| Lisa Hill, Florida REALTOR® discusses real estate agent photos and personal branding |
This morning as I was going through my e-mails that came in overnight, I found a couple of LinkedIn requests from some fellow Rainers. If you have LinkedIn, you know that as you accept new people into your network, it brings up other business associates that you may know, based on the fact that you have commonalities with them. So I usually add a few more people as the list comes up, and the page keeps refreshing.
So what does this have to do with a photo? Well, throughout the years, there has been some debate as to whether or not your personal image should be on your business card. (We won't EVEN discuss those whose image is so old there is no way on Earth that you would recognize them in person!) As I was scanning the list of names, there were many names on the LinkedIn recommendations that I didn't recognize. But the faces, I absolutely recognized as bloggers here on Active Rain! And I sent them invitations as well. (If you got a LinkedIn invitation today from a name you don't recognize, try looking at the face) ;-)
The bottom line is, (depending on your personality type) most people ARE visual in nature! And they recognize you by your face; not your name.
A few years back, when the market was booming, I advertised in a fantastic publication that brought me a LOT of business, and I had a few bus benches in town, with my face, and my copper-colored Infiniti FX45. The car was VERY recognizable, so I added it to all of my marketing materials, and even kept it for 5 full years, due to the recognition factor. And of course, I have some shirts with my name and personal logos on them. But more often than not, there were numerous times that people would approach me when I was in line in different stores... WalMart, Panera Breads, the AT&T store, Target, the Mall, even at church, and ask 
me if I was a REALTOR®, because they had seen my face on bus benches and in print publications.
How great is that!? The people were coming to me, and asking random questions, just because they recognized my face. And then there were all the people who would honk at me when I was driving down the road, because they recognized my car as well.
So I guess you know where I stand on the image subject. If you're going to call yourself a professional REALTOR®, then by all means, put your CURRENT image on your marketing materials! And I'm all for having a unique vehicle, with my logo imprinted across the back window too. It's not just one thing that will be the reason someone recognizes you, or chooses to do business with you. It's the commplete package.
I know that with Web 2.0 and social networking, we all have our focus on our internet marketing. But we need to be careful to not forget about the people who are around us in our everyday lives. In this economy, I know that many of us have cut back on our local marketing, since it's less costly to use our online resources. But how much business are we losing, when we're not doing enough to get our faces, and personal branding out there in front of the public, in addition to our internet marketing?
A while back, I had a plan to offer free real estate advice to people in my community, by having the community newsletter send out the message telling them when I would be at the clubhouse to answer questions. I never followed through with that thought. But with my new (again) revelation, I think I'm going to follow-through with that ASAP! (Then blog about it, of course.)
Think about ways you can get your name, face, and personal branding in front of your local, potential clients, without breaking the bank. I guarantee there's a way! And we've all heard the saying... "Where there's a will, there's a way!" Get hyper-local! It's a requirement for success!
*REALTOR® = Member of National Association of REALTORS®, and Subscribes to the Code of Ethics.
*All verbiage and logos are owned by Lisa Hill and fully protected by U.S. Copyright Laws. (The actual copyright log is in the Public Domain.)
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