If you or somebody who wants to be successful on social media or you're questioning why is this not working differently, why am I not getting tons and tons of followers? Today's interview is absolutely for you. Today's conversation you're going to find to be super refreshing because guess what? Apparently you don't have to have tens of thousands of social media followers or be Instagram famous or Tick-Tock famous or anything along those lines as a real estate professional in order that social media and video and all the things that come with it can be effective for your business. I'm I'm pumped for today's conversation because this has been a matter I've been looking at in my own coaching calls where there are folks who are like I'm failing I'm failing with social media but really, they're not because they're looking at it in the wrong light. So welcome to this week in marketing. My name is Jason Pantana your host and today I am the moderator of this amazing conversation with Rockstar Ecosystem Member agent in Long Beach Paige Fingerhut Charnick how are you today Paige I'm great! Thanks so much for having me! Jason I'm excited to be here! Okay so we practiced saying your name before we started. How did I do you did great? You did great! So yeah I'm excited to chat with you because um, we were talking about like in the pre-show before the recording just about where you get your business from and I would invite everybody. We're going to talk about social media and how you use it for marketing but I just want you to give everybody. some context for your business. Tell us about where you get your business, how much business, where you do business? Etc Yeah, absolutely. So I'm based in Long Beach California and um I actually am very focused on probate real estate which is a large piece of my business. Um, but I've been adding in social media and getting more and more of my sphere business and agent agent referrals from social media. So I'm actually starting to blend all of that together. But I do probate sales in Southern California It's really the bottom line. So yeah, so probate sales doesn't typically go along with social media, but here we go. We're going to fuse it together with quite the amalgamation. Um, we were talking ahead of time and you told me that you don't need tens of thousands of Instagram followers or social followers in order to generate business off of Social and I Gotta say, like that sounds really refreshing to a lot of people. I'm sure who are frustrated with this kind of Creator culture where you've got to be famous or social media famous and they're thinking they're getting left out. but really, they're not. So can you elaborate on what that means for your experience? Yeah, absolutely. So basically a lot of times we hear Tom Ferry say you know there's a group of people that you know and there's a group group of people that you don't know and which one is bigger right? and that's usually for you to go after the larger group. But I would argue for you to not forget about the group of people that you do know because they already know, like and trust you and so my Instagram I probably have about 2 000 followers. It's not crazy, um, but they are people that know, like and trust me from all different walks of life. and so I actually have a couple examples of how I got Direct business out of Instagram stories and they were from my sphere and one of those examples was literally while sitting in a conference with Tom and he was like okay, throw up a page that's like a beautiful house. it can be from the internet. it doesn't have to be in your Market just pick a beautiful house and throw it up and say are you living in your dream home Well being an early adopter of things I executed on that while sitting in the room and this the second slide to that was something to the effect of like first it was are you in your dream home yes or no and then the next slide was are you planning to make a move in the next whatever the next year was I remember the strategy and what was that I said I Remember this strategy, keep going. It was a few years ago and I I implemented implemented it immediately and I probably do that post like once a quarter now and because I don't want to inundate people with it, but they still like it and they still respond. And from that original post I got a client who said um, no, they were not living in their dream home and then she proceeded to send me a message that was like a tirade about her HOA and she was like really mad about some pet policy that they changed and this was from a 20-something and that I I didn't even know she owned a home, she was in my sphere and I didn't even know she owned property so that turned into two sides. She both sold and bought and then and so that's one example and that's a few years back. But another example that I have more recently during I would say coveted times Um was from some Instagram stories that I did Um and I have sort of like you know as recommended by you and Tom like like the pillars right? like I post about workouts and I post about my pet and I post about travel and I I have like the slotted pillars of what I post about and one of those things is workouts. Um and I'm obsessed with my spin studio and I am very cognizant about who re-shares your post too. So when I'm going to a spin class, I'm going to post the class I'm going to and also the instructor that teaches the class and then she's going to re-share that post so that everyone that attends that studio or that class is going to see that I'm going to that class. So, but the