Social media for commercial agents

Jeff Moxham proves not all commercial agents are slow to take up social media.

In this video, Jeff shares his forward thinking digital strategy and explains how he brings thought leaders from across the commercial property industry together. 

Sharing peer-to-peer interviews, alongside raw and personal insights of his own, Jeff publishes intellectual interviews that discuss the state of play of commercial real estate, alongside articles that unfold the highs and lows of running a business. 

Listen in to learn how Jeff’s digital strategy helps him capitalise on his reputation and build a bridge across different disciplines within the commercial industry.

Click below to watch the video.

Following is the video transcript.

Melanie Hoole

Today, I’m chatting with Jeff Moxham from Ray White Commercial who has ventured into the world of digital marketing and social media, and Jeff’s going to share his experience with us. 

When real estate is in your veins

Give me an insight into your background – your family has been very active in real estate for many decades.

Jeff Moxham

Yes, that’s correct. My grandfather started Moxham’s Real Estate in Parramatta in 1950, and my father went on to run that business for over 40 years and then I took it to the third generation for 10 years. So yes, real estate is very rich in our veins. 

When commercial property is your passion

Melanie Hoole

And why commercial? What took you into the commercial world?

Jeff Moxham

We sold the family business and I actually had a break from the property industry and realised very quickly that I missed it hugely. So, I came back and was checking out the various areas of the real estate industry and thank goodness I ended up in commercial as I got my weekends back, and it was like the light had been found. 

Then I was at Jones Lang LaSalle for about 10 years. And I met Dan and Brian White and the White family who were keen to take their brand to corporate level here in New South Wales, and we formed a partnership, which is this business Ray White Commercial New South Wales. 

That was about five, almost six, years ago now and it’s just been an amazing run and the best move I ever made. Ray White is a wonderful family and group to work for, and I’ve certainly learned a thing or two about running real estate businesses. 

The strategy was to bring commercial people together 

Melanie Hoole

Share with me what your strategy is for bringing people together in the industry and sharing advice to people that are in your database.

Jeff Moxham

For a long time, I wanted to implement something of value from a social media point of view, and from a communication point of view to my clients. I see what a lot of these wonderfully well-run residential offices do, and to be honest, the commercial industry as agents have got a lot to learn from the residential agents. 

Some of these businesses, you know, are 50 salespeople strong and can forecast 12 months in advance how many deals they are going to pitch on, how many they’re going to win, and what the fees going to be. 

Also, further to that, the high-profile real estate agents are very good at how they promote themselves and the image they portray to their clients.  

Why your brand reputation is important

With commercial, I see your brand reputation as important, if not more important. We’re lucky in the commercial industry in that we sometimes transact multiple times with the same client. So I’ve thought a lot about how I can try and communicate with my clients more regularly, but also offer them something that is of value as opposed to, you know, just putting out a post about commercial properties we’ve listed and we’ve sold. 

Hence, meeting yourself and your wonderful company Hoole.co. We’re six months in and the feedback has just been fantastic.

Melanie Hoole

Thank you very much. So explain to our viewers what the premise of your content. Who’s it for and who’s involved? 

Jeff Moxham

I want it to be in people’s inboxes and for my clients and prospects to see my industry interviews on social media and say, “I’ll look at that”.

It’s not so much about us beating our chest, and telling people about what deals we do – as we do that anyway, and we love to do that! It’s more about interacting with our clients in a more intelligent fashion – that’s the aim of it, ideally. 

Industry interviews published as articles and videos

Melanie Hoole

And you’ve involved your peers in the industry. People and businesses that you work alongside. How did that come about?

Jeff Moxham

Yes, so that was a suggestion from yourself. When we sat down and did our 12-month strategy as to who we were going to communicate to and what we wanted to communicate, it was suggested that we interview key people in the industry, and it’s gone down really well.

So far we’ve done probably 10 or so interviews – some videos, some written articles – and the interviewees have all been really excited to be involved and it’s also been a great tool for my industry peers to share with their clients as well. 

So it’s not just about me. It’s about helping other businesses as well and businesses that may be relatively new, as well, like mine. 

So, it’s a two-way street. It’s something that is good for us, good for the industry and good for the people involved in the interviews as well. It’s been really well received.

Sharing the ‘warts and all’ of business leadership

Melanie Hoole

You’ve really gone out on a limb and shared some of the behind-the-scenes intel about leadership. 

You’re already a well-revered leader in the commercial industry. You’re well-known, have a reputation and you’ve started to share not just information for potential clients, but insights for your own peers, or people that are coming up the ranks. 

So what drove you to do that?

Jeff Moxham 

I had it in my mind for some time. 

I’ve gone through some big changes in the last year, whilst the market changed. We’ve been in a boom for many years, and I think some of us got caught by surprise and I was one of them. 

I had a very tough year in 2017-18 and really changed everything around how I operate during my days, but also personally i.e. what time I get up, what I eat and so forth. 

I’ve always been quite fit and healthy, but I’ve really gone into the micromanagement of what do I need to do to just get more out of myself. To be able to give more to my family and more to my business, because everything needed more time. So I just needed to really look at how I did that.

It was a really wonderful journey, and I wanted to share it with people. I got quite a few personal messages from contacts saying that was just really a wonderful article. “Thanks for sharing. Thanks for putting yourself out there.”

It’s been interesting at the work functions with all of my fellow agents as of course, I got heaps of ribbing, heaps of jokes, but I take it as a compliment and it was just really about putting myself out there. 

The heading that you came up with which I really liked was “How the property downturn fueled my upturn”, as that was exactly it, what changes I made and how those benefited me.

Getting real and sharing all those ‘feels’

Melanie Hoole

How easy or difficult has it been sharing how you actually truly run your business, or feel about your business and managing your time with your peers?

Jeff Moxham 

Yes, challenging. 

Personally very challenging, and in particular that article because it was really personal but nothing ventured, nothing gained – so just get out there and have a go.

You know, they say, and I’ve been to a couple of other seminars and conferences on digital marketing and social media and they say the rawer the better really, for engagement. 

So yeah, it was challenging, but the feedback has been great. 

I needed to get myself into the flow of making it a really big part of my business and now I really enjoy it. I thoroughly enjoy the editing process and your team do such a great job basically taking my brain dump and putting it into words. I really enjoy how they do that and tweaking it, and it’s really just a great experience. So I’m looking forward to doing more.

Take two different content approaches 

Melanie Hoole

So we’ve got two types of content; articles and videos that are about leadership and growing a business, and all that comes with being a business owner, and then we’ve got content that is more industry-focused with you interviewing experts in their field. 

Which pieces have had the biggest impact?

Jeff Moxham 

It’s been really well received on both fronts. 

The industry interviews have been great. The personal ones a lot of interaction as well, and a lot of personal messages. So it’s hard to pick which ones have received more attention. 

I think different people interact with different topics and it’s really interesting in seeing that and I’m sure we’ll see more commercial real estate agents doing digital marketing and putting themselves out there on social media in the years to come, and possibly next year. 

It’s been wonderful.

Check out Jeff Moxham’s website

If you’d like to check out Jeff’s interviews and industry advice, visit www.jeffmoxham.com.au. 

Jeff’s website, content and social media marketing have been created in their entirety by the team at Hoole.co. If you’d like to find out more about our social media and digital marketing programs, get in touch.

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.