We talk to Glennda Baker, realtor with Ansley Real Estate in Atlanta, about how her TikTok videos accomplish the trifecta of content marketing: deliver relevant content of value, connect personally with her audience and increase brand visibility. Her content also helps build credibility which leads to referrals and business.
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 Gail 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. That helps us get new listeners. Now let’s get to today’s guest. Today’s guest on the show is Glennda Baker, who is a realtor with Ansley Atlanta Real Estate.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Glennda Baker, welcome to the show.
Glennda Baker:
Thank you so much Gayle. I am excited to spend some time with you today.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Well, we are excited and we’re going to talk about my favorite topic, which is TikTok. And I know that’s something we’ve talked about before on the show and if you’re listening and you’re thinking, oh my God, not another TikTok show, please bear with us.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Because I think Glennda Baker has some really interesting knowledge to share and a really interesting approach to TikTok, which is not necessarily the same as some of the other ones that we’ve done.
Gayle Weiswasser:
So stick with it and see what you can learn. So, first of all, Glennda Baker, before we jump into TikTok, talk to us about you. Tell us about your real estate business and how you got into it.
Glennda Baker:
Well, my name is Glennda Baker. I’m a real estate agent in Atlanta, Georgia. I have been selling real estate, oh my stars, almost 29 years. It’ll be 29 years in September. I always say I’ve been selling real estate since Jesus was a baby, because I feel like it’s been that long.
Glennda Baker:
I got into real estate, kind of interesting. I used to design and manufacturer ladies’ clothing here in Atlanta. My mom worked for a builder/developer and she used to drag me around to set divisions and open houses and she loved real estate.
Glennda Baker:
And so when I was designing and manufacturing ladies’ clothing, I was on the phone with her one day I was like, “This business. These people are so mean, like they are just awful to deal with.” And she said, “Pumpkin, you need to be a real estate agent.” And I was like, “I can’t be a real estate agent. I get car sick.” And she goes, “Not when you drive.” And so that started my real estate journey.
Glennda Baker:
I went to school, but I needed a paycheck, a regular paycheck. So I actually interviewed to be an assistant and could not get hired as an assistant. Nobody wanted to hire me. And so I went to a broker. I read a book How to Develop a Six-figure Income in Real Estate by Mike Ferry. And I took my license, my test. And back in the olden days, you had to do it in pencil. And you went down to the university and it took two weeks to get it back. So during that two weeks, I read that book. I did everything that the book said to do.
Glennda Baker:
And I went to everybody that I knew, and I said, “You can buy a house or sell a house. I’m going to be a real estate agent. What do you want to do?” And five people that I knew agreed to list their house with me in 1992. So I went to this broker and I said, “Hey, I’ve got five people who want to list their house with me. Nobody will hire me as an assistant. Will you hire me as a real estate agent?” And she’s like, “You have five listings?” I’m like, “Yes.” She’s like, “Absolutely I’ll hire you.” And that was in September of 1992. In that December, I was agent of the month.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Wow.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Great story.
Glennda Baker:
Yeah, [inaudible 00:03:10]
Glennda Baker:
It’s been a whirlwind. And you know, it’s funny because as soon as I got into real estate, I was in love with it. I was in love with real estate. It was just really something that it was my passion from the start.
Glennda Baker:
Of course, the first three transactions I had, people died. Like the first one was the seller died. The second one was the listing agent died. And the third one was the buyer. One of the buyers died. And so my broker said to me, she’s like, “Glennda Baker, I got to tell you someone [inaudible 00:03:38] dies in the transaction that you’re involved in. I think does this might be a bad omen for you.” But I got through transaction number four without anybody dying. So it’s been smooth sailing since then for the most part.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Nice. Good, good, good. All right. I’m glad to hear it.
Gayle Weiswasser:
All right. So we are going to talk about TikTok and Glennda Baker has a really interesting TikTok account. Why don’t you say what your handle is right now, so that if somebody is not driving and wants to just kind of pull it up and take a look at it before they listened to the show. What is your TikTok handle?
