Leveraging Social Media and Video Marketing to Boost Real Estate Sales

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Sandy Springs, Georgia. It’s time for Chamber Spotlight, brought to you by CorpCare, your Employee Assistance Program partner. Caring for them because we care about you. For more information, go to CorpCareApp.com. Now here’s your host.

Lola Okunola: [00:00:29] Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Chamber Spotlight Podcast, proudly sponsored by CorpCare EAP. I’m your host, Lola Okunola, and today we have an exciting lineup of guests representing diverse industries. A big thank you again to CorpCare EAP for supporting our community. Now let’s jump into today’s conversation. Meet my guest, Johanna Stanley of Century 21 Connect Realty and Cam of Social4Business. We’re going to start with Johanna. Johanna, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to finally have you on.

Johanna Stanley: [00:01:15] Thank you Lola. For me, it’s it’s a pleasure. And it’s a it’s an honor to be here. Honestly, I cannot believe I need somebody to pinch me because this is exciting. Um, so. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation.

Lola Okunola: [00:01:29] Yeah. Thank you. I’ve been wanting to talk to you. I think everyone wants to know about the real estate market. I mean, we hear there, there’s so many realtors in town, but you do things a little differently, and I think, you know, you should share.

Johanna Stanley: [00:01:44] Yes. And that’s usually come out to be a very hard question because it’s like people is like, what do you do different? And honestly, in regards to, uh, business, there’s nothing different I do because it’s the same marketing, doing the same thing, filling out the same contract. But what would set me apart would be like always the heart for the community, the sense of community being there for people. Guide them, help them and just, you know, getting to know them. I feel like that’s the key to know what exactly they’re looking for. How can I best help them? It’s not making it all about me. You know, it’s my business and I’m doing this and doing that. No, it’s just how can I help them and to find their home? So yeah, a market is a little bit crazy right now. You know, with the interest going up and the whole market goes up. But you know, we’re coming into the season where, you know, people need to move. So it’s picking picking up a little bit more.

Lola Okunola: [00:02:39] Yeah we are getting into summer. So summer this is true. This people move mostly in the summertime.

Johanna Stanley: [00:02:46] Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean there’s a perfect time. The kids are out of school and they need to, you know, get the kids involved in the new school and stuff. So, um, we’re getting you know, Georgia is getting a lot of people that are relocating. They’re coming from out of state here. Yes. And, you know, it’s funny because for, you know, Georgia residents what it’s expensive for them a home here for them. It’s just like, oh my God this is so cheap, you know.

Lola Okunola: [00:03:12] Where are they coming from?

Johanna Stanley: [00:03:12] Usually New York LA ah. Which are those places that are you can find a one bedroom apartment or studio for a million, right. You know, you hear they can get a huge house, uh, decent house for, you know, 600,000 or something like that, depending on the location, of course. But yeah. So we are I mean, definitely, um, focusing a lot with relocation people that are coming from out of state. Um, and, um, yeah, I find that very, very interesting how, you know, like, for them, it’s just easier just to get it. I mean, Georgia has so much potential and so much opportunities for them as well that it’s just easy. Yeah. For them to make the decision. You know, weather is amazing. So I know.

Lola Okunola: [00:04:00] We do have good weather. So do you have a particular target market like is there is there do you have a niche. Is there is there someone you’re looking for in particular to help?

Johanna Stanley: [00:04:11] I do I mean, uh, my target audience basically, you know, like the Latino community, you know, I’m a Hispanic, I’m originally from Colombia. So I get, uh, very involved with them as well because, I mean, we have something in common, right? So that makes it easier for me. Um, although, you know, like, I’m able to help, you know, anybody that I built a relationship, anybody that trusts me, know me and wants to work with me, of course, I’m going to be more than happy and willing to help them as well. But yeah, I would say the Hispanic market, it’s a big, uh, target audience for me. Okay.

Lola Okunola: [00:04:46] That’s great. So what are the kinds of things that you would say are going on? Like, what are the hot topics in real estate right now other than the interest rate?

Johanna Stanley: [00:04:57] Well, uh, we said, um, yeah, the interest rate, the, the home price is going up. So. Yeah.

Lola Okunola: [00:05:02] Here in Georgia too. Right.

Johanna Stanley: [00:05:04] And then, um, you know, there’s a lot of room, a lot of things with, uh, um, with the lawsuit that was going on that now, the buyers are not they don’t have to.

