Katie Lance comes back to the show to talk about what has changed in the last 18 months in the world of social media and digital marketing.
- The big social platforms are rented space, and creating assets that you own and control means that if the platforms go away or they change the rules or people stop tuning in, you still own the content and can reach your audience. Try to move them from the big platforms to your own platforms.
- People are responding to quick-moving, playful content
- Even amidst change, consistency builds trust.
- It has been more important than ever not to be tone-deaf, not to stick slavishly to a content calendar.
- Instagram is better than ever for organic engagement.
We also do a deep dive into Instagram and the many ways to use it. Life is content!
Links mentioned:
You can listen to this episode here, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Gayle Weiswasser:
Welcome to the Homesnap Snapshot, a podcast about digital marketing for real estate agents. I’m Gayle, the host of the show. 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. 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 guests.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Today, I’m very excited to welcome back to the show. Katie Lance, who’s the founder and CEO of Katie Lance Consulting, and the absolute authority on all things real estate, digital marketing and social media. Katie, thank you for coming back to the show.
Katie Lance:
Thank you so much, Gayle. It’s really exciting to be back.
Gayle Weiswasser:
It’s good to have you, and I’m trying to remember when you were last on where we already, I think we were already in quarantine. I think it was last spring, maybe. September? Yeah.
Katie Lance:
I think so, yeah. I feel like it was early on.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yes, exactly. A year later, how are you? Tell me about the pandemic. How did you get through it?
Katie Lance:
Well, like everybody, it’s been a wild year and a half, and I think we’re still kind of getting through it, although, we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, which is exciting. Business-wise we feel very, very lucky. We’ve always worked at home. I’ve always had a home office. My husband and I were already set up for things. As people were kind of scrambling to learn Zoom, we were like, we got this, we’ve been doing this for quite some time. We feel really lucky that we had a lot of the systems already set up in place and really our business transitioned to even more stuff online as you know, I not only do a lot of online training, but I do a lot of in-person speaking, keynote speaking, stuff like that. That quickly switched to doing a lot of virtual trainings over actual webinars, which has been great.
Katie Lance:
I mean, honestly I think as things start to open back up, I’m starting to do more face-to-face, but there is something to be said about virtual and technology and the fact that we have this technology to do that. Honestly, our academy grew in a huge way. We have our Get Social Smart Academy, which this year we celebrated our five-year anniversary with our academy membership. I think with real estate being essential for so many folks across the world, I think people really decided, “Hey, I’m going to use this time to sharpen my saw and to really improve my game and my strategy.” It’s been really fun. We, knock on wood, had a great year in terms of business and just try to make some lemonade out of the lemons from this past year. Personally, we’re very blessed. We’re healthy and things are good. We’re still managing things with the kids at home, but looking forward to them going back to school in the fall. We’ll go from there, but so far so good,
Gayle Weiswasser:
That’s great that people were spending time choosing to use whatever downtime they might’ve had to kind of improve things and invest in learning and invest in their business and invest in their marketing. That must have been some silver lining for you is that people had a little bit of extra time to spend enrolling in courses and learning and just spending time to become better. That’s great.
Katie Lance:
[crosstalk 00:03:19]. Yeah. I think it was interesting. We saw a lot of people who really were like, “Okay, gosh, Katie, you and a lot of people, you, Gayle,” I mean, we’ve all been talking about the power of video and social media and connecting with people when we can’t connect face-to-face. I think that brought that reality to a lot of people, especially people who might’ve been a little reluctant to embrace some of the new tools with social media and technology. I always say there’s no time like the present. You’re not behind. We’re still in the infancy of so much of this stuff. Just got to dive in and put your first foot forward.
Gayle Weiswasser:
I think that’s great advice because I think people do tend to feel like, “Oh, well I’ve already missed the boat on Instagram. It’s too late for me now.” Looking back at the history of these platforms. They’re just babies and it’s a lot of growing for everybody to do and a lot of learning for everyone to do. There’s still like tons of time to jump in there and build an audience and do something creative and different. That’s very, very good for people to think in the back of their minds. Is your fall calendar starting to fill up with in-person speaking again?
