UNCOMMON

Uncommon Contact: Connecting with Clientele Through Social Media

Social media is one of the newest and most powerful tools in an agent or mortgage professional’s arsenal. With just a few keystrokes, you can stay top-of-mind with buyers, sellers, and borrowers near and far, past and present. The key is knowing how to use these mediums to your advantage, working smarter instead of harder to keep the thread of professional relationships intact. With that in mind, here are a few ways you can maximize the pull and power of social media by shifting just a few of your ideas and practices for the better.

Not everything has to be about business.

While your relationship with a client or fellow vendor began over the course of business, your relationship going forward doesn’t have to be limited. One of the great things about social media is that’s it’s social. Not every comment, post, or communication has to revolve around your business, its metrics, or turning a sale. In fact, you should do your best to branch out and curate a brand and online identity that’s about who you are and

the lifestyle you’re authentically interested in living. In that vein, consider interacting with clients in an organically-driven way, encouraging them during life’s milestones, reaching out with a local event, restaurant, or news item that’s relevant to their interests or neighborhood. The goal is to be a persistent presence in their lives without feeling like a talking head. Engage as you would like to be engaged with, as a human being with interests and needs and boundaries. Keep that personal thread in mind and your dynamic will shift from past business contact to present resource.

Expand your medium.

Many Realtors are comfortable on Facebook as an interactive meeting to connect with clients, but there are several other mediums where you can connect with clients both past and present, as well as future. Particularly when courting Millennial clientele, the fastest-growing segment of the buying market, a presence on Instagram and Snapchat are key to finding new faces, demonstrating hot properties, and creating an interactive brand as an agent. Not only does this help when you’re listing a property and seeking potential buyers, but it also serves as a perusable portfolio of your work and real estate prowess. You can also use these mediums to interact with clients on an outlet they might feel most comfortable in. Liking pictures, commenting, streaming Instagram Live home tours and Stories are all ways you can build engagement by simply spreading your social media presence around. Likewise, these photo and video driven mediums are popular for home design ideas, and before and after renovation pictures. When you expand from Facebook into these new platforms, you’ll already have plenty of visual content ready to be transferred and consumed by an expanded audience.

Don’t just react. Create your own content.

It’s easy enough to post a link to a new listing, or retweet a helpful article on real estate news. Creating your own organic content is a different story, but worth its weight in gold when it comes to luring engagement, ranking higher in search fields, and overall crafting an interactive presence for yourself and your business online—which is where more than 90% of homebuyers and sellers begin their process. Creating your own content can seem risky, or else like no one is listening in a digital world already crowded with information. However, original content is sure to boost personal engagement with your social media pages, guaranteed. Instead of recycling content, consider posting a video with a Q+A theme for first-time homebuyers, or perhaps posting a live tour of a new listing will perk up your clientele surfing at home.

No matter how you decide to expand your social media presence when it comes to interacting with clients, consistency is key. Find the ways that work best for you and stick to them, and you’ll watch your audience and business grow in tandem.

AMY DOWNS

For Amy Downs, real estate has always been a passion. “I was working for a property management company, and they offered to help me get my real estate license,” she says. “So I got it, and soon I decided to go out on my own and become an agent.” It ended up being one of the best decisions she’s ever made, as she is now the CEO and Team Leader of the Amy Downs Team in Dallas, Texas. Currently she has three agents on the team, two operational staff and a director of sales. Serving all of North Texas, the vast majority of their business consists of repeat clients and referrals, a testament to their superior customer service. “We keep in touch with everyone we’ve worked with,” she explains. “We call, email, and have events every quarter.”

This level of communication is present throughout the transaction as well, and is their top priority. “The number one reason people get frustrated with agents is lack of communication, so we always want to be in front of them with as much information as possible to avoid that.” When clients call Amy or her team, they make it a point to respond within five minutes or less. Even before they begin working together, Amy and her team clearly outline what to expect, giving them all the details they need beforehand so they are never in the dark. “We make sure we know what their goals are and that their expectations are met.” Whether Amy and her team are helping a buyer get the most for their money, or getting a seller the best deal possible, they will go above and beyond to meet their needs.

