On today’s episode, we talk to Jimmy Burgess, chief growth officer at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida, about creative video content ideas for agents who need something new to post or create. Video content allows your audience to get to know you and determine if you’d be a good fit to work with. And the goal of all this content? Relationship building. This episode is full of great tips and very actionable advice.
Some of the ideas covered in the episode:
- Inside look videos
- FAQ videos
- Just listed videos
- Apps I’m using video
- Just sold videos
- My favorite places video
- Before and after videos
Links mentioned:
You can listen to this episode here, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Welcome to The Homesnap Snap Shot, a podcast about digital marketing for real estate agents. I’m Gayle, the host of the show. And each episode, we talk to agents just like you who are successfully using some type of digital marketing to build their brands. When it’s over, you’ll walk away with concrete ideas that you can use in your own marketing to help grow your business. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using whatever app or platform you’ve used to listen to podcasts. And I’d really appreciate it if you’d take a minute to rate and review the show. It helps us get new listeners. Now let’s get to today’s guest.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Today’s guest on the show is Jimmy Burgess, who is chief growth officer at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida. That’s a long name. Jimmy, how are you? Welcome to the show.
Jimmy Burgess:
I’m great. I am great, Gayle. I’m excited to be here with you today.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
We’re excited to have you. Where in Florida exactly are you?
Jimmy Burgess:
So I am in Northwest Florida. I’m in the panhandle, basically between Destin and Panama City Beach, there’s an area called 30A, which is where I am. And we service basically the entire panhandle, really south of Tallahassee all the way over to Navarre Beach, so we cover a big area down here.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Nice. Okay. All right. So today we’re going to talk about content, and we’re going to talk about different types of content that agents can create. And it’s always a challenge for people to keep the content machine alive, keep it going, post fresh stuff. And you have some amazing ideas. And I saw an article that you wrote where you listed a whole bunch of different ideas, particularly in video content, and I just wanted to get the chance to talk to you today more about them. Before we hop into that though, can you tell us a little bit more about you and how you got into real estate?
Jimmy Burgess:
Yeah, I’ve been in the business 27 years, over half my life. And Gayle, I’ve said for some time, “I don’t know when I became the old guy that has had all these experiences and everything,” but it just seemed to happen that way. And so throughout that career, I grew up in real estate. Both my parents when they divorced, both of them started real estate companies, so I spent pretty much my whole childhood, and got into real estate after college, after a job with Merrill Lynch as a broker, realized the coat and tie thing was not for me. And so I’ve been doing this for a while, built teams, had companies. Now I’m the chief growth officer. And what’s great about that role is I really get to do … I’ve got the best job in the world. All I have to do is help our agents build their businesses.
Jimmy Burgess:
And so what’s been fun about this is that in reality, we’ve got about 250 agents that I oversee. And those ideas that come from them, it is the best breeding ground. And it’s just I think we’re at a place as far as in the real estate industry, where like this, where we’re having with each other, collaborating, and we’re sharing ideas. I think it’s the most important thing. And I think it’s the biggest miss that our industry has had, is the understanding that, hey, together we’re all better. And by sharing these ideas, it comes back in spades to you.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Right. And you’ve got an amazing control group right there. You’ve probably got all these agents who are doing creative stuff, and you can kind of borrow from what they’re creating and what you’re seeing, and then amass these nice lists, like the one that you did for Inman.
Jimmy Burgess:
Absolutely, yeah. It’s great. I mean, especially when you’re around … Our average agent does a little over $7 million. We’ve got a group of agents that are extremely collaborative. And we’ve got a great group of agents that are extremely open to sharing what’s going on in their world. And they’re trying new things, and so it is, you’re right, it’s a testing ground constantly to see what’s working. And just to kind of get the opportunity to spend some time with them has been tremendous for me. I mean, I love hearing what’s working for everybody.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Great. All right. Well, let’s hop in. So you have these ideas, and I’ve picked out the ones I kind of wanted to talk to you about that I thought were the most sort of unusual, or creative, or just ones I wanted to ask you more about. Most of these are video content ideas. So why don’t you, just to set the scene here, explain why you think video is so important.
