a lot easier for us to just offer it, and take agents money to do it…)

While it sounds like an appealing time-saver, having a company automatically post real estate content for you has drawbacks and flaws you probably wouldn’t think about unless you were in the trenches of the content creation and social media marketing business. And, let’s face it, if a company offers it, they probably aren’t going to point out the downsides, so here’s a list of the issues we have with it so you can make your own educated decision.

1. You’ll be sharing the same stuff at the same time

Most companies that automatically post content for you are posting the same exact content, at the same exact times, for a lot of other agents too. They don’t customize content for you and every other agent—they just serve up the article or post du jour.

So if your followers know any other agents (and who doesn’t!), you could all be sharing the same content, which won’t do much in the way of setting you apart from other agents, or bolstering your authority and credibility.

2. Limits on the number of posts

Each company offers different types of plans, and you may be able to choose how many times a day they’ll post on your behalf, but there’s always a limit. Whether it’s once a day, three times a day, or any other frequency, you have to choose how many times content will be shared on your behalf.

It might not sound like a big deal, but the sneaky little thing here is that if you’re subbing out the task of posting content on your socials, there’s a good chance you aren’t aware of how much content your audience is OK seeing from you. So choosing any limited number of posts is an issue; it could be way too much, or way too little. But unless you’re actively involved and aware of how your audience reacts to the amount of content, you’ll never know. You could easily be annoying them, or not capitalizing on their tolerance for more impressions.

3. You may miss the hot topic

There’s always something trending on social media. That doesn’t mean it’s always something you can twist into real estate related content, but it’s marketing gold when you can! Most “trendjacking” happens on the fly (not on a pre-set, rigid schedule), and you have to strike while it’s hot. While the window of opportunity could last for days, more often than not it’s a matter of hours before you lose your chance to capitalize on a hot topic.

So before signing up with a company that offers auto-posted content, see if they even come up with trending content, and if they’re able to post it before it’s too late.

4. You can’t get “personal”

Most social media platforms only allow third-party companies to post content to your business page, not your personal profile. Technically speaking most of them don’t want you posting business related marketing content to your personal page either.

But if you do it selectively and with the right type of content, it’s not going to bother your audience. In fact, if you truly do it right (and is there any other way to do it?!), your audience will enjoy and look forward to the content you post! As long as you’re careful and thoughtful about how often you do it, and the type of content you post, you’ll have more of your friends, family and sphere seeing your stuff on your personal profile, as opposed to your business page.

5- You can’t customize the content

One of the greatest things about content marketing is that you can repurpose it and use it in different forms and formats. Sometimes an article would make a better email. Or maybe it’d be even better if you could add your own bitmoji or avatar on it. Perhaps you’d like to share it on a platform or medium that the content provider isn’t able to post on.

If a company is auto-posting content for you, you most likely aren’t going to be able to take full advantage of what a piece of content could do with your own personal touch. Creating all of your own content from scratch may be daunting, but when you have some killer content already done for you, putting your own spin on it can be easy, fun, and have way more impact. But if it’s auto-posted, or you don’t have that kind of control, it’s a missed opportunity.

6- Your can’t brand yourself

Some companies put your branding on the content they share for you, but some do not. It’s kind of missing the point if your branding isn’t on the content in some way.

In the least, make sure any company you consider will include your personal branding on the content they share. But bonus points if they allow you to customize that as well!

7- Do they even sound like you?

For the most part, you should write a short blurb or caption to go along with anything you post online—a little ‘color commentary’ if you will. Some companies will offer to do this for you when they post content, but others do not. To be honest, either way it’s not great…

The ones who don’t write a caption are ignoring a huge element to a successful post on social media. And the ones who do post a blurb for you most likely won’t come across as something you’d ever say or write!

Make sure you have captions before everything you post, and make sure they sound like something that actually comes from you. Otherwise it’ll just look and sound phony to your friends, family, and followers.

8- It wasn’t you!

Most likely you’d only be giving a company limited access to your accounts so that they could post on your behalf, but you may also consider someone who requires you to give them full access to your account. Unless you know and trust the person or company 100%, be very leery about giving anyone that kind of access to your account.

As with everything nowadays, be careful about what kind of permissions you’re giving an app, company, or individual. Otherwise you might find someone taking over your page and persona.

9- It’s not truly automatic

Some companies will require you to approve the posts before they share them on your behalf.

On one level, that’s a good thing. You should know what’s being posted and review it before it hits your page. How will you engage with people who react to it if you aren’t aware of what “you” shared? What if it isn’t in line with your own perspective or beliefs?

But on the other hand, is that truly automatic?! Either way it’s an issue…

Either you need to spend the time and effort you were trying to save doing it anyway, or you have no clue what they’re posting.

10- It’s often convenience over quality

It’s one thing to fill your page and followers’ eyes with easy-to-post content; it’s another altogether to stand out to them because of what you post.

Before just signing up with a company who offers to automatically post content for you, make sure their content is high quality. Is it dry and boring? Is it something people will even read, let alone be entertained by?