thing is is, it's not just posting, you have to listen back. So during Covid I looked I watch who watches my stories which might sound a little creepy, but I do so you're supposed to, You gotta know. Yeah! So I started noticing that some of the people that watch my Um workout stories were also also reacting to my real estate stories because you know you can give a reaction, right? So when someone reacts to your story, you don't just sit there and think oh great they liked that post like you go back and you engage and you say hey, thanks for liking that Do you have any questions about this property? Do you want to go see it like you You follow up on the response, you don't just like let them sit there and think oh thanks for you know hitting the fire button um so I followed up with some people that were doing that and one of them turned out to be someone that I only know from the spin studio and she wanted to buy the house she was living in and currently renting and she said I don't trust my landlord um can you help me and so we put together like an off-market deal from that alone and those are from people that already know like and trust me and know that they have a shared common interest with me. and I have less than two two thousand followers, but they're following for a reason. They share my favorite things to do or my values. So wait a minute. Sorry, a lot, you're you. This is your interview. You're using social media like it's a social network. Who would do such a thing? So yeah, this is something we've lost sight of. I Think we talk a lot about. Um, make this kind of video use this kind of trending audio. This is how you get into the explore page or the for you feed on Tick Tock and just we focus in a marketing context so much on getting maximum reach for your content. We're not really talking about the other side of the coin, which is participation in the conversation. In fact, uh, at our Edge events we talk about, there's two sides of social. There's the side of I have to publish great content, but I also have to participate in a dialogue that really engages with people and I think that's what people aren't doing. So no, I don't think it's stalkerish for you to go through and look at who's engaging with your DMs I think you should do that and I also think the fact that you are using your DMs as kind of a line in the water so to speak to, let's just see if anybody nibbles at this bait that is real estate and then you follow up with them. That's just good smart business if you ask me right? Yeah, thank you. Okay, so you mentioned uh stories as a technique where you referenced Tom's example of are you currently living your dream home now and there's a yes or no poll and they can vote no and then on the next story, it's a follow-up question that says are you planning to make a move in the next 12 months or something like that uh, thinking of or planning to I think was the script we used and it's again a yes or no poll and you just simply go back and dm with anybody who said no and then yes because that means they're looking for the Dream House Are there any other mechanisms you're using You also mentioned uh, tagging folks who are you know, your spin studio or whatever and just being social On social. Are there any other techniques or tactics that you're using to try to elicit hand raisers of people who are thinking about buying or selling within your own network following you? So I would say for for so I use the polls significantly and I use the sliders um as well for interest on houses. Um, because the people who are going to slide on a property photo that are like oh, that's amazing whatever Emoji you use they're engaging with your content. So I actually would say not even just who answered yes no like the the right answer you wanted to get I would go back and dm with everybody even if they were like yeah my I'm I am living in my dream home to be like great. Can I come see it like you know but um but most people are not. But the other thing that I'm doing I I would say I just I replicate that right? so I duplicate it in multiple places. so not just the spin studio but like the local coffee shop where maybe I don't know the owner but I go there every morning and I get like I think actually not not to like throw other people out but I think Byron Lizene just reference like go to the same restaurant every day for like a million weeks you know? So I do go to the same coffee shop every morning and I T and it's very cute. It's very instagramable so I tag that coffee shop all the time because I want to sell homes that are around the corner from that coffee shop so it's the same um mechanism but I apply it to multiple different places including restaurants and you know all kinds of things. Again, this is refreshing because you're using social media as if hey, I just want to be known in my own sphere, in my own community and I'm going to socially network with these folks on Instagram and other platforms now is Instagram your primary platform or you kind of spread the attention across other platforms I do spread the attention I would say Instagram is my primary personally I like it best I fit into the Instagram demographic but you can't forget about the other ones. So on Facebook for example I have Sierra Interactive as my CRM um and when I launch a listing I have a very specific strategy around that to um, gather you know, capture people in my database and I would say that's um, like traditional traditional modern marketing I don't know like everyone's doing that right? um where they should be if they're