Sell or else — c21 on empowering agents & brokers w sm

Century 21 on Empowering Agents & Brokers withSocial Media

- by Phil Buehler @pwbuehler on November 15th, 2010.

Real estate agents and brokers have been some of the earliest adopters of social

media, which isn’t surprising that they’re entrepreneurs whose success is built on being

well connected in their communities. But for every agent engaged w ith Tw itter and

Foursquare, there are many more that have yet to take the plunge.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking w ith Mat t

Gent ile, Direct or of P.R. and Social Media for

Cent ury 21 Real Est at e (@mat t gent ile) about

how brokers and agents are using social media,

what they’ve been learning, and what he sees for

the future. With over 121,000 agents and more

than 8,000 independent offices, Century 21 has a

big challenge.

Phil Buehler: Can you t ell us about t he

evolut ion of social media at Cent ury 21?

Mat t Gent ile: I didn’t grow up w ith social media

in the 80’s, I grew up working in more of a

traditional public relations environment I was

trained to look at everything as a channel or way

to disseminate messages. Initially, I saw social

media as another means to send a corporate message, which I must admit, was

probably a fairly cynical way to look at social media in the beginning.

In 2005, I developed, what was at the time probably one of the first training manuals

for utilizing social media for real estate marketing and recruiting w ith the Director of

Training for the company I worked for at the time. It’s amazing to think about just how

new social media was at the time and how influential it would become as a

component of marketing. The guide leveraged LinkedIn for recruiting purposes for our

brokers. We encouraged our brokers and agents to create short videos that told a story

about a home they had listed and how to post a video on YouTube. To provide details

about their communities that consumers would be interested in. It was basic, but

innovative for the time.

What about using social media for market ing?

In terms of true customer outreach, through social media channels or developing an

audience, that wasn’t something that had been optimized when I came on board in

2008 as Director of PR and Social Media. In 2009, I began to focus on the question,

“Who is the audience that we should be targeting, instead of what channel are we

using to push messages.”

Today, the audience that we target specifically w ith social media is 25-35 year old

women. It makes sense for a number of reasons – they’re the fastest grow ing

demographic in terms of home ownership, and there’s a significant amount of influence

that this demographic has on the homeownership decision. I can tell you that because

the statistics back it up and because I’ve had the “real-life” experience to know that it

is true. We really felt like it was the right target.

Facebook is becoming t he hub of many market ers’ social media effort s - what

5 days ago

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g y

has Cent ury 21 been up t o t here?

In 2009, we mainly encouraged our brokers and agents to open a Facebook account

and reach back to their old sphere of influence. It’s an outstanding way to get in touch

w ith folks you haven’t been in touch w ith, for good or bad (laughing).

In 2010, we felt like this was a platform where we could really make a difference for

our franchisees and their agents. We’re now enabling brokers and agents to thrive in

this space. We developed and deployed a Facebook Home Buyer/Seller tab. It enables

our brokers in essence to create an environment w ithin their own company Facebook

fan pages, where home buyers and sellers can access the same information through

Facebook that they can get by visiting a Century 21 brokers’ Web sites.

So you’re creat ing some kind of infrast ruct ure or support for your agent s and

brokers…

It’s a branded, customized tab that brokers and agents can add to their own Facebook

company pages. First, we developed the buyer/seller tab for the Century 21 corporate

Facebook fan page, which is facebook.com/century21.

After we rolled this out, we started hearing from a lot of brokers, “that’s really great, I’d

like to have something like that on our Facebook”. So we developed the mechanics

and assets for our brokers to easily serve it up on their own Facebook pages. The first

adopter was a gentleman named Mike Bowman in Fort Worth, Texas, and you can see

his buyer/seller tab up and it links back to his company’s dot com.

We’ve been seeing t hat in many companies, t he sales people are way ahead of

t he syst em, get t ing out t here wit h Facebook or Twit t er on t heir own. Do you

have ot her people, brokers and agent s t hat are innovat ors, way out ahead of

t he rest ?