Just because they offer to make it easy for you to post content doesn’t mean it’s good content! Make sure the focus is on engaging content, and you’re not getting sold simply on the ease of sharing it.

Besides, You Need to Join the Conversation Eventually…

That’s the long (and hopefully helpful!) answer to why we don’t auto-post content for real estate agents, and truthfully why you shouldn’t want anyone else to do it for you.

Besides, taking an arm’s length approach to your social media marketing misses the point—the key word is social! Just posting content doesn’t land you leads and clients. You need to engage with your audience. If you’re entirely trying to automate and delegate your social media content marketing, you’re probably not going to get the results you want anyway.

So when you’re being sold on spending less time on your social media and content marketing, think about it another way…

Years ago, you couldn’t have gotten in front of so many people, so often, or so inexpensively. Now you have one big, never-ending social gathering where you can mingle with almost everyone you know.

Would you have someone else start a conversation, let alone speak on your behalf at a networking event or party? That’s kinda what you’re doing when you have someone auto-post for you. And, if it’s going to be effective and worthwhile, you have to step in at some point and join the conversation, so you ought to know and choose what those topics are anyway.

So Focus On Posting Quality Content

Unless you’re dry, boring, and uninspiring, there’s a good chance a lot of the auto-posted content you can sign up for isn’t going to represent you all that well. It’s typically written to be just that — to be safe and appeal to as many agents as possible, but also because they’re more focused on selling convenience.

Your brand represents you, so you should not only choose the content your followers see, but also make sure it’s quality content. Which just so happens to be what we focus on at The Lighter Side…

Do you want to be viewed as resourceful? Serious? Clever? Witty? Cheeky? We have a full spectrum covering all goals, scenarios and personality types. And while we won’t auto-post real estate content for you, we have the best content…and a scheduling tool that makes it quick and easy for you to plan when to share it!

Click here to get started.

The post Real Estate Agents: Think Twice Before Signing Up for Automated Social Posting appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Social media made marketing yourself as an agent about as cheap and easy as it comes. Years ago, you had to have a good chunk of change to get in front of even a fraction of the people you can reach on social media for very little (if any) cost.

But many agents get disappointed with how little reaction and interaction they get on their social media posts, let alone the amount of business they directly get from it. Understandable… It sucks when you post something and nobody hits the Like button or drops a comment. It can make you feel like social media “doesn’t work” to market yourself.

If it makes you feel better, just because people aren’t reacting or commenting on your social media posts doesn’t mean they aren’t noticing! Posting real estate content on social media may very well be doing a fantastic job of keeping you top-of-mind with your followers when they think about buying or selling, but they just aren’t giving you any sign that it’s working.

Still, doing what you can to increase reactions and engagements is a smart thing to do, and worth the time and effort! The more likes, comments and shares you get isn’t just a good barometer for you to gauge how much love and awareness people have for you as an agent, it’s also social proof that people trust and like you for your prospects to see. And of course, rocking your social media game can directly lead to getting you business.

So, what’s the trick to getting more reaction and engagement on social media? Is it throwing money at ads, or boosting posts? Is it choosing a better time of day to post? Is it creating or finding more compelling content to share? Well, tinkering around with all of those things may certainly be help, but there’s something many agents ignore altogether that could help their engagement regardless of what, when, or where they post.

The trick is, you gotta be social on social media!

Sounds pretty obvious, right? But the reality is, many people (not just real estate agents) drop the ball when it comes to truly putting the “social” in “social media.” It’s not a new problem, and it’s one that’s been written about for years, yet somehow people tend to make the same mistakes. Just look at this article on The Social Media Hat from 2016, which the author (Mike Allton) had originally published on LinkedIn in 2014.

Allton points out 5 mistakes many people using social media for marketing purposes tend to make:

1. They only post their own content, without any context or prompts for discussion. (Think listings, or bragging about a sale or how busy an agent is when it comes to real estate.)
2. Never sharing other peoples’ content.
3. Not thanking people for sharing your posts.
4. Not responding to people who take the time to comment on posts.
5. Following tons of people for the sake of having a bigger audience.

Here are some key takeaways that he recommends instead:

1. Choose a platform or two at most to concentrate your efforts on. In other words, don’t worry about being on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, TikTok, and any other one you can think of. Just choose a couple where your ideal connections hang out, and focus on them.
2. Strive to post things that achieve the Three E’s; educate, entertain, and engage. (Which is by no coincidence the secret sauce we aim for in all the content we create for our Inner Circle members to share on social media!
3. Don’t add more and more random people to your followers list for the sake of having more followers. Be selective and foster a genuine network of friends, family, and followers.
4. Focus on one-to-one interactions with key people within your social media network. Go deeper with a few, rather than casually (or barely) connecting with thousands.

The bottom line of that article was that you can’t just get as many followers as possible, post what matters to you, and hope that people will flock to react to it. You need to interact and develop relationships with people by truly connecting with them and reacting to what they post!