not. um, you're right Public Service Announcement If you have listings, you should Market them all right? please continue and leave capture on them like don't just post the vote you know. Anyway, like they have to register for my website to see the photos which on Facebook my friends will do. um the other thing that I would say is really overlooked and I also um, saw a post about this recently about LinkedIn yeah and because I do sell probate and I do work with attorneys I'm very focused on the professional networks that operate and live and breathe as a professional network, not just a social network and one of the simplest, most basic things you can do to convert would be to take a KCM feed. Keeping current matters, take their blog post, link it up to your LinkedIn We use something called socialpilot to do that, but you can use any you know social media um back-end Gadget thing that's a technical term and okay, yeah. and um so we have that um on an RSS feed to LinkedIn so I am consistently posting to LinkedIn and I don't have to think about it and it's always Market relevant and all I do is once a week I go back in I probably should do this more frequently actually, but I just go once a week and I go back in and I respond to all the comments because everybody has commented on those blog posts and they're usually attorneys that I get business from. um and occasionally there'll be someone outside of my network that I have no idea who they are. um so I'll reach out to those people too and they've usually posted like a contrary Point um that like they're looking for an argument usually. yeah, but I love those. we call that a troll. keep going. Yeah yeah well they're not so much troll like I mean yes they are, but they're real. they're really just trying to play Devil's Advocate and I actually you get engagement off that so I like it, you do. It's funny they're that's becoming more and more thing on the internet and especially as the real estate market is adjusting, it's becoming a far more controversial topic. And so I think there's something to be said here to anybody who's dealing with um, naysayers or people who disagree with them and they disagree in kind of a mean way. I think it's important to ABS no not I think I know it is Mission critical to choose to respond in a loving professional way if you choose to respond at all. So I do think it's important for anybody watching, you should Define Now your principles for what happens if you get people in your feeds who are commenting in a way that is aggressive like for me: I have a policy that says if people use profanity or or hate speech or something like that I delete their comments if they're expressing their point of view and I don't like it I'm not going to delete it I may not respond to it necessarily because I don't crawl into the spider's web in social media land. However I think what's important is that you need to Define for yourself and your business. How am I going to represent myself? Because all those comments, you have a good chance that the other people who commented are going to see that somebody else commented and they're going to come and see how you reacted and handle that situation. And so I think just being prepared is wise. They absolutely do. And I usually respond with like thank you for sharing your viewpoint and with data. So I'll always be like here's some additional information you can check out. Yeah, I was I was talking with an agent the other day. we were discussing this exact matter and he responded with love in a very kind of matter-of-fact way and said um, the guy lived in a different market and he said the information I'm providing is really specific to where I live, where are you based and what Market are you in and the guy told him in the comments thread. He then replied and said well I could connect you with a local agent who I know personally and they can give you a feel for that market. So they connected him and he did a referral and he got paid on a referral because he turned you know a positive a negative into a positive. Why? Because he was a consummate professional and it worked so anyway well and I think that's one other piece that I didn't touch on earlier. but um I am also getting a lot more agent to agent referrals and I would dial that in directly to Reels Um I think that reels give you exposure like my friends are gonna watch my stories right? but the reels are being pushed out further and so when you are a realtor and you follow a bunch of Realtors other Realtors are going to see your stuff and so that has actually I mean I can pinpoint Direct business and I have a few co-lists right now actually with people in the ecosystem. Um, so and in fact One agent in the ecosystem I even helped her buy her own personal residence. so um, all across Southern California and so I think actually reels implementing reels even though I'm not doing it well and I'm not doing it perfectly and they don't all have the pretty thumbnail and some of them get 200 views, but some of them have gotten 7 000 views. Um, that is resulting in agent to agent business and I and I'm here for it I Love it well and I think that it's twofold. The reels have been effective in terms of attracting new eyeballs and new attention. but I think your best practices of I like to see who's engaging with my stories I DM them I comment back I comment on their stuff I tag them I Network socially on social networks I Think that's where you start to really harvest the opportunity from those new relationships that you're forming. That's where again, it's