The Real ROI of LinkedIn for Brokers (From Posts to Deals)

0:00 Your content is better than 99% of the brokers that I see online. Oh my gosh, that's. Yeah, that's true. You're LinkedIn. You're fire on LinkedIn. Talks out. Talk to me a bit about the journey, how you got Sir, and what everybody's like. What's the arrow? Sure. I'm like. That's not a tangible, but I want a girl, yes. Yeah, no, I'm really happy to. A little bit of my journey is basically discovering LinkedIn. And like late 2020, there were some people still hanging around from the post COVID boom, by the way #1 social media regret. I think about it all the time.

0:40 I was doing basically nothing during COVID, like nothing. I was brokering stuff. I just didn't know about the world. And I journeyed late 2020, there was a few people that had done like daily or weekly videos on LinkedIn. And I just looked at him and thought, Oh my gosh, that is so putting yourself out there like I can't believe it. And then I started reading Sean. So then I found Sean Ward's post and I started reading these like post about life and brokerage and how it mixed together. And I was like, this is exactly how I think. So I just started writing all like that just gave me a license to write who I am and have always loved writing.

1:22 You know, I kind of picture, when I'm running, I sort of picture people. So I'll picture an investor or I'll picture another broker or a younger broker. And so Sean really gave me permission and then I kind of start like everybody else does. Hey, I sold this apartment building. I sold this, you know, this investment sale. I will say one of probably my number one client to date saw one of those DM me and said I'm interested in Central Kentucky. We've now done 6 deals together, most recently this fall. So LinkedIn has paid for itself if you look at ROI a bunch of times over. But I think it was just growing and understanding that you can do more in that. The worst case scenario is people don't care, right? Like that's what I think.

2:04 It's so funny. People are like, I can never do that. I can never put myself out there. I'm like, people already don't care and worst case scenario is you put yourself out there and they don't care, but at least you had fun, you were creative, you told a story, you grew that skill. You know that that can be great. I will say it probably took two years to get traction. You know, I probably did two years of posting. That would get an average of 8 reactions. And then you get up around 5 or 600 followers or whatever LinkedIn calls them. And then the algorithm will take you, you know, further and then you know, honestly, Aviva like just obsessed with video.

2:47 Don't know how else to say it. Like video nerd, just watch. I watch Peter McKinnon and Ali Abdul. Like I don't watch a ton of commercial real estate that there are a few. I don't. There aren't a ton of commercial real estate video creators like on YouTube, but nothing makes me happier than like a well packaged Chris before K video with good audio and graphics and I just like I just love it. What should I do? You should tell me where should I take it. That's like the question like where's the last train stop? What's the point of all of this? When has have I reached enough, right? There's no that right for a lot of people. I talked to my dad, who's retired about this. Enough is never enough.

3:35 It's like, what's wrong with me? I have everything I could ever want, but it's not enough, you know? So to answer your question, there is no Sir, as long as refer back to what you were just talking about, you authentically enjoy it. That's very clear. If authenticity just pours through these digital devices, I find to just be so interesting and people can smell it from a mile away. And if you're not into it, it shows. And it's very clear. And so to just continue to keep authentically bringing value to the masses, understanding that a, societally, this is where we all hang out, right? Realistically B brokers in our industry are median age is like 55-6.

4:33 Right. You know, understanding where that opportunity is to insert ourselves and just the that we are communities and society consumes media marketing, etcetera. Having an understanding of that A is pretty good to bring visibility to yourself, but then B visibility to the properties that you're ultimately transacting. Yes, yes. And to your point, I now have a media page on my Bovs, which I didn't before, although I did talk about it obviously. But Jake Glazer, who sells like truly very skill driven, great young broker in Southern California, sells smaller multifamily stuff. He shared when I comment on one of my posts and said, you know, I do have a media page now for on my Bovs to show like that social reach, which is going to become more and more powerful, as well as video.