Glennda Baker:
It’s Glennda Bakerbaker and I’m Glennda Baker across all platforms. But it’s Glennda Baker with two Ns, G L E N N D A, Baker, B A K E R.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Okay.
Gayle Weiswasser:
And I’ll, of course, link to that in our show notes so that these people can have an easy way to link to the account.
Gayle Weiswasser:
So what I think makes Glennda Baker’s accounts stand out from some of the other ones that I’ve seen, and I do follow a fair number of agent accounts on TikTok. And I’ve had lots of people on the show who have accounts, is almost the simplicity of yours. You don’t have lots and lots of gimmicks. You’re not really like creating, you’re not sort of following TikTok memes or as much viral stuff, as much as I’ve seen other people do. It’s very straightforward and yet very consistent and very informative.
Gayle Weiswasser:
So take us through your decision, first of all, to try TikTok and jump into it and then talk to us about your decision to create the look and feel of your account.
Glennda Baker:
Okay, so, great question.
Glennda Baker:
So February of 2020, I met with a guy whose name is Dean Aguilar, and he helps brands on social media. And I said to him, “Look, I really want to do a lot more video on social media. I see that that’s where it’s going. And I really want to do that.” And that was February 6th of 2020. And he’s like, “Okay, I’d love to help you with that.”
Glennda Baker:
I got back to Atlanta, I talked to Denver, my videographer, and [inaudible 00:05:31] to get some calls to get an idea. An agent had posted a video. She had tagged him. I liked the style. And so when he gave me the pricing, I was like, “Get out! Like you are insane.” And then, this pandemic hit and I’m like, “Thank goodness. I didn’t hire that videographer.”
Glennda Baker:
And then once I got to August and figured out we were going to make it through this pandemic, I called another videographer and he gave me a price and he was not excited. So I called Denver back and I said, “Hey, you might remember me.” And he’s like, “Yeah.” And he’s like, “Tell me what kind of video you want to shoot.” And I said, “I want to shoot TikTok videos.” And he goes, “You do realize you can shoot those from your phone, right?” And I’m like, “Yeah, but that’s not what I want.”
Glennda Baker:
I consume a lot of content from TikTok. And I ran across this guy, Matthew Hussey, who gives dating advice. And I love the way that he delivers content. He does it in an interview. You feel like you’re a fly on the wall. He’s talking to somebody else. It just really like for me, it really engaged me. So I was like, I love this format.
Glennda Baker:
So I told Denver, I said, “I’m going to send you some videos. This is what I want it to feel like.” And we talked pricing again and I said, “Well, I’m thinking this price.” And he goes, “If you’ll sign a six-month contract, I’ll agree to do it for that price.”
Glennda Baker:
I said, “How many videos can we shoot a day?” He’s like, “Well, it depends on how good you are.” I’m like, “Oh, I’m going to be great on video. I can shoot a ton of videos.” And sure enough, the first day we shot eight TikToks in the morning. And then we shot four long-form videos for YouTube in the afternoon. And it went really well.
Glennda Baker:
And that format really worked out well. And I started posting them and I was getting some traction. People were liking them. I was building my audience. And then the next month I was able to do more. And then the next month I was able to do more. And then this last sitting, I did like 45 TikTok videos.
Glennda Baker:
So I shoot one day a month. I start at 8:00 AM and I finish about 6:00 or 7:00 PM. I take a lunch break. And people really seem to be responding to the video because, number one, it’s all about educating the consumer, client advocacy, I don’t know if that sounded right. And just informing them, inspiring them and impacting that. And then I do a lot of Story Time.
Glennda Baker:
And I think the first one that kind of went crazy was when I sold the wrong house. That Story Time went really crazy. And then my best video to-date is about when I made $137,000 on one house and I pissed that money away. And that one has almost 9 million views. So across the platform I have about 45 million views cumulatively across 235 videos.
Glennda Baker:
So people are really buying into the content and the style, definitely the information and the Story Time seems to be the biggest hit.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Got it.