the two things you keep talking about. It's I've got to make content but I also have to participate in the conversation because you're not going to just turn into a social media star without doing that and you have to remind yourself what am I doing this for And it seems like you're super clear on why are you doing this well because I want to be known and liked and trusted in my local Marketplace in my sphere right? Okay, now. Oh, go ahead, go ahead. No, it's okay now. I'm on like a cliffhanger. What? I want to know what? Well I was just gonna add I think um, there's a lot of like in thinking about the algorithm right? Like you have to lean into the algorithms like for example I just had a birthday happy birthday I have in the past donated my birthday to a Cause right? You can do that on Facebook and when you do that, um Facebook will show that to everybody on your behalf. um and I've tested that if you just post a link. it's not the same that's doing it through the way that you want. you know Facebook wants you to do it. Yeah, yeah. so I Recently today actually this morning saw that a realtor had donated his birthday to like a housing cause right? So um, there's ways to lean into the algorithm that will remind people that you're a realtor. It's that guy's birthday, but he when people go to see on Facebook that it's his birthday, they're gonna see that he wants to support a housing cause. And he he's reminding everyone on his birthday that he's a realtor and I do things like that too. Yeah, it's funny you bring that up. I was doing a I was on a group coaching session few weeks ago And Mark Davidson was leading the call for us and Mark Davidson is the co-founder of Thousand One and he's just like the most knowledgeable guy I've ever listened to on what is brand and he made a couple of statements and he said what can agents learn about brands Well, he said brands have a larger than life personality that was one of the data points but then he said this other thing and I'm going off memory right now but he said something to the effect of a strong brand is aligned with and attached to a belief that is bigger than it than what the brand is itself and so it attracts people who are like-minded and they subscribe to the same world view and the same principles and so like to your point. something as simple as this other realtor is donating to Charities because I would assume he believes in the charity first and foremost because he's passionate about what he does in the context of housing, but it also is a reminder of wow. This guy really believes in what he does and people have an opportunity then to subscribe to a belief that's bigger than just buying and selling houses. It's a belief that goes into what is home and what does it mean for people and families all over the world and how important it is just to our Humanity So I love that idea I think that's that's building a brand that attracts business of people who are like I align with that belief. it's a great share. It's a great chair. Yeah all right now. When we were chatting ahead of time, just before we turned the recording on, uh, you talked about how the market is. obviously it is and has been adjusting. We know that. um, and with that adjustment, there's been a lot of commentary. good commentary saying it's time to get back to the basics. We hear things like it's a normal market right now. Um, it's not like a collapsing crashing Market but it's normal and it's a skills-based market. But we keep hearing this. it's important to get back to the basics. but you just you said something differently. Like about the basics where I think a lot of Agents might assume back to the basics means whatever I've been doing, stop doing that and go back to I Don't know the boring stuff we used to do before social media and all that I would love to hear your spin or rather I would love to have you give your spend on that idea to everybody listening and watching. So I have so many things to say about that. So um, let me see if I can boil it down. let's do it. Um I think I would start with actually right where we left off about the example of the birthday. So because I just recently experienced this I Do a lot of network marketing and I would say people Define the basics as like phone calls Direct Mail You know, like all all of those things, right? I do a lot of network marketing and for me that that falls into the basics category. So with the example of the birthday, um, you have to think about how and how an algorithm online is similar to an algorithm in real life, right? You have like life events, right? People have children, they get married, they move houses, they you know there's all kinds of things. they have birthdays. So I recently had an opportunity to attend one of my networking meetings on my birthday and my friends were like oh, you're good, you're not taking the day off and my response to them basically was this is free marketing. Everyone's gonna wish me a happy birthday at this networking meeting and I don't have to pay anyone for a sponsorship like which I know is a little ridiculous. No, but it's a little smart. Yeah, it was and it worked exactly how I thought it would and in fact even the media. The people running the meeting announced my birthday at the meeting which you know I had no control over that. were Were you able to say like if they ask you what you want for your birthday, were you able to say like referrals I mean basically that was like the joke at the you know of the day. Um so I would say when you're thinking about Back to Basics like people