Lola Okunola: [00:05:15] Pay the interest.

Johanna Stanley: [00:05:16] It’s not going to pay. No, no. The interest, the commission.

Lola Okunola: [00:05:18] Sorry. The commission.

Johanna Stanley: [00:05:20] The commission. So does that.

Lola Okunola: [00:05:21] Pass?

Johanna Stanley: [00:05:22] Like the, uh, I guess they got they got a settlement. They won a settlement. But then, um, they haven’t it’s not signed here in Georgia yet, but they are about in June. I think it’s in June. It’s going to take place. Wow. Yeah.

Lola Okunola: [00:05:36] So how will that changed your view about this profession?

Johanna Stanley: [00:05:40] Well, it’s been always that way. I mean, it never changed. The seller has never been obligated to pay us a buyer commission. Buyer’s agent commission. It’s never been obligated. It’s just never. I mean, it helped them to you get people into the house. So it’s it’s a strategy that has been used forever. So I feel like everything like, you know, it comes to a change. You know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a evolution, so to speak. Right? Where uh, just like corona when it came corona, there’s so many things happen. And then everything started going back to normal. So now we’re seeing this, uh, people talking. Oh, we’re not, you know, the, uh, buyer’s agents, how they’re going to get paid. They’re going to work for free. I mean, nobody works for free, right? So, uh, there is a strategies. There’s always negotiation. It’s opportunity negotiation when you find your buyer, your seller, and it’s just a mutual agreement. So and it’s always been that way, and I’m sure I’m 100% sure that it’s going to continue being the same way. So it’s nothing to fear. I feel like, you know, as long as you know your audience as you’re doing your work, marketing yourself, um, everybody’s, you know, you should be fine. Okay. Yeah.

Lola Okunola: [00:06:54] Great. Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Um, I’ll come back to you again shortly, but we’re going to pivot to Cam of Social4Business. Cam is a video strategist, not to be mistaken with a videographer. He does videos differently. Cam welcome. Tell us about what you do. Cam does our videos. By the way if you follow us on social, all our cool videos are done by him. Cam welcome.

Cam Jimenez: [00:07:26] Thank you Lola for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here. Uh, so just to get started with that difference between a videographer and a video strategist. So a videographer is someone that you pay, uh, some amount of money to shoot a video. So you usually tell them, hey, I need this video. You pay them, they shoot it, they edit it, they give it to you, and off they go. As a video strategist myself, what I try to do is just to get as involved as possible with your business, so I can put together a strategy with different types of videos that are going to help you achieve your goals, whatever those goals are, whether you want to increase your awareness on social media, if you want to hire people, if you want to shoot email marketing videos like the ones that we do for the Santa Springs Chamber of Commerce, anything that you want, there’s a video that you can use to achieve those goals. So that’s basically what I do.

Lola Okunola: [00:08:19] Yeah. But you do you you not only, um, shoot the videos like, you know, what’s catchy, what’s going to captivate the audience about how long the video needs to be, where you need to stand, what you need to wear, what the lighting needs to look like. Um, and sometimes some of these videos, I’m like, I’m not going to do that camp. Like, that’s so cheesy. But I have to tell you, the last two videos that we did, we got the most views we’ve ever gotten. So you definitely know what you’re doing.

Cam Jimenez: [00:08:53] Yeah. So that’s one of the things that people start doing video themselves. Um, and they think they have an idea of how how it works, but they don’t know how it actually works. So just to give you an idea of what I told you that day. So we usually start the videos for email marketing, like, hi, my name is Lola and Sand Springs. And that’s fine because that’s email marketing. But when you’re doing social media content, the first five to 10s is the most important part of that video. So if you start that video with saying, hi, my name is Lola and this is what I do, you lost that opportunity, that window.

Lola Okunola: [00:09:29] Nobody cares.

Cam Jimenez: [00:09:31] They don’t care about with all the, you know, respect, but they don’t care who you are. Yeah. Until you show them what is that you have to offer. Yes. It’s a very.

Lola Okunola: [00:09:40] They want the value. Now give me five things that are going to help me right now. Exactly.

Cam Jimenez: [00:09:47] And then with social media content, I mean people’s attention span is like five seconds. Yeah. So you get to grab their attention right off the get go and and that’s. What I do. I try to tell people, this is how you should start your videos. This is how we script the videos so they have more engagement and people stay till the end of the video. The longer they stay while they’re watching your video, the better it’s going to do the algorithm and social media platforms.