Jimmy Burgess:
So video is so important in my business initially really, that it made the biggest difference before I shifted into this, where if you think of it this way, people say that a picture is worth 1000 words. Well, if a video is a frame, after frame, after frame, it’s worth a million words. It acts as a filter for you to give people the understanding of who you really are. So there are certain people that my accent is going to turn off, and it’s like a square peg in a round hole. And I call them OKP, our kind of people. What video does is it gives us the ability for people to understand who we are before we even meet, and it also acts as a filter for those people that we don’t need to work with.
Jimmy Burgess:
So what we’re saying is obviously all the social media platforms, every single one of them have come out and said that, not even what we’re seeing right now, but into the future, they want more video on their platforms. And so consequently, it’s going to get more, as far as your organic traffic with video. It’s going to give you the ability to filter those people. And in reality, the people that are coming, most of them almost feel like they already know you, so it’s not as much selling as it is relationship building as well, utilizing the video.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
You have just hit two of the main themes of the show. About, I don’t know, a couple months ago, I did 150th episode, and I extracted the five lessons that I’d learned from the first 150 episodes, the themes that come up over and over again. And you hit two of them right there. The first one, of course, is that video is king, that it’s so compelling, and it gets rewarded by the social media sites and by Google and search, so creating video just means more people are going to see and engage and be exposed to your content. But the main thing that you said, and you said it literally verbatim, this is something that other guests have said and I’ve said over and over again, is that video allows people to get to know you before you’ve even met them. And it allows people to determine if you’re a good fit.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
And like you said, some people might be turned off by something, your accent, or your approach, or your attitude. Or maybe they just think it’s a bad personality fit. Or they see you and go, “That is the person I want to work with. That is a … I trust that person. They’re smart. They seem fun. They seem like they’d be responsible. They’d be someone I would want to be in the trenches with, as we’re in this crazy market.” So everything that you just said, totally agree with, the power of video to establish a relationship before people have met you, so that when you do finally meet, it’s that much more likely that they’re going to actually want to meet with us.
Jimmy Burgess:
Yeah, it is.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
[crosstalk 00:06:11] that they’re going to want to work with you. Right.
Jimmy Burgess:
Yeah. And I mean, I think it does a couple things too. When those first meetings happen, nobody wants to work with cold leads. Or I hear people, “I don’t want to make cold calls. I don’t want to do these things.” What it does is, it actually does a lot of the pre-work for you, so that when you show up at their house, some of those things that we were talking about, having videos that you send to people, talking about what you’re going to do when you come on that first listing appointment, having that where they’ve seen your picture before, utilizing tools, something like a BombBomb, where you’re sending them a video email, so excited to see you tomorrow. All of those things are giving them the opportunity to meet you before they meet you, I guess you [inaudible 00:06:47].
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Right, meet you before you meet you. That’s perfect. All right. So let’s talk about some of these ideas. And I’m going to put a link in our show notes to this article. I really highly recommend people look at it because there’s tons of ideas there, and we’re only going to touch on a few of them today. And if you’re ever really at a loss for something to post, or you just kind of need some inspiration, print this thing out and put it above your desk. And do people print things anymore? Maybe not.
Jimmy Burgess:
I don’t know.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Put it in a prominent place. Stick it in your notes app. Do something with it where you can refer to it and go back to it when you need inspiration. So the first one I wanted to ask you about is called an inside look video. And talk about: What is an inside look video? And why is that so compelling?
Jimmy Burgess:
So I mean, inside look really, it’s almost like a behind the scenes, I guess you could say, where you’re getting an opportunity to see what’s going on in your daily basis. So I call it almost like the pulling the curtain back, so to speak. So let’s say for instance that you’re going and people, there’s a reason why there’s so many of these shows that are doing so well, that are “reality shows,” when in reality, they probably aren’t. But giving the ability for people to see behind the scenes of what you’re doing on a daily basis. Hey, I just saw this great house, or hey, I’m headed to this listing appointment. Hey, check out this kitchen. Hey, this is something just to give you an idea of what we’ve got coming up, or just giving them an idea of what’s really going on. Documenting your journey is so incredibly important right now. People want to be a part of something.
