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What actions do you take on social media that have gotten the most results?
Facebook’s feature that allows location-based targeting is so great for open houses. You can target people within a mile or two of your open house … It brought us 60-plus people through our client’s open house before.
Other actions: Always reply to comments on posts, and always reply to private messages. When you’re posting, try your best to be relatable, have a plan, track your results (and spending).
What’s your craziest social media-related story?
Gained a client from Nebraska who was moving to Orange County, California. His girlfriend found our Instagram through a local hashtag and contacted us through the website listed in our Instagram profile.
She said she chose our page because she could tell we were a couple (like them) and most other Realtors ask you to call them in their Instagram profile, which can come off as intimidating. We have a website link to a mobile-friendly contact page, which they used to get in touch with us via email.
Age: 26
Years in real estate: I’ve been in marketing and social media marketing for four-plus years. I started working for my dad, who’s a Realtor, while I was in high school doing blogging and front-desk work. I just got my real estate license in October 2014.
Job title: Realtor — my boyfriend and I started our own team, SOC Real Estate Team (South Orange County)
Location: Orange County, California
Hours per week spent on social media: It depends. Anywhere from six to 15 a week. I usually schedule posts in the morning, then will use downtime to build following/create ads.
Social media accounts: 13 (personal Facebook, business Facebook, personal Instagram, business Instagram, personal Twitter, business Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, Google Plus, Houzz, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat). We split up the pages we are responsible for to manage the workload.
Target demographic: Depends on the account and the type of post. Instagram, we target first-time homebuyers. On our Facebook page, we’ll target neighbors of our listings, neighbors of open houses (within a certain proximity of the address) and first-time homebuyers.
Average number of posts per day: One to three … but there will be days that I go without a post.
Which social channels do you work more?
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
How many friends, likes, etc., do you have?
Personal Facebook: 1,370 and counting; personal Instagram: 500 and counting; business Instagram: 150 and counting; business Facebook: 200 and counting.
Does that number matter to you?
Numbers do matter, but so does the quality of your followers. There has to be a balance.
Do you ever give it a break?
There are days that I will go without posting, but I’ll never go an entire week without posting.
Does social help your business? How?
Being social online is a consistent reminder to my social media friends and followers that they have a Realtor in their network of friends they can trust. They might not want to buy or sell a house now, but they might meet someone next week who does, and our team will be top of mind. It allows us to grow our business and leads.
It also shows our followers a glimpse into life as a Realtor for friends who may switch careers.
What’s your goal for your favorite social channel?
Provide my followers with a combination of beautiful photos and engaging, fun content. End goal is always to build the trust of our followers, and increase our following and engagement in our posts.
What’s your strategy to achieve it?
Being consistent, tracking successful posts (What kind of photo? Time of day? Did we use hashtags?), trying new things, and always trying to engage in other peoples posts as well.
Is it worth it?
Yes. It’s fun, a good way to generate leads for free or low cost. And people expect it nowadays. Clients always want to see how we incorporate social media into our marketing plans for listings.
Is this more about “social” or about business?
It’s about both. If it’s all business, you’re going to bore your crowd. We mix it up by posting about local events, hot brunch spots and so on.
How many hours per day are you on social?
I would say 30 minutes to one hour a day I’m on social media. I definitely check it daily, and often multiple times a day.
Do you ever think of retiring?
No way — I’m just getting started!
Do you consider yourself an influencer?
I like to think so, but who knows!
Eric Hudes and Kristina Bindi.
Are you social in real life?
Yes, I’m very social in real life. I love hosting parties, getting friends together — the more, the merrier :).
What did you do with your time before?
Social media has always been a part of my career.
How do you leverage your prominence/influence on social?
By targeting ads to “friends of people who like our page” — it’s an indirect referral. We will also provide information to collect emails and build a base for email campaigns. We advertised a “First-Time Home Buyers Guide” and gained several leads by offering free information on the homebuying process.
It’s important to always have something to offer (Free Home Search App, Seller’s Guides, Buyers Guide to Orange County, etc.).
Do you have someone helping you?
My boyfriend/business partner and I have split up the social media pages to split the time and responsibility it takes.
Whom do you follow, why?
Inman, CAR, OCAR, other successful Realtors and businesspeople.
Where do you find the content that you put out?
Our real estate photographer, MLS, news, blogs.
What has been your all-time hit share? Can you share a link to the post?
Here’s one of my more successful ones for clicks. Got over 200 clicks on this particular post.
Who do you think is doing social media well in real estate?
I think Realtors who are naturally social in person tend to excel in social media too. Suzy Arriola is a local Realtor I follow closely on Facebook. She does a great job balancing work and personal life on her page — it’s very relatable yet clear that she’s an extremely hard worker, a successful agent, and that her family always comes first!
Are you a social media all-star who’d like to participate in our profile series? Email amber@inman.com.