If you’re one of the 1% of REALTORS® who is highly skilled at social media, congratulations! You should fully exploit this skill.
Always work with your strengths!
However, if social media is frustrating for you, consider the possibility that you do NOT need to be a social media expert in order to be a great REALTOR®.
I know many agents who waste hundreds of hours attempting—quite unnaturally—to force themselves to become social media experts. Why? Because someone told them that social media is the magic pill that makes your life as a REALTOR® so much easier.
First, there are no magic pills. Sorry. Not sorry.
Second, becoming a social media expert takes a massive amount of time, effort, and a natural aptitude that few of us have.
The truth is that social media makes a significant impact for a minuscule percentage of agents, while everyone else is spinning their wheels and going nowhere fast.
There, I said it.
It’s like attempting to become a master motorcycle mechanic when you have no natural mechanical aptitude. I’ve thrown enough wrenches at walls to understand that I’ll probably always be a lousy mechanic, no matter how hard I try.
Perhaps you should stop trying to learn a craft for which you have no natural aptitude?
After all, social media has become a highly specialized and constantly evolving field. Even high-end ad agencies have different experts who concentrate strictly on either Paid or Organic Marketing for each different platform because each requires a unique skill set.
Of course, you should have some kind of presence on social media, so go to ‘The Google’ or ‘The YouTube’ and learn the basics for FREE.
The basics may be as simple as adding a post about your new or recently sold listing or your upcoming open house. Even if these posts are on your personal profile, that’s perfectly fine so long as you post 80% non-business stuff. Remind your online friends that you’re a REALTOR®, but don’t make your feed all about business. If you do, they’ll learn to “auto-ignore” you.
Perhaps the basics for you include doing some videos. If so, definitely do this, too!
However, beyond the basics, the Law of Diminishing Returns rears its ugly head, and you’ll stop getting the return you should expect compared to the effort put forth.
After all, what’s the purpose of social media, anyway? It’s to get more business, right?
News flash: There are hundreds of other ways to get more business. For example, ask yourself if you’re doing all of these things:
1. Do you contact your past clients regularly? I reach out to my past clients (in various ways) three days after closing, then in one week, one month, six months, and every one-year anniversary. I have some specific systems and procedures I recommend in my course for this, but the main thing is to keep in touch, so you’re top-of-mind with your number one potential referral source—your past clients!
2. Are you regularly meeting and connecting with new people through open houses, community involvement, or group memberships? And, if so, are you good at gently and effectively offering your services without being a Salesy Slickster?
3. Do you have an effective monitoring system to follow up regularly with your future clients? Do you know how to be a VIP (Valuable Information Provider)?
4. Do you have a personal website, and does it clearly communicate WHO you are, WHAT you stand for, and WHY the reader should hire you to represent them?
5. Once you’ve made a connection, how’s your listing presentation? What’s your success rate at getting listings in a competitive environment against the local shark?
I could easily add another hundred items to this list. And perhaps I’ve raised more questions than answers.
But the point is that in Real Estate, there are numerous other skills you could be working on that are far more important than forcing yourself to become a social media expert, which is a lost cause for most agents, anyway.
So stop banging your head against the wall and consider concentrating on learning other skills that are far more fundamental to BEING a great agent. Then, once you learn how to demonstrate your expertise effectively, you’ll forget all about chasing the magic pill.
You’ll need to book ‘Appointments with Yourself’ in order to learn and implement the various systems and procedures you need to be effective.
The good news is you’ll have much more time on your hands once you stop beating your skull against the wall.
