JOINING LOCAL GROUPS
While you're in the midst of growing your own group big enough to support your business, you can join local groups to help give your business a boost. We'll discuss the best marketing tactics in the following marketing modules, but let's ensure you get into as many as possible in the meantime. 100 was my magic number. Now if you can't find 100 groups in your area, that's okay, just join as many as you can. The more groups you are a part of, the bigger opportunity you have to get business.
-TYPES OF GROUPS TO JOIN-
Buy/Sell/Trade Groups
Groups By City Name
Groups By City Nicknames
Groups by Zip Codes
Groups by Counties
Niche Based Groups, i.e. Moms, Pets, etc.
Now once you've joined these groups, be mindful of the ones with strict rules. You don't want to step on toes and get booted, especially from the large groups that can give you a steady stream of clients. Some have particular days for business posts, some have a strict no ads rule, and for those, we'll talk about "non-ad" marketing techniques in the marketing modules.
Often times in the groups, buyers and sellers will make a request looking for an agent and you can jump on there to recommend yourself. You'll get more opportunities to get clients that way, the more groups you remain in. For the groups that do allow ads, be sure you don't end up spamming them. That'll be a quick way to get booted as well. I always limit ads to 2-4 weeks and use soft approaches on other days. Like getting on video to talk about the community and just throw in at the end what I do. Remember, if you focus on building relationships with the people in the group, you won't need to spam anyone. And spamming groups makes you look desperate for business, which is never a good look. You draw more bees with honey, so make your posts fun.
One thing real estate agents look over when it comes to using their business on social media is the being social part. They get so caught up on needing leads that they get too "business-y" for social media and people become annoyed with them. Real estate is a high ticket sale, which means it is one of the biggest relationship based businesses around. If you don't build those relationships, you'll be scrounging for business the rest of your career.
You can build relationships on these groups by being an active contributor. I dedicate about 10-15 minutes a day to the groups. Whether I'm standing in line, during lunch, etc. I jump on my phone and start interacting with members. When recommendations for local businesses are requested, I put in my recommendations. Or just answer random questions asked by members that I know the answer to.
It may seem like a small thing, but done consistently, it helps to make your name familiar and "safe" and your ads go a lot further in picking up leads. Start conversations with people as you would if it were your personal page. You want to get to know these people. If you are spamming groups instead of focusing on talking to people, you're doing social media wrong.
So join as close to 100 as possible. Remain active on a good mixture of them so people become familiar with you, and we'll get into marketing techniques that work the best for them in the marketing modules.