Start With A Win - Building Your Personal Brand on Social Media with Kristen Long

Episode Date: December 4, 2019

On this episode of the Start with a Win podcast, Kristen Long talks with us about her experience generating business using social media and how effectively building her personal brand on social media allowed her to become an independent agent in 2017. After working with a few teams in the Champaign, Illinois, area, Kristen realized that she was generating about 85% of her business herself and she decided to lean into her marketing background to get herself out there.The most effective method she has found is through social media, specifically Instagram. In 2018, 25% of Kristen’s business came from Instagram interactions, and it is likely that many people who like and engage with her content now will reach out to her when they have a real estate agent need down the road. While many people spend a lot of money to boost their posts, advertise, and buy followers, Kristen emphasizes that you can reach thousands of people at no cost to you if you have the right type of content. Another unconventional way that Kristen generates business is by aligning herself with Target. It is her happy place, so it is very common for her to be posting about going to Target or something she bought at Target or someone she saw at Target, so when people who are familiar with her go to Target or pass a Target or think about Target, they automatically think about Kristen. This immediate connection sometimes turns into a referral when people think about Kristen and realize that they have a friend looking to buy or sell a house and recommend that they reach out to her. Overall, Kristen sees the value in being present on multiple social media platforms, but she recommends that people focus on the one or two platforms that they are most comfortable with. When you are comfortable, you can show your authentic self and not come across and pushy or sales-y, but rather just provide value to your followers. Kristen says that the key to generating business on social media is to build relationships by being authentic and responsive. She also urges everyone to run their own social media accounts rather than paying someone else to manage them because you need to be the one interacting with people and listening to what they want and need, and they expect and deserve to hear from the real you. Connect with Kristen:https://www.instagram.com/homes217/https://www.instagram.com/Lkristen/https://www.facebook.com/kristen.long.9803https://www.linkedin.com/in/homes217/ Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ 

At top of the 12th floor of the Remax World Headquarters, you're listening to Start With a Win with CEO Adam Kantos. At top of the 12th floor of Remax World Headquarters here in lovely Denver, Colorado, Adam Kantos, CEO of Remax with Start With a Win. And in studio, we have producer Mark. How are you, buddy? I'm so good. Oh, yeah. With a little tune.

That's right. Sing it out. You know, it's a tune kind of day. It is a tune kind of day. The closer that we get to Christmas, you know. When it's snowing, also. And it's snowing. How magical. It is magical. You know, it's comfort food and cozy clothes day.

That's right. Exactly. Maybe a little princess bride. Oh, whoa. Hey, there you go. It is magical. You know, it's comfort food and cozy clothes day. That's right. Exactly. Maybe a little Princess Bride. Oh, whoa. Hey, there you go. In a movie. Hey, in studio we have with us the one and only, one of our favorite social media superstars, Kristen Long.

How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. How are you guys? Doing fantastic. How's the weather that you brought with you from Champaign-N-Owenway? Apparently I'm bringing it back with me too, so people are real excited. Uh-oh. But you're here with your Bitmoji shirt. Yep.

And your bun. And my bun. Got the bun, girl. All the things. That's it. If I could bring Target with me, it'd be a trifecta, but you know. Target. Okay, I got to ask. Before we jump into this, we see you on social media at Target, in front of Target, with the Target symbol, things like that.

You're wearing your lovely red Target jacket today. Why Target? What's going on there? I don't know. It's just, it's kind of my happy place. Happy place at Target. Go there. There's a Starbucks.

Oh, okay. The dollar spot. There you go. Done. It's got all the things. All the things. Do you get business out of Target? I do.

Seriously. I do. How do you do that? It's top of mind, right? So people go to Target and they think, oh, you know, Betty next door said she's thinking about selling. I'm going to have her call Kristen. And I was at Target earlier this year and ran into a

friend and she said, so glad I ran into you. You are the perfect person for a friend of mine that's looking to buy. And we closed it on our house a month later. Oh my gosh. So all my realtor friends out there, untapped source of leads, new customers, listings, buyers at Target. At Target. Or, you know, and I think it's yourself. So if Target's not your place, maybe the local coffee shop is. It's just being you and having a smile on your face and being helpful and building community. Yeah.