Katie Lance:
It is, yeah. I’m kind of slowly dipping my toe back into the water. I think it’s interesting as I think everyone kind of had a chance to reevaluate their business and I love … I mean, there’s still nothing like the face-to-face, there’s still nothing like being on a stage and connecting with people and the hugs and high fives and selfies that happen at a convention, but I’m still cautious. I don’t think we’re quite past all of this quite yet. I’m still cautious, but yeah, it definitely started booking a number of gigs. I’ll be at Inman, there’ll be at NAR. I’ve got a lot of other things coming up with associations and brokerages, so excited about that. Just meeting people where there are, so people are comfortable face-to-face. Some people are more comfortable virtual. We’re still doing a fair amount of both, to be honest with you.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yeah, well, I will hopefully see you at those events. We’re recording this in the middle of July. I did notice today that LA has re-instituted the indoor mask policies. Even if you’re vaccinated and you’re indoors in LA County, you have to have a mask on. We’re definitely not out of the woods for sure. Hoping just like you, that these events go on … We’re at Homesnap investing a lot of money into our presence at these events and planning them and expecting to be there. I think this year has, if nothing else, this year has taught us that things can change really quickly and you just have to be flexible with them.
Katie Lance:
Right. Exactly, and have those plans in place in case things happen and things change. I think it’s been interesting to see, you know, organizations like Inman and NAR and how many organizations were able to pivot, and quickly shift and do what they need to do. It’s been neat to see sort of this evolution of online events also. I think a lot of them started out as just kind of the Zoom calls. Then we’ve seen so much creativity over the past few months and year or so. I think that’s really cool. I think it’s helped everyone to kind of step up their game.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yeah, I agree. Well, let’s talk today about sort of how social media has adapted over the last 18 months and what challenges agents may be facing today that they weren’t the last time we talked or at least two times ago that we talked. Since last time we talked, we were a little bit in the middle of the pandemic, but how, as somebody who spends a lot of time teaching and coaching and thinking and writing on these topics, how has your advice, your recommendations, your strategies for people changed since the beginning of the pandemic?
Katie Lance:
Well, I think there’s kind of two things. I think there’s one thing that I would say hasn’t changed, and then I would say there’s one thing that we have definitely changed and adjusted. I think the one thing that hasn’t changed that really got solidified even more during the pandemic is that social media is rented ground. We don’t own it. I think it’s kind of a good real estate analogy. We can all relate to that. What I mean by that, and especially for your listeners is I think it’s important that agents and brokers don’t put all their eggs into any one basket. It’s not about going all in on Instagram or Facebook or YouTube or TikTok or any of these platforms. It’s about, I think, taking a step back and thinking, is there some content you can create that goes with you no matter what?
Katie Lance:
For example, like this podcast, this is a great example. You’re creating this podcast. This is a podcast that gets distributed on a number of platforms, but ultimately, it’s content that you’ve created. You’ve interviewed guests, you’ve got this great content. Same thing goes with video content or blog content, your email database, it’s not necessarily as fun as social media, but it’s an important thing to think about as well. I think even more so, what I saw in the last year and a half, because there was so much noise on social media and a lot of, just a lot of emotions, there’s a lot of stuff going on over the last year and a half that we saw people just experiencing a lot of different experiences with social media. People kind of took a step back from different platforms and there’s just all kinds of feelings all over the map.
Katie Lance:
I think that’s one thing. It really solidified like start creating content and assets that you own that go with you, no matter what, like if your Instagram gets shut down tomorrow, you’ll be fine, because you’ve got these assets. Then I would say the second thing that kind of goes with that as far as how I’ve changed and things like that. I do think that there’s a piece of content on social media that is really relevant right now. That’s sort of this quick, fast-moving content that’s here today, gone tomorrow, like stories, like Instagram stories, Facebook stories, Instagram reels, TikToK, and it’s like this quick, playful, creative content. We’ve started doing a lot more of that, not to replace anything else, but just as kind of an add-on of some of that other content, so I’m sure we can dive more into that as we go through the podcast today, but yeah, those would be kind of the two big things I would say.
