Jul 30, 2021
In the current market, realtors
can utilize multiple different channels to facilitate transactions.
One of the most influential and easiest to start is social media.
In today’s episode of The Real Estate Sales Podcast, Jimmy is
joined by Heidi Harris, an agent who’s used her
Instagram page
to generate over $10 million in annual sales, to explain how any agent can
use the platform to generate sales.
Why did Heidi start using social media?
- Originally from a small town in Maryland, when
she moved to North Carolina she had a sphere of influnece of about
eight people.
- She wanted to find people to share her career
with, so she turned to Instagram.
- What initially drew her to the platform was
lousy advice - somebody in marketing told her to stick to Facebook.
But she noticed people in other industries do it, so she tried it
out for herself.
- She doesn’t care about followers, and focuses
on long-term growth rather than sepcific results from a particular
post.
Heidi’s tips for anyone to start a successful account of
their own:
- Instagram has a couple of different account
options - personal, business, or creator. She had a business page,
but ultimately switched to creator for some of its added benefits.
But you can be successful with any account type.
- Use Linktree to connect your other social media platforms,
website, and contact page so prospects can easily find anything
they need. Because Instagram limits you to just one link, this is a
good solution to contain everything you need.
- Have an inviting and informational
desscription, and make sure you have your entire profile filled
out.
Heidi started Instagram from humble
beginnings.
- Check out her first post here. WIth six likes and four hashtags, social
media is clearly learned over time.The secret to growth?
Hashtags.
- Hashtags are either micro or macro, with macro
being large, broad categories and micro being tags specific to
you.
- Heidi now uses shortcuts to easily include all
her contact information and hashtags for every single post, which
can be found in “auto-correction” of your iPhone
settings.
- Instagram wants to make caption text one block.
To make it easier to read, Heidi uses the free app Spacie to space
out her information the way she wants.
Maximizing Instagram engagement:
- People and pets get more engagement on
Instagram than other posts.
- Instagram has features like reels and IGTV that
offer different types of content. Having a variety of posts will
help you get found by your audience.
- Cadence and post frequency is hard, especially
in real estate. Because (if you’re anything like Heidi’s team),
you’ll have nine closings one week and then zero the
next.
- Heidi’s entire team posts on their pages twice
per week. However, because they are personal accounts, they don’t
post exclusively about real estate. There is a mix of professional
and personal.
- Consider using stories (content available for
only a limited time) for more informal posts, and actual timeline
posts for the pictures you want at all times.
- When people get to a place where they’re
organized and have consistency, you see dramatic
growth.
Heidi’s final takeaways? If she
knew in 2017 the amount of money she could make with something she
considered a distraction in her pocket, for free, she would be mind
blown. Ultimately, you can use content to make your business more
approachable, and her social media success has given her more
confidence in her ability to sell and be succesful.
To get in contact with Heidi,
find her on Instagram.
Connect with Jimmy Burgess
on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as his
YouTube channel.
If you like what you heard
today, we’d love it if you’d share a rating or review and then
subscribe to the podcast and tell others about it as well. You can
find The Real Estate Sales Podcast on
Apple Podcasts,
Google
Podcasts,
Spotify, and
Audible, and our website, The Real Estate Sales
Podcast.