When it comes time to make a course correction in anything that we are doing, it can be a very disconcerting time. In the last episode, the course correction I announced must have seemed like an entire change of focus to many of you. I know that by the feedback I received via social media, especially in The Onion Juice Facebook Group. I get it. I didn't intend to discourage any of you, I wanted to give you a tip about where I see things going. In this episode, I'm trying to clear up the confusion and give you some tips about making the course corrections that fit where your tribe is in their social media journey.
The feedback I received from my last episode - the one where I changed my tune a little bit and said that I actually DO think there are some types of bad media - was nothing short of amazing. I had people telling me that I confused them, that their entire media approach was now in question, and one person said they were wrecked by what I had to say. That was not my intention at all. I'm sorry to have discouraged anyone. My goal was to point out that things we have done thus far in our media approach to our businesses - that may have been working at one point - often stop working as the media landscape changes. What do you do then? You make a course correction. If you don't, you will wind up wasting your efforts because less and less will come from them. So, in this episode, I'm making the attempt to get rid of the confusion by clarifying what I meant. I hope you'll take the time to listen.
When I first started applying the idea that I needed to be a media company that happened to sell real estate, I produced a game on Facebook called Mathweg Monday Trivia. It was a blast to do and I had a lot of fun getting to know people in my area - Madison Wisconsin. My sole focus was to build relationships with people, which happened in spades. I also happened to get 30 to 40 home sales per year from the connections I made through the game. But somewhere along the line, the momentum that came from that approach to media began to change. I had to make a course correction or else I would suffer diminishing returns. In this episode, I want to help you evaluate your media efforts in order to thoughtfully determine whether it's time for you to make a pivot.
Being a media company that happens to sell real estate is about being a leader to a very specific group of people, you might call them your tribe. They are people who see the world the same way you do, care about the things that you care about, and want to work with people who are generally like them. The point of being a media company that happens to sell real estate is not that you get to have fun creating social media stuff. The point is that you use media as a tool to connect with the people who uniquely resonate with you and your message. But before you get the cart before the horse, you need to find the horse - and that is the cause you will champion that will draw your tribe to you. I explain this a lot better in the audio of this episode so make sure you take the time to listen.
I fully expect that everyone who is striving to be a media company that happens to sell real estate will have to make changes in their media approach over time. Very few of us get our message and approach exactly right the first time. Even if we gained a lot of traction with our initial efforts we should still expect that we will have to pivot, at least in some ways, somewhere along the line in order to continue being effective. It's not only because we are always refining our message, it is because people in the world change as time goes on. If we don't change along with our culture and region we become the dinosaurs. Listen to this episode to learn what I've discovered about discovering the need for those kinds of impacting course corrections.
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On this episode I am going to say something and that you probably thought you would never hear me say. There is such a thing as bad media. As the social media landscape changes, our approach to social media has to change with it. In this episode, I am going to walk you through some of the changes I have made and why I think that the things I've done in the past won't actually have the same beneficial impact they had back when I first did them. It's a surprising episode that you won't want to miss, so be sure you guzzle the juice on this one.
I don't mean to throw anyone under the bus and the guys I'm going to talk about on this episode know that that's not what I'm doing. In fact, they agree with me entirely about the things I'm going to say. Here's the scoop: some of the agents I coach used to do a daily Facebook LIVE show that highlighted current issues. Their hope was that they would get exposure and find potential clients through those daily interactions. But it simply didn't work. It wasn't targeted enough and it wasn't aligned with a cause that would enable them to pull in a specific audience. One of those guys has now adjusted his approach to focus on Veterans and things are beginning to take off. Find out how you can make the tweaks to your media approach that will bring you greater success, on this episode.
Every real estate agent can serve every buyer or seller. That is the basic fact of the way the real estate industry works. But not every agent SHOULD be serving every buyer or seller. The reason is, there are people out there with specific needs and interests who are looking for someone with those interests in mind to be their agent. When you are able to center your media efforts around a certain type of buyer or seller and focus all of your media content on that specific demographic, you are able to build momentum like never before. Find out some of the ways that successful agents are making it happen. on this episode.
I first got the idea that being a media company that happens to sell real estate was the way to go when I began doing my Monday trivia game. I got tons of interaction with the game, it was a lot of fun for everyone involved, and I sold 30 to 40 houses per year from the leads I got interacting with people through the game. But I'm not certain that approach would work today. It's too broad and it doesn't focus on attracting a specific group of people. In this episode, I walk through some of the approaches I've seen work and why I've changed my focus to a very niche, specific type of customer - the trailing spouse.
If you have never heard episode 3 of this podcast I want you to go back and listen to it as soon as you stop listening to this episode. The Reason? In that episode, I talked about the importance of championing a cause and the concept is still at the foundation of everything I do when it comes to publishing media. When you publish media that is not focused around a cause, you are publishing what I consider to be bad media. It's media that is taking up lots of your time but not getting you anywhere because it doesn't attract the specific people you should be attracting. In this episode, I'm going to explain to you how you can avoid the bad media trap.
Our sponsors:
You can find my personal real estate coaching websitehere
And connect with me on ANY of the following social channels. I LOVE social!
On this episode, I talk to my friend and coworker Caleb Jahr about vlogging. Yes, I said vlogging. If you are unfamiliar, vlogging is a video blog. Caleb is one of those real estate agents who understands that being a media company that happens to sell real estate is a great way to build trust, be vulnerable and real and help people get to know you. Caleb talks about how he turned a discouraging piece of advice into a successful brand, and how vlogging can add value to your real estate business.
Sometimes the traditional approach is the right approach. In Caleb’s case, that is just the opposite. Soon after starting out as a real estate agent, Caleb approached a mentor to ask about how to sell real estate. His mentor, while well intended, offered that his vlog seemed scattered and made him vulnerable, and he was not sure how it was helping Caleb. This of course would be discouraging, so Caleb stopped vlogging...and the world waited in anticipation for him to publish more content. When he finally started publishing again, he got tons of positive feedback. I should know, I’m addicted to watching his stuff. Caleb’s vlog, which he publishes to a few times a week, documents what he is working on in a day, or life events, such as the birth of his new baby.
Caleb’s videos have not gone viral yet, but that does not discourage him. The reality is, if you are publishing content to youtube or facebook or Instagram, you may be one piece of content away from a breakthrough! You never know what video or picture or caption may speak to someone, who then shares it or likes it and launches your real estate business to new heights.
If you are thinking about starting a vlog to help you sell real estate, keep in mind the long game. On average, it takes 18 months of consistent content before your brand may gain momentum. Don’t get discouraged if you publish a video and only a few people like it initially. At some point, people will look back and see that you have a long history of pushing relevant content, and that will help you build even more credibility!
So, you want to start a vlog? Caleb Jahr is someone you should pay attention to in this space. He has even published a video that details the process of how to start a vlog! His advice to agents just starting out is to not overthink it. Nobody is automatically comfortable on camera, content does not have to be polished and perfect, people (usually) don’t yell at you for having a camera on all the time. He also said that when he first started, he did not publish consistently, and that may have hurt him a little. He recommends figuring out a schedule, then creating a theme or an overall story that you want to tell. In the post-editing, add some upbeat music and keep the video short. Check out his “how-to” video below!
Our sponsors:
You can find my personal real estate coaching websitehere
And connect with me on ANY of the following social channels. I LOVE social!
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