Jimmy Burgess:
And so when you give them to ability to kind of see behind the scenes and see what’s going on, pull the curtain back a little bit, so to speak, and let them see the daily activities, both the good and the bad, making little jokes here and there about things that have happened. And those are the things that really get the most interaction as far as social media content as well, is when you’re real about who you are, and some of your missteps even make you more real and make you more relatable. And that’s what draws people in, in a lot of cases, before they ever meet you, to think that, hey, this is somebody I can do business with.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
All right. How about FAQ videos? Now we all know what FAQs are. But when you’re an agent and you’re building your brand and trying to get clients, what kinds of questions are you mostly expecting to get there? Is it FAQs about being a realtor? Is it FAQs about the buying and selling process? Is it about your neighborhood? Is it all of the above? What are you recommending here?
Jimmy Burgess:
So what we typically try to have our agents do is just think about the question you’ve got asked multiple times this week because sometimes these things come and go. I mean, sometimes it’s whatever that question is that’s been hot that week. So for instance, right now somebody says, if you’ve been asked a couple times, oh, gosh, we’ve missed out on a couple of multiple offers. What can we do to make our offer more attractive? Well, there’s a frequently asked question. So hey, here’s three things you can do to make your offer stand out when you’re competing in multiple offer. Or maybe it’s you come into a listing appointment, and somebody says, “Hey, what can we do to make sure that our house pops when people first come here?” Now it’s a frequently asked question. Hey, there’s three things you really need to do that people are going to notice when they first drive up to your house.
Jimmy Burgess:
Or maybe it’s like, “Hey, what is this inspection? What is that all about?” And talking about that process. The frequently asked questions that we like to do is to … And listen, those things are evergreen. This is content that you can take and you can use now, and then use again in the future also, especially if you’re using multiple platforms. It just gives you the ability really to answer the questions before they’re even asked.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Okay, just listed videos. I love the idea of this because you can throw in some storytelling. You can talk about this home just came on the market. Here’s where the owner is going. Here’s the neighborhood. You can sort of do some nice marketing around the house and also just get people interested in the journey that this house is going to go on. Can you talk about any success stories you’ve seen from this type of video?
Jimmy Burgess:
Yes, absolutely. I mean, the biggest thing, and even playing into that, hey, when you leave the listing appointment, being out in front of the house, take a quick selfie video even, and just say, “So excited. I just got this new listing. You’re going to be hearing more about it. Just to give you some brief details, going to be this, this, and this. Do you have questions or want more information on this? Let me know. So excited to get this thing locked in and get it started.” When we’ve done that, we have seen literally it’s generated buyer leads. It’s double sided some of the contracts. It’s created relationships with other agents that are friends or following us on social media. Those just coming out of there, there’s some great success stories there.
Jimmy Burgess:
The other things, as far as the listing video where you’re walking through, and you could do this with either a virtual open house, you could do this where you’re just walking people through, going through and saying, “Hey, I just want to show you a quick walk through of this new listing that we just got. It’s going live right now. If you want more information, let me know.” And we’re walking people through. What we’re seeing right now is obviously, at least in our market, we’re seeing almost half of our contracts are coming with people that are doing those either through virtual FaceTime showings, or video, they’re going under contract. So it’s never been a time where that actual video you have has never been more important. And we like to share that with our seller, that hey, this is something we’re planning to do. We’re marketing this to both active buyers that are out there, as well as other agents. We’re going to get this information out there immediately. And if you go live with these things, it even just goes through the roof because now you’ve got something that immediately has attention.
Jimmy Burgess:
So if you’re doing a live virtual open house for instance, or you’re doing this walk through of the house, people are interacting as you’re walking through. Hey, you stop at the end. Are there any questions? Or anybody want me to show them anything that I may have gone too fast through? Now you start seeing that interaction. And when you see that interaction, all of a sudden, now people get to, in this market environment especially, it creates almost a buzz around this listing, where maybe a potential buyer sees it, and they start having this fear of missing out. And so they start acting a lot quicker to get the information from you, so they don’t say, “Well, I’ll get home and I’ll talk about this.” They immediately reach out for additional information if they’re interested.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Nice. Okay. Apps I love in real estate, that is a great one. And I’m of course a little biased because that is a question that I ask at the end of every episode of this show. I ask my guests to tell us about some apps that they’re using. They don’t necessarily have to be in real estate, or even marketing, or anything. They just have to be apps that they love. But I love the idea of exposing your audience to the apps that you’re using because then they get a nice kind of professional insider perspective, so that’s good. What types of apps do you usually share there, or do you recommend that people share?
