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At every industry conference for about the last 15 years, there’s the obligatory social media panel. But, there’s a reason for that, panelists at Inman On Tour Miami argued.
“Social media has evolved and is what catapults a lot of people to success,” moderator Katie Kossev of Side said.
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The session’s three panelists — Angel Nicolas of Compass, Tiffany McQuaid of SERHANT. and Jonathan Vega of One Sotheby’s International Realty — have all developed social media presences over the years that have helped them garner business. And their different approaches to the marketing tactic show that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to finding success through social media.
Nicolas started out by hiring a few different companies to help him with his social media presence, but ended up moving the work in-house to his team because “the equality wasn’t there.”
Meanwhile, McQuaid said she has always managed her social media presence herself, “and it’s mostly not real estate-related.” She draws on whatever she’s thinking about at that time, with a focus on authenticity and being true to herself, and it helps draw like-minded clients into her sphere.
“What a difference it makes when you’re walking into a listing appointment or a buyer walks into the office specifically to meet you because they follow you,” McQuaid said. “Talk about skipping steps in terms of engagement and conversion and standing out over your competition. Content to creation to conversion — aren’t those the three C’s that we’re all after?”
Vega also has a team in-house that manages his social media presence for him while he acts as “the brains.” But when he first launched his real estate career, Vega said he hired someone to film him for about $15 per hour, and then he would edit the videos himself.
But he realizes that not everyone, especially new agents, has the resources to hire out someone else to handle their social media, so he said, “It’s just getting your phone out and recording as much as you can, and figuring out as you go.” Today, agents can also use AI tools to help edit content for social media for free, he added.
Posting about listings or the market are all fine ideas, but it’s important to provide value for your followers about topics unrelated to real estate, too, panelists said.
“When you’re on social media for a long time, there’s only so much you can post of sharing properties, and I think there comes a time — and you start to feel it — when you need to evolve out of that space and into that authentic space and sharing who you are,” McQuaid said.
It can be hard to watch oneself on social media, Kossev pointed out, but it’s important to get past that in order to share yourself with followers.
Nicolas said that when he first started posting videos of himself, he “almost threw up” watching himself. His wife also pointed out how much his accent came through, which made him self-conscious. But he learned not to worry about his accent so much, because it’s part of who he is.
“I’m like, ‘I’m from the Dominican Republic; what do you want me to do?'” Nicolas joked with his wife after cringing during one of his early videos. “But I will post it anyway, and I think that creates relatability, right? People can relate to that, and for me, it was from the beginning, I want to be genuine. I want to be myself and, love it or hate it, if people are going to connect with my vibration, that’s what matters the most.”
It’s important to learn how to connect with your specific audience and find a platform that works for you, panelists urged the Inman On Tour audience.
“You gotta find what works for you, and the only way to do that is trial and error,” Vega said. “You have to try the different platforms and figure it out.”
Vega was stuck at about 500 YouTube followers for what seemed like forever, he said, but after a lot of fine-tuning and refining his content, those followers ultimately grew to the more than 28,000 he has today on YouTube. He urged agents to post consistently and post about their personal lives.
Vega shared that he recently posted a video of himself showing a penthouse in Brooklyn to his grandfather, who had never been in a penthouse before, and “it’s gotten the most engagement that I’ve had.” He said he originally made the video to have it to show to his own kids someday, but it has the added benefit of performing well for his business, too.
“That’s what we’re all doing this for, is family, and for our lives,” Vega said, “so I think if people feel like they can relate to you through social media, then they’ll want to reach out to you.”