Gayle Weiswasser:
You’ve been sounding that alarm for a long time. I think in every time that you and I talk, you raised … It’s such a good point that this stuff is rented, that the platforms, we’re at the whim of the platforms and they can change and they can be acquired and they can be shut down. We’ve seen just over the last year, president not being allowed access to Facebook and we’ve seen these platforms be taken to task for things that they’ve done. We certainly have seen acquisitions and consolidation in the media. I think that’s such a great point that we tend to think of these as utilities and that they’re always going to be there for our use and that we can treat it like a web host where we can just keep posting and posting and doing what we want. That’s just not the case.
Gayle Weiswasser:
We’re also, as you’ve always talked about, we are at the mercy of the algorithm. There’s no guarantee that anything that we post or create is going to actually be seen by the people we want to see it, because it’s up to the platforms to decide which content goes in front of which people. I think that’s great advice to think about content channels where people can subscribe, where you can control pushing out content, things like blogs or podcasts or websites, places where you, like you said, they may not be as sexy as social media and they may not have the kind of viral potential to them, but you own those platforms. When you put something out there, you don’t have to worry that it’s not going to be seen or it’s going to get taken down or anything like that.
Katie Lance:
Yeah. It’s such a powerful thing when you can move people who already follow you, they liked your content, they enjoy interacting with you online and you can move them to your email list, as an example. Again, it’s not as sexy as Facebook, but like when people opt in and say, “Yes, send me more email, please do that,” that’s a big deal. I just think that that’s such a powerful thing. Then what happens is your content can live on a number of platforms and you just never know where you might catch people. I always feel like we’re leaving these little digital breadcrumbs. If you’re creating a weekly podcast or weekly video series, it’s probably not just going to go up on YouTube, but maybe it’ll go up on YouTube and you share it in your email newsletter, and then you might share it on Facebook a couple days later and you do an Instagram story about it. Now, your social media kind of becomes a place to distribute that content. Also of course, to keep in touch with people and engage and connect because that’s obviously a huge part of it too. To your point, then you’re not just relying on platforms. If one of those platforms goes away, you’re good, you know?
Gayle Weiswasser:
Right. It’s like a big Ferris wheel, people get on at different points. They can get on on your email or they can get on, on your TikTok. The goal is to just get them on and then you want to suck them into that center, the center for the hub where you’re creating the content and then they can get on and off at different touch points. As long as it’s sort of in your rotating infrastructure, then you’re good.
Katie Lance:
Yeah, exactly, exactly. People have to kind of marinate sometimes in what you’re talking about. I mean, because we see more content and noise than ever before that we just don’t see things the first time around. I mean, that kind of ties into something I know I’ve probably talked about in your podcast before this idea of just repurpose and content. I mentioned a second ago, this idea of like creating content that’s here today and disappears. It doesn’t always mean you’re reinventing the wheel. If I’ve got a weekly video that I put out each and every week, I can still take maybe a 15-second snippet of that and turn that into an Instagram reel, or turn that into a quick one-minute story where I’m teasing out the fact that I want people to go over to my YouTube. You know what I mean? It’s not like one or the other, just kind of adapting and evolving.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yep. I’m sure you’ve heard me say that, create once, publish everywhere.
Katie Lance:
Exactly.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yeah, you just create a nice piece of content that’s long enough and sort of evergreen enough, you can use that over and over again in a million different ways.
Katie Lance:
Yep, absolutely.
Gayle Weiswasser:
How are you marketing your own brand differently? Are you? Maybe you’re not, but how has the last year and a half
changed your own strategies for reaching people?
Katie Lance:
That’s a really good question. I mean, I don’t know if we have necessarily made a huge change only because we’ve been doing a lot of things consistently over the years that have really worked. I really believe in the long tail, like it takes time, right? A big mistake a lot of people make is they try something for like a month or two, it “doesn’t work.” They just don’t like, “Ah, that email marketing thing, like I try to podcast,” and so we’ve been doing things over the long haul. We’ve been publishing a weekly video over on YouTube for four or five years now. We’ve been publishing a weekly podcast for, I think about two and a half years now. I think just being that consistent voice, I think when people see that you’re consistently putting out relevant, helpful content, that helps to build trust.