It’s the law of reciprocity in social selling. At the most basic level it boils down to…if you like my stuff, I’ll like yours…if you engage with me, I’ll engage with you. (But if you want to take a deeper dive into how to use the law of reciprocity in social selling, check out this Inside Sales article.)

Here’s your agent action plan!

So now that you know the value of being more social on social media, let’s put together an easy action plan so you can actually apply it!

Pick your platform (or two)

If you’re on every single social media platform in existence, say farewell to all but one or two. Remember, less is more when it comes to being more social on social media. You can’t possibly spend enough time developing deeper relationships when you’re stretched too thin. Give some thought to where your ideal audience (and client base) spends time on social media.

For instance, Facebook is great for a wide variety of demographics, but if you want to interact with more business-like people, go with LinkedIn. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you’re looking to engage with younger males, Reddit is the way to go. There are plenty more to choose from, and there’s no such thing as the best or the right one. Just pick one that you understand, like spending time on, and has enough of your ideal connections to build relationships with.

Build your following selectively

Whether you have a couple hundred, or a couple thousand followers currently, you want to continue to grow it constantly. But, make sure you’re growing it thoughtfully. Don’t just add friends and followers for the sake of numbers. If you meet or come across someone you think would be a valuable addition to your network, add ‘em, but don’t just send or accept requests willy-nilly.

It’s not a bad idea to focus some special attention on people in your network who seem to be good at reciprocating and interacting with their followers.

Pro tip: Keep in mind that many people on social media aren’t actually posting or engaging all that much. Find and focus on the ones who are! They’re more likely to reciprocate and engage with your content than someone who rarely posts, comments, or otherwise shows signs of life on social media.

Be on the lookout to react and engage with them

Whenever you’re on social media, watch for posts you can chime in on, react to, and share if it’s worthy or appropriate to do so. Don’t be a wallflower. Join in the convo. Give ‘em the love and attention you want to get in return, without actually expecting anything in return.

And don’t bring real estate up every time you engage! Of course you can if and when it’s appropriate, but remember that you’re supporting them and what they posted, not your own agenda—even if that is ultimately why you’re spending time being social to begin with!

But don’t rely on your feed to serve you everything that’s posted…

Be proactive and use it as a database

It’s almost impossible to see everything that everyone posts. Use your list of followers as a database you go through methodically. Each day, go through a letter or two of the alphabet and deliberately check out the profile of the people whose last names begin with those letters. If they’ve posted something you can engage with, do so. If not, shoot them a quick message about something they might find interesting, useful, or entertaining.

Doing this will make sure you connect and engage with your key contacts on a regular basis, even if they don’t post for a while, or if they just don’t post much at all but tend to comment, react and share other peoples’ content. Over time, you’ll start to get a feel for who supports you in return, and you can focus more attention on those who do, and less on the people who don’t.

Make it easy for them to react, comment, and share what you post!

People want to be around and help people they like and find fun, interesting, or helpful. So while you may be deliberately going out of your way to interact with them — and it may subconsciously prompt them to want to do the same for you — make sure you post content that’ll make them want to do it for you in return!

In other words, don’t bore them with humble brags about your sales, or latest listings…or at least keep it to a minimum. In fact, make sure that you aren’t only posting about real estate. Throw some other stuff into the mix as well. But when it comes to posting about real estate, make sure it isn’t the same old boring, self-serving stuff a lot of agents post.

The Takeaway:

Social media works for marketing and branding yourself, and can directly lead to getting you business. It just may not seem like it’s working if you’re not seeing a lot of reaction or engagement. That doesn’t mean it isn’t doing something, but it’s probably a sign that you could be tweaking things to make it even more productive.

So, don’t just chalk it up to not working and ditch your efforts altogether. Spend time cultivating your connections by being more social with them, and before you know it, you’ll start seeing more notifications that someone reacted to, commented on, or shared your content.

The post Real Estate Agents: Is Social Media Marketing “Not Working” for You? Here’s a Simple Solution appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

But who cares if they come with a day off or not when you’re a real estate agent?! Those are some of the busiest days for an agent! So, what good is a national day to a real estate agent? Well, they just happen to be the perfect days to spin into some of the most creative real estate marketing to stay top-of-mind with your friends, family, followers, and past clients!

Over the years we’ve created a ton of National Day real estate memes to give agents a clever way to promote themselves, and we’ve built up quite a library of them. So we hand-picked a couple of them for each month of the year for you to sprinkle into your marketing mix and share when they come around!

Check ‘em out and start marking your calendar!

JANUARY

Milk this day for all it’s worth…

January 11 – National Milk Day

Offer a free CMA if they can guess the answer to this puzzle…

January 29 – National Puzzle Day

FEBRUARY

It’s like a gourmet meal when you’re out showing houses all day…

February 9 – National Pizza Day

Here’s a witty way to discourage people from going FSBO…

February 22 – National Margarita Day

MARCH

Offer to bring some ice cream to their abode, and give ‘em a CMA a la mode…

March 14 – National Pi Day

How can they say no to this little pooch?!