Gayle Weiswasser:
I think that you’ve made such a good point here, which is that you’re really providing very relevant information in your videos. You know, there’s not much sort of frivolity to them. It’s really about getting questions answered that people want to know the answers to. And connecting with your audience. And that’s one of the themes that has come up on the show very, very frequently is that one of the great tactics for social media is providing relevant content of value and how that leads to a strong relationship with your audience. Because they feel like you’re giving them something and that’s making it worth their time to listen. So-
Glennda Baker:
Well, they know me. Like they-
Gayle Weiswasser:
And they know you. [crosstalk 00:09:11]
Glennda Baker:
But my people they like talking. I mean, like there’s a ton of engagement in the comments. And like this morning, my buyer fatigue video was on HLN, Headline News. So not only is the consumer loving it, but also news outlets. They’re seeing the value in it. So that’s kind of crazy to me as well.
Gayle Weiswasser:
That’s fantastic. So you’re accomplishing many goals with one little piece of video content. You’re delivering relevant content of value. You’re humanizing yourself to people. They’re getting to know you and trusting your brand. And you’re increasing your own brand visibility with outside sources. So that’s fantastic.
Gayle Weiswasser:
So it’s funny because you said that you sort of decided to avoid using this fancy, expensive professional videographer, but yet your videos look very professional. What’s your trick to making them look so clean and, I guess for lack of any other word, professional?
Glennda Baker:
Well, I did avoid using Denver to start with. But ultimately, I ended up using Denver because I wanted the videos to look professional. So I don’t want them to look staged, but I want them to be an extension of my brand. And quality is extension of my brand. And so for me, engaging a videographer, because I tried to do it with me, just me using my phone. And the quality that I was getting wasn’t consistent with my brand. And so ultimately I did end up working with Denver. And Denver is, he does stuff for Disney, and Time Warner, and Netflix. So I feel so fortunate that he makes time for me, some little real estate agent in Atlanta, Georgia.
Gayle Weiswasser:
That’s great. And I do think it differentiates you a bit on the platform. Because there are so many videos on there that are definitely not professionally shot, and that’s kind of the beauty of TikTok. And that’s one of the things that people love about it. But for you, I think it’s a great fit and it’s definitely eye-catching as you scroll through the feed.
Glennda Baker:
Yes, I would agree. And, and we do it. It’s funny, because when I talk about Zillow, everybody knows that I’m going to look at the camera. And it’s funny because in the comments people will say, “You know, that if her thumbnail is her looking at the camera, she’s about to throw some shade on Zillow.” So I love it. That my base, my glitteratis, that they know what to expect if it’s a Story Time, or if it’s about Zillow. So it’s so cool because they’re my little community, and I love it.
Gayle Weiswasser:
That’s great. And we love anytime anyone throws shade on Zillow. So keep it up. That’s fantastic. And I’ll be sure to share and like, respond and engage with all of those ones that talk about Zillow.
Gayle Weiswasser:
So let’s talk more general-level about the content. What is the goal of all of this?
Gayle Weiswasser:
We’ve talked a little bit about getting visibility and we’ve talked a little bit about building relationships with your audience. But we, of course at the end of the day, want to see this leading to money in your pocket.
Gayle Weiswasser:
So tell us about how this content gets you there and give us some specific examples of times when this has really paid off for you.
Glennda Baker:
So my whole deal is I want to be an advocate for the consumer. I want to be an advocate to level-up my industry. And that is my whole goal with video.
Glennda Baker:
So whether I’m leveling-up another real estate professional, or I am giving cautionary advice to the consumer, that is my goal with each video. Part of what has come along with the videos is business.
Glennda Baker:
So does it help me with agent to agent referrals because a lot of agents follow me? Absolutely.
Glennda Baker:
But where it really has given me the most momentum is nothing accelerates credibility faster than proof. And consumers today are consuming video content and taking that as the holy grail. And real estate agents, and other professions, have an opportunity today that they have never had before to write their story. To write their own credibility.