are in a controversial or not people would say postcovid, some people would not I live in L.A County But um, as people pick up their lives again, I would say you have to celebrate those moments however big and small they are and that's where you have an opportunity. whatever that basic is. Whether it's a text, a card you send in the mail, whatever it is like, that's what you have to mark. and when you do that people feel like you're thinking about them. It's the same thing like um I do a lot with um Brownies.com I have everyone. it's very Glenda Baker-ish I You know she sends cupcakes I send brownies and um, then you're getting like extra bumps out of that, right? You're getting. um, the the client is super happy because you've remembered their birthday or their anniversary or whatever it is or that their child had some huge accomplishment. whatever that might be. But then because we live in the social media world, they're going to share it on Instagram or Facebook or whatever it is and be like thanks to my amazing friend and or realtor. or even if they don't say that your logo is there so you're getting the extra benefits out of it. So yeah, and I just also that fits in with my personality I Think you have to know yourself, right? So I really like gifting and I enjoy it and I like figuring out what's not just brownies.com because I do have that on autopilot but I like figuring out what is going to be an amazing gift for somebody. Um, so I don't think the basics have to be boring I think you can tie them into things that people genuinely care about and I would also say for me like I mean there's another piece to that too where we do a lot of client events and I think um, one of the things I don't even know if this would fit under Back to Basics but one of the things I did want to touch on with you was business to Consumer versus business to business and I think that does fall under Back to Basics because you have to look at who you're targeting in your business. Um, and a lot of times what is working for me and converting is same thing with networking is client events. but I'm not just doing the regular client event where somebody will I don't know, rent out a movie theater or you know there's nothing wrong with those events. but I'm creating strategic Partnerships So I'm not co-hosting that or I'm not hosting that event by myself I'm co-hosting it. so I'm creating Partnerships So for me in my probate business that looks like an attorney, a CPA a financial planner, an elder care person, home care you know all of those things that fit within that, um, within my farm? that might be the local restaurant, the local ice cream shop? Um, maybe a local attorney or other, you know? I Don't know, like my facialist, different business owners that you want to share clients with. They share the cost, they share the marketing, and then you're sharing clients all around, right? So they're getting exposed to your clients and you're getting exposed to their clients. and that's how you grow your client base. So while that's basic, it's expanding it a bit. Yeah, and I think that the idea here is at the end of the day, real estate is and always has been and will remain a relationship business and so whatever tactics and strategies you deploy as part of your sales and marketing plan. whatever it is Basics or not, it boils down to are you fostering relationships that can be done online offline, but when it's done through multiple channels I think that's really when you get like this heavy concentration of you are their agent of choice and I think you've done a remarkable job and I think today I found to be a refreshing conversation because I think it puts social media in a good context where there's no wrong way to generate business. and so Tom Ferry says I mean you know there is. but I think everybody knows what I'm talking about. Just do it legally. but there's so many different options Under the Umbrella of sales and marketing techniques that could be part of how you generate business. There's no wrong way to do it. It doesn't have to be a way that you don't want it to be, It should be true to who you are as a person. which I think you're doing a great job of that. and I think the way that you're reminding us that Instagram Facebook LinkedIn all the different social platforms, they're still social networks and if you're focused on absolutely loving on and creating value for the current followers you've got and being connected with them and Community with them, then you're set up to position your business for more referrals. We think way too much that social media has to be about getting social media famous or it's not working and that's just the wrong. Mo The right approach is to treat it like a social network and position yourself to win in your business, which you're doing an amazing job. Thank you so much for coming on today! I Think that a lot of people will refreshed by what you had to say and they took away a lot of value from your comments. So thank you so much! Thank you Thanks for having me! Hey thanks so much for watching this week in marketing! Today's interview was a blast I took away a lot of insight. If you enjoyed the conversation, it would mean a ton to us. If you could give us a thumbs up on YouTube If you could like And subscribe to the channel That would mean a lot and help us algorithmically find and reach more people to add value to their lives and businesses. And by the way, we'd love to hear from you. Just drop a comment, what are you thinking about, what are you doing To get back to the basics.