March 23 – National Puppy Day

APRIL

It’s just sloppy…

April 2 – National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day

Selling on your own is just twisted…

April 26 – National Pretzel Day

MAY

Here’s a tongue-in-cheek way to get some mileage outta this national day…

May 12 – National Odometer Day

Raisins (and Zestimates) require full disclosure…

May 15 – National Chocolate Chip Day

JUNE

Pictures, or it didn’t happen…

June 21 – National Selfie Day

Nice! Here’s an entire National Month made just for agents….

June 1-30 – National Homeownership Month

JULY

Gives new meaning to working on Sundaes…

July 17 – National Ice Cream Day

Other agents will never ketchup to you with this kind of marketing…

July 20 – National Hot Dog Day

AUGUST

Real estate can be a ruff career, but…

August 5 – National Work Like a Dog Day

A hand-y way to remind people you’re in real estate…

August 13 – International Left Handers Day

SEPTEMBER

Always read the fine print…

September 7 – National Beer Lover’s Day

This oughta get some social media engagement for you…

September 28 – National Good Neighbor Day

OCTOBER

The proof isn’t always in the pudding…

October 4 – National Vodka Day

Oh, and fix the squeaky hinge on the bedroom closet…

October 31 – National Doorbell Day

NOVEMBER

Do I look stressed?

November 3 – National Stress Awareness Day

I’ll cashew outside, how bout dat?!

November 23 – National Cashew Day

DECEMBER

Bonus points if you show up to the appointment in a Delorean…

December 8 – National Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day

Imagine factoring that feature into the value on a CMA…

December 10 – National Nobel Prize Day

There you have it—24 memes to use National Days as an opportunity to market yourself throughout the year! Make sure you:

• Jot down the dates.
• Bookmark this article to refer back to throughout the year.
• And share them with your audience when they come around!

The post National Days—The Perfect Opportunity for Real Estate Marketing appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Every year is a clean slate to buckle down and do more business. But too often, agents are either way too broad and vague, or way too specific and detailed about how to actually make that happen.

On one hand you have agents who are basically like, “I wanna sell 100 houses next year…”, but don’t even scribble a note or two on a napkin about how to actually get there.

On the other hand you have agents who create these elaborate plans of attack to make more sales by doing more than is humanly possible in a day, or doing things they don’t enjoy doing. (Like, are they really, and I mean reallllly, going to cold call FSBOs and expireds every day for the next year?)

There’s gotta be a happy medium. Something you can write down on paper and actually stick to throughout the year. Something easy… Something enjoyable… Someth…got it! Get your pen ready and formally jot this down on a napkin:

I will post one real estate related meme per day for the next year.

How simple is that?! Think you could pull that off for a year? You bet! No sweat!

But, as with anything that seems too easy, or too good to be true, it begs a question: Will doing this really help me sell more houses next year?

Honestly, doing that alone probably isn’t going to lead to selling 100 houses in the next year. But doing more business (no matter how much, or how little you currently do) starts with small, daily steps. Habits. And many of the things agents try to add into their routine are so costly, unpleasant, or so difficult to pull off on a daily, recurring basis, that they end up doing nothing on a regular basis in terms of marketing themselves.

Half the battle in getting more real estate business and referrals is simply reminding the people that know you that you’re in the business (AKA staying top of mind). In the past, that had to be done by calling them and mailing things to them on a regular basis. Now, with social media, you can pretty much remind everyone you’re in real estate on a daily basis. (As long as you’re not super annoying about it at least…)

If you subtly remind people you’re in the business, and ideally make ‘em laugh and maybe even learn something while you’re at it, you’d be surprised how many leads you pick up throughout a year — whether directly or indirectly — due to the memes you share.

Check out the collage below. It shows examples of people’s reactions to the memes we’ve created for agents:

See?! It literally can be as simple as posting memes!

Now, that said, it has to be done consistently! You can’t just post one here and there and expect to stay top of mind. This is a residual effect.

And don’t necessarily expect people to go bonkers over them. You could literally not get a reaction or comment on many of the memes you share (which can be discouraging) and they’re still having an impact. It’s just a daily reminder that you’re in the business, without being obnoxious. Nobody gets annoyed about seeing something that’s entertaining in their feed, but if you’re constantly bragging or begging for business, well, that gets annoying.

They don’t even all have to be knee-slapping funny, either. You can (and should) switch up the types of memes you share every day. Just make sure you’re posting a real estate related meme once per day. Here’s a sample of 7 days in a row of different types of real estate memes:

Monday

– Give them a little taste of “agent life” with something like this. It’s just a gentle reminder that you’re in the biz, but it also implies that you sell a lot of homes:

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

Tuesday

– Share a useful (ideally unique) homeownership tip:

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

Wednesday

– It could be something as simple as a real estate related quote… (Make sure to cite who said it!)