Glennda Baker:
And by doing video and talking about specific instances that happen in an inspection, specific instances where you saved the day, where you helped the client, where you advocated for your client, that is your opportunity to build that proof, to build that credibility with buyers and sellers.
Glennda Baker:
And it’s a layering effect. So back in 1992, you knew, did the consumer come from a sign call? Did they come from a referral? It was very easy to narrow that down. But now people, they find you on Instagram, they find you on Facebook. They know you from the neighborhood, they know you from the country club. But the thing about it is, is that where brick and mortar kind of defined credibility back in the olden days, social media is that brick and mortar credibility.
Glennda Baker:
And now you have the ability to create your own narrative through video. So specifically, we had an agent-to-agent referral, but before that agent-to-agent referral would sign on to us, they went to TikTok and looked at, they went to all social media, our Instagram, our LinkedIn, our TikTok to make sure, hey, is she legit?
Glennda Baker:
And so I think that that’s where agents are missing the opportunity to build their own brand through social media, through video, through TikTok. And you need to understand, who are you talking to? Who is your avatar? And make sure that you are creating content that is going to be pleasing for them to consume. And if you can reverse engineer into who is your avatar, you can curate your content to build your brand, to build your credibility. Does that make sense, Gayle?
Gayle Weiswasser:
That makes a lot of sense. And I love that. It’s come up on the show a lot. And I think it’s such an important theme, which is to look at your audience first and build the content for your audience rather than putting out your content and hoping it finds an audience.
Gayle Weiswasser:
I think that’s such a smart approach to content marketing and just marketing in general. So I’m so glad that you said that.`
Glennda Baker:
Well, and then also you’ve to be authentic and true to yourself. And I think that that’s a mistake that agents make is that they filter too much.
Glennda Baker:
So, you’ve got that picture that you took, and it doesn’t look quite right and you apply this filter to make it look better to everybody else. People do that with content and they lose their authenticity. They’re not true to themselves. And that diminishes your brand.
Glennda Baker:
I am pretty distinct in my style. And people say to me all the time, “Glennda Baker, you say bad words and you’re pretty strong. Some of the stuff you say.” And I always say “That weeds out the riff-raff.”
Glennda Baker:
Because at some point, the buyer or the seller, the agent, is going to see who I really am and it’s not going to be consistent with what they want. And we’re already down the road and I’ve lost so much time. And so have they, I’d much rather people see who I am off the bat and make a decision, do they want to deal with me or not sooner rather than later, because bad news doesn’t get better with time. And if you fake who you are, and then that comes out later down the road, number one, they’re disillusioned by the fakeness of you and you’ve lost their trust. So for me, I just put it all out there. If you love me, you love me. And if you don’t, there’s plenty of people that you might love.
Gayle Weiswasser:
I love that. That’s been another theme of the show that over 160-something episodes that I’ve done. Let people get to know who you are before you get too far down the road ,or before you do a pitch or whatever it is that you need to do, because they’re going to make that decision a lot earlier based on what they know about you. And I think, like you said, if what they see doesn’t match with what is in front of them in real life, it is a waste of time for everybody.
Glennda Baker:
Absolutely. A hundred percent.
Gayle Weiswasser:
All right. So how much time do you spend on TikTok every week? Let’s talk about just being on TikTok and absorbing it. And then also how much time do you spend creating content for TikTok?
Glennda Baker:
So we, we film one day a month, 11 hours. And that gives me enough content for a month. So we’ve got a month in the can for me to distribute. I typically, and it’s kind of interesting, I was posting every morning from between 6:00 and 7:00 AM, because I wake up every morning between 5:50 and 6:10, for some unknown reason. I have no idea. I don’t even have an alarm, but my body wakes up at that time. So I typically post between 6:00 and 7:00 AM. And I went through a lull in my videos, and I almost think that TikTok thought I was a bot. So we kind of mixed it a little bit and started posting at some different times to get the algorithm back to normal and wake them up and let them know that I wasn’t a bot. But I post every single day.