Katie Lance:
In the midst of all these things that were changing, we tried to be a small piece of the puzzle that wasn’t changing that was consistently there. I would say it’s important to be consistently there, but not tone deaf. We would look at our editorial calendar and go, “You know what? We were supposed to talk about X, Y, and Z this month, but that’s not relevant because there’s all this going on in the world right now. Let’s have a conversation about things like, should you talk about politics on social media or how to have a virtual open house. What is our audience really talking about right now that’s really relevant and still be consistent with how people consume our content and what they’re used to.” Like I said, not being tone deaf, and having sometimes kind of those tough conversations, but coming at it from a place of, hey, here’s my opinion, here’s my thoughts. Here’s a way to work through some of these things that are happening in the real world.
Katie Lance:
I think that resonated with a lot of people, not everybody, and it goes back to what I’ve often said. I’m not going to be everybody’s cup of tea and that’s okay. I don’t think we have to be all things to all people. I think doing that and just even leaning in a little bit more to who I am and beliefs and my personality and just trying to stand out a little bit more. Sometimes we see sort of the sea of sameness that’s out there, and it’s okay to have an opinion. I think it’s just like what we teach our kids. It’s not what you say is how you say it.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, so you just hit on a whole bunch of themes that come up on the show, social media being a long game, clearly is part of that. People are like, “Oh, I tried that for a month and it didn’t work.” Well, of course it didn’t work because you got to give it some time. Important to just not flit in and out, because like you said, you need to be building consistency. You need to sort of show up frequently. There’s all kinds of stats about how many times people have to see your name before they will remember, “Oh, that person’s a real estate agent and maybe I should call them.” I think you make another great point about just being flexible and thinking about what does my audience actually want to hear today?
Gayle Weiswasser:
Do they want another piece about social media or do they want to talk about politics? Do they want to talk about how to handle politics in their lives and what challenges are they facing today? Certainly over the last year and a half, people were facing lots of different challenges in communicating and marketing and not looking tone deaf and not looking like they were sort of unaware of what everyone else was facing. That’s great advice to give them is how do you incorporate difficult messaging like that? If you stick slavishly to an editorial calendar without revisiting it and thinking objectives, I think if you know that you can have some pitfalls.
Katie Lance:
Yeah, absolutely. I think it just goes to your humanity too. It’s like outside of business, there’s life happening when there’s real … Especially like I said, last year and a half, there was a ton of big, heavy issues that a lot of us faced with our ourselves, our family and conversations with clients. I just think it’s, if anything, it’s one more way to show your humanity. It goes back to what we always talk about. It’s like we do business with people we know, like, and trust and relate to. That relatability, I think that’s where there’s a big opportunity with social.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Absolutely. That’s social media’s greatest, I think its greatest power. Just that ability to form a connection with somebody through content that may not exist. Then they feel like they know you, you feel familiar to them. You seem like somebody that they have shared values with and someone they would want to work with, so that’s the great power of social media.
Katie Lance:
Absolutely.
Gayle Weiswasser:
All right, so speaking of social media, give us the update on some of our popular platforms, like what is going on on Instagram? I know that there are new features, new offerings, we’ve got reels, stories, Instagram TV, talk us through and let us know what are you recommending these days?
Katie Lance:
Yeah, I’m loving Instagram. I mean, I find that I am spending probably the most of my social media time on Instagram these days. I’ve always really loved Instagram. I think part of it is I’ve felt that it’s such an aspirational platform. It’s all pictures and videos. There is, I think, a lot less noise than other platforms. Right now on Instagram, you can get a ton of engagement, a lot of organic engagement without having to pay for it. Quite frankly on Facebook, that’s really hard to come by these days. We’ve got a Facebook business page trying to get organically a lot of people to like engage new content. It’s really tough. It’s, tough for a lot of people. Not that it’s impossible, but I think there’s a lot of opportunities with Instagram and it’s certainly changed a lot.
Katie Lance:
A couple of new things that are happening. Their CEO came out recently and announced, kind of shook the Instagram world and said, “We are not a photo sharing happening more. We are a video sharing app.” I think everyone on Instagram kind of freaked out about that. I still think photos will be relevant. For example, carousel posts right now on Instagram are really a big, big deal. Carousel posts for anyone in your audience who doesn’t know are these multi photo posts or multi graphical posts on Instagram. We see that as a huge opportunity if you are … Especially as an agent or broker, if you can create some content like that, that is helpful. Maybe it’s the 10 biggest mistakes you see every first time home buyer make or the five things you must ask your lender before you hire them. That kind of content. That’s not necessarily like, “Hey, hire me today,” but it’s informative. It’s educational. You’re helping your audience.