I love it. I love it. Okay. All right. So let's get into the podcast here. So you started being an independent agent August of 17? Yep. Okay, take us through your journey into real estate here.

Sure. So when I got licensed, I didn't quite know where to land. One of the team leads asked me to come onto their team. They'd been in the business a long time. I said, great, here we go. Their office is about 20 minutes from where I live and that's a really long commute for me. So I was on their team for about a year, switched to another team that was in Champaign, did that, learned so much on both teams. And then in about July of 2017, realized that 85% of my business was self-generated.

And at that point, it's kind of time to spread your wings and fly. And I have not looked back since. Awesome. So in 2018, you did 14 listings, 13 buyers, so 27 sides. And you did not buy a single lead. Nope. How did you generate that business? So the majority of my business comes from social media. It comes from my sphere. But really social media is where I live in 2018, 25% of my business came directly from Instagram. Really? Yeah. All right. Let's start unpacking the social media thing. Because I mean, you and I are friends on social media. Yeah. I mean, I feel like we've known each other forever. You send messages, I respond to them. I send messages, you respond to them. That's the beauty of it, right? It's like we're having a conversation

and it's all fun stuff. Yeah. So and now I'm going to start kind of indicating the target thing. If I'm around Target, I might reach out to you and go, hey, Kristen, look where I am. So how did you decide that social media was going to be your focus of brand building, business building for real estate? I think it just kind of came to me. So I have a background in marketing and graphic design and started to realize that that's kind of the platform where you can share that content that you create. You can engage with your audience. You can reach thousands of people with a $0 buy-in and share your creativity, share who you are.

It's just easy and it's, I mean, it's fun. You get to learn about people. They get to learn about you. It's just easy. And it's, I mean, it's fun. You get to learn about people. They get to learn about you. It's just, I love it. Well, you've been a speaker for us at our convention as well about social media. Yeah. And that was such an interesting experience for me. And it didn't really click until R4. That it's not, it doesn't have to be expensive. So you have some people that are spending thousands of dollars a month, either having somebody create their content for them or having somebody push it all out there for them or boosting posts and doing all of those pieces. And just hearing the dollar amount that some people are spending on these things is crazy to me because there's ways to do it without that huge buy-in, without that huge

cost associated with it. Cool. Let's kind of unpack the social media package here. I mean, what social media channels are you on? And what do you recommend that somebody who's building a business, let's say a real estate business like yours, what social media channels do you think people should absolutely be on and why? So I think that it's a common misconception that you need to be everywhere, right? And I do think it's important to have a presence everywhere because as anybody will tell you, if Instagram goes away tomorrow and you're only on Instagram, you're not going to appear anywhere else. So I think it's important to have a presence everywhere, but it's also incredibly overwhelming,

right? So if you say like, hey, you need to go build your profile on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok, all these places that are coming up, it's overwhelming to me to even say them out loud all at once. I think find the platform that you're most comfortable being authentically yourself and stick with that. And then you can share those pieces to other platforms as well, but really have one focus. So my focus is Instagram. Everything I create is Instagram facing and I'll share it to Twitter if I want to or Facebook. But I think to just find where you're most comfortable and most able to connect to your community is where you want to be.

Instagram is your foundation. So that's like the hub of the wheel here. What other platforms are you on? So I'm on Facebook. I have a Twitter. I have a Pinterest. You see the Twitter every now and then. You know, and I just, I don't.

What's up with that? Why is, it's like, I feel like a lot of people use Twitter, but then a lot of people don't use Twitter. I'll tell you what I use Twitter for. What's that? I got here Sunday, ordered Instacart. Instacart didn't show up. Couldn't get ahold of anybody at the 100 number. Tweeted Instacart.

My groceries arrived about 45 minutes later. Oh. So, you know. So it's like the complaint line. It is. It really, and I think from my perspective, that's what I've kind of seen it turn into. Okay.

Makes sense. I don't live there. I mean, I've tweeted an airline that I've had problems with before or just messaged them on Twitter and they've responded to that, but you can't get them anywhere else. And that I think is.