Glennda Baker:
And after I post my content, I log out of the app, whether it’s Instagram or TikTok. I log out and I don’t touch it for a couple of hours. But the way that I work is, I work 15 minutes in my business. And then I work 10 minutes on my business. So for 15 minutes I stalk people and typically I stalk them on Facebook. I stalk them on Instagram. So I can reach out to them and touch them in meaningful ways, because anything that people post on social media, they want you to know about. So that’s kind of how I stalk my clients.
Glennda Baker:
And then I’d go back to TikTok around lunchtime and respond to comments and kind of see how the videos are doing. And I typically respond to the video that was posted the day before. So I’ll post I’ll post a few replies to comments in the video I posted that morning. But I focus on the one I posted the day before, because I want the people that I post day before to come back and look at the new one.
Glennda Baker:
So that’s kind of my system and I spend about, well, my screen time would probably tell you more accurately. But I focus probably a couple of hours a day just in replies to comments and posting. Posting in my stories, redirecting over a TikTok for my stories and then kind of posting them on LinkedIn and some different places. Did that answer your question?
Gayle Weiswasser:
Sure. Yeah. That’s great.
Glennda Baker:
Super.
Gayle Weiswasser:
All right. One thing I noticed which anyone would that who’s watching your tick talks is that you wear a similarly themed item of clothing in all of them. So you have a sweater, that’s got a star pattern on it. Tell us about that. And when you mentioned that you had a background in clothes, selling, designing, that didn’t surprise me. But how did you settle on that theme?
Glennda Baker:
So my mom always told me, “You’re a star, be a star.” And so every day she told me, “Remember, Pumpkin, you’re a star. Remember you’re a star.” And so she always told me that, and my kids went to Christian school.
Glennda Baker:
And the first year that we sent them to Christian school, I got a note home the first week. And it said, “Your daughter took the Lord’s name in vain. She said, ‘Oh my God.’ We don’t say that here. You need to talk to your kids and get off of that.” And so we sat down at the dinner table that night and we said, “Okay you can’t say this anymore. What are we going to say? When we would say something like that?” And I said, “What about, oh, my stars?” And literally Victoria was in sixth-grade. So she’s in sixth grade, that makes her what 12? So that was what, 18 years ago that we started that, “Oh my stars.”
Glennda Baker:
And then that kind of tied back in, and everybody associated me with a star. I’ve always loved a star. And now I just, any time I’m out and about, and I search star dresses, or star sweaters, or star shirts or store clothes. And of course I get re-targeted all of the time. People send me stars all the time.
Glennda Baker:
So it’s just been kind of something that I love. I love sparkle. And my grandma name is Glitter, and my fans are called Glitteratis. So it’s just, I kind of all tied into the brand. And it’s funny because if I’m not wearing the star shirt in a video, they’re like, “Where’s the star? Why aren’t you wearing any stars?”
Glennda Baker:
So, it’s so funny, in fact, today I have on a star dress and I was like, I just bought. And the girl’s like, “Oh, this is so cute.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I do TikToks.” She goes, “Oh gosh, you’re the real estate agent on TikTok.” So she didn’t even associate my name with my TikTok. But as soon as I said, “Oh, I wear these stars on TikTok,” She was like, “You’re the real estate agent.” I’m like, “Absolutely.”
Glennda Baker:
So, people kind of tie it all together. And I think that you want to be memorable because what makes you different than everybody else? You know? I mean, there’s thousands real estate agents. So whenever I go somewhere, to a conference or something, I typically wear something that sparkles or has stars on it.
Glennda Baker:
And you know, it’s funny because there’s a little story on my TikTok about these girls at this brokerage. And they were like, “Who does she think is ever going to take her seriously in all of that sparkle?” And that was when I first got into real estate. And it’s funny, out of those four girls, only two of them are still in business. And I pass them from time to time, and they laugh every time they see me. And I wonder if they ever knew that I overheard them say that about me.
Glennda Baker:
So yeah, it’s kind of been much shtick, and it works.
Gayle Weiswasser:
That’s so fun. I love it.
Glennda Baker:
Yeah.