Afterwards, clients leave raving reviews about their time together. One recently said, “Working with Amy and her team was the best experience we had. She is very knowledgeable, professional and patient. Emily and the operation team are awesome. They are very thorough and kept us updated on all showings, closing and we thoroughly enjoyed working with all of them. Thank you gang for a smooth closing. We look forward to working with you again!” Another wrote, “Amy Downs team did a great job helping us with our purchase. Very informative and helpful every step of the way. Grateful for their support and will use them again.”

The Amy Downs Team recently partnered with Place, Inc. The largest real estate expansion team in the US. With this partnership, team members can plug into the proven systems, tools and models along with the accountability and coaching provided to immediately start earning a six figure income as a Realtor.

Looking ahead, Amy is growing her team, focused on training agents to become successful. She loves the opportunities this career can bring and wants to help others experience its benefits.

“Being able to help others grow and become the best they can be is one of my favorite parts about this career. We have a training program for agents to join, and I’m so excited to expand it.”

For more about Amy Downs or if you are interested in an opportunity to partner with the Amy Downs Team, call 972-839-8367 or email amy@amydowns.com

MONIQUE FIELD

As an agent, Monique Field has learned real estate is about more than property—it’s about people and building relationships. As she says,“everything about buying and selling is emotional and people want to know that they are well supported and that we know what they are going through.”

Two years ago, Monique sold her own home, one that she had lived in for eighteen years, and so not only does she understand the emotions her clients are experiencing, she also understands how important feeling connected to the process can be. The first thing Monique does after an open home is to ring her vendor to let them know how it went, and she maintains this open communication throughout a sale or purchase.

“Everybody wants to feel comfort and assurance,” Monique says, “and I feel that’s what we give them.” Comfort, assurance—and trust, which Monique knows, can take time to build. Using a combination of new school and old school strategies, she sets out to “become that trusted authority, where people want to reach out to you and by the time you get there, they feel like they already know you.”

In Monique’s experience, social media helps create this familiarity, giving people the opportunity to get to know her and learn about the business. For example, Monique recently recorded a YouTube video on “Six Hot Seller Tips,” from a real estate marketing book her agency is providing free to new clients. As she grows her network, Monique prioritizes providing useful information, sending her contacts monthly and quarterly emails with reports on the property market in their suburb. Once she has a listing, she relies on both social media and old school methods, like calling, texting, and completing a 52-point seller checklist of tasks proven to help sell a property.

Though she gets clients through many channels, it’s no surprise that Monique’s last twelve sales in 2019 were all referrals, because what sets her apart from other agents is her focus on hands-on customer service. Though her agency could potentially sell up to 50 properties a year, she keeps her sales to just over 30 in order to give each client the attention she feels they deserve. Her vendors know potential buyers won’t have to wait until a Saturday open home, as she will make herself available for private inspections any day. While open homes are important, meeting a buyer for a private inspection gives Monique the chance to get to know them personally, hear their stories, and learn their goals. And understanding people’s goals is key to her success; Monique believes if you “help people achieve their goals, you will achieve your own.”

Her dedication to building relationships extends beyond her real estate business. Monique remains involved in “Business in Heels,” an organization for working women she ran before becoming an agent. She also supports feeding the homeless, sponsors junior sports programs and, for many years, has worked with a local public school to distribute monthly kindness awards to children nominated by their peers, teachers, and administrators. As she states, “everybody can do something kind for somebody else.”

And, in the end, that’s what matters most to Monique: “It’s very rewarding, helping people through their lives, and I could see myself doing this forever.”

For more about Monique Field, please call (+61) 0403 021 172, visit www.moniquefieldproperty.com.au, or email monique.field@smileelite.com