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In this day and age you’re MISSING OUT if you’re not marketing yourself on social media. Today on RealtyHack we have social media influencer and Spyglass Realty agent, Cindy Garcia, joining us to tell us her story and offer us a few tips along the way on how you can break into social media marketing yourself!
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To listen to more of our podcast episodes, visit The #RealtyHack Podcast Page. The #RealtyHack Podcast is also available on YouTube and your favorite podcast directories.
How do you sell real estate through social media? We’re here with Cindy Garcia with Spyglass Realty. Cindy started with us on the WIRE team for a year with Isabel Affinito before coming over to the indy part of it. Cindy has a unique journey and is now killing it with social media.Â
Table of Contents
About Cindy
Cindy owned a business in California where she did lashes and microbladed brows. She didn’t want to share a portfolio on a website but needed to get more clients so she would use Instagram as her platform where she predominantly got all of her clients.
She brought her business to Austin and tried to make it work but it didn’t due to not being able to dedicate as much time as she was exploring a new city and doing all the school things so she started posting more of that on her Instagram account.
At one point Cindy had 12,000 followers which dropped after she had stopped posting about her business. When she came to Austin, she had 7,000-8,000 followers. Today, Cindy has over 10,000 followers on her Instagram account.
Learning Social Media Techniques
When it comes to learning the social media techniques, Cindy went to different courses and conferences that helped her a lot to know the importance of social media in your business because it was too tough to navigate. During that time, it wasn’t that big. Instagram didn’t have business profiled and ad targeting hence it was a little more organic.
Social Media for Real Estate Agents
Cindy keeps the balance between posting about homes and local events and food. 50% of her followers are buyers or sellers while 50% are people that are there to know more about local events and places to be in Austin.
Cindy is getting business from both Instagram and TikTok. She did another training that helped her get more information out there because she didn’t have enough call to action on where or how people can get in touch with her.
Today, she encourages people to DM her for more information. People will ask her where it’s located and getting into that conversation or deciding to say something small can turn into a phone call, a coffee conversation, which can turn into a saleable home.
Some of the people Cindy talked to are a little skeptical about the home buying process and didn’t want to give information right away, so they remain friends on social media and would meet once for coffee and become a client.
Social Media Planning
When it comes to navigating and planning her posts, Cindy mentions that she has a content day if she’s showing houses and would take quick videos.
You wouldn’t want to be on your phone and posting while showing because you really want that time to be dedicated to your client, she says. But if they’re upstairs and you’re in the kitchen, you can quickly record the kitchen and post it on.
If there’s a really amazing listing in the brokerage, Cindy would shoot some content and share it where a buyer may like it or not or would suggest something similar to the post.
Advice for Realtors on Social Media
Cindy says that social media is not overwhelming, the unknown is. If you don’t know or have no knowledge of something, it does get tedious and difficult and you don’t know what to do or how to start. It’s just practice and practice makes perfect. Cindy advises taking 30 minutes a day to learn a certain thing and then go from there to post whether it be stories or pictures. That’s a start.
As you begin learning the process, that’s great. Cindy thinks that leaving your social media empty or not utilizing the platform is a very big disadvantage. People would look you up on Google, see your reviews and check out your social media only to find out there are only three photos in there. Put a face on the name for people to trust your enough for them to potentially buy from you.
Growing Your Social Media Accounts
Cindy tried a technique in the past to grow her social media account where she would follow a whole bunch of people that she thought may be able to do business with at one point when she was in the beauty industry.
She said that she would do that more now since it’s more relevant, but mostly with businesses, and follow other people that she had conversations with or has found interesting. Not everyone because it might scare them.
Try not to focus much on the algorithm because it changes like every day, says Cindy, she does think that there’s a thing where you don’t want to follow too many people as well.
Instagram Reels
75% of everything Cindy posts are reels. Before Instagram announced that they were a video platform, most people that have contacted Cindy about real estate would say that they liked the videos she shot.
She would then shoot more videos, and while pictures can get the depth and perception of a home without a video. During COVID, she felt like there were more people that wanted to do Zoom calls or video conferencing to purchase a home so she got used to that.
Social Media Business Profile
Cindy used to have a creator profile but was switched to business. It was because she tried to post something and they said that she should be a business profile that connected both her Facebook and Instagram.
People want to get to know the personal side of you and showing that personality of who you are is going to separate you from all the other Realtors and brokers out there.
TikTok for Real Estate Agents
TikTok is crazy and it’s definitely Instagram when it was just iPhone users and you can build your following in a day. It’s easy to capture your audience on TikTok because it’s a storytelling app. What Cindy has noticed if you’re telling a long story, you want to click on the next video, watch the next video, and listen to the entire story.
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It’s gravitational and people find themselves on there for a couple of hours at a time. Some of her content is repurposed and uploaded to her TikTok account. If you’re a Realtor and not making content for TikTok or not using your Instagram content and putting it into TikTok, then you’re making a mistake.
Cindy is also getting leads from TikTok and has closed one of her buyers that came from TikTok when she posted about California and Texas.
Using BombBomb Videos for Real Estate
Before joining the WIRE team, Cindy didn’t do BombBomb videos and didn’t really think of doing BombBomb videos. Now, when she gets a lead, Cindy will create one and more, it’s because they are more responsive and people find it more personal and they appreciate something that isn’t written out in an email or a templated response.
Hashtags for Agents
Cindy uses a ton of hashtags and rotates them. She doesn’t use the same some because you never know what can change. Hashtags are important and if you don’t use hashtags, that’s definitely an issue.
Takeaway
Ramp it up and get committed. Post more posts at least three or four times a day. People are going to be aware that you’re there and that will boost your social presence alone.
Connect with Cindy
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