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

Thursday

– If there’s a holiday, no matter what day it lands on, make sure to piggyback off of it with a real estate twist!

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

Friday

– Share a fun, interesting real estate fact:

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

Saturday

– Who even comes up with some of those crazy “national days”?! Honestly, who cares?! They’re a great excuse to talk about real estate in a fun way…

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

Sunday

– Hit up buyers or sellers with something cleverly promotional, like these:

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

Remove our watermark and share this meme with your branding

That’s just an example of a week using various types of memes. It doesn’t have to be that regimented or diverse. In other words, you can post the same type of real estate related meme every day…just make sure you’re literally posting a real estate related meme every day.

It doesn’t take more than a couple minutes, and the compound effect of doing it daily will be way greater than the effort required. All you have to do is commit to doing it. In terms of New Year resolutions, it doesn’t get simpler, easier, or more fun than that!

So where can you find the best real estate related memes to post every day? Easy…

Just check out The Lighter Side of Real Estate page on Facebook! We’ve posted tons of them over the years that you can share for free. (Pro tip: Don’t just share the new ones; scroll through the ones we published some time ago.)

But, if you want access to tons more, and be able to slap YOUR branding on them, you should check out our Inner Circle membership. Plus, you can save a ton of time using the calendar and scheduling features we’ve created for our members.

For less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day, you’ll get access to all of our memes and get them the minute they’re published! And, you’ll get access to a whole lot of other types of content you can brand to supplement your meme marketing, like:

• Email templates
• Articles
• 20 booklets (like How to Prepare Your House for Sale, a buyer’s guide, a seller’s guide, and many more…)
• Witty postcards
• And so much more (discover all the details here)…

No matter which way you decide to go, just make sure to share at least one real estate meme per day! Once you get in the habit, this New Year resolution will be an easy way for you to stay top of mind with people when it’s time for them to buy or sell a house for years to come!

Final note: Sign up for our free weekly newsletter if you’d like our meme of the week, as well as tons of interesting stories and tips to grow your real estate business!

The post One Resolution You Can Easily Stick With To Improve Your Real Estate Business appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Unless you’re a seasoned veteran or have a super polished presentation, it’s super common to worry about how it’ll go…

• Will I forget to go over something important?
• What if they interrupt me with questions and I get sidetracked and I can’t get the presentation back on track?
• Does my presentation set me apart from the competition?
• Does my competition have a better presentation? Is it more flashy or techy?

The good news is, you’re not the only agent who worries about these things! Many agents don’t have a set listing presentation, or at least one they love or “own” and can present confidently. At best, they’re just using some cookie-cutter, boring presentation from their company.

The better news is that you can easily take your existing presentation and make it way more memorable! All you have to do is sprinkle in some funny memes that also make a point you want sellers to remember or agree with.

Let’s look at some examples…

Here’s one you could use as an icebreaker at the beginning. Take the pressure off by joking about performing under pressure! (Your call whether you actually break out singing some Bowie in front of them!)

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

Insert this one into your presentation where you talk about prepping their house for photos. This will give you the chance to talk about presenting the house in the best, but most honest light in your photos. You can filter and photoshop all you want, but at the end of the day, you don’t want buyers feeling let down the minute they pull up to the house.

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

This one has a couple of angles! Use it to bring up the importance of keeping their house tidy for showings, but also how it’s easy to get discouraged when there aren’t a lot of showings. They’ll remember this one a month or two into the listing when they’re upset there hasn’t been any showings and you suggest leaving a pair of underwear on the floor. The value of humor can extend beyond the listing presentation and help you deal with their concerns (and complaints) throughout the listing period.

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

Here’s one to drive home the importance of disclosing any problems with their house…

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

If a homeowner doesn’t bring up how much a neighbor is asking for their home, is it even a listing appointment?! This is a witty way to defuse and handle that age-old issue…

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

Or, you can throw in a quote from a famous real estate guru to hammer home the importance of pricing…

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

If it’s not the neighbors’ asking price, then it’s their Zestimate (or both) that’ll come up! Here’s one to make light of how much emphasis agents put on Zestimates.

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

Throw in a fun fact to show them you’re a student of your craft and think about the finer details, even down to the words you’ll use in their listing description…

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

…or to gently explain why you won’t be spending money on print ads when they insist on a full page ad in the New York Times.

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

When (inevitably) they ask you to reduce your commission, hit ‘em with this pan…of spinach.

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

Of course they’ll want to see some testimonials! Whether you have some legitimate rave reviews to show them as well or not, throwing this one in will address their request and give them a laugh.

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

And then close on them with this one as you hand them a pen to sign on the dotted line!

Remove our logo and share this meme with your branding

Hopefully those get your creative juices flowing and on your way to crafting a listing presentation you’ll look forward to using! If you want access to even more memes you can use in your presentation, and a whole lot of other types of content to help you land listing appointments, then click here and consider joining our Inner Circle.