Katie Lance:
Carousel content is huge. It’s also huge because when you share a carousel or multi photo post in Instagram, if I’m on Instagram and let’s say Gayle, I’m scrolling through Instagram and I see your posts. Let’s just say, it keeps swiping by. I don’t even stop. Not that I would do that, but let’s just say I keep on going. Well, the next time I’m on Instagram because you posted a carousel post, most likely your post is going to show up again a second time in my feed. It may not be the first part of the carousel. It’s probably going to be the second or third post in your carousel, but that’s pretty fascinating. The fact that something can show up again in someone’s newsfeed because it’s a carousel post. I think there’s a big opportunity there. Carousels can be graphics or videos. I think having a combination of both of those is great.
Katie Lance:
Then of course, because Instagram announced it and obviously video content’s a big thing. I think reels continue to be huge. They launched gosh, probably a few months ago, if not longer than that. Reels, for anyone not familiar with them, are quick videos. They’re between 15 to 30 seconds. They’re a lot like TikTok. They’re fun, they’re playful, they’re quick. A lot of times you’ll see music. I don’t think that agents need to become like the next dancing realtor. I don’t think that you have to do that. Although, some people are doing that and that’s fun. A lot of people are confused with reels that they don’t quite understand like what is the difference between that and a story and IGTV. Would it be okay, can I just kind of outline those really quickly just [crosstalk 00:20:31]?
Gayle Weiswasser:
Please, yeah. Exactly.
Katie Lance:
I think of reels again, it’s sort of this quick 15 to 30-second fun, playful content. It could be as simple as you’re showing a new listing, but instead of just a 30-second video from start to finish, where I think there’s some opportunities with reels is these sort of quick little cuts. Maybe it’s a two-minute clip of the kitchen, two minutes of the backyard, two minutes of the bathroom and two minutes of the kitchen and then some fun trending music behind it. Now you’ve just made a listing video, a really kind of fun and interesting, right? Is that going to sell the house? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s just one more piece of the puzzle. Because reels is new, anytime something new comes out with Instagram, you typically will get a whole lot of engagement with it.
Katie Lance:
That’s what we’re seeing with reels. Reels also is one of the only pieces of content that Instagram shows to people outside of your following. Not only do people who follow you see your reels, but you’re going to get your reels in front of a much bigger audience, right? Of people who could potentially follow you and connect with you and become clients and all that good stuff, and then we have stories, right? Stories are here today. They disappear in 24 hours. Stories are a great way to show your behind the scenes. Stories I find really are a great way to connect with your existing audience. The people who watch your stories are people who already know, like, and love you, right? You’re going to connect with them. You probably are going to share your reels over to your stories as well.
Katie Lance:
Then we’ve got IGTV, which has been around a while. That’s a great format too. That’s permanent content. It’s video up to 15 minutes. One of the things we were seeing with IGTV is if you’re already creating video, like [inaudible 00:22:02] creating video content on YouTube or Facebook, you can also put that over on IGTV. You can share a small preview of that into your news feed. You can share that over to your stories. Some people will even take an IGTV and take out a small clip and turn that into a reel, so they really kind of all work hand-in-hand. I really found with Instagram, like the more you can kind of leverage each piece of the platform, Instagram likes that, of course. You’re spending more time on their platform, but they all kind of work together in a unique way. There’s a lot more we could talk about, but those are a few thoughts off the top of my head.
Gayle Weiswasser:
With something like IGTV that’s kind of like YouTube, like you can create channels, you can create content that’s evergreen that just stays there and people can find it if they find your account or you can link to it or just treat it like an evergreen way for people to engage with you.
Katie Lance:
Right. Exactly.
Gayle Weiswasser:
How do you-
Katie Lance:
It’s especially great for like a little bit longer form educational or informative content, right? Like kind of the, I don’t know, sort of three to five-minute video where maybe you’re sharing what are the benefits of staging? Why should you hire a photographer? What’s happening in the market right now? Where you’re having a little bit more of a conversation and you’re teaching, you’re educating people.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Right. How do you differentiate Instagram reels from TikTok? Other than the fact that obviously they’re on different platforms and so people just engage with them differently, but is it similar kind of style and feel of content that you might find on TikTok?