Lola Okunola: [00:10:13] So who should call you? Like who needs you?

Cam Jimenez: [00:10:17] Pretty much any business owner who wants to turn strangers into paying clients. That’s the way I put it. So there hasn’t been a better time to create video content for social media because all of these platforms Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, they all want video content because it’s just what keeps people engaged on their platforms. The longer they can keep people on the platforms, the more they can charge to the advertisers. Mhm. So if there’s a business owner and they need to get people to see their content, you know, to get that know like you trust you factor kind of thing. Um that’s what we want.

Lola Okunola: [00:10:58] Okay, that makes sense. I know there’s been a lot of stuff in the news lately about TikTok being banned, and I. How does that? I mean, I see people are protesting saying, you know, this is going to be my livelihood you’re taking away and this and this and that. Like, how do you feel about that? Like, how does that affect you in any way?

Cam Jimenez: [00:11:19] It doesn’t because there’s a lot of platforms that you can always post in. Uh, so it’s not like you don’t if you’re someone who has older content on TikTok that might affect you, remind you. The CEO of TikTok said, we’re not going anywhere.

Lola Okunola: [00:11:34] Oh, okay.

Cam Jimenez: [00:11:36] And he’s sound very sure of it. So really, that’s going. But, uh, that’s one of the things that we tell our clients is like, always try to, um, just build a list of emails because, yes, if you’re relying on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok and for whatever reason, your account gets banned or it gets suspended or TikTok gets canceled, yeah.

Lola Okunola: [00:11:58] You lose everything. So have multiple, um, advertising. So if you.

Cam Jimenez: [00:12:03] Have an email list, that’s something that you’re always going to be able to control. And you can always send like email marketing videos and email, uh, campaigns to that audience. So it’s it’s very important to keep those emails.

Lola Okunola: [00:12:14] Okay. Well, um, so let’s I mean, I’m let’s talk together. I mean, I know Joanna, I mean, realtors use videos a lot. They use videos for marketing the property and then even marketing themselves, like, I’ve seen so many videos, whether it’s on LinkedIn or Instagram or wherever, where, you know, they’re giving tips and you know, about real estate and whatever it is, um, you know, how do you feel like you and cam could work together or like, you know, what are some things that you can, you know, offer to cam? Like I always try and see how we can all work together because at the end of the day, this is a chamber. And, you know, we’re all members and, you know, the the objective is to help each other so.

Johanna Stanley: [00:13:02] Well, definitely. Yeah. Like we I wouldn’t want to be a secret agent. You know, you have to market ourselves, go out there and just, you know, show our the best part of us, you know, like who we are. There’s no what what we do but how we do it. You know, uh, people wanted to get to know us and kind of build a relationship. And the more you market yourself through video, social media, I feel like people feel like they know you. Yes, they know you more. Yeah. And it’s not to make it all about the business, because really, in reality, people don’t really care so much. I mean, like, okay, you’re bragging a lot now, you know, um, it’s they wanted to know you. What do you do. Mhm. Um, what’s your value. What the value you bring for them. Mhm. Um they don’t really, they don’t care so much about your, my life or anybody’s life you know. So I feel like we can uh the best way of helping you know for me I will I need definitely sometimes like the um, you know guidance of what the strategy is because it’s, and it’s constantly changing.

Lola Okunola: [00:14:03] So this week, this hashtag might be the one or this keyword might be what you’re supposed to use. And then next week it’s something else. So it’s good to have someone to guide you, like you said.

Johanna Stanley: [00:14:14] Exactly. Like I, uh, a couple of days I learned about the thread thread, something like that. I mean, like thread. Yeah, threads. I’m like, what is that? Like, what does that do? I mean, another thing, you know, another app and it keeps going. So it’s like, and you.

Lola Okunola: [00:14:28] Have to be there.

Johanna Stanley: [00:14:29] You have to.

Lola Okunola: [00:14:30] Have a presence everywhere.

Johanna Stanley: [00:14:31] Absolutely. So definitely that would be the benefit for me from com would be yeah. What’s coming up. What what’s new. What’s trending. What. How can I present myself. How can I be less boring. Because yeah, you cannot be like you say when you say, oh, my name is Joanna. I mean, really, your name is on the top of your page. You don’t really need to say your name. They most likely they already know you. So it’s just, how can I start? What’s the best word? The catchy word. Yeah. So, yeah, I need sometimes ideas for that. It’s. Yeah.

