← Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Episode 799: Why Your "Safe" Social Media Strategy is Killing Your Leads
00:08:14
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Now, about to say something that might make some of you uncomfortable. You ready? It's okay to talk about politics on social media, even as a real estate agent. Now, before you click away or leave me a spicy comment, hear me out, because I think we've been giving some really bad advice for a really long time. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Tristan Almada. Been in real estate for 22 years, running lab code agents for about 12 years now with 500,000 people in our real estate communities. Kind of crazy. And I just opened up a brokerage, and he watches Grow Y Realty. So I've seen a lot and I've coached a lot of agents. We've talked about this behind closed doors. And one of the things I hear constantly is, is this idea that you should never, ever talk about politics or religion or anything controversial online. And I get it. I understand where that comes from because I heard that a lot at the beginning as social media started growing. But I think it's wrong, or at least it's incomplete. Here's the thing. People don't connect with logos. They don't connect with corporate scripts. They connect with people, real people with real opinions and real values. And when you strip away everything, that makes you kind of become forgettable. You become just another agent posting market updates and just listed photos. In a world where there are millions of real estate agents, forgettable is the last thing you want to be. Now, I know what you're saying. You're probably saying, tristan, what about those people that are funny? What about those people that just know how to engage people through storytelling? Those are great. And I'm not saying just because I'm telling you this story about politics and real estate and social. I'm not saying that you should show up that way. I'm just saying that we've been telling it to you wrong. And I know what you're saying. Some people that think that staying silent keeps them safe, that if they just don't say anything, they won't offend anyone. But here's what I've learned, and I learned it the hard way. Like a lot of other things, people notice what you don't say just as much as what you do say. And sometimes, sometimes not all the time, staying quiet on things that matter, matter a lot to the current culture can actually come across as inauthentic. When you don't say anything, when you don't say anything, that comes across as insincere. When you don't say anything, it comes across as well. Where does this person stand? And sometimes you shouldn't say anything. This is where we leave it up to you and say, hey, do you feel comfortable enough to say something? And if you do, amazing. And if you don't, great. But I'm telling you that whoever told you shouldn't talk about it was wrong. And that was me telling you a few years ago. But things have changed. And like, you're calculating every move based on who might be watching. I want you to also calculate, well, man, am I being authentic to myself? Am I being inauthentic? I want you to start tracking those moments. Where do you feel like, man, I should have said something in a respectful manner? And that's where it levels you up. That's where you start connecting with more people. And we've missed that. Here's what took me a few years to understand. And I remember I worked with Facebook and Instagram for four years, so we got to talk to them a lot, brainstorm, create amazing stuff, right? Not everyone is supposed to be your client, and that's okay. When you share your values, when you speak up about things that matter to you, you naturally attract people who align with you, and you filter out the people who don't. And guess what? Working with people who share your values, man, that is so much better. And also build stronger relationships. I'm not saying push out everybody else who doesn't agree with you. That is not what I'm saying. I'm just saying I need you to show up more authentically for yourself and be proud of who you are. Because when you make clients based on how you show up, well, those are the clients who refer you to their friends. And you're not losing business by being yourself. You're just finding the right business. That's how social media works. That's how the algorithm works. Because the algorithm is just people. Now, does this mean you should be posting hot takes and getting into arguments in the comments? No, absolutely not. There's a difference between speaking your truth and being disrespectful. You can have strong opinions and still be kind. You can disagree with someone and still treat them with dignity. You can share your perspective without tearing somebody else down. And I've seen that tear down. And that's what I don't agree with because I watch it happen daily on social in lab coat agents. When somebody gets too emotional, we have to press the timeout button for them, right? That's what we actually need. We need people to start talking and giving their opinions in a respectful way. And then we need other people to engage with that in a respectful manner, too. People who can model what respectful disagreement looks like. And let's be real, a lot of political issues are real estate issues. And sometimes agents don't see it that way, but they are housing policy, zoning laws, property taxes, school funding, interest rates, affordability. These are things that actually matter. And you need to know about. You have the expertise on this. It's going to take you less to learn something that falls within your specialty than somebody outside of it. And you have a perspective worth sharing. So why would you stay silent on the very things that affect your clients every single day? And look, not telling you that you had to talk about politics, that's your choice. But I am telling you that you're allowed to. That's doesn't make you unprofessional, that it won't destroy your business. What will hurt your business is being boring. And I see some of your videos and posts, and they're boring. Being forgettable is something you shouldn't be shooting for. Being so afraid of what people might think that you never let them see who you really are. The agents who are winning right now, they're the ones who show up as real people, authentic, sincere. They're full people. I mean, I guess we're all full people, but you know what I mean. People with lives and opinions and things they care about. You know what they are. So if you've been holding back because someone told you it wasn't safe, maybe it's time to rethink that. But be respectful. Be thoughtful, but be you. Because that's what people actually want. They want to connect with somebody like you and the underlying tone of everything. If you do decide to do that, be kind and know how to dispute things in a respectful manner. Because people are watching. They want to know how you're responding to that really tough comment. Because that's what's going to decide whether or not they align with you or they even respect you. I'm Tristan El Malo. I'll see you on the next one.