Who is Tech Savvy Agent?

Who is Tech Savvy Agent?

Chris Smith has a passion for technology, social media and all things Apple; and a mission to help Real Estate Agents become more “at home” with some of the tools available to them.  The result so far has been a significant Social Media following on Twitter and Facebook, a widely read blog, and he is now a highly sought after speaker and coach, not just in the US, but worldwide.  Recently, Chris spoke to Sold Magazine’s new editor, Samantha McLean, about what types of technology Real Estate Agents should be focusing on, how to get the most out of them, and where it’s all heading.

In Part one of this two part series, Chris discusses how Tech Savvy Agent started and grew to where it is today and how the Tech Savvy Agent “concept” became a blueprint for the technology and social media strategies now employed by some “savvy” Realtors in the US.  He also provides us with some insight as to how Real Estate Agents can make more effective use of the Social Media Tools available today.

How did “Tech Savvy Agent” start?

My background is more sales and technology than Real Estate. I’m not a Realtor; but have had a lot of experience in the mortgage industry.  I also spent time working for “Move, Inc”, the public company that owns Realtor.com (the most visited website in the world for Real Estate, and the official site of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in the US.  

For the first year and a half when I started with Move, I went to two different offices a day every day and I was showcasing the latest and greatest technologies sometimes – sometimes to two people, sometimes to between fifteen and twenty people. I can remember my first appointment, I was so nervous; I had a great presentation prepared and as soon as I was about five minutes into it they all stopped me and said “Chris everything you are showing looks great… in fact there was a guy here a month ago who showed us the same stuff…and we bought all of it -- but we need help with it.  Even though you’re doing great, we didn’t think that you were coming here to present the products, we thought you were coming here to teach us!”

From that day forward, I just took the mentality of “helping” these Realtors to learn to use what they already have access to.  This was back in 2008, where the market was really tough, probably the worst year in our history; it was when everything started to plummet. So, actually, the only way I could get anyone to buy anything from me was if was to offer to help them set it up and implement it, not just purchase it.  

I started helping people by doing a two hour “one to one” webinar for every single person like this that made a purchase, and it worked really well; people appreciated the help.  But for me, it didn’t scale very well, because I could only help one person at a time!  After about six months, I started using Facebook, Twitter and blogging as a method of helping people on a national level, and that’s how Tech Savvy Agent was born.

You now have almost 17,000 fans on Facebook, how did you grow this so quickly?

When we first created the Facebook page, there was no blog, no Twitter, no YouTube.  I started running some Facebook advertisements, which are great because you can target to specific market segments and demographics; including “by Employer”.  So I started targeting the larger Real Estate franchises, running ads basically saying “Who is Tech Savvy Agent?”, with some simple copy that went along the lines of “…Are you a Realtor who loves technology?  If so, there is a new community on Facebook, come join us.”  Facebook advertising is relatively in expensive and within about 30 days we had over 1,000 people join us so there was definitely a demand for this type of resource.  We just grew from there by people writing on our wall, engaging with us, commenting on posts and asking questions.

How do Real Estate Agents in the US view Social Media?

Social media has been presented as this great new opportunity to broadcast your message, and there are a lot of agents who don’t use it to the greatest advantage.  And by that, I mean you should use social media to build relationships in the online world the same way that you would build relationships in the normal offline world.

Without the tools, before the tools, before social, before Twitter, people historically are going to buy things from people that they like and trust. And you are never going to get anyone to want to buy a home from you unless they like you and trust you, and broadcasting your listings on social media is not the way to do that.

I always say to Agents when I am coaching them: “Imagine if you got invited to a cocktail party where everybody had a high IQ, and everybody was there to network; but you were the one that had to get up on stage and do a sales presentation while everyone else just wanted to have a drink?”

Part of the problem, really is going back to the “age” issue.  The average age of a Realtor in the US is 51. Facebook and Twitter were adopted earlier on by the younger generation, that is, it all started with college kids. Demographically the age range is now growing and you have the 50+ 65+ joining.  I always try to tell Realtors that “there is a party that has been happening for over 7 years; you’re getting there very very late; and not only are you getting there late, as soon as you get there you are trying to sell people stuff!”

