Are you working on your 2022 plan? Recently, I was honored to be a featured speaker at NAR Annual and gave a presentation all about putting together your 2022 plan. Whether you are a real estate agent or broker – I know you will get a lot out of this article!
Often, social media becomes this ‘bolt on’ when we bolt it onto our business when we have time. Instead, let’s be more intentional with our strategy! Here’s where to start.
Time block on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis
Start with time-blocking 10-15 minutes a day to ‘focus 5.’ Scroll through your feed and connect with at least five people. Don’t be a ‘drive-by liker’ but take a few minutes to like, comment and interact with others. This is so important because every platform has an algorithm. What we see depends on what we are engaging with.
If you want to increase your engagement – spend as much time not just posting but engaging with others as well. Also, when you comment – leave meaningful comments. A meaningful comment is at least four words. So, instead of “congrats’ say “congrats Laura, I’m so happy for you!”
Also, take the time daily to respond to all of your comments and notifications.
Set aside 30-60 minutes for the week ahead. What is coming up for the week ahead? We don’t want to set it and forget it but it’s important to plan ahead!
On a monthly basis, plan 2-4 hours a month to batch create your content (i.e., video, graphics, etc.) and on a yearly basis, plan 1-2 days to evaluate your plan from the year before and create your new plan for the year ahead.
Just say ‘no’ to generic content in 2022! Remember, the best content you can post is the content you create that is in your voice!
Create a pillar content plan that you can commit to each month
What is pillar content? Something that may require time, money and/or resources. It’s valuable information in your voice (with YOUR opinion!) It’s not canned, not boring, not automated! For example, it could be recorded video, Facebook Live, podcast or blog content.
What I recommend is that you decide what type of content you’d like to create on a consistent basis. Pick a day once or twice a month that you will publish – add it to your calendar. Batch create your content once a month – schedule one day a month to create this content.
Brainstorm what is your brand all about and find your voice for your content
Although you are most-likely part of a brand with your office or franchise – you are your own brand too. Here are three questions to ask yourself to help you find your voice for your content:
- What type of clients do you LOVE to work with? Why? Or not love? Why?
- Why do you love what you do?
- What is most important to you professionally? Personally?
These questions will help you with your content, social media, and all of your marketing. Remember, we can’t be all things to all people. Lean into you are and don’t be vanilla!
Think beyond the now
Next, decide on your distribution plan for your pillar content + the type of content for the rest of your social media posts.
If you decide to publish a video once a week – consider how you can repurpose it. Here’s a sample schedule:
Tuesday:
- Upload a new video to your Facebook Business Page
- Upload the same video to your YouTube
- Upload a 1 min version of the video to Instagram and add YouTube link to IG profile
Friday:
- Re-share the video as a new post on Facebook
- Create an Instagram Story about the video.
Sunday:
- Upload the video to IGTV and promote on IG Stories
In this example – you can see how you can take one video and turn it into to multiple posts. Then, you can fill in your schedule with additional posts such as:
- Monday market update post
- Wednesday Wisdom
- Throwback Thursday
- Feature Friday
- Community info
In addition, you may find using a content grid like this can be helpful in staying organized and never running out of content ideas: https://katielance.com/contentgrid/
Evaluate what has worked in the past (and what has not)
Look at your Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube analytics at least once or twice a year. Reflect and see what content is working on which platform. Review which posts received the highest level of reach, views, and engagement. Did certain pieces of content perform better on one platform over another? Only by looking at analytics and the data can we get an accurate picture of what is working and resonating with our audience.
Lastly, I want to share a few of my favorite go-to apps I love!
- Canva – great for graphics
- WordSwag - great for graphics
- Videoshop - great for video editing
- Videorama - great for video editing
- InShot - great for video editing
- Later.com - great for social media scheduling
- HootSuite - - great for social media scheduling
At the end of the day, remember that people do business with people they know, like, trust and relate to – this is the business reason behind social media for real estate agents and brokers! I would love to hear from you – do you agree or disagree? Connect with me on Instagram and let me know! https://www.instagram.com/katielance/
Get more social media resources to elevate your business: How to Rock Your Instagram Webinar and How to Navigate and Maximize Facebook to Bring You More Business Webinar.
Katie Lance is the author of the best-selling book #GetSocialSmart and founder and CEO of Katie Lance Consulting, a social media strategy firm and founder of the #GetSocialSmart Academy. She’s been recognized by Inman News as one of the 100 most influential people in real estate and is a featured keynote speaker at many industry events.