Gayle Weiswasser:
And it’s not difficult, or it doesn’t take a lot of technology, and it’s not ridiculously expensive. You just have a theme and it just works.
Glennda Baker:
Yeah. Memorable, be memorable,
Gayle Weiswasser:
Memorable. That’s great. So a lot of people, certainly over the age of maybe, I don’t know, 30 would say that TikTok is a fad or it’s just for young people and not for them. It’s not a serious platform for serious marketers, people building a serious brand. What do you say to that?
Glennda Baker:
I think that it depends on what you’re putting out, who’s consuming it. We’ve had five listing appointments in the last two months, all of those over a million. In fact, one of those three and a half million. That lady is 47-years-old. All of those people have been over 40. They’ve had over a million dollar properties. Interestingly enough, all except for the three-and-a-half-million-dollar person, those people found me through their adult children saying, “Hey, there’s a real estate agent on TikTok you need to talk to.” So-
Gayle Weiswasser:
That’s so great.
Glennda Baker:
Yeah. So don’t discount the power of TikTok and the way people consume information. Snack size and bite-size information. If it is valuable, people will consume it. It doesn’t matter what platform you’re putting it on.
Gayle Weiswasser:
I love that. And I’ve actually heard people say that a fair amount on this show that, sometimes it’s people’s kids on TikTok, who then bring the account to the attention of their parents. And so you never know who’s influencing decisions within a house. So don’t dismiss any demographic.
Glennda Baker:
Yeah, Absolutely.
Glennda Baker:
And for me, those kids that are graduating from high school, their parents are about to make a change in their life and their lifestyle because the kids have gone off to college. They’re empty-nesters. They’re going from their big house down to right-sizing.
Glennda Baker:
So I think that people discount where you’re going to get the next lead from. And when you do that, you’re just discounting yourself.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Yep. That’s great. All right.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Well, we are winding down. Glennda Baker, this has been amazing. I love talking to people who are creative and successful on TikTok.
Gayle Weiswasser:
I just think it’s so much fun. Before I let you go, though, I’m going to ask my signature question that I ask everyone who comes on the show, which is, are there some apps on your phone that you think maybe our audience hasn’t heard of that you use on a regular basis?
Gayle Weiswasser:
And it can really be for any purpose for fun, for entertainment, productivity, anything.
Glennda Baker:
Oh, great question. So there probably isn’t anything on my phone that everybody hasn’t heard of. Probably my favorite that I do just about everything in, is Notes. Because I take copious notes on everybody.
Glennda Baker:
The other thing that I do that probably most people don’t do, is I attach everything about you to the contact in my phone. So if we were talking and you told me that your favorite concert ever in your life was Air Supply, I made that note in my phone. And then that way, when Air Supply comes to your city, I can see if I can get meet-and-greet tickets for you to go backstage.
Glennda Baker:
Do you think that that is a memory that you will connect to me for the rest of your life at any time that you think about somebody in real estate, you will always think about me.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Smart.
Glennda Baker:
Yeah. So I don’t have anything too outlandish on my phone, but the things that I have, I probably utilize them a little bit different than most people.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Got it. Okay. Well, thank you. That’s a great answer.
Gayle Weiswasser:
All right. Well Glennda Baker, thank you. I will link to Glennda Baker’s TikTok account. Is there anyplace else you’d like to send people to find you?
Glennda Baker:
Do you know, Gayle, I’ll tell you. I’m the most un-anonymous person in the world. If you just Google Glennda Baker, you can find me anywhere and everywhere. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, my website, everything.
Glennda Baker:
The most important thing to me is that I want to make sure that I had the opportunity to impact, inspire, or inform somebody with my words today. And if I’ve done that, just shoot me a DM and just let me know that I helped you.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Wonderful. All right. Thank you, Glennda Baker. I look forward to following your content on TikTok.
Glennda Baker:
Thanks Gayle. I appreciate the opportunity. I hope you have a fantastic day.
Gayle Weiswasser:
Thank you.
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.
Gayle Weiswasser:
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.