Jimmy Burgess:
So a lot of people that are following some of the content, they’re in other businesses. And so a lot of times what we’re doing, we’re sharing some real estate specific. So an example would be an estimated closing sheet, or an app that gives you … Hey, put the purchase price in, how much you’re putting down, it’s going to give you an estimate of your pricing that a lot of, whether it be a local title company, we’ve got one that does that. We’ve got lenders that have those things. This is what you can anticipate if you were doing. And those are some of the apps that we’re using, real estate specific.
Jimmy Burgess:
Some of the things that we’re using that get the biggest play though when we’re looking at this, Gayle, is where we’re sharing things that they could possibly use in their business. So in other words, a lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll share, hey, maybe you’ve seen some of these things that I’ve been posting, these videos when we’re at the house. Let me tell you the app that I use that we’re using to edit some of these videos, to add this background music, to add some of these features. And we share that app, and we talk about that.
Jimmy Burgess:
We’re subconsciously letting them know that we’re in the real estate business. We’ll continue to stay top of mind that way. But we’re giving them something they can apply in their business as well. And all of a sudden, when you share something, like we use Videolicious, for instance. If you’re using that, I’m sharing that, and said, “Hey, if you’re curious about how we’re getting these things edited very quickly, Videolicious has been great for us. Gives us the ability.” And we just go through it. And so when we’re sharing the type of things that people can use in any business, is when we’re getting the most attention and the most feedback on those types of posts.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
So let’s take a quick step back here. What’s the purpose of all this content? Obviously, you want people to watch it. You want them to appreciate it. And you want to build a relationship. So are you hoping to get to actual leads? Is it brand building? What is the goal here?
Jimmy Burgess:
The goal is relationship. Ultimately, I think when I started selling, it was they had the ABC, always be closing. And I just think it’s tired. I think we’re at a place now where people can smell permission breath from a mile away. So our goal with all of our social media is just to build relationship, entertain, and inform. And so what we want to do is we want to make sure that everything we’re posting out there is something of value, or something that’s someone’s going to appreciate a little bit of maybe who we are, so that it just continues to do the process of moving them from knowing us to beginning to like us, and then trusting us. And as we do all those, the more the social media we do, the more interaction we get. I mean, if you’re in real estate, odds are you’re a social person.
Jimmy Burgess:
So when you’re doing these things, it gives you the ability to build an audience. I just talked to a friend of mine that she did over $10 million directly from Instagram last year in sales volume. And I asked her a very similar question. And what she said was, is she said, “Listen, all I want to do is, I want to make sure that when someone sees this, they’re like, ‘This is probably going to be something of value.'” And so that it’s something that adds value because when we’re adding value to people, that relationship deepens, even when we don’t realize it’s deepening. And by the time it comes time for them to have a decision to make, we’re top of mind, and we get it back to have an opportunity to either work with them on the buying or the selling side.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Wow. I feel like I should give you my job here because you just said another one of the Snap Shot kind of adages, which is relevant content of value, how important that is, because when you give people that, it builds a tremendous amount of goodwill between you and them. And they feel like this person, wow, that was really helpful. That was really interesting. And that’s a great way to build a relationship.
Jimmy Burgess:
I agree. I think it’s everything. The relationship is everything. And the way that the relationship’s built is by them getting to a place where they get to know you better, but ultimately, they get to a point where they’re like, “This is someone that I would enjoy working with, and this is someone that obviously by what they’re showing me, they’re out there actively doing their job.” That’s where going back to the documenting the journey. If they’re thinking real estate, most people on the outside think real estate is a certain thing. And that was one of the posts that I mentioned is people think real estate is this, but it’s actually this. So going in there and showing yourself, instead of them thinking you just showed up at the closing, go in and show them when you’re out there sweeping the front porch, or you’re loading laundry into the dryer, so that it’s not a mess when people are seeing a house. I think just that authenticity of being real and letting people see you doing extra things they don’t anticipate somebody doing, that’s when you really take it to the next level.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Right. Just sold posts, so people love seeing a happy ending. And they love seeing here the people with the keys to their new house, or the people who are happy with the way that their home sale went. How do you get your clients, or the buyers, or the sellers, whoever it is, comfortable of this idea of getting in front of the camera?