What’s happening is that they are marketing to others the way that they don’t like getting marketed to!  If you went to a party, and the first thing a person did when they came over to you, before they even said hello, was to hand you a flyer of a listing, what would you do with that flyer – it would go right in the garbage right?  So tell them that you like their dress, tell them their hair looks nice, tell them that their kids go to school where you went to school, normal things that you would do offline!  The offline relationship building methodology is not that different to online, although online will take you longer, because there is a screen between the usual person-to-person interface.

Instead of embracing and nurturing relationships over the long haul, agents are also trying to score to quickly, close too quickly and the first time they see a tweet from someone who is looking for a home, they get all excited and say, “Hi! I’m a Realtor, what would you like to see?” instead of doing what they should be doing, which is using their common sense and building a relationship first. 

Do you have any advice for Agents who wish to improve their social media strategy?

You can’t look at Facebook or Twitter as any sort of “silver bullet” that is going to find you another five deals per year.

With Social Media, agents should be listening, helping and then – and only then - selling.  At the moment, some are just trying to sell without listening or helping which is not the best strategy!

We are seeing some interesting patterns here in the States.  You really have to be a good Realtor before you can be a good Realtor and be good on Social Media.  Because social media makes everything so public now, it’s just becomes more obvious who is good at marketing and who isn’t.

If you look at most Realtors Facebook pages you will most times see a pattern of status updates that have some sort of famous quote, followed by a listing, followed by sale; rinse and repeat. But, would you ever go up to someone in person that you hadn’t met before or seen in a while and, before you said anything else, say “John - The early bird gets the worm?” This is not holding a conversation; this is broadcasting - and bad broadcasting at that. 

With facebook always recommend the 10:1 rule.  That is, for every one time that you update your status; there should be ten times that you comment on somebody else’s status.

Consider this – what is more powerful - telling someone you are going to an open house,  or telling someone that you are also proud of the fact that their son or daughter did a great job at their weekend baseball game?

Instead of making cold calls for an hour, if you wrote on peoples walls for an hour, what would that do for your relationship building in general?  Remember, when you write on someone’s wall, it alerts them that someone wrote on their wall, and it also emails them that someone wrote on their wall.  So for most people who are just doing status updates of listing, listing, and listing – is anyone seeing it, or even caring? The answer is probably not. 

The next question is that clients also ask me what they should write on walls.  My answer is -- always look at the persons information tab!  This tells you heaps about the person that’s relevant to starting a great conversation – ie what their interests are, what schools they went to, how old they are, what music they like and much more.  You can also read their recent updates to see what they have been up to.  So my advice is to use this information to engage with people like a real person!

Real Estate is not rocket science; it’s a people business. If you like people and you interact well with them, they will call you when it’s time to do something, or they will refer someone to you.

What do you say to Agents that don’t have time for social media or blogging, or think it’s a waste of time?

If there is a transaction in front of a Realtor, like a listing or a sale, then they will always focus on that transaction. And the good agents are always focused on their transactions; and quite rightly so.  But, it is a shame to say that they are “too busy to blog” or “too busy for social media”.

However, the time spent on transactions versus the time spent on technology and social media is a bit like the difference between a “savings” and a “cheque” account.

We are always so focused on the cheque account because that’s where we complete our day to day transactions.  Social Media is more like a savings account, where you can be building quality relationships today that you will be able to leverage at some point in the future.  So if you don’t focus at least some time and energy on your savings account; you may find your pipeline in a weaker position than it needs to be at some point in the future.

A really great quote from my days writing mortgage loans is that “Money and numbers follow” (ie they don’t lead!). I believe that Tech Savvy Agent is proof of that.  If you are able to focus on nothing but genuinely caring about your potential customers – look what can happen.  We are well beyond wondering it will work, it works!  I have some great opportunities in front of me at the moment – is it because I am a blogger, or because I am on Twitter?  I don’t think so, it’s because I love engaging with people, and selflessly helping thousands of people.  Build the relationship first and the reward will follow.

Next Issue: Chris talks about some of the core tools that are needed by all Agents and explains the difference between these “core tools” and the “shiny objects”.  He also gives us some insight into how he believes technology in Real Estate will evolve over the next few years. To find out more about Chris and Tech Savvy Agent, visit www.techsavvyagent.com.  Follow Chris on Twitter: @techsavvyagent.