Using memes in your presentation will break up the boredom of a typical presentation and give you moments to truly connect with the homeowners. Ultimately, people like to laugh, and they like doing business with people they like. Sure, another agent you’re up against may have a better resume, more sales, or a killer listing presentation of their own. But, will they connect with clients as much as you do with a presentation like this?! That’s the question other agents should be asking themselves…

The post Nail Your Listing Presentations by Making Them More “Meme”orable appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

In high school, your math teacher may have said something along the lines of, “You won’t have a calculator with you all the time.” Fast forward to today. With the power of smartphones, you have one at your disposal along with a lot of other things that make your life easier!

With the rise of the smartphone, social media has become a dominant force in the real estate industry. Every day more and more agents are realizing that social media isn’t just a place to laugh at funny cat videos—it’s also a digital farm for them to grow and harvest leads.

Much like a calculator made high school math easier, so do the right social media apps for online real estate marketing. So, we’ve put together a list of must-have tools to help you take advantage of the tech.

1. Preview App

Preview is a must have app for experienced or new Instagram users. While there are two higher tier subscriptions ($6.67/month & $12.50/month), the free version is more than worth the download. Preview allows you to schedule posts, search trending hashtags, edit photos with custom filters and a lot more. If you’re someone who carefully plans what you post online, this is a must have. Not only will you be able to see what your feed will look like, but you’ll also get great resources to not only track your page’s growth, but also recommendations for hashtags to improve it.

IOS | Android

2. Phonto

Phonto is a free app that allows you to put text on photos. While not a groundbreaking functionality in and of itself, the variety and customization offered by Phonto has earned it a spot on the list. With 200 different fonts, as well as the ability to upload your own, your next motivational poster or impromptu ‘just sold’ post is just a few taps away

IOS | Android

3. Inshot

InShot does itself a disservice by marketing as a ‘video maker’ app. While it may not offer anything groundbreaking in that space, the way it presents it is just so user friendly and intuitive that it had to be included. If you’re familiar with video editing, don’t be so quick to dismiss a phone app. Transitions, speed controls, picture-in-picture—it’s all here and more. On top of the video editing it offers, it’s great for formatting photos to different sizing as well. While the app itself is free, you’ll have to pay for an upgraded subscription to remove the in-app watermark.

IOS | Android

4. Canva

Canva is a free graphic design platform that’s great for making e-cards, business cards, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, and so much more. With hundreds of templates for a variety of uses, you’re sure to find a use for it. And for the price of free, it’s well worth it.

IOS | Android

5. Snapseed

Snapseed was acquired by Google to beef up their photo capabilities, and it doesn’t disappoint. Arguably one of the best dedicated photo editing apps. Any professional photo editor will tell you that unless an app allows you to adjust color, balance, saturation, sharpness and image curve, then it’s worthless. Fortunately, Snapseed allows you to do this and more for the low, low price of…$0. The best part is, Google continues to update and refresh the app—meaning it’ll be here (and improving) for the foreseeable future.

IOS | Android

6. Fiverr

If you’ve never heard of, or just never used Fiverr, don’t sleep on it. While we’re giving out a ton of great ideas here, never discount the value a professional can bring to your business. Fiverr is an online marketplace for freelance individuals. From website design, to listing descriptions, you can probably find someone on Fiverr to do it for you at a variety of price points. All transactions take place over the Fiverr platform, and it makes it easy to request revisions from your chosen freelancer, as well as refunds if there’s ever any issue. The review system also makes finding the right person for your job a breeze.

IOS | Android

7. Mematic

Since you found your way to our corner of the Internet, we’re going to assume you’ve realized by now that nothing is better for building your business than humor and a shared laugh. Mematic is a free app that allows you to create memes in a variety of formats. Mematic comes equipped with a database of formats and meme-able photos to help you start creating those laughs that’ll ultimately generate you business.

IOS | Android

8. The Lighter Side of Real Estate’s “Inner Circle”

You see and laugh at our posts. Maybe you’ve even shared some and gotten a great response from your audience. It’s a fact that 1) humor gets shares, 2) shares get attention, and 3) attention will ultimately lead to an expanded presence for your business online. While you can certainly try your hand at making your own memes, you can make it a whole lot easier on yourself by leaving the content creation to us. Join the Lighter Side’s Inner Circle and gain access to our vast (and ever-growing) library of funny real estate content going back years, all custom-branded to you for your audience.

The post 8 Tools Every Agent Should Know About To Dominate Social Media appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

Ever heard someone use that fancy-pants word, algorithm?

As in, “Facebook is always updating their algorithm”?

As you might know, Facebook’s algorithm is what determines how many people get to see each post you make (aka, your “reach”). And after several recent algorithm updates, many Facebook users are mad because their posts are reaching significantly less people — whether posting from their personal profiles or business pages.

And it’s true. I can personally vouch that Lighter Side’s reach has also dipped. All because of Facebook fiddlin’ with that dang “algorithm” of theirs.

There was a time when my posts would reach more people than were following the Lighter Side page. In fact, it happened regularly… all because Facebook was very generous with how many news feeds they put my posts into.