Katie Lance:
It is. I mean, it gets compared to TikTok all the time because it is basically very similar. A lot of people would say it’s a rip-off of TikTok. It is very similar to TikTok. I do think that there’s some differences. I think TikTok is really fun. I think it definitely skews to a younger demographic right now. Not that there’s not people of all ages because there’s certainly of all ages on TikTok, just like any platform, but because TikTok is kind of the new shiny object, what happens in the world of social media and we saw this with Facebook. Facebook started off just for college kids. Well now, however many years later, it’s now evolved and now Facebook is a huge platform, primarily for people in their forties, fifties, sixties, right? It’s sort of this evolution. TikTok is kind of at the beginning of that.
Katie Lance:
Right now, we see TikTok as a fun platform. It just tends to skew really young, a lot of teenagers. A lot of folks in college. I think part of this conversation is like, where are your clients? Who are you trying to work with? What’s your demographic? Then I think with reels, what’s interesting is I feel like sometimes the content we see on reels is like a few beats behind what we see on TikTok. There’s like a trending theme, a trending dance, a trending song that happens on TikTok. Then we see that on reels, like a month later. There’s like this kind of delay to it. I’m on TikTok. I’m not posting on TikTok. For me, that’s not necessarily where my kind of core demographic is hanging out. It’s fun to check it out. I watch it with my kids. I just find, because a big core of our audience is on Instagram, I like to put my kind of eggs in that basket. I’m spending more time creating reels. It is, I think, similar but different. It’s kind of apples and oranges.
Gayle Weiswasser:
I do notice that some trends will appear on TikTok. Then like two weeks later, I’ll see it on Instagram. It makes me feel sort of sad for Instagram that they’re kind of lagging behind, but of course, half the audience on Instagram has no idea and it’s all fresh and new to them, so they don’t even know the difference.
Katie Lance:
Right. I agree, but I would recommend it. I mean this, for anybody trying to grow their Instagram or you feel like you’re stuck. I mean, I just think there’s just a big opportunity with reels. There is a learning curve. The first few times you do it, it’s like, “What am I doing?” It’s a very, I think, a very different way of thinking about video, because it’s fast. If you don’t catch somebody in the first couple seconds, they’re going to swipe away to something else. I just would encourage people to think about how they could create something on of quickly and easily. They don’t always have to be on camera. I did one at the beginning of the spring this year. It was like the first day of spring. I’m like, okay, and I went out to my garden and I literally took my phone and I took like a two-second video of one flower, and a one-second video of another flower. Another three seconds of another flower.
Katie Lance:
I had like five little clips on my phone. Went to Instagram, uploaded each of those five clips into a reel, added some fun music. Then I just put like a little text over the beginning, like happy first day of spring or whatever. That video blew up. I probably got three or 4,000 views on that video compared to what if I had just done a little post, like happy first day of spring. It’s like thinking about being timely, trying to kind of stand out a little bit. Also, you don’t always have to be on camera. If you want to, great, but if that’s not your thing, there’s so many other things that you can do that you don’t have to be on camera. Now they have a voiceover feature with Instagram, which they borrowed from TikTok …
Gayle Weiswasser:
I was going to say.
Katie Lance:
… Which is great. I love the voiceover feature. If you want to be like, “Hey, I’ve got a new listing to sell, check this out,” whatever, like you don’t have to be on camera. It’s fantastic.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Got it. Okay, so let’s say if you’re an agent who really hasn’t spent any time on Instagram and you’re thinking, “Okay, it’s finally time for me to wade in,” do you just recommend creating just a regular Instagram feed and then experimenting with some of these videos or what would be your advice for someone who just has a limited attention and limited experience?
Katie Lance:
I would think from the first thing is if you haven’t downloaded it, download it, it’s free. You can download it through iTunes or Android, whatever platform you’re on, you’re going to want to create your account. I would say, keep it simple, keep it to your name if your name is available, or keep it to something that people would know you by. I recommend for business that people do have a business account, like a business public account. You can choose personal or business, private or public. Some people might have a private account just for their friends and family, but if you’re doing this for business, especially real estate, it’s like having a retail store. You want the door open. You want, when people walk by, they can see, oh, you’re open for business. Create a public business account. You want to put your photo up there, put your profile photo, make sure it’s something recent, and then you’ve got a little area for a bio just like other platforms, so tell us a little bit about yourself.
