Let me paint the scene.
You now get the fact that popping quarters into a slot machine promises better ROI than sending checks to newspapers to buy double truck ads.
You now realize that there’s little difference between the local kids tp-ing your neighbor’s front lawn and your agents leaving flyers with some vaporous service promise you know they can’t keep on local door knobs.
You clearly understand that clubbing a pedestrian over the head and tying them up in your server room might be a cheaper and more effective way to generate leads than your six-figure website filled with forms.
Whew.
I know. It took a while to get here. I’m hip. Just recently, after all these years, I finally developed an appreciation for Ralph Baierlein. We all grow at our own pace.
So now what? You need to build market share. You need to build brand share. You need to grow your customer base. You need to plug into the mainstream and get a piece of the action.
You know about blogging. Twitter. Facebook. Video. You attend events where it seems everyone is talking about this stuff. Now, you understand why they are passionate about it. It actually works.
So as a broker, what do you do? You do what Scott did. You get yourself an Erin.
There’s something about Erin
Scott is a long-time friend who I wrote about once before. He’s not a client. He’s a friend. When he cornered me two weeks ago at Connect SF and asked for ten minutes I gave him an hour. There was someone he wanted me to meet.
Erin.
Erin is Scott’s new social media manager. But there is something different about Erin. She’s not a Realtor who blogged for a year or Twitters about how much she loves Twitter and then decided she’s a social media expert who can now run communications for a brokerage.
Erin Robbins is the real deal. Educated. Smart. Savvy. Has degrees up the ying. Experience up the yang. Worked for start ups (Share this, Optimost) and navigated the halls of the corporate world at Cisco. Where she worked social media channels. A fine representative of the Y Generation.
She doesn’t know real estate. She knows people. And how to converse with them. And translate corporate value in an honest, meaningful, playful way.
And my bud Scott, the chairman of a Northern California brokerage, someone who has always been a day early on just about everything, saw an opportunity, scooped her up and gave her a new career.
What does Erin do? She’s part camp counselor, part brand steward, part communications manager, part marketing director, part social butterfly – a portmanteau of job titles, tasks and roles all folded into one.
She is the replacement.
All good things come to an end
Give this a thought. Thousands of people peek into your company every day while…
Your receptionist sits by a lonely doorway cutting and pasting newspaper ads, playing solitaire, and manning phones that don’t ring. I know he’s been there a while. All good things come to an end.
Your marketing person. Can’t really write. Doesn’t get the Web. Thinks branding is all about a logo. And believes that spinning the truth and weaving cliche slogans is still fashionable. I know she’s been loyal. All good things…
Your coach, trainer. They teach all your new agents how to door knock. You know what, stop recruiting new agents. Get the best agents and have them talk to your new Erin.
I could go on but you get my point. You know you need to do social media. You know it can work but like everything else it requires a skilled, creative, savvy person to embody the heart and soul of your brand.
While all good things come to an end, they create an opportunity for some new great things to begin.
– Davison Twitter:@1000wattmarc