Those were the good ol’ days.

Then one random Thursday, about a year ago, it happened: my Facebook reach came to a screeching halt. I remember it vividly. I still jokingly refer to it as “Black Thursday”.

Everything I posted that day was a dud. All the likes, comments, and shares plummeted from what I was used to.

And it wasn’t just a fluke. Black Thursday turned into Black Friday, Black Saturday, etc.

I couldn’t help but wonder, “Am I losing my mojo?!”

After devouring every article I could on the subject, I realized I wasn’t the only one. Lots of people were experiencing poor engagement from their audiences. Everybody was in an uproar.

Luckily, I found out that my mojo wasn’t the problem; it was my reach.

Unfortunately, Facebook’s algorithm controls a post’s reach, and that’s something you and I can’t control. We’re all at their mercy in that way.

I was getting nervous…

… nervous because I was losing the attention of my followers. Whether you realize it or not, our ability to command people’s attention and tell our story is everything.

It’s the whole kit ’n kaboodle. For me. For you. For every business. We all compete to be heard in this “noisy” online world because it’s where all the eyeballs are these days.

So I started experimenting with different types of posts, and I discovered that one particular type of content always reached far more people than anything else.

I was floored by how effective it was. It turned everything back around. People started engaging again, and all was right in the world.

As time went on, that single type of content led to a ton of new exposure for the Lighter Side of Real Estate. And it still does to this day.

And if you use it, it will help your personal brand get more exposure, too.

So what is it you ask?

VIDEOS! (Keep reading, we’re not done yet.)

You’ve probably already heard that video marketing is important. Of course it is. Statistically, people would rather watch than read. Plus, your clients and prospects are more endeared to you when you show your face.

But this is different. What I’m saying is that Facebook gives video posts greater reach. How much greater? I’ll actually show you in a minute, but for now I’ll just say this…

Videos crush image posts.
Videos crush text-only posts.
Videos crush link posts.

But not just any videos will work.

You must upload the video yourself for maximum reach. See, there’s a huge difference between uploading your own video file vs. sharing somebody else’s video post. Facebook rewards those who upload videos with far higher reach.

To help illustrate the power of uploading them yourself, below is a screenshot of the Lighter Side’s Facebook analytics. It shows our average reach per post over a recent 7 day period.

Hopefully that image isn’t too small to read on your phone, but in case it is, here’s what it says:

Videos that I uploaded reached an average of 693,056 people.

Photos reached 151,269.

Link-posts to articles reached 113,167.

Text-only status updates reached 25,864 people.

But get THIS…

When I shared viral videos that other people uploaded, I only reached 62,150 (compared to 693,056 for videos I uploaded!).

Note: These stats represent my average reach per post. In other words, the fact that video reach crushes everything else isn’t affected by how many of them you post.

See what I’m getting at? Video is king in Facebookland. Yes, for pages as well as personal profiles.

So start uploading your own videos!

Don’t be bashful; think of a good idea, get your pretty face in front of a camera or phone, film yourself, then upload it to Facebook. You already know how powerful this is for branding.

I create all my videos with maximum shareability in mind. I want them enjoyed and shared by regular folks (buyers and sellers) and real estate pros alike. And because of this, you’ll be able to use them as marketing tools that create good feelings in your social following.

For example, remember this one below? It has almost 10 million views, and over 194,000 shares.

I’d say it has broad appeal.

See, I like creating videos that subtly tell a story. I weave in a message on behalf of agents who share them.

Often times the theme is something like:

“This is what it’s like being a real estate agent” or

“I work hard and I love what I do” or

“I’m a serious professional, but I’m also a real person with a sense of humor”

Now, simply typing those things in a status update, for example, would induce a snoozefest among your followers. Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s true.

However, when you convey those same things in an entertaining video… then you’re in a totally different ballpark. Trust me because this is exactly how I’ve built the Lighter Side brand.

The Big Takeaway: If you don’t want to get lost in all the “noise” online today, always, always, always deliver value when promoting yourself online.

Be entertaining. Be resourceful. Be a real human.

I see too many agents using the “me me me” marketing model, or the “listings listings listings” model. They use social media as a megaphone to talk about themselves while bringing no real value to their audience.

That type of marketing used to work, but there’s just too much content out there to compete with nowadays. Too much noise. Play that game these days and you’ll bore or annoy them. (Except your BFF, they’ll always give you that obligatory like).

Instead, focus on content that lies on the periphery of real estate (like real estate humor, articles about home hacks, etc.). If you do, you’ll enjoy more success because you’ll command more attention. And you’ll command more attention because you’re approaching your market from a “value first” perspective.

Btw, I’d be happy to chat about any questions, comments, or suggestions you may have — just go back to the email that brought you here and hit reply!

Mike Bell
Chief Chuckler in Charge

P.S. Have you signed up to my newsletter? If you haven’t, you really should: Subscribe to Lighter Side Snacks

The post This Is The Exact Strategy I Use To Reach More People On Facebook appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.

