If you’d like to catch a video replay of this Connect Now session, and access the other 25+ hours of video content from Connect Now, tickets are still available. Click here to access.
Ryan Serhant, star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing franchise, sells more real estate these days with Instagram than he does with ads in the New York Times. And real estate professionals who don’t get on the technology bandwagon are “stuck in the past and end up staying there.”
“If you are not promoting yourself,” he said, “you’re the person in 1994 who didn’t think AOL was going to turn into anything.”
Serhant’s comments came during a Tuesday afternoon session of Inman Connect Now, a first-ever event of its kind that took place entirely online due to the coronavirus pandemic. And Serhant argued that the pandemic itself makes real estate professionals’ need to rely on technology even more urgent.
“It’s the way you promote yourself,” he explained.
Ryan Serhant Tuesday during Inman Connect Now. Credit: Inman
At the most basic level, for Serhant, that means following what he described as his “5-5-5” rule. That means everyday he makes sure to text five people, email five people and call five people — all of whom are folks he “wouldn’t otherwise have spoken to.”
“It’s a great way to put yourself out there,” he said. “Everyday my goal is to get into my canoe and canoe down the river. It’s a great way to make sure you’re actually paddling.”
Social media in particular is a powerful tool. Serhant suggested, for example, that during the multiple ongoing crises across the country, agents can use social media to position themselves as community leaders. And they can bring like-minded people together.
“You love cats or dogs. Or you love cars or Ozark or Tiger King. Whatever it may be create a Facebook page for it and email your entire network,” he explained.
And it doesn’t even matter if only a few people actually join the page.
“Even if 10 people join it, or two people,” Serhant said, “that’s two or 10 people you never had that connection with before.”
The power of social media also extends beyond just building communities; Serhant argued that Americans need to proactively confront racism, and that social media has a role to play in that fight.
Either way though, the various ongoing crises — the pandemic, the protests and, Serhant added jokingly, the “murder hornets” — mean that the world has permanently changed and real estate agents need to adapt along with it.
“Normal is over,” Serhant added. “This is our world war. And we have to ride it out, and we have to see what happens. We have to understand what we’re going to be selling in a new normal.”
If you’d like to catch a video replay of this Connect Now session, and access the other 25+ hours of video content from Connect Now, tickets are still available. Click here to access.
