12 appraisals a week from social media

Lisa Novak shares how she uses social media to generate up to 12 appraisals a week.

Agent, innovator and social media success story Lisa Novak sits down with me to talk about authenticity, stats and why social media is the ultimate marketing tool for agents wanting to attract new clients and sell properties fast.

With consistent content the pillar of Lisa’s success, learn how social media has become her listing, selling and marketing tool.

Click below to watch the video.

Following is the video transcript.

12 real estate appraisals a week from social media

Melanie Hoole

Today, I’m with Lisa Novak from Novak properties. I’ve invited her into the studio and we’re going to have a chat about social media from an agent’s point of view.

So talk to me about how you attract vendors to you, Lisa? What do you do, to end up in the lounge room?

Lisa Novak

Social media has become such a huge part of my day. I spend about three to four hours a day doing social media.

It’s my selling tool, and it’s my marketing tool. And it’s now got to a stage, just because of the amount of content that I’ve been getting out, that it’s become a great listing tool. There are some weeks where I can be doing as many as 12 appraisals – right off the back of social media.

The great thing with it is people have already done the digital interview on you. They’ve done it, they follow you. When I walked into your house, one of the first things you said to me was, “I feel like I already know you”. And that’s great. That’s what you want.

The digital interview is already done. People send a message through my social media, saying I’ve got this property could you come and appraise it? So, a lot of the hard work has been done. They’ve been following me. They just need to make sure that when we meet I am the same person that’s on camera.

Getting started with real estate social media marketing

Lisa Novak

It’s important to point out where people need to start.

I think this whole social media world is daunting for people and I get it. I do. I’ve learnt to be one, I’ve trained myself by going through 3,000 home seller doors to make sure that I am one. But that’s not my background. Any real estate agent can do this. I think that’s super important for people to realise.

I get contacted a lot, by other agents that want to know, how do I do this? Where do I start? Start real basic. People overthink this stuff. Start with one of the platforms, Facebook. Get yourself a business page and just start pumping the content out. It might take a year.

In fact, I was having a conversation the other day with Tom Panos. And I said to him, I can’t believe this has happened so quickly. And he said, “No, it hasn’t happened quickly. It’s happened suddenly.” And, that’s true. OK, so it’s been a year and a half, three to four hours a day (like exercise). You don’t see that result immediately. But when it happened, it happened suddenly.

The fact that I can go and video a property, and sell it within hours – that is immediacy. That doesn’t exist in real estate anywhere. By the time a lot of agents have gone and had all their professional photos done and launched it out on to one of the big property portals, I’ve listed my property and sold it. It’s this ‘immediacy’ that wins me new clients.

Melanie Hoole

You’re making me think of my time at McGrath, 16 years ago. When we devised ‘the perfect week’ and the ‘perfect property campaigns’, but you’ve just shortened it with this immediacy.

Why simplicity, consistency and stamina are important

Melanie Hoole

I love the fact that you’re talking about the fact that it’s like keeping fit. I use analogies like social media marketing being just like a fitness programme, or even like a diet, because a real estate professional is only going to have success if they stick to a program, and Lisa, you’re consistent.

You also highlight that there are social media skills involved, that you have had to pick up along the way. And, you’ve explained that agents just need to start with one social channel or activity and then add another and then another.

Lisa Novak

Correct, that’s all you’ve got to do. It is exactly like exercise. You know, if I said to you, “You look great, how did you lose all this weight and get fit?” and you gave me this huge big regime. I’d think, I’m never going to follow that. If you said to me, however, that all I did was to stop drinking Diet Coke, I’d think, I can do that.

So, it’s just important to know that you’ve just got to approach social media marketing in little bite-sized chunks. Make sure you’re comfortable and be yourself. Be authentic. And just get content out. It also requires consistency. It’s like exercise. The consistency is as I said, three to four hours a day. Build yourself up to it.

The biggest issue is that most real estate agents overthink things and fear being in front of a camera. Once you get over those things it is honestly so much fun.

Melanie Hoole

Well, I’m having fun chatting with you today. So yes, I find video marketing fun too. It’s all about mindset. I know we talk about mindset so much in our industry. And for me, as a business owner, I think about mindset all the time, plus energy, alongside the need for dedication and commitment.

Outsourcing your real estate social media marketing

Melanie Hoole

So, you do you think that you could outsource part of your social media marketing, and still be authentic if you only did some of it yourself?

Lisa Novak

I’ve got to a stage now where I feel like there are parts that I need to outsource because I’m ‘one person, in a day’. I looked at my screen time actually, a couple of weeks ago, and it was sitting at 17 hours and I thought when they hell did I sleep? So yes, there are parts of my social media marketing that I need to outsource. And that’s a plan for me in the very near future.

What can I outsource? Definitely not the ‘in front of the camera’ part. But a lot of the behind-the-scenes activities with potential buyers – such as answering their questions via my social media channels and stuff like that could potentially be outsourced.