Jimmy Burgess:
So the biggest thing is, do it when they’re happiest. When they’re sitting at the closing table, they are excited. When they’re walking, and you’re giving them keys, they’re excited. So timing is a lot of it, and so there’s certain people that you just aren’t going to do that with. You know what I mean? You just know they’re not going to do it. You don’t want to make them uncomfortable. You’re trying to deepen that relationship. But then there’s those certain people that you’re like, “Uh.” I want to almost joke with them. I would say, “Listen, just so you know. You’ve got that kind of energy that I want other people to know. I want other clients like you. So here’s what I want to ask you, I want to ask that when we get ready, done with the closing, I want to just turn my phone around. And I want you just to tell people about the experience. There’s nothing I want more than to do more business with people just like you. So if you don’t mind, just take a minute and tell them kind of about the experience.”
Jimmy Burgess:
And literally, they’re lit up from the closing. They’re excited. They’ve got their new keys in their hand. And they can’t say enough good things about you, typically, in those situations. So that’s a great time to make sure you’re doing that. The other thing that we try to do is if we can’t get them on the video, and we’ll try to get a picture of them with their keys or something like that. And then we make them the hero. We tell their story, say, “It was such a pleasure to work with this family,” that moved here from wherever they moved here. They’re excited to be in this great neighborhood. And we know they’re going to be such a great member of our community. It’s such a pleasure to work with great people like, tag them, so that then it feeds over into all of their social media as well. Make them the hero, not you the hero.
Jimmy Burgess:
We’re not trying to be DJ Khaled, another one. You know what I mean? We’re literally, that is so, it just pushes people away. What we want to do is we want to shine the light on the other people, make them the hero. And you don’t have to … Without saying anything, that’s the type of people that are going to be like, “You know what, that’s the type of person I want, somebody that’s lifting me up instead of lifting themselves up.”
Gayle Wesiwasser:
This is all such great advice. I just love the way you’re expressing it. And it’s about organic content. It’s about connection. It’s about authenticity and relevant, valuable stuff, which I love. You talk about posts or videos that talk about your own favorite places or your family. So that’s a topic we’ve talked about a lot on this show, is: Where do you draw the line between personal content and professional content? And it seems to be it’s very much the agent’s personal preference. What’s their comfort level? How did they feel? What’s your take on this question, and how people can figure out where the line is?
Jimmy Burgess:
You have to figure it out for yourself. What are you comfortable with? I will say this. If you’re out there and you’re a working mom, and you’re trying to juggle it, and you were to say, “Such a crazy day. I’m having to pick the kids up on top of showing houses, and just so thankful for great clients that understand that I have to have some flexibility,” or something along those lines, those are things that people will relate to and be like, “That’s my person.” If you’re somebody that’s out there and you’re being more personal, and you’re like, “Hey, this is a place that our family loves to come to,” those people that are in your social media that are in another area, they’re like, “Listen, they’re not just selling it, they’re living that lifestyle.” So that’s one of those things.
Jimmy Burgess:
And what we try to do when we’re saying our favorite places is, we try to put a tagline at the end that’s basically like, “Listen, if you’re curious about other great places that most people don’t know about in X, Y, Z city, please let me know. I’d love to be your local resource.” You’re not even mentioning real estate in those. You have to have that mix. You’re just adding value to people. And there’s a big difference when you get to a place where people are like … Because they begin to think, feel like you’re a friend of theirs.
Jimmy Burgess:
And when we’re in a business like ours, which is driven so much by referrals, there’s a big difference in someone saying, “I want you to talk to my realtor,” versus, “I want you to talk to my friend.” And so making sure you’re putting content out there in a way that makes them feel comfortable enough to call you a friend, sometimes before they even meet you, it is amazing what that does by sharing those special places that you have with your family, as much as you’re comfortable with your family, as much as you’re transparent with other people, they’re going to be transparent with you.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
I love that, calling you friend versus agent. That’s the goal is to get people to see you that way. That’s great. Okay, before and after posts, again, we’re kind of talking about good storytelling here and getting people invested and wanting to see. People love before and after posts. Do you have any kind of dramatic examples that you can share that you’ve seen people within your office do?
