Brooke Wolford
By Brooke Wolford
Social media is a great thing for our business. We are connecting to more consumers than ever. It’s all fine and dandy. However, is what you portray online the real you?
Recently, I attended a #tweetup. There were a lot of social media “experts.” Nowadays, who isn’t an expert? Many of the people in attendance I had connected with in Twitter and felt as if I really knew them.
The first person I had the pleasure of meeting was Teresa Boardman. I had been connected to her for a couple of years but had never met her in person. The first thing she told me is, “You look exactly like you do in your avatar.” I felt confused and glad at the same time. I said, “That’s a good thing, right?”
This made me think of issue #1 in your social media. Don’t have a fake, glamourshots-style photo of yourself. While we all want to look good and our best, people should be able to recognize you in person. It’s generally a bad idea to have pictures that only show half of your face or give the impression that you are some supermodel.
When I first signed up for Twitter, I had an avatar of myself wearing big sunglasses that I called my “pimp” picture. Luckily, Greg Sax gave me gave me advice telling me to change my picture. I was glad I took his advice and changed my picture. More People started to recognize me more in public.
Another thing I noticed at this #tweetup, was that many people acted very different. Some seemed very shy. Some seemed like a completely different person that what I had originally thought. I was very outgoing and made an attempt to talk to everyone in the room. Many in attendance hardly moved around even though most of us were connected in some social platform. I didn’t get it. Continue reading »
Brooke Wolford
By Brooke Wolford
Recently, at the Minneapolis YPN SquareTable event, I had a discussion with a few agents about what type of car you should drive to protect your image as an agent. It went back and fourth based on where you lived, who you served, etc. While I agreed with a lot of the responses, I also feel that having a certain type of vehicle does not make you a good agent. It’s all about what you do for your clients.
Take me for instance. I live very frugally. I have a nice car and all, but it’s really nothing special. When I go grocery shopping, I clip coupons. I rarely shop for novelty items and money really is not an issue with me. I worry about making sure I’m able to support my family and being able to retire some day — both are very important to me.
While discussing this with the other agents, someone suggested that you talk to your past clients and see what they thought about the vehicle you drove. I decided to survey some of my clients and see what they said. I sent an email out to them with the following questions:
1. Is there anything that would have deterred you from using me as an agent? Examples: If I had purple hair, tattoos or drove an ugly car, etc.
Client #1- “If you had purple hair, I might have run after meeting you in that open house, but I could care less about tattoos or the car you drove. “
Client #2-“Honestly, was impressed because you drove the same car as me. I know the quality of the vehicle you drove and I think it says a lot about a person by choosing a high quality vehicle. “
Client #3- “Well, I believe in first impressions. I didn’t know what type of vehicle you drove when we first met. I had the opportunity to work with you and my loan officer for a while before I started to view homes, so it really didn’t matter anymore. I was happy with you.”
2. What are the reasons you used me as an agent? Continue reading »
Toby Boyce
By Toby Boyce
In my prior life I spent eight years working in higher education public relations where I heard over and over again that “any publicity is good publicity.” But I’ve never understood it.
A football team has the longest losing streak in the nation can get publicity, but is it good?
However, I whole-heartedly agree that any publicity is an opportunity to provide a positive side to a story — if it is managed properly.
For example, let’s take a situation I witnessed just this summer. A Columbus, Ohio, man was murdered on the front-steps of his rental home. Of course, the local television stations covered the story with the same gusto as TMZ heading after Paris Hilton’s alleged cocaine habit. The home is currently for sale, and the REALTOR® sign and the listing agent’s name were all prominently featured throughout the shots — on all three networks. If that wasn’t enough, the home’s owner was on one station saying something to the effect of “this is a common situation in this area, you hear gun shots all the time – day or night.” Continue reading »
Jonathan Osman
By Jonathan Osman
You are a professional now. You dress in business attire during the work week. You have a website that has every home listed in the MLS. Your carefully written bio makes you appear as you are the greatest agent to receive a license. You may even have a killer buyer and seller presentation. However, I would bet that the story being told by your Facebook page does not match your corporate image.
A few months back, I needed to send a referral to an agent in another city for a listing. I found a few good candidates and decided to google their names in an effort to locate their websites. When I did, I ran across one agent’s personal Facebook profile, ranked No. 1 in Google and her website was No. 45. By cruising through what was available to the public, I discovered that she enjoyed drinking from red plastic cups, college sports, and looked stunning in a bikini during a recent trip to Miami. Needless to say, she didn’t get the referral.
She’s probably very good at selling real estate and could have done a very good job. However, the image that her public Facebook profile portrayed of her did not match the values that my clients held. It would be the same as if she went on the listing appointment and said nothing but I enjoy drinking from red plastic cups, college sports, and look at these pictures of me in a bikini… can I list your home?
So how can you avoid this? First, use the privacy controls. Screen your photo gallery and organize your photos intended for your real friends into a list. Next, organize your friends in various lists depending on who they really are to you. Every one of my friends is apart of a list, from those I went to high school with, to the people I work with today. Every list controls the image of that I want to reveal to each group of people. Continue reading »
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