That said, can we agree that 77 THOUSAND SHARES of an article is considered viral? I’m betting that’s a safe assumption by any standard.

Before we dive into the two ingredients of a viral post, look at the screenshot of the viral article I just referenced. Notice the website that shared the article? BestRealEstateBlog.com? You’ve never even heard of it, right?

The point is that you don’t have to be the New York Times, or TMZ, or (insert publication everyone knows) to go viral. You just have to post great content. This article was originally shared to an audience of just a few hundred people!

Actually, BestRealEstateBlog.com is operated by us, The Lighter Side of Real Estate. We use it to host articles that we write on behalf of agents who want to gain top-of-mind status on social media. We create memes and videos too, and all this content is personalized for agents to share with their name and info attached — as if they created it.

We call this service our “Inner Circle” membership and this particular article was posted by one of our members. (Learn more about our service here.) You can imagine how blown away this agent is! And yes, we’re certainly proud it went viral.

But full disclaimer: Just because it’s easy to understand why a post goes viral (there’s only two ingredients), it is NOT easy to actually pull off, as you’ll see in a minute.

Let’s dive into the two ingredients of a viral post.

Ingredient #1

The content has to be share-worthy. Duh! This article obviously meets that criterion, as does lots of our content, but let’s dive a little deeper into the psychology of what triggers a share.

If you pay attention to viral content, you’ll notice that most of the time it has these qualities:

• Invokes awe, laughter or amusement
• Appeals to people’s narcissistic side – makes them look smart, witty, compassionate, etc. for sharing

In fact, The New York Times interviewed 2,500 people to determine why they shared a story online. The main reasons were:

• To bring valuable and entertaining content to one another
• To define themselves to others (give people a better sense of who they are)
• To grow and nourish relationships (stay connected with others)
• For self-fulfillment (to feel more involved in the world)
• To get the word out on causes they care about

This starting to make sense? As a real estate agent, you’ll get more exposure by posting stuff with other people’s interests in mind vs. your own (“Hey look at me and all my listings… I’m never too busy for your referrals, blah blah.”)

That said, I urge you to NOT get your hopes up for going viral. Statistically speaking, it’s a very rare occurrence.

And while viral-worthy content can be found all over the Internet for you to post (we create it for agents every day), the second ingredient of a viral post is what’s likely to dash your hopes of going viral.

Ingredient #2

It usually requires an “influencer” to share your post—a person or page with huge organic reach—and only THEN will it (maybe) grow legs and take off running.

We’re pretty good with Ingredient #1, but #2 is pure luck; it’s beyond yours or our control. But there’s an even bigger reason why you shouldn’t get your hopes up…

In the big scheme of things, “going viral” doesn’t matter…

Look, does social engagement matter? Of course it does. And if you ever get to experience going viral, it’s certainly an exhilarating feeling. BUT…

Social metrics don’t paint a complete picture of your social “worth.”

In other words, it’s not a reliable indicator of your social influence and popularity, despite the fact we’ve been conditioned to believe otherwise. So it’s ok stop obsessing over it.

Fact is, not everyone who enjoys your content is inclined to go the extra mile and tap the like button. Or the share button. Or, heaven forbid, string together multiple letters to form an actual comment.

Yes, we humans are that freakin’ lazy. And this laziness can end up skewing your perception of how effective social media is for building your personal brand.

Here, I’ll share two personal experiences that illustrate my point:

Example #1
I’m the world’s worst at enjoying a piece of content on Facebook, but not expressing my appreciation with a like, comment or share. Heck, there are certain people and pages I’m borderline obsessed with, yet I’ve never lifted a finger to express my gratitude. While I’m not proud of this, it’s the truth. And I bet I’m in the majority.

Example #2
I’m Facebook friends with several people who also follow the Lighter Side of Real Estate. Sometimes they’ll reach out to me about how they enjoyed an article, meme or video I posted. A few times, on a whim, I’ve checked to see if they engaged on the original post. And guess what? They didn’t.

Did it bother me? YES! Does it now? Heck no! I’ve come to realize that just because a post doesn’t get engaged, it doesn’t mean it fell on deaf ears. I encourage you to come to this realization too.

Not to mention, do you really want your social media pages to look boring (or worse – abandoned) when prospects snoop on you before doing business with you? Of course not. That’s why it’s important to post quality content despite the fact that it probably won’t ever go viral.

The Takeaway

People are watching (and often appreciating) whether they “tell” you they are or not. So DON’T let your ego get bruised by low engagement. DO, however, keep posting good content… because your personal brand depends on it. And we’ve got your back if you want our help.

Mike Bell

Mike has asked repeatedly to be called “His Royal Awesomeness”, but no one listens. So, he settles for “Chief Chuckler in Charge” of Lighter Side of Real Estate. He enjoys writing bios in third person and helping real estate agents look good online.

The post The 2 Ingredients of a Viral Post appeared first on Lighter Side of Real Estate.