Social Media Marketing Conversion: You Are Permitted To Get Paid

by Brian Brady

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

“Screwing around on social networks is fun but it isn’t gonna get me paid !”

Say it ain’t so, Joe !  I addressed this topic in my “Ninja Social Media Marketing” session at Unchained Orlando.  I’ll lay it all out in Phoenix, this May.  The truth is that a disciplined plan for social media participation...WITH THE IDEA OF CONVERSION in mind, can be very profitable.

The best advice I can give participants is to treat the social media platforms like a wedding reception.  You would never push your business card on some unsuspecting schlub at your cousin’s wedding but you better be prepared to answer the question, “Where’s the market headed?” if asked.

What is your ultimate goal from your social media marketing?  Conversion. Jeff Turner gives us a nice starting point with this quote from his panel at the NAR Convention:

Your overall business goal of social networking should be to expand your sphere and move conversations offline, panelists said. “There’s always going to be need for face-to-face communication in real estate,” Turner said. “Find a way to marry the two worlds.”

I’ll take it one step farther…  I know the way to marry those two worlds.  Pick up the damned phone ! In this world of hi-tech toys, the single best device you own is a real-time voice interaction tool (READ: telephone).

If you connect with someone on a social platform, you’ve exercised the second pillar of social media marketing; declaration of identity.  While that can be beneficial as a standalone virtue, the hidden gold is not your new found social network contact, its buried in his contact list.  In a world dominated by legislation designed to prevent you from cold-calling people during dinner, you must think creatively to build up a potential client list.  Social media represents the single best way to operate within the current business unfriendly environment.  Jump from the second to the fifth pillar as quickly as possible.

Remembering the wedding reception analogy, your initial call should be designed to point out a common interest and give you a chance to introduce yourself and your business.  If someone has befriended you on the social platform, they saw something in your profile that piqued their interest.  It could be as simple as a pretty smile or as complex as a shared political philosophy but that interest is your starting point and you can build upon that.

People who disagree with me will claim that “it’s all about the conversation online”  It’s all about the conversation OFFLINE.  That’s where the belly-to-belly salesmanship happens and money gets exchanged.  I’ll share some of my war stories with you:

1- I met two former Marine captains on Facebook.  Today, they’re hustling real estate deals in San Diego County.  While searching for the keyword “REALTOR”, one of their profiles caught my attention.  I figured that two Naval Academy graduates (and Iraq war veterans) probably had a pretty good work ethic. I requested to befriend them with a polite note (Facebook allows for a brief message with the connection request).  That connection resulted in a meeting which has turned into $2 million in fundings over the past four months.

2- I make it a point to check LinkedIn and Facebook for all loan applicants and I add them.  While I had to decline a LinkedIn connection for a loan in 2005, he has been the source of three loan fundings, from personal referrals, with $15,000 in GCI since then.  40 folks like him puts me at $200,000 GCI EXTRA, each and every year.

3- MLS on Myspace seems like a juvenile approach to social networking today.  In 2006, it was the source of over $50,000 in GCI.  Today, that number has dwindled with the efficacy of Myspace but the contacts I’ve made from that simple idea have been fruitful as we’ve all grown up and away from that game-changing network.

4- A testimonial on LinkedIn resulted in a second generation contact introduction.  The addition to the Facebook friends list allowed me to retain “top of mind status” and resulted in a closed loan, three years AFTER the connection and answered question.

5- Finally, in what is my favorite social media contact, a single mother queried about homeownership over 13 months ago.  Our connection on Facebook afforded her the casual question about mortgage finance, throughout the year, that resulted in her confidence to purchase a home for her and her daughter.  That relationship was nourished with comments on her status bar, a few phone calls (my number is right on my Facebook page), and the sporadic Facebook IM conversations to alleviate her fear of homeownership.  She closes at the end of this month.

Connect online and cement the relationship offline. Here are some tips to help you:

1- Upload your Outlook address book to all of your social networks.  Redundancy is not bad manners, it’s a desired result.  You want them to see your face every time they log in.

2- If you’re on Facebook, use the status bar to communicate what’s going on in your life but, more importantly, look and “listen” to the wonderful things happening in your contacts’ lives.  I logged in to FB this weekend and discovered, to my horror, that one of my “friends” was “enjoying her nice new home in Rancho Bernardo”.  I didn’t make the phone call and it cost me money.

3- Participate in the LinkedIn Q&A function.  You can “listen” to the questions being asked in various “channels” or initiate one yourself.  Want a simple suggestion?  Ask the LinkedIn network “Does anyone think home prices have bottomed in the (Your City) real estate market? ”  Be prepared to host a spirited debate from VERY smart people.  Then…call everyone who replied.  They don’t have their phone number on their LinkedIn profile?  Google them.

4- Do you want to do business with more people like your last client?   I closed a loan for a chiropractor earlier this year.  I had a blast doing her loan and realized that I’m pretty good at deciphering 1040 forms.  I googled her colleagues and found a gaggle of social media-crazed chiropractors.  Let’s see if we have something in common…  I’m good at funding loans for chiropractors and I love using social media.  Point, click, dial, and “Hello, Dr Smith?  I’m Brian Brady.  You’re gonna love telling the story about how we met.”

5- Do you find your connecting well with a particular immigrant/ethnic group?  Search that group in the “forums” and look for housing discussions. (Geno or Tom, I just found you a potential customer-click the link)

6- Finally, look for like-minded people.  Check out meetup.com for a hobby group.  This is a great way to interact offline with people whom you connected online.  This can be a very unassuming approach to meeting new people and I recommend meetup.com for everyone.  In addition to meeting new people, you might lose some weight or rekindle that loving feeling along the way.

The old saw about working smarter not harder applies when looking to convert social media contacts into customers.  You can Tweet eight hours a day and you WILL find customers.  That, however, is akin to standing in front of the 7-11 and handing out your business cards; both will get you results if you do it consistently.   I choose a more focused (and profitable) approach to social media marketing.

Today being Veterans’ Day, I’ll paraphrase a quote from the late, salty submariner, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover:

If you want to sink an aircraft carrier, you don’t surface from afar; you surface inside the carrier’s battle group and fire upon it.

Online conversations are great but we want to fire our torpedoes with alacrity when opportunities manifest on social media.   In closing, another great Rickover quote:

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience. Once implemented they can be easily overturned or subverted through apathy or lack of follow-up, so a continuous effort is required.

Be courageously impatient in your continued effort on social media.  Adhere to the “wedding reception rule” about behavior but always remain courageously impatient.  This disciplined, results-oriented focus will reap quick rewards to the committed.

Happy Hunting!