I mostly follow to just like brands and news sources so that I can quickly just see what's happening. Right. In games, if you can't... I mean, now virtually anything is anywhere with an app. So I think that's kind of where... But it also limits you to 140 characters and I always have a lot to say. I mean, it doesn't anymore. Isn't it like 280 now? Yeah, it's more. See? But it limits you.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's true. You don't put baby in the corner, right? I don't stop talking ever. So I would have continued, continued, continued. All right. That's a good question is how many people are doing real estate business on Twitter? I mean, maybe we should have somebody from Twitter on the show at some point. Yeah. Twitter expert. Yeah. Where do you find those? Someone some point. Yeah, Twitter expert. Yeah. Where do you find those? Someone who's crushing it on Twitter and Remax.

If you're out there, if you're listening to this podcast. Let us know. Don't be mad at Kristen for not knowing. I bet Target's on Twitter. They sure are. So Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, when your Instacart doesn't show up. Yeah. YouTube?

You're on YouTube? So I should be. Okay. And YouTube? You're on YouTube? So I should be. Okay. Am I? No. I'm there, but I don't really have a presence there. Okay. I've done a couple listing videos that I've got out there.

I do have a tutorial on there that's got- Three years old? Yeah, and it's got the majority of my followers. That's where that came from. But it's something that's in my 2020 business plan. Okay. So what about like TikTok? Okay. So tell us about TikTok. I keep hearing about TikTok and I will be completely honest with you. I thought it was the most silly thing out there. And I'm like, why, like, why is this a place to take your business? Like these are in, in my area, these are 11 to 15 year olds just making

silly videos. And I'm just like, I don't, I don't want to see that. I don't need to be there. And then it kept coming out and kept coming out and kept coming out. And so I finally, you know, Jesse Peters had a thing on it the other day and I was like, okay, if Jesse's there, maybe I should look at it. And I did. And just threw a listing out there on it, and it had like 600 views. Really? It's like interesting. Interesting.

It's definitely something that I'm not going to commit to doing it. Yeah. But in the last week, it's piqued my interest a little bit more. Producer Mark, we need a TikTok show, my friend. Hey, I mean, the it's piqued my interest okay producer mark we need a tiktok show my friend hey I mean the jury's still out on tiktok but Gary Vaynerchuk's pushing it hard because he owns part of it so he's like oh yeah he's really trying to like get on tiktok it's gonna be the next big thing but it's like and that's where I think it's coming from too is a lot like everyone's got like Gary V mentality but it's also like I I don't know. It's just, it seems dangerous to me.

I find it as a time suck for sure. Totally. Like, cause you do, it's like, there's these little short videos, people doing dumb stuff or lip syncing and you get stuck there for half an hour. It's like, Oh crap. I just wasted half an hour. It sucks you in. It does. It's a time vampire. What about LinkedIn? Are you on LinkedIn? Um I'm on LinkedIn. And again, it's one of those platforms that I don't use as much as I should. And I know that I should. My perspective on LinkedIn is there's so many business professionals that Instagram, Facebook, those are all blocked from their work hours. They can't access those platforms. They can get on LinkedIn all day long. So why am I not there? Well, we can get Instagram and Facebook here in our headquarters. You're such a generous CEO. Yes. Yes. So I've heard some people jumping on like the new LinkedIn Live or whatever it is,

but I don't know that it's really taken off quite yet, but we do get some pretty decent feedback on LinkedIn. But again, like you were talking about, we're mostly posting business-type articles, I think, stuff like that. Right, that keeps them there. I think they say that LinkedIn is what Facebook was seven years ago. So are we going to see it take on kind of what Facebook is now? Right. Interesting.

I don't know, because I'm pretty sure that grandparents aren't going to be there. It's fascinating, though, because a lot of the LinkedIn comments that I'll get, it's people trying to sell me something. Hey, we're connected. Can I have 15 minutes of your time real quick? And I'm like, if I gave everybody 15 minutes that said on LinkedIn, hey, can I have 15 minutes of your time? I mean, you'd be dead. You'd have no time. Yeah, you'd have no time left.

There would be no more. Right. So you never get any business done because everybody wants 15