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So you want to be a luxury real estate agent? In addition to knowing the community and knowing the number of listings, sales, pendings etc., the bottom line is, you have to find yourself in those same places where the owners of luxury real estate spend time.
This means marketing and networking where you’ll find the buyers and sellers of luxury real estate. One place you’ve likely overlooked is LinkedIn. According to 99firms, among other sources, 41 percent of millionaires use LinkedIn, and 90 million LinkedIn users are senior level influencers. Here’s how we leverage LinkedIn to tap into that market.
1. Join LinkedIn groups
Join groups on LinkedIn where your target luxury market is also a member.
For example, there is a group on LinkedIn called Millionaire Investments. The purpose of the group is to provide members the opportunity to purchase some of the best property acquisitions on the market. There are over 1,000 members in this millionaire LinkedIn group.
Does this sound like somewhere you’d want to network?
There is also a golfers group on LinkedIn that is the No. 1 golf networking group online. Its more than 40,000 members include touring pros, Fortune 500 executives, broadcasters, engineers and more. A pool of the type of professionals you want to network with in one group.
You can even find a LinkedIn group for yacht and boat owners and brokers where you can target and connect with a luxury lifestyle audience.
2. Talk about what they care about
Now that you’re in the group, share relevant and interesting topics that your target luxury audience will likely care about.
For example, I am an avid tennis player so I joined a couple of tennis groups on LinkedIn. The U.S. Open just ended, so I shared a snapshot of the U.S. Open ceremony and talked about how thrilling the finals were.
Other tennis players and fans are also interested in the U.S. Open, which means they will “like” the post and share their comments. This liking and commenting is the beginning of building relationships that lead to networking and discussing business. See step-by-step how in the next tip.
3. Network, connect, and do business
You’ve shared an interesting post, and a member of your target luxury market has liked or shared a comment.
Fortunately, LinkedIn shows you the name of every single person who has liked your post. When you click on their name, it takes you to that person’s LinkedIn profile. This is step 1.
- Go to every single person’s profile who liked your post.
- Send them a personalized connection request saying, “Thank you for liking my post in the tennis group. Let’s connect.”
- Now that they have accepted and you are officially connected on LinkedIn, go through their profile to learn what they do for a living. This allows your next message to be personalized and not a sales pitch.
- Once they respond, send a second message saying, “Based on what you and I do, we should network and see how we might be of resource to each other. What’s the best way to reach you?”
They will respond with a number or email address, and this is how you know you are in. You set up a time for a phone appointment or virtual coffee, get to know each other and discuss business.
As with the rest of your real estate database, you will stay in touch and remain top-of-mind for when a real estate need arises.
Italina Kirknis is the real estate community’s online presence expert and speaker. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Instagram, or look into the social media services she and her team offer.
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