Social media is the perfect medium for sharing information, exchanging meaningful dialogue and circulating a little self-promotion.
The last of these three activities can be difficult to master; how can you break through the noise, be original, be relatable and properly toe the line between admirable confidence and downright arrogance?
Some social media influencers turned to humblebragging, a self-deprecating tactic that’s meant to show off without really showing off. Unfortunately, that tactic sometimes fails and garners some well-deserved criticism from fellow social media users.
But what if you were different? What if you could humblebrag in a way that is not only humorous, but actually delivers results?
In his latest video, “Worst Real Estate Agent Yelp Reviews,” Alex Wang does just that.
A little levity goes a long way
In the video, five actors are told they’ll be reading one of the worst real estate agent Yelp reviews, and then they are handed a piece of paper to begin their impassioned rant.
“Remember the adage, ‘you get what you pay for?'” asks the first actor with a bit of annoyance in his voice. “After our experience with Alex Wang, I would have to say this holds true.”
The negative undertone is palpable at this point, but the actors soon begin struggling to preserve the angry customer persona they were told to embody. By the end, they (and the viewer) realize this isn’t a bad review at all — it’s actually one that anyone would be elated to share:
“In short, Alex is a bad … ass agent …,” one actor reads, confused.
“Very intelligent … experienced and balanced and a harmonious person to deal with …,” the next puzzled reviewer says.
“You have a home you want to sell at top-dollar? Call this man,” reads one actor with a bumfuzzled face.
“We are very happy to have worked with him to sell our house and to now think of him as a friend,” says another, submissively realizing the review wasn’t meant to be bad at all.
“Not how I thought that would go …” says the last actor.
The importance of humble self-promotion
Alex Wang says self-promotion is an integral part of the real estate business. He says it’s how you build your clientele, your fan base and overall brand and persona online.
“How do you promote that to your clients, your fan base or the general public in a way that’s not humblebragging?” Wang asks intently.
That question led Wang and a friend to begin searching for a way to do just that, and they looked at Jimmy Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets” series for inspiration for the video.
“Don’t get me wrong — my video is humblebragging,” he says.
But Wang says the difference is that he’s letting a client speak for him through a review and it’s done in a slick and humorous way. Last, but not least, he has the results to back it up.
“This business is all about self-promotion and trying to be — and show — you’re number one, and I think that it gets so noisy,” he says. “I don’t know how many people that I’ve heard stopped following people who are real estate agents because they just talked about themselves and what they did rather than focusing on what other people are saying or doing.”
Wang says agents have to remind themselves that potential clients are starting their homebuying journey online, and that they’re looking for “social proof” before making that first phone call.
“They’re going online and googling you and learning more about you before they make a decision,” he says.
Wang believes providing excellent customer service, having a solid online presence and properly executing a little humblebragging can certainly turn the tide in your favor.