BIll Roberts, an Oceanside, CA real estate broker said this to me, about my return to ActiveRain:
"Hi Brian, It is good to see you back here instead of wasting all your time on Facebook."
I haven't wasted any time on Facebook. In fact, Facebook was the top social platform for business development for me, over the past five years. Why has it been so successful? Two reasons:
1- Facebook is huge. It has over 1 billion mobile daily users. That's over three times the size of the United States and close to the population of China. Why use Facebook? That's where the people are.
2- It's relatively easy to work through the five pillars of social media marketing and get to pillar five---off line engagement. If you're trying to get belly-to-belly with local prospects, Facebook is a great way to accelerate the process.
My friend Sean Purcell highlighted a speech I gave, back in 2007, about the Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing:
The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing (with Sean's notes)
- DECLARATION OF IDENTITY – Here I am and I am and here’s what I do. Don’t hide your light under a bushel. There is no point to marketing if people don’t know how they can use you or why.
- IDENTITY BY ASSOCIATION – You are judged by the company you keep. This is true in all aspects of life but can be utilized advantageously on-line. Make purposeful decisions about what groups you join and who you associate with; the perception of who you are can be greatly enhanced.
- CONSUMER GENERATED CONVERSATION – By declaring your identity in well chosen places, you open yourself to contact by consumers. Either directly, through forums or in question & answer format, the consumer will talk to you if you are listening.
- PROVIDER GENERATED CONVERSATION – This is what you push out; the answer to the question, the story that relates a benefit, the information that is useful. This is your opportunity to really shine.
- OFF-LINE CONVERSATION – The secret! This is the step missed by so many. The first four pillars will enable you to acquire prospects, but this game is a contact sport. The whole point of marketing is to cause the consumer to take action. This reminds me of a little retail wisdom I heard from Home Depot’s founders. They said “we didn’t spend all that money paying for advertising and buying products just to have the consumer walk away because the check-out line was too long.” When someone walks up to your register with money in their hand… engage them!
What's that mean about my return to Active Rain? Expect engagement from me but I see an opportunity here (again)--an opportunity to re-engage the Southern California online real estate community to congregate offline. Relationships can be initiated online but they are nurtured and developed offline. Certainly emails, comments, and phone calls help to nurture those relationships but nurturing happens belly-to-belly.
That's always been my goal-- get belly-to-belly with people in my industry and potential customers. If you choose to follow me here, I"ll show you how I've been successful doing just that.
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