Katie Lance:
I would also start by going into the contact section of Instagram. When you first set up an account, Instagram is going to say, would you like to look at your contacts to see who’s on Instagram? You can look at your phone contacts, you can start to connect with some of those people. You can also look at your Facebook contacts because Facebook owns Instagram and you can start to connect with some of those people. Before you even start to post, honestly, I would just kind of be a lurker. That’s usually what I do, anytime I joined a new platform or I’m kind of trying to figure out a platform, just follow a few people. Follow me, follow Homesnap, follow some of the great brands that you enjoy in real estate and outside of real estate, you might even search some of your favorite local businesses here.
Katie Lance:
You might even make a list of your favorite pizza shop, winery, coffee shop, the places that you just love to go. Search to see if they’re on Instagram. Give them a follow. See what they’re posting and just kind of get a lay of the land. I think that’s important for a lot of people. It’s just, you don’t have to post right away. Just kind of get the lay the land, and then your first few posts, I would probably do something where you’re introducing yourself. Maybe it is a quick video or you’re not comfortable yet getting on video. Maybe it’s a little selfie where you’re just saying, kind of introducing yourself who you are, kind of the who, what, where, why. Where do you work? What market area do you serve?
Katie Lance:
Then lastly, I would say, look at what you’re doing in your business. What’s happening in your business right now? Are you working with some buyers, sellers? Are you new to real estate? Are you focused on the community? What’s happening in your business right now and start looking at your life as content. If you’re out and about, you’re about to go to a home inspection, you might say, “You know what? I’m going to do a quick post about that on Instagram. Maybe I’ll just do a quick little video about what a home inspection actually means, or just a little post about that.” Start kind of integrating it. Maybe you post just a couple of times a week to start, and then you can go from there. It’s just like anything, take those first few steps. I always say done is better than perfect. You don’t have to wait till everything’s in place.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yes. My mantra in life.
Katie Lance:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Don’t get too hung up on all that. There’s a lot of stuff to think about like, oh, hashtags and gosh, should I do this? Just start with where you’re at. I guess I’d start by lurking. For anyone listening, like reach out to me, I’m at KatieLance at Instagram. I would absolutely love if you’d say, “Hey, I listened to that podcast with Gayle.” I mean, I’d love to connect with you and I’m happy to send over some tips or take a peek at your Instagram or anything like that.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Great. All right. Well, everyone listening definitely take advantage of that. That’s some very valuable consulting that she just offered there.
Katie Lance:
Absolutely.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yeah. I love that, your life is content. That’s so true. I mean, that’s certainly how, like my daughters have lived their life. Life is definitely content.
Katie Lance:
Yeah, and I would say too, it doesn’t mean you have to share everything, right? That’s also the flip side. I mean, honestly, I could probably do a whole podcast just about what not to share on social media. I mean, I feel like the pendulum is swung where we see everything. If that’s your personality and you want to, that’s certainly your prerogative, but you don’t have to. I think we think, “Oh gosh, to be authentic, do I have to share everything?” No, absolutely not. There’s ways that you can share things where it’s comfortable for you. Maybe you’re not comfortable sharing your kids. That’s totally fine. That’s a personal preference with social media, but you could share maybe a book that you’re reading, or a beautiful sunset that you just experienced. Like there’s different ways to connect that still make it feel very authentic.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Absolutely. All right. Well, I had more questions I was going to ask you, but we’ve been talking like 30 minutes now. Try to keep these episodes to a manageable length so that people can usually listen to an episode maybe as they’re driving from their home to their office or running an errand or something. Before I let you go, I’m going to ask you the question I always ask you. If you don’t have any new answers, that’s totally fine, but you always do. You never disappoint. The question is as always any new apps that you’re using that you want to share with us?
Katie Lance:
Yes. I knew you were going to ask this, so I wrote down a couple.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Oh good, I’m so glad.