Lola Okunola: [00:15:03] Just hard, like you would think someone looking for a property they want to know. Okay, where is the best school district? Right. If they have kids. Yeah. That that helps them to determine where they want to live. So maybe tips on schools, you know, or just a video on, hey a list of 1 to 10 here. Here are the schools in Georgia for instance. And here’s how they rank.

Johanna Stanley: [00:15:27] Usually as a realtor, we are not allowed to kind of steer our clients to certain area. That’s really.

Lola Okunola: [00:15:34] Yeah, that is just I never knew that.

Johanna Stanley: [00:15:37] Yeah. We’re not we’re not allowed. Yeah. You’re not allowed to stir people to stay in certain area. So what I would do though, I will give them the website where they can go and do their due diligence, their research. Interesting. They got to go and they find something with crime. I cannot tell them, okay. You cannot go to this certain area because it’s not I’m not. That’s just not.

Lola Okunola: [00:15:58] Oh, that’s. That’s a good thing for us to know.

Johanna Stanley: [00:16:01] No, no. For us. Yeah. So we usually we can, you know, give them the sources, you can find yourself, and then you can make a judgment for yourself, you know? Okay. Um, and they tell us what to do. I mean, they so that’s different when they, uh, he’s hiring me to help them find their job, their home. But, um, I cannot steer them in any directions at all. So yeah, okay.

Lola Okunola: [00:16:27] That’s good to know. But I’m sure cam knows how to get around all of that and how to, you know, other ways that are legal and ethical for you.

Johanna Stanley: [00:16:36] To exactly as long as it’s within the parameters, you know, illegal, then it’s not going to affect my license and stuff or get me in trouble for sure. Okay. That’s something that I’ll be open to. Yeah, absolutely.

Cam Jimenez: [00:16:50] So that’s something that we’ve talked to, we’ve worked with I mean, I don’t know how many realtors in the Atlanta area. There’s been a lot of them. And that’s something that comes up like when we tell them, okay, let’s do a video about crimes and, you know, like different school districts. And they always say that not allowed to say that because like Joanna just said it, you cannot tell them where to go. Like you’re going to help them fight the find the house but not tell them exactly where to buy. Uh, so, like Joanna mentioned, there’s things that you can say, like in the first few seconds of the video, are you thinking about relocating to Georgia or Atlanta specifically? Here are a couple of resources or websites that you should check, and then you can do some due diligence. You know, just do some research and that’s going to help people. So what we want with these videos is for people to like them, comment on them and share them or save them. Yeah, that’s what’s going to tell the algorithm okay. There’s something good in here. Mhm.

Lola Okunola: [00:17:44] People like it.

Cam Jimenez: [00:17:45] Show this to more people.

Lola Okunola: [00:17:46] Yeah.

Cam Jimenez: [00:17:47] So that is it. And going back to the threads that Joanna was saying and that you were saying like you have to be everywhere. One thing that I tell people is like don’t try to be everywhere, just pick a couple of platforms. Mhm. And just be really good.

Speaker5: [00:18:01] Really.

Lola Okunola: [00:18:01] Active there.

Lola Okunola: [00:18:02] Okay.

Cam Jimenez: [00:18:03] Because if you want to be active on Twitter threads, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, I mean you need to have a huge marketing team.

Lola Okunola: [00:18:11] Yeah it’s a lot.

Cam Jimenez: [00:18:13] And and every platform needs some type of different content and the format and it’s different. So just pick a couple, master those. And once you grow in those, those platforms then you can try to, you know, just segway into your platform.

Johanna Stanley: [00:18:28] Yeah. Because like you got uh, as a realtors, we got to use each platform as a, as a source of, uh, you know, like follow up as well. We cannot just have the we have to have a purpose behind each video, whatever we are promoting. Um, we got to have a strategy so we can follow up with possible clients, you know, um, and stay, uh, very top of mind for, for the people that we are in touch with them with in a daily basis. So it’s not just like, oh, I post a video and that’ll do it. No. You got to also comment on people follow up like send a text message and hey, how’s it going? You know, just keep that relationship going. Because at the end of the day, it’s not how much what you say, it’s just the relationship, the trying to build what really makes. Because you really don’t know people, don’t they? Right now that so many people don’t need a home, but things change the next day or next week. Maybe it’s their.

Lola Okunola: [00:19:27] Neighbor, maybe it’s somebody else.

