Presenting with Risa Hoag at Keller Williams

On Thursday, I started my day co-presenting to a room full of realtors with my friend & fellow RBWN board member Risa Hoag of GMG PR. Risa spoke about LinkedIn, followed by my presentation on best practices for the other social media platforms.

Risa's intro, in case you're not aware of her:

Risa's first point was that LinkedIn is NOT a social media tool; it is a showcase for you and your brand, an in-depth research tool, and a lead definer and generator.

With a live computer demo, Risa explained how to make yourself valuable and findable on LinkedIn by creating a robust profile, showcasing your business and expertise, and utilizing your profile as a "living" resume; instead of simply stating where you've worked, you can add skills, testimonials, even media. 

Risa then went into how to use this valuable tool to generate business by building engagement, finding leads, and making "warm" contacts - a familiarity that can be created by leveraging information you've uncovered via your prospect's LinkedIn profile. Did you go to the same school, sit on the same board, or share a common hobby? Bam - you've just turned a cold-call into a warm contact. 

Risa wrapped up with a series of best practices for LinkedIn (click to tweet):

Here's my own lovely intro:

I started my segment of the presentation with something clients always ask me about: which social media platforms to bother with. There is a misconception out there that you need to be everywhere, which puts undue pressure on busy professionals who are already daunted by social media. I walked through some pros and cons of different platforms.

Scroll through my tips below (click to tweet):

Next, I discussed the importance of setting up all profiles as completely as possible.

Once you've got your profiles set up, what do you do with them? I went through some of the basics of social media content strategy. This included some basic branding questions, as well as more platform-specific tips.

Next, I discussed what's been on everyone's mind with social media lately: what is "the algorithm," and why does it mean nobody sees my posts? I explained that you need to not just broadcast content for passive consumption, but rather engage and add value to your audience's feed.

Since one of the most important - and misunderstood! - pieces of content strategy lately is video, I provided several ideas for how realtors can effectively use video as part of their social media posting.

Finally, I ended with a brief overview of how to create targeted ads on social media that provide more bang for the buck. A key part of this, and my most important takeaway: use Ads Manager on Facebook & Instagram - don't boost! Boosting damages your organic reach, and doesn't give you nearly enough audience targeting power. Ads Manager is one of the best tools out there; use it!

Thanks so much to Keller Williams Realty and Citizens Bank for having us in to do this presentation. We look forward to presenting to the Westchester office next!

If you're a realtor (or any type of company, really!) and would like us to bring this presentation to you, please do get in touch.

My favorite insights from #SMDay

I was all psyched to celebrate #SocialMediaDay (yes, internet holidays always get a hashtag) this year - and was shocked to discover only ONE #SMDay meetup planned for NYC! The Content Funnel is primarily real-estate based, so I wasn't sure if this particular event would be super-relevant to me... but with speakers from Seamless/Grubhub, Boxed, Comedy Central & more, I decided to go for it. I had a phenomenal time, learned a ton, and even got to record a surprise pop-up episode of Social with the CEO of The Content Funnel, Michael Beckerman!

As usual, I Tweeted... as usual, I'll be sharing my Storify threads in blog posts all week. Check out my episode of Social here, and see below for a collection of my favorite random tweets. Threads of the full presentations will be released one per day throughout the week.

7/3: Be Like Zack Morris: Using the power of storytelling to sell via social media

7/4: Disrupting an utterly boring category: A look into how Boxed is changing the way toilet paper is bought

7/5: Planning for change. Why the “annual” plan needs to be interrupted

7/6: Integrating online customer feedback with offline customer experiences

Posting 7/7: Getting Smarter On Social: A “how-to” for social media analytics & insights

*Kate McKnight's presentation was great, but a) it was more of a journey through a process her company went through than something specifically relevant to my business, and b) I was super-distracted at that time since I was busily posting & promoting the livestream I had just recorded... but don't worry, you'll see way more of her insights on Thursday when I share my tweets from the whole presentation!

Surprise POP-UP Social episode at #SMDay

I didn't expect to do my livestream today. I had, in fact, announced that I was not doing it, since I'd be spending the day (Social Media Day, as it happens) at The Content Funnel's #SMDay Meetup in NYC. I figured all the live-tweeting I'd be doing would be plenty, and that perhaps I'd do a few short livestreams of the presentations.

And then I met Michael.

Michael is the founder and CEO of The Content Funnel, parent company The News Funnel, and a few other companies - and previously headed up leading real estate PR firm Beckerman PR. He gladly agreed to our livestreamed conversation, where we discussed content, blogging, influence, expertise - and of course the importance of personality, authenticity, and giving.

I also got him to give out some tips for my real estate peeps (you know who you are!), and even gave one of them a shoutout. Check it out below!