The Power of Social Media in a Social Business
What do you think about when you first hear real estate agent? Do you think jelled hair, nice cars and business clothes? Or is it someone that you can rely on to help you shop for homes, like you’d trust someone working at The Gap to help pick some clothes out for you? A realtor is someone who you want to feel like you can trust — someone that you feel understands your needs and your wants, understands your financial situation and even aspirations and future goals. Being a realtor is a social job. They meet people wherever they go, and they’re constantly exchanging business cards and talking to new potential clients.
When it comes to Joel Keitner’s job as a local realtor in south Etobicoke, he knows that he represents a neighbourhood. He wants to be the expert in his area, and have a solid knowledge of everything that it offers. For Joel, using social media, particularly Instagram, lets him tap into what local people are talking about and what could be happening in the market; social media also helps him build up a base of followers who might one day be needing his services. For Joel, Instagram lets him speak to an audience, but also lets them into his life. It allows him to have a better understanding of who his target demographic is and from there, he can create relationships with the people he’s hoping to do business with.
Using Instagram, Joel has created an online persona that represents himself and the company that he works for, The Keitner Group. I first came across him when he followed me, and responded to one of my Instagram stories. His name on Instagram is mimicojoel, and mine, mimico.jew so naturally, I was intrigued as to who he was. Who was this man commenting on my posts? He seemed to want my attention. I noticed he followed my friends, and I asked one of them if they knew who he was. My friend had never met him, but only knew of him when he followed her. She said that he’s a real estate agent, but most importantly he’s this charismatic man whose Instagram stories are like a reality TV show. Since then, I’ve been hooked on keeping up with his life and business endeavors. But why? I’m not looking to buy a home.
Almost all of Joel’s Instagram activity is through short videos. According to KPCB, online video will account for 74% of all online traffic. Joel knows that he can connect with his followers most easily through a visual medium, and videos allow him to convey information through speaking and showing visuals.
Step 1 of the 5 steps to an effective marketing strategy is aligning your content (Khan, “Week 6”). Joel wants to help buyers in his area find their home quickly and easily, and he wants to show that he has plenty of expertise. Mimico Joel has a few kinds of content that he puts on his Instagram. First are his stories, where he shows his new listings. To reference 1 of Student Life’s 5 magic ingredients for good content, this would be #3 — information. When he has a new listing for sale in the area, he’s going to use Instagram as a tool to spread the word.
As well, he puts out videos that explain why he is the top realtor in south Etobicoke. He doesn’t get lucky with his deals, but instead he’s out there working to make it happen. He shows us what he’s doing to make these deals for people and get his clients what they want — posting videos of himself going door to door, asking people if they’d like to sell their house. He uses Instagram stories to tell his audience about the efforts he makes to get his deals. He wants to show that he’s hardworking, and always has the best intentions for his clients.
The thing that makes Joel the most interesting to me, is his bubbly personality. He could talk about car parts and I would sit through 10 different clips of that. That’s what makes him engaging, and it makes me want to watch more of him and learn about his life. In his videos, he shows us personal aspects of his life, like spending time with his family or having a business lunch with his brother and business partner. As an article on Inman.com giving tips for Instagram for real estate says, “People want to see ‘behind the scenes’: Real estate is interesting to most people — just look at how many reality television shows are based on our industry.”
Instagram is used to provide perspective (Khan, “Week 8”). Mimico Joel shows what life looks like to him, and wants people to feel a connection to him. He’s consistently active on Instagram, commenting and liking other people’s posts to get himself into the lives of other people in the community. Interestingly, I recently met Mimico Joel when he knocked on my door asking if I’d like to sell my house. At that point, I had already been following him on Instagram for two months and I felt like I knew him well. So when I got to meet him, I felt like we had an instant connection and we had something to talk about. We laughed at how similar our Instagram names are, we talked about his business, we talked about my program at Ryerson and how I could even help with doing some video work for him in the future. I even got to be in his Instagram story, which actually felt very special since I watched his stories so religiously that he almost felt like a celebrity to me. So our connection on Instagram soon became a real connection in real life, and it all started from his online persona. Through Instagram Joel is able to meet people in the area, create connections, and build community.