Johanna Stanley: [00:19:30] So that’s why we really has to be, you know, on top of mind of, you know, for them, um, whenever they need, they’re ready.

Lola Okunola: [00:19:37] You want to be that person when they need that service. You they you want them to think. Joanna, I just saw her yesterday on online talking about real estate or something. I get it, that makes sense.

Cam Jimenez: [00:19:50] And it’s the same thing with email marketing. So a lot of people say like email marketing is not as effective because people are getting hundreds of emails every single day. But going back to what you just said, when you get to that point, like, hey, I need to buy a house, or I know someone who needs to buy, hey, this girl Joanna has been hitting my email every single day. I might not read all of your emails, but I know she. But I.

Lola Okunola: [00:20:12] Know she’s out there and she’s doing it every day.

Cam Jimenez: [00:20:17] So you’re like top of mind.

Johanna Stanley: [00:20:18] Yeah. That’s that’s that’s that’s the goal.

Lola Okunola: [00:20:21] That’s the goal. And cam certainly makes sure that you’re top of mind whatever industry you’re in. Wow. Well this has been a great conversation. Um thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Um, with that we’re going to close out the show again. I’d like to thank Corp Care for being the sponsor, and I’d like to thank you, cam, for sharing all of your information about, um, social media strategies. And thank you personally for what you do for this chamber. And, Joanna, thank you for all that you do in the community and all you’re doing with real estate. We’re really happy that you came to share. Um, yeah. Your websites, give us your websites and how can people contact you? Okay.

Johanna Stanley: [00:21:07] So yeah, my website, it’s Joanna stanley.com. Okay. And uh, my social media, I don’t know you would you how do you have a way to share it.

Lola Okunola: [00:21:17] And we will share it in the email. But go ahead and say for those that are listening, huh?

Johanna Stanley: [00:21:22] Joanna Stanley G a realtor that would be my. I, um, Instagram. Okay. And for my last Johanna Stanley, um, realtor g a realtor. It’s for my Facebook as well. Okay. And my phone number (203) 687-9038. I know it’s from Connecticut. A lot of people is like.

Lola Okunola: [00:21:43] You’re gonna have to get a 404 or A77 0 or 6 seven eight something.

Johanna Stanley: [00:21:47] I don’t want it. I can’t, because then I will lose all, you know, like the people that already know me. You know that. So it’s like, I feel like that’s, um, more, you know, how do you say it’s like. It’s, um. I. They already know me. That’s my story. I don’t want it, you know, change it for unless I have to. Um, but, I mean, I mean, it works. So far, it’s been working. So I’m going to keep the 203.

Cam Jimenez: [00:22:11] And get a second phone and slowly transition into the 404.

Johanna Stanley: [00:22:16] Maybe, I don’t know, I just like, you know, it’s funny because my mom I don’t know why she has two phones and I’m always like, what are you think you’re a president or something? Why do you have so many phones? They have.

Lola Okunola: [00:22:27] Apps now where you you can have a whole nother line.

Johanna Stanley: [00:22:31] I guess. So, I don’t know, I have to think about that.

Cam Jimenez: [00:22:35] Google voice.

Cam Jimenez: [00:22:37] You can get a phone number and it’s free. Yeah.

Johanna Stanley: [00:22:39] See the thing is like, I feel like there’s for us as a realtor, we have so much to handle and platforms and stuff like, I feel like my direct phone number is the best way for me to stay in communication with my clients. I know for a fact that I’m going to reply and, you know, like reach back to them if I miss a phone call. So that’s why for me, like it don’t bother me, like call them later or if I if I can pick up at the time, I will do it. So it’s just I need to have that. Maybe that control. Okay. Sorry. That’s not bad.

Cam Jimenez: [00:23:13] That’s fine.

Lola Okunola: [00:23:13] Cam, how can our listeners reach you?

Cam Jimenez: [00:23:16] Um, so I’m on Instagram and my handle is at my social fourbis. So that’s going to be the number four. Okay, guys. So it’s the short form for business. And my website’s my social for business. Com.

Lola Okunola: [00:23:33] All right. Thank you again. We’d like to thank our sponsor Corb Care for supporting this podcast. And to our listeners, if you’re interested in becoming a chamber member or have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Stay tuned for future episodes where we’ll continue to shed light on our chamber members businesses and create opportunities for growth and collaboration. Until then, stay connected and stay well.