Today I want to talk about what it takes to be successful with your social media. Everyone I talk to is chasing this elusive metric called “success” – and honestly I don’t blame them. Social Media takes significant investment – not necessarily of money, but of time. From creating content to writing captions, keeping up with trends, engaging with your followers, reaching out to new accounts to build relationships – at the end of the day, you at least want to be successful with it.
But what does that even mean?
So many agents start their accounts with great intentions, but quickly fizzle out. Common excuses include, “It takes too much time” or “I’m just not creative enough” – but I’d like to challenge that. Is it perhaps a case of feeling that your effort isn’t good enough? If you feel like you aren’t seeing results, ask yourself this question: How will I know when I’ve been successful? What does that look like for me?
I encourage you to take these questions very seriously because it is really hard to succeed at something if you don’t know your definition of success. Even when you reach a milestone, you might still feel like a failure if you haven’t defined what your goals are. And THEN you might be tempted to give up or take a break – because nobody likes to sit in a feeling of failure.
To help you, here are some of my ideas for what success might look like, and how to pursue it for yourself.
#1 is FOLLOWERS. This is such a huge metric for most people, and maybe for you too – especially when you’re finally trying to use social media for business. You see another competitor who has 10X the number of followers you have, or MORE – and suddenly your brain starts telling you it’s impossible, you’re not good enough, smart enough, young, experienced, funny, creative enough – so you go back to what you know and are comfortable with. Which is great if your business is right where you want it to be – but you wouldn’t be looking for marketing tips if that were the case.
Here’s the thing – your brain LIES to you. It wants to keep you safe and comfortable, so it looks for evidence to support your decision to play things safe. It’s up to you to recognize that, stop playing small, and to step into a different mindset.
Do followers matter? Yes and no. 1000 highly engaged followers is absolutely better than 100 for your content to reach more people. But most large accounts have low engagement rates. I’ll cover reasons why in a later episode, but for now just know that engagement rate beats follower count all day, every day. This is the same for likes. Stop chasing likes now.
#2 – instead of basing social media success on likes and followers, try to remember why your business is on social in the first place. Are you there to brag about how many homes you’ve sold or are you there to make real connections with people and build know, like and trust? Imagine going to a neighborhood event. Are you there to show off your new Bentley or are you there to have a conversation with the renters who are nervous about entering the market right now? Personally, I’d rather be at a networking event of 100 people than 1000 people because then I have a better chance of facilitating the connection I’m looking for.
Reminder: social media is social. If you want to have conversations, you need to start them. Show interest in people by leaving genuine comments on their content or in their stories. Deepen the connection by privately messaging them about something you think they would find helpful. Do NOT jump straight to, “Oh, you’re moving? I’m a Realtor! I can help!” – they already know. If your bio is set up correctly (throwback to Episode #3) they also know who and how you help. Now is your chance to demonstrate your claim. If you claim to be a local expert, why not send contacts of awesome local movers or a handyman to help them do minor repairs?
I want you to consider that success on social media is best quantified AND qualified by how many authentic connections you make. Social media is a long-term investment, and requires commitment and true interest in connecting with and helping your audience. The greatest thing about it though is that as you focus on connections and conversations, after 6 months you’ll see that your new content is getting much more engagement – because as people get to know you, they will naturally want to support you and help you succeed!
So if you feel excited to get going on social, but want some guidance on where to start, let’s talk! Schedule a free 15-min consultation with me, and we will go over what you can do to set yourself up for long term success! Visit www.skyblue.media/marketing
