So you know that building an online presence for your real estate business is a non-negotiable if you want to get more deals…
But you still can’t bring yourself to fully show up on social media?
SO many of our members are in this exact place when they first join us in The Listings Lab, our mentorship program for agents ready to scale to multi-6 or even 7 figures.
Sure, you might feel comfortable throwing up an infographic or slapping together a ‘just listed, just sold’ type of post.
But that’s not the kind of content we get you to create in The Listings Lab.
We get you to create content that tells potential buyers who you really are. We ask you to tell your story, to talk about your feelings, your beliefs, your life…all of it!
Personal content is one of the three MOST important kinds of real estate content for social media that we encourage our members to create.
Karyn Gaidos works in Metro Detroit, Michigan and has been in real estate for five years.
But despite her years of experience, when she first started the program, she was terrified.
And the thing that scared her the most was definitely sharing personal content.
Making The Choice To Build An Online Presence
Before joining The Listings Lab, Karyn had always relied solely on referrals and her existing network to grow her business.
But she also knew that her existing network could only get her so far. She was scared for the day when referrals would dry up.
Karyn thought about other ways she could acquire more business.
But many of the typical lead generation techniques real estate gurus preach, like cold-calling and door-knocking, never appealed to her. In her words, “it all just seemed like smoke and mirrors”.
When she first heard about The Listings Lab, she felt overjoyed that there was another way to scale her real estate business…one that didn’t involve having to annoy people for business.
As a former English major, the idea of writing content to attract clients appealed to her far more than having to pick up the phone and hustle for business.
But Karyn didn’t realize just how much her visibility fears would get in the way of marketing her business.
Overcoming The Fear of Blending Business With Personal
Karyn describes herself as coming from a “stodgy background”. She worked for the University of Michigan Business School, a major law firm, and in the wealth management sector.
In any one of these industries, talking about your personal life on a business page would have been absolutely unheard of.
In her own words, “it was really scary to open up, be myself and let people in”.
The first time she hit publish on a personal post to her Facebook business page, she was so terrified her heart was beating out of her chest.
Her mind raced with fears, wondering:
What if people judge me?
What if they think I’m crazy for telling a story about my family on my business page?
What will people say?
Fear of judgment holds SO many people back, and it had Karyn in a chokehold.
Building The Know, Like, and Trust Factor
So what changed?
How did Karyn get over her resistance to building an online presence that got clients coming to her?
Well, for one thing, she recognized that personal content was non-negotiable.
While going through The Listings Lab, she began to learn how personal content was a core ingredient to building your like, know and trust factor.
She realized, “The only way I can get people to know, like, and trust me is to let them know who I really am. How is somebody going to relate to me if they don’t know anything about my life or my thought process or feelings?”
It wasn’t that Karyn’s fears dissolved completely.
It was that the results from building her online presence were so incredible that she knew she had to push through the fear and create content anyway.
When she attended her high school reunion, she had people she hadn’t spoken to in 20 years act like they were her friends. They related to her and felt close to her because of the content she posted on social media. And she even signed a few deals just from going to her high school reunion and engaging with people who had been consuming her content!
Ditching The ‘Perfect Realtor’ Facade
Before going through The Listings Lab, Karyn always felt like she needed to be perfect on social media.
And boy, was it ever exhausting.
Two years ago, she would’ve needed to be in a suit, with perfect hair and makeup just to be on camera.
But now?
She feels like she can finally just be herself. Ponytail up, baseball hat on and all!
Embracing Story-Telling Marketing
When it comes to storytelling, we all want to gloss over our journey and just get to the good part.
We want to focus on our wins and our achievements – not what it took to get there.
But the journey, the struggle…that’s actually what makes us human. That’s what people resonate with the most.
Can you imagine how boring our favorite movies would be if they all started with the hero winning? Would any of us have even watched Harry Potter if there was no Voldemort to defeat?
Our struggle makes the story.
Karyn didn’t necessarily feel totally ‘comfortable’ being vulnerable in her content. Opening up was challenging, especially when it came to tough topics like her infertility.
As she told us, “I realized this wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d first thought. But it was so, so worth it”.
Despite feeling a little on edge sharing personal content, Karyn soon saw that her storytelling content outperformed any other content type, and easily allowed her to get 150-200 likes on a single post, with many heartfelt comments.
With the addition of storytelling content, she increased her engagement and got far more people reaching out to her saying they resonated with her content.
Making The Emotional Connection
One of the biggest takeaways Karyn got from The Listings Lab was that people make buying decisions with emotion first, and logic second.
It was a huge wake-up call. She realized if she wasn’t eliciting emotion in her content, then how would people feel connected enough to her to reach out about selling their homes?
Marketing is all about evoking emotion.
Have you ever noticed that Superbowl commercials make you cry?
There’s a good reason for that.
These corporations spend millions of dollars to develop an emotional connection with viewers. They know this strategy is going to be far more powerful than any fact or information about their product.
Prioritizing Relationships
Karyn also saw first-hand how her real estate marketing strategy supported relationship-building in her business.
She gave immense value in her posts
She created personal content to deepen the connection with her audience
And her community started noticing!
Here’s the thing.
People only move every 3-7 years. You have to give them a reason to follow you for the rest of time.
If you’re only posting “just listed, just sold” posts…why would anyone follow you who’s not in the middle of buying or selling a home?
Intentional, strategic real estate content for social media allows you to make sure you’re building long-term relationships with leads and clients.
When Karyn shifted her content, she noticed her clients would still text and message her long after the deal was done. By implementing The Listings Lab Method, she was able to create intimacy with her clients.
Download The Listings Lab guide here to do the same.
She was even developing relationships with people she’d never worked with before, but who followed her on social media.
Through her son’s soccer team, she met a young man who runs a business providing technical soccer training. Even though she didn’t know him well, he told her he reads every word she posts on social media. He’s learned so much from her posts, that she’s the first person he’ll go to when he’s ready to buy his first house.
Social media allows you to develop relationships at scale in a way that was never possible before the internet.
Ignoring The Naysayers
When Karyn’s visibility fears were running the show, she was always worried about what other people thought.
She feared not being liked, or that her content would somehow upset or offend someone.
But using the tools she’s been given in The Listings Lab, she now knows how to talk herself through her fear – and post anyway.
One of the biggest shifts she had was realizing if someone didn’t resonate with or like what she was saying…
They weren’t her ideal client anyway.
There’s no point in creating content for people who were never going to buy from you in the first place.
Ignore the naysayers and create content for YOUR people.
Because if you try to speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one.
What do you think of Karyn’s story? Let us know in the comments below!
And for more success stories like Karyn’s, browse our The Listings Lab reviews here.