5:31 You know, like to your point about pushing into new boundaries where people aren't right, like as the market gets more and more flooded with people riding on LinkedIn or using graphics or that kind of thing. That's where I said, OK, what's what's next and how you can incorporate video, which is I think where it's all headed. You know, we're showing someone a property in AR probably in five, you know, to ten years or whatever. And you can kind of like walk through it if you have the right glasses on and see it, if you're just in your driveway, if you all you need to open space and you can kind of like get a sense of it. I think that's going to be, it's going to be good to get a head start, you know, in that world. And my good friend Matt owns the brokerage here.

6:12 They're all independently owned, but there's over 200 SVN offices. And I do love this company. And one of the things that they've asked me to do is speak to new advisors. And you know, this might help some of your listeners is the biggest push back to all this is like, well, I'm too late. Like people do constantly share that, you know what, I'm just everybody started, I'm too late. And I have to literally tell them you are not too late. Like say it with me. I am not too late. It's only the beginning. And I sort of have this rubric of going through that you may have heard. And it's just very quickly like, find people, you know, like if I were just starting out now, I think one of the, there was a young broker who reached out to me recently, happens to be a female selling industrial in Florida.

7:02 And I was like, follow Aviva and comment on all of her stuff like set notifications, look at what she's doing. Because she was kind of like, well, how do I fill my content pipeline if I want to do this? You surround yourself with this tribe and see what other people are doing is the best way to start. Even before you apply your own voice and find your own rhythm for posting, you know the most important thing is to get out there and be inspired. Right. Oh yeah, I feel like genuinely, we're at like day one for posting about commerce real estate online, literally like this. Yes. This train hasn't even left the station at all whatsoever. I agree.

7:48 What do you think's next? Like give me just something random that you're kind of like, oh, this is exciting. This is what's come in. This is a great way to market property or. I'm starting to see like Instagram. I know that sounds crazy but I made a listing appointment with a gentleman we're going to meet at the property tomorrow. I noticed his wife followed me on Instagram after the call and right, so it's having those social, I started noticing last year people were actually clicking the social links in my e-mail signature. And that was creating a proof of concept that I am who I say I am. So like the question is what's next, right? What's the next TikTok?

8:29 And that we don't know the answer to that, but I do know the answer is to continue to post on social media consistently, right, with value and it will pay dividends today, tomorrow and for many years to come. Yeah, it was just, that's a big thought. Like a big thought for me recently has been the way that marketing has changed. You know, you used to sell something to someone and then they potentially would leave you a Yelp review or, or something in in that the sale would create a conversation, right? We're no longer doing that.

9:13 Like we're now inviting people into the conversation pre sale until I framed a lot of like YouTube videos, which I was frankly out of ideas at the end of 2024. And I'm just starting to get about like I just went through a huge video slump. But one of the ways I framed coming up with these ideas was what would invite investors into the conversation and you know, to be a part of it before a purchase happens or something like that. So we'll see. We'll see where it goes. You know my 2 ideas now this should be like a Viva content grading session. Should you should do this at the end of the show, invite people on and they could submit ideas.

9:57 It's like Shark Tank. So I'll submit an idea to you and then you tell me what you think. YouTube series called Back of the napkin. Maybe like, you know, 656 minutes, not something super involved, a concept that you'd have to draw it on a napkin. We've had these conversations many times with clients, people like what's what, who's who, you know, I don't know. That's one idea. The other idea is I'm very like, I would love to do interviews and I love, you know, I want to give you kudos here in front of your audience because you do have a like a system built into where you just show up like your assistant reached out to me. The link is provided, best practices, whatever. And it doesn't take a whole lot of time. I'd like to do ACRE speed round and ask a bunch of questions, like really quickly.

10:56 I love it. I think that's smart. I think. I do think shorter, like, yeah, the shorter the content, like back of the napkin, I think that could be a multi channel series that could be on every, you know, written on Twitter, written on LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts. You know, I'm just looking to achieve maximum exposure in every direction. You're doing it. You're you're doing it. I love it. You want to, and that's why we're literally here today. Yeah. And well, thank you and for the thank you for the encouragement and let's, you know, figure out something to partner on. I do want to find and tell great stories in this space that inspire people, that improve people's sales lives.

11:42 I think there's a cool market for that out there. Absolutely. Absolutely so. And like you said, it's only day one, just the beginning. I. Know, as hokey as it sounds, it's actually true.