The other thing, with social media, is you’ve got to be prepared to answer people almost immediately. The good old 24-hour turnaround doesn’t exist on social media. These days, we are dealing with a world of spoiled brats. We all are. You know, we call for an Uber and see that it’s not going to be at our house for another 13 minutes and that’s not good enough. We cancel it and search for an Uber that’s going to be here in five minutes. People will pay a premium for that immediacy.

Melanie Hoole

Yes, people want convenience. This is something that comes up regularly in my market research.

Lisa Novak

Yes, absolutely. It’s the same with food. Let’s say that our Chinese takeaway delivery is going to be at our house in 40 minutes, we’ll cancel and swap to the Thai takeaway that will be here in 9 minutes instead. So it’s the same thing when you’re listing properties for sale on social media. People want fast turnaround times. So be prepared. It’s nothing like good old realestate.com.au where the home buyer sends off an email enquiry and if an agent gets back to them in 24 hours. Social media demands faster response times.

Melanie Hoole

So you’re changing the property campaign length and you’re changing the expectations for the buyers. Because we’re all impatient!

The importance of property-related content on social media

Melanie Hoole

I love the fact that you keep talking about content. Every time you say “content” I want to do a little Mexican wave.

Lisa Novak

Just so you know, it’s not just any content. It needs to be real estate related.

I don’t document a lot of my personal life anymore. We just had this conversation in the office actually, because obviously there’s the Lisa Novak Facebook profile and the Lisa Novak Novak Facebook page.

My profile used to be Lisa Novak at barbecues on the weekend. And then the Lisa Novak Novak Facebook page was the feed that was real estate related. Today, my social media personality is one and the same.

Look, it’s up to each individual person to choose how they will run their social media channels. I see them as TV channels. But you’ve got to have fun with that.

Yes. So you’re making me think about a lot of my clients when they first come to me. Initially, they’re very excited, brimming with ideas and can’t wait to get started with improving their social media marketing.

Melanie Hoole

But then what happens, and this is true for so many of us, whether it’s a diet or exercise programme or training for a charity bike ride like I am at the moment – the enthusiasm wanes after a while.

The importance of staying committed to your marketing activities

Melanie Hoole

So, how do you stay committed and keep your enthusiasm and energy up to be so active and present on social media all the time?

Lisa Novak

Passion, passion, passion. I love, love, love, what I do. I absolutely love it.

You know if you don’t love real estate, you’re in the wrong industry. It’s passion. That’s where the energy comes from. Honestly, I’m listing and selling property. I’m helping people. That’s a huge part of what I do.

A big part of why I started with this whole social media thing, was because I found it really hard to get my head around the fact that there was no zero dollar marketing strategy for people. Honestly, I came into sales, as I mentioned just under two years ago and thought, how do people sell a home if they haven’t got a marketing budget? What do people do when their property has been sitting on the portals for too long, and they’ve got no more money available for marketing. What then?

As real estate agents, across our industry, were not that great at leveraging our buyer databases. And that our database was really our only zero dollar marketing strategy. My thoughts were that, if we’re not introducing our clients to known home buyers, we’re not doing our job.

So, I wanted to bring something like social media and the zero dollar real estate marketing campaign to the table. I never envisaged it would be this big, this fast. But you know, social media has revolutionised our industry. It’s caused a bit of disruption. And, that’s a good thing. It’s innovation.

What lies ahead for real estate marketing?

Melanie Hoole

What do you think we can do to get the word out on the street and convince more real estate professionals to stop sitting on the sidelines with social media. How do we get them to step in, be ‘all in’ and do more of what you are doing? What do you think needs to happen in the real estate industry, Lisa?

Lisa Novak

I don’t think they’re going to have a choice. I think the real estate agents that aren’t doing this are a somewhat dying commodity. I don’t think social media is going anywhere and disruption’s good.

The industry was stuck in a bit of a time warp for a long. Real estate agents are just going to need to embrace social media marketing sooner rather than later. Some real estate agents are giving it a crack, and that’s great. But I think, you need to educate yourself and get over the fear of it.

Don’t overcomplicate social media, that’s the other thing. Other agents ask me, “What devices do you use?”. I tell them, “My phone and my arm”. My husband’s a tech junkie. He buys me every technology device you can imagine. And I use none of them. It’s my phone and my arm. They’re the two things I’ve got with me all the time.

Melanie Hoole

And your brain (i.e. knowledge).

Lisa Novak

Yes, and my brain.

Melanie Hoole

Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing all of these great insights. I look forward to talking to you again.

About this video series

Hoole.co’s video series brings together the best digital and social media minds in the real estate industry, to share the wonders of the web and magic of mobile. Subscribe to Hoole.co or follow us on social media (below) for free tips and tricks to grow your reputation and attract prospects, digitally.

Written by Melanie Hoole

My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.