Katie Lance:
Absolutely, so on actually I think two of them, I don’t know. I know they’re not new, but I still use them and so I thought it would be relevant. Three I’ll share real quick. The first is Canva, which I know a lot of us use Canva. It’s not new, but I will say the mobile version of Canva has gotten way better over the years. I’ve been teaching a ton of classes on Canva, and Canva’s one of these things where it’s really overwhelming if you haven’t used it and just in general can feel very overwhelming. Once you get a few of the design or principles in place and really dig into the incredible amount of templates that Canva has, it’s crazy. I mean, there’s just so many options within there.
Katie Lance:
Especially for agents wanting to create content really quickly and easily. You can go into Canva and search templates like you could search the word search and it pulls up all these fun templates that look like a search engine, or you could search the word polls. If you want to kind of create a fun little poll or checklist within templates. Canva’s not new. I know that your listeners are like probably rolling their eyes like Canva’s not new. I know it’s not new, but I still love it. I think the mobile version has gotten even better.
Katie Lance:
The second half I would say is Videoshop, which I’ve actually also been using for probably about two years now. There’s tons of video editing apps out there. But I love Videoshop. I actually upgraded to the paid version of it. You don’t have to, but I love Videoshop because it allows me to do a lot of stuff. I do a lot of my reels editing within Videoshop. If I want to speed up the video or I want to trim a video or I want to do a voice over, I just find that sometimes the editing part of reels is a little clunky in Instagram. I think a lot of people feel that way. I love using Videoshop to just kind of assemble my reels and some of my other video content when I’m on the fly and that’s available on all platforms.
Katie Lance:
Then lastly, and I know I’m sure you’ve heard of this, you’ve probably been involved in it at some point, it’s Clubhouse. Clubhouse launched about a year or so ago. Clubhouse for your listeners who don’t know, it’s basically an audio-only social media network. [inaudible 00:33:41] it was just for iPhone. I think it’s opened up to Android now too, but I don’t know the longevity of Clubhouse. I really love it. I really enjoy it, but I think the bigger picture is I think audio content is something to watch. If I had a crystal ball, I would say like that I think is an area to watch. We’re starting to see Twitter has rolled out some audio stuff. Facebook is rolling out audio content, which is great for everybody listening to this. If you’re listening to this, you probably love audio content. You’re a podcast listener. I think that is one thing to really watch in the next 12 to 18 months. I think we’re going to see more platforms come out most likely with audio-type content, whether that’s Clubhouse or whether that evolves into something else.
Gayle Weiswasser:
All right. Well, you’ve heard that here first. Audio content-
Katie Lance:
Exactly, it’s the new-
Gayle Weiswasser:
Audio is the new video.
Katie Lance:
Exactly.
Gayle Weiswasser:
That’s great. Yeah. I did a show on Clubhouse. I think I’ve done one or two shows so far on Clubhouse and I’m kind of just curious to see what sort of longevity it has. I mean, I know that some people are saying, “Oh, it’s starting out.” I don’t think that’s possible given how quickly it got popular and how many people were using, I’d be surprised if it were done.
Katie Lance:
Yeah. Right.
Gayle Weiswasser:
All right. Well Katie, thank you so much for coming back on the show, sharing so much of your great wisdom. I’m sure most people know where they can find you, but it’s at Katie Lance Consulting, is that the name of your website, right?
Katie Lance:
Yeah. Katie Lance C. It’s just KatieLance.com is probably the easiest way to find me. We have a ton of freebies on our website. In fact, if any of your listeners go to KatieLance.com/freebies, we have tons of free resources and helpful hints and guides and all kinds of good stuff. Whether you are at the beginning of all of this or whether you are more advanced, we’ve got lots of good stuff over there. Of course, I’d love to connect with you on social media. I’m at KatieLance, basically everywhere on social media.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Katie has a bunch of great paid content as well, and courses that you can take in the Social Smart Academy, am I saying that right? That is right.
Katie Lance:
Yes. Get Social Smart Academy.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yes, Get Social Smart Academy. Definitely check that stuff out because she really knows what she’s talking about.
Katie Lance:
Thank you.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Sure. I look forward to seeing you on the circuit. I’ll see you at CMLS, I’ll see you at NAR, Inman, all the various industry events this fall, assuming that the world doesn’t float again between now and then. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your summer.
Katie Lance:
Thank you, Gayle. I so appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Gayle Weiswasser:
My pleasure.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Thanks for listening to another episode of the Snapshot. 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, continuing 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.