There are other things that Mimico Joel does to make himself successful: he stays consistent in his brand and image. His Instagram handle, “mimicojoel” is one aspect that shows his commitment to just this one neighbourhood. Every time he starts a video, he uses this same unforgettable greeting, “Well a hey, a hi, a ho there.” As well, his consistent posts of his listings, his brand of being a charismatic and hardworking realtor, his openness of his personal life, and his motivational rants on life advice are always there. He takes the time to explain how he’s become a successful realtor, and attempts to motivate his viewers with inspiration and tips on getting the confidence that he has — which is just another magic ingredient of the student life’s network list on good content strategy: Inspiration (Khan, “Week 6”). Connecting with viewers by helping them lead better lives, even in small ways like these videos, shows a commitment to the audience he is speaking to.
And maybe most important of all, Joel is funny — his stories are genuinely comedic, creative and engaging to watch even if you’re not in the market for a new home. He creates a good mix of personal and professional using these tactics to gain trust from his followers and potential clients. This could be called an affiliative bond, a quality that you see in social media influencers that makes their followers more likely to mimic and replicate what they do as a result of the personal connection they make with their audience (Kahn, “Week 11”).
To incorporate some interactivity with his followers, he makes use of polls on his stories as well.
On his feed, he uses the grid post to create large visually appealing images. Joel incorporates videos into his timeline posts, that are higher quality and showcase the home he is selling. These videos use drone shots, and are taken with higher quality cameras like DSLR’s — they contrast sharply with his off-the-cuff videos. Often he’ll sandwich this video between two pictures on his timeline to make it look aesthetically pleasing. His pictures have key information about the listing in them with address and open house times.
Joel is constantly reaching out to his followers and making decisions based on the metrics he is able to attain from his follower count, view count, likes, comments and votes on polls he creates. While some metrics are vain, some are actionable in that he can pull data from who lives in the Mimico area based on the locations they often tag, which kinds of videos do more people stick around to watch on his story, and responses from polls. While many metrics from Instagram are vain, I believe he still is able to find actionable metrics from learning more about who his audience is — just like he found out more about me and who my friends are that could potentially be living in the area, all from my username.
While Mimico Joel isn’t an online influencer or a celebrity, he is doing really well at getting his claim to be the “King of Mimico” and getting his face and company out there. Through being a consistent Instagram user and delicately mixing his personal and professional life for us all to see, he creates a bond with his viewers. Whether Joel has researched these tactics or not, he does them all with ease and seems to have some fun along the way. I think there’s something we can all take away from Joel in using Instagram to its fullest and that is: have fun, be yourself, and make some friends while you’re at it.
Works Cited
Byers, Kleiner Perkins Caufield. “2017 Internet Trends Report.” KPCB Internet Trends, www.kpcb.com/internet-trends.
Khan, Hamza. “Week 6: Content Is Everything: Supercharging Your Social Media.” RTA 902 Social Media. 8 Mar. 2018, Toronto, Ryerson University.
Khan, Hamza. “Week 11: The Perfect Selfie: Social Currency & Influencer Marketing.” RTA 902 Social Media. 5 Apr. 2018, Toronto, Ryerson University.
Khan, Hamza. “Week 8: Seeing Is Retweeting: The Power of Visual Communication.” RTA 902 Social Media. 15 Mar. 2018, Toronto, Ryerson University.
Levitch, Justin. “Instagram for Real Estate: 5 Little Known Ways Agents Benefit by Incorporating Social Media Tool into Their Business.” Inman, 11 Nov. 2017, www.inman.com/next/instagram-for-real-estate-5-little-known-ways-agents-benefit-by-implementing-this-social-media-tool-in-their-business/.