Jimmy Burgess:
Yeah, I love it when they do this, where they’ll take a picture, and a lot of times, they’ll even slow their pace down. We’re talking about, I’m just being real strategic here, so let’s say that they just closed on this house. I’ve had agents that came in and said, “Hey, working with an investor. I’m at this house. This may be the worst kitchen I’ve ever seen in my life. Give us just a little bit, and I’m going to come right back to you with what it looks like now.” And then they pause that video. And then they come back, and they splice in, “Y’all, it has been two months. Look at how this kitchen has changed. It’s amazing. You wouldn’t even think I’m in the same place.”
Jimmy Burgess:
And by documenting some of that and showing them that, that’s … I mean, there’s a reason why all of these TV networks were making so much on Love It or List It. There’s all of these things that are out there, these TV shows. So become a publishing company, so to speak, of that content, and people are just going to be drawn to that. Everybody loves a before and after picture. There’s a reason why that’s driven by everything in, whether it be in the health industry, whether it be on TV with the real estate industry. People love to see something that has improved. And this gives you the ability to really document that a little bit. And all of a sudden, people begin to think, “Well, maybe I could do something like that.” And it keeps you top of mind as the person that would be the resource they’d need.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
TikTok is a great place for before and after videos like that. People love them.
Jimmy Burgess:
Yes. It is.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Okay. So I think we’ve kind of gone through all of the ones that I wanted to ask you about here. Let’s get into some nuts and bolts. For agents who are listening to this and thinking, “Wow, I’m inspired, I’d like to go out there and do some of this, but I don’t have a production company. And I don’t have an outside videographer. And I’m just using my iPhone here,” what equipment at a minimum does an agent need to have in order to create all this great content?
Jimmy Burgess:
Just your iPhone, it’s the best out there. I mean, literally, when we’re talking about this, I mean, I know Gayle, you’ve been doing this for a little while. Three or four years ago, everything that we were spending thousands of dollars on and trying to get microphones and trying to get cameras and everything, every single bit of that is in your iPhone. And what we’ve found is that some of the most authentic content, that stuff that’s the least produced, does the best. People can relate to it the best. I think a lot of times people just think, “Oh, well, I don’t have those things.” You’ve got everything you need. You’ve just got to take the action and start doing with what you got. And in reality, I would say the best content out there that you could possibly do is not with a videographer on social media. It’s with your iPhone. It’s recording your screen and just talking to people. It is literally everything that you need, you’ve already got.
Jimmy Burgess:
And then if you decide to layer in, and you want to do some additional things, that’s fine. But in reality, I think if you’re going to spend all that money, it takes time to figure out what is your voice on social media. What do people respond to? So I would just start doing with what you got, and then all of a sudden, see what people are responding to. And then lean in as you grow, and I promise the audience is going to lean in with you.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Yeah, that’s great advice. And then finally, once you have all this great content, what do you do with it? Where do you share it?
Jimmy Burgess:
I would say everywhere, that’s the biggest thing. You know what I mean? Everybody’s got a favorite platform. I would say you need to identify though. Where is your ideal client? So if your ideal client is 40 to 60, odds are the majority of them are going to be on Facebook. If you’re looking at someone that’s 30 to 50, could be Instagram. If you’re looking at a first time home buyer group, they’re killing it on TikTok right now. YouTube should be for every video you do. Think about it this way. Google is the number one search. Number two search engine in the world is actually YouTube. Google bought YouTube. If you go on YouTube and you do a search, once you get past the ads, after a couple, they’re going to start showing the videos.
