Lee Davenport

By Lee Davenport

Does selling on social media intimidate or frustrate you?  I can understand if it does.  Maybe you focus on one social platform, doing the obligatory thing of posting your listings. Or maybe you’re promoting your real estate business through several social media accounts. Either way, if social media has not become a big bread winner for you yet, then you might be slightly miffed at this time zapper.

One main way that you can start correcting this today is to stop speaking to an empty page or site. It makes total sense that if you walk into an empty room (that is not adjacent to anything or anyone and has no cameras, mics, telephones, etc.), no matter how loud or long you scream, there is no one there to hear you. Believe it or not, many of us make this same mistake on social media. We post on pages and to accounts where no one is listening.

Stop waiting for potential home sellers and buyers to come to you; you need to go to them. You may be thinking, “I want to do that, but with the millions of people on social media, it just seems impossible.”  Au contraire, mon cher! In today’s technological age, there is an app, site, software, or something else that can help you with that.

Here is one of my favorite tools to help get on the offensive and make social connections that boost your likelihood of converting clicks to clients to closings to commissions (which are the vital 4 Cs of online real estate sales): Mention.com

Mention offers a more extensive search on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube than Google Alerts because you can find out what’s being said about your topic/keyword on just social media rather than on the Internet as a whole where it may not have the same level of engagement and interest. (Another alert system I favor is Talkwalker Alerts because it too retrieves intel from social media sites.)  This means that you can find people chattering about your target area (or farm area) where you want to become the agent of choice (like Cherry Hills Village in Colorado, El Cerrito in California, Woodridge in Washington, East Atlanta in Georgia, Palmer Woods in Michigan, and so forth).

I have found that home buyers and sellers may not go online looking for you specifically, or even a REALTOR^®, but they are posting their housing dreams and concerns in hopes that help will find them. Mention allows you to do that more efficiently. You’ll spend less money than sending postcard mailings, and you’ll likely create more authentic connections if you actively pursue people posting about your real estate niche or area of interest. Check out the image at the right for an example of an alert I recently received of someone sharing an article I wrote for Huffington Post. You better believe I connected with this person, who is a “raving fan” but whom I had never met. This shows the power of using Mention.

In addition to following topics of interest relevant to my business, I also follow myself and my brand, which I recommend you do too.

Are you multilingual?  You can create one alert that searches social media and the Web in the different languages you speak – I love easy automation.

Imagine what would happen if you could easily locate people who share and comment on articles and topics germane to your sales area. It all starts with creating an account and an alert of your choosing in under five minutes. I hope that puts a smile on your face.

If you are not convinced this can be done in under five minutes, watch me setup an alert from my phone. (My only qualm is that Mention.com is not as mobile responsive as I would like. You will see in the video how I have to scroll to see everything on the webpage).

Once you start getting alerts (which you can send to your email), make sure to review them in short order, and connect with the person that posted it as soon as possible. These alerts will all be in vain if you do not do anything with them.

Also, there should be a method to your posting madness. Make sure you do not become a creepy, cyber stalker – there has to be finesse in your approach to connecting with people you don’t already know. Check out this past article or grab this workbook to help create strategic posts to build your sales. Here’s to your success!

Lee Davenport is a licensed real estate broker, business doctoral student, trainer and coach.  Learn more about the training and 1-on-1 coaching programs that she offers by visiting www.AgentsAroundAtlanta.com.