We have a lot of brokers and agents out there blogging and attempting to drive

business through social media. The one broker that comes to mind is a gentleman in

Tallahassee. He was one of the early adopters w ith blogging. He developed a

relationship w ith the major newspaper in Florida, and they asked him if he would blog

for them online. In essence he became the real estate blogger for the newspaper. He

now has over 100,000 followers on Tw itter and drives a third of his business via social

media marketing.

There are countless examples of Century 21 brokers and agents utilizing social media in

unique and innovative ways to market and sell homes. We’re currently working w ith our

business consultants and learning team to identify those brokers and agents so we

may highlight their best practices to the Century 21 System.

There are probably some agent s and brokers t hat feel t hey have social media

under cont rol, and t hen ot hers t hat probably feel lost …

I often hear, “Can I hire someone to do my social media?” There are companies and

service providers out there cropping up that are taking it in that direction. They’ll say,

“Yeah, I’ll post for you and I’ll tweet for you, I’ll do whatever it is that’s necessary to fill

that content void.” We feel this is another area where Century 21 has an opportunity to

create a differentiation point for our brand. We are able to provide our brokers w ith a

constant feed of content , so they can take what we’re doing in Tw itter and Facebook,

and easily apply it to their own social networks. Just like the old adage, location,

location, location in real estate, its content, content, content in social.

How are you get t ing t he larger Cent ury 21 communit y int o t his? For example,

at a convent ion where all your brokers and agent s are t oget her?

One idea we’re exploring is hosting a “Geek Squad” style tent area at our International

Convention in Las Vegas, where we w ill literally take 6 - 10 brokers and agents at a

time, get them set-up on Facebook, Tw itter and LinkedIn. We w ill provide them w ith

some basic instruction on how to use these networks and what the best practices are

26 days ago

@writemo @arifkhan7

@OgilvyOneBrasil @OgilvyCR

(Have a great Tuesday!)



for using each of these channels. In essence, getting the masses up to speed in the

social environment. For advanced users, our learning team w ill hold seminars and

break-out sessions to enhance already existing skills in how to optimize social media

for their business. We have seven (7) regional trainers that are out there providing similar

guidance on a regular basis throughout the U.S.

Are you dist ribut ing any of t hat by video, online, ot her places?

For social media, we’re working hand in hand w ith Dr. Christina Murphy, who leads our

award-w inning Learning Team, to develop a series of short video vignettes that offer

best practices for utilizing social media. These are 3-5 minute short video snippets that

give Century 21 brokers and agents a significant amount of content in a very small

w indow. For visual learners, I believe it’s ideal.

We feel it positions our brand as a more innovative company. Anything we can do to

enhance the perception of our brand w ith consumers, and folks that are potentially

interested in a career, is the direction we should be moving. We really feel that’s an area

where we can hit some home runs… not only in marketing, but also learning.

Do t he agent s and brokers say, “ I’ve got t o get int o social media,” or do t hey

act ually know t he benefit s and what t hey’ll get out of it ?

I think it’s incumbent upon us as organization to unearth the true benefits of social

media from a business perspective. That’s the kind of work we’re doing w ith our field

teams to solicit from the field best-in-class examples of how agents and brokers are

utilizing this media for actually developing and driving leads and ultimately contracting

business.

What would t he brokers and agent s say are t he big benefit s for t hem?

The most fundamental benefit is expanding your sphere. You have a network of people

that you’ve grown over the years, whether that be school, work or leisure activities,

that you’re able to connect in one place, whether it’s LinkedIn or Facebook, and they

have access to you. Instead of seeing them at the coffee shop or the hair salon, you’re

seeing them online on a more regular basis. I think the follow -up activity and constant

contact is where the fundamental advantage of social media lies for a sales

organization.

We’ve found t hat some of t he most socially connect ed people are real est at e

agent s. Are you seeing a st eep learning curve for t he rest ?

As an industry, we were probably a little bit late to the game, but once the benefits

were understood, I believe the industry jumped in w ith both feet. That’s where learning

comes in, we’re constantly driving home the fact that you don’t want to be the guy or

woman that walks into a party w ith a big sandw ich board on your front and back

screaming at people “I have a great 3/2 ranch for sale”, that’s essentially what you’re

doing when you’re spamming people w ith your listings in a social network. The goal is

to provide content of value and the relationships and customers w ill develop based on

that value. The “have to give a little, to get a little” mentality is very powerful in the

social space.

In t erms of met rics, when your management says, “what did you do for me

lat ely?” what do you t ell t hem?

We’ve kind of taken it a step further, this probably goes back to my traditional roots in

PR and tracking, to make sure you’re providing value at all times. The way we’ve

managed to do that is by using something called bit.ly Pro, which enables us to shorten

and customize all of our links to all of the content we’re putting out there. It can then

track a link from whatever distribution point we disseminate, whether that is Tw itter,

Facebook, LinkedIn, or even YouTube for that matter, and track it back, to not only our

.com, but all the way through the process funnel to completing an online contact form.

We also use Radian 6 to do all of our metrics. I know how many leads are generated

through the content that we’re putting out there.



How are you t rying t o empower t hese franchises or t he brokers and t he

agent s? Does t he organizat ion know how t hat ’s going?

We just deployed the first home buyer/seller tab on one of our broker’s facebook

pages, and as far as I know , no other real estate franchise company is providing that

degree of support in the social space. So, yes, we are definitely working to empower

Century 21 System professionals to better understand and optimize the cost effective

marketing power that social media offers.

Some sales organizat ions are st art ing t o make use of YouTube, almost

becoming t heir own cont ent providers or journalist s. Are any of your agent s

using video?

Some of them are using it on their own blogs and providing market updates. We’re not

enabling that necessarily from the corporate side. The types of solutions we’re looking

at for video have more to do w ith enabling the automated transition of still-frames of

homes, and converting them into video and mobile platforms. With broadband and

mobile becoming so w idely adopted, I believe video w ill become what online photos

were in the earlier part of this decade.

Is Cent ury 21 leading in t his social media area? Who else is part icipat ing?

We are holding our own, and leading in several categories. If you look at some of the

more “social savvy” real-estate brokerages, I think Better Homes and Gardens has made

a big push into that area. They have made social media a significant part of their brand

marketing. Coldwell Banker is doing some good things, they’ve recently rolled out a

blog. I think they’re appealing to their own audiences, but I don’t see any one real

estate brand building a significant audience in this space. I think that’s where Century

21 has taken a leadership role in identifying a very specific demographic and building

that audience.

Where do you t hink t his whole area will be in a few years? Will social media be

baked int o how real est at e is sold, or just a minor part of selling?

Given the rapid development of the types of media that you can generate in social

media today, I would anticipate significantly more complex and more robust social

media solutions to hit the market. Things that we’re seeing are easy to do, like Animoto

and Flip video cameras, and the editing that you can do now as an individual is

remarkably easy.

I think it’s a w ide open area. I would anticipate mobile playing a large part in the future

of real estate marketing, w ith FourSquare and location-based services innovating in the

space.

Please share your experiences wit h social selling - your concerns, challenges,

successes, met rics, and ot her lessons. We’d love t o hear from you.

Categories: Sales Interview Series, The Future of Selling

Tags: @mattgentile, @pwbuehler, Century 21, Ogilvy, OgilvyOne, Real Estate, Sell or Else,

Social Selling

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Phil,

Thank you for the opportunity. You are bringing a lot of great content contributors to

the surface with this blog.



Regards,

MG

Posted by Matt Gentile on November 15th, 2010.

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Sell or else — c21 on empowering agents & brokers w sm