Jimmy Burgess:
So you’ve got to think of it this way. A lot of people are just scrolling through social media. They’re going to YouTube and they’re searching for answers. So getting in line there, talking about basically the pros and cons of living in your area, what I wish I would’ve known before I moved here, five best neighborhoods in my city, in your city, and putting that stuff on YouTube is going to get you organic traffic that it’s through the roof. So make sure everything’s on YouTube. And then identify: Where is that your ideal client, where are the majority of those people? And then move into that space on that platform, and that’s where you’re going to get the best results.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Well, that’s fantastic advice all around. I love so many things that you said there. An especially really good one is figure out who your audience is, or who your target is, and then pick the platform that best matches that. Rather than putting it out there and hoping that they’ll come, figure out where they are first, and then go from there.
Jimmy Burgess:
Make sure you’re also using your … Some people will get … They’re like, “Well, gosh.” I mean, you have to understand this takes time. I mean, you’ve got to put the work in. And your audience has to find you, and you have to find them. And so I would encourage you. Make sure you’re using your hashtags, your local hashtags as much as possible. So for instance, if you’re in Destin, Florida, for instance, where we service, and it’s like Destin homes for sale, or Destin homes, or Destin real estate. Make sure you use any hashtags that might get searched for. And that’s where you can build that audience in a dramatic way. I’ve seen people that have gone from zero to …
Jimmy Burgess:
And Listen, don’t overthink as far as the size of your audience. It’s the depth and the engagement of the audience that’s most important. And always focus on this too, one is better than none. One person is better than none. If you’ll start with the people you’ve got, and add content that they’re going to find entertaining, they’re going to find informational, and that is relevant, all of a sudden now, you’re hashtagging it correctly, people find you. They start to follow you. All of a sudden, now you’ve just began to get some momentum. And that momentum is probably going to lead to something that you can’t even imagine if you’ll be consistent in posting.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
All right. This has been such a great episode, so much really valuable content in here. And you said so many things that are echoing what other guests on the show have said, or what I’ve said, I feel like you’re channeling the podcast here. It’s great. Before I let you go though, I’m going to ask you the signature question, which is, tell me about some apps on your phone that you use. Again, they don’t have to be for real estate or marketing, they could be for fun, relaxation, entertainment, just some apps that maybe our audience hasn’t heard of before.
Jimmy Burgess:
Yeah. Well, if you haven’t heard of BombBomb, it is my favorite app of all time for a couple reasons. BombBomb basically is, it records, you can utilize it both on your phone, as well as on your laptop, or on your PC, or whatever you’re using. And it gives you the ability to shoot video and email it. And the email comes in one of these GIFs, you know what I’m talking about, where the first couple of seconds are there. It personalizes all of our communication. It’s been my favorite app. I’ve probably done now well over 2000 of these email videos, or these videos where I’m just shooting them on my phone, and I can upload them.
Jimmy Burgess:
It is just a real personalized way that just gives you the authentic who you are. You can share your screen where I can go through and I can talk about, for instance, I’ll do it where I’ll do unsolicited CMAs, where I’ll give people an update on their value. I’ll do it where I’m giving them the market update for their community. It gives you the ability really to connect in a way that has been hard through email and through text, in a way where I can integrate video into all of those, whether it be a text or an email, in a new and a fresh way.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Nice. Okay, great. Well, thank you for sharing that. Tell everybody in the world where they can find you.
Jimmy Burgess:
I’m probably one of the most un-anonymous people. I mean, you can find me. You know what I mean? It’s not hard. If you’ll go to YouTube and pull up Jimmy Burgess, you can see some of the video content we’ve got there, that we like to share with agents. This is what we love doing, is just sharing with other agents. So many people share with me, and the least I think I can do is to try to give some of the tips back for all the people that spent time with me to help me grow over the last 27 years. We’ve got the real estate sales podcast as well, and on Facebook, Instagram, on LinkedIn. We’re big on LinkedIn. Any of those places, if you’ll just look up Jimmy Burgess, you should be able to find.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
All right, Jimmy. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It’s really been a pleasure to talk to you.
Jimmy Burgess:
Thanks, Gayle.
Gayle Wesiwasser:
Thanks for listening to another episode of The Snap Shot. I hope that you enjoyed what you heard today. If you have a moment, please leave us a review. It really helps us get new listeners. This podcast is part of Industry Syndicate, a curated media network containing the highest rated real estate and mortgage podcasts. Find other excellent real estate content at industrysyndicate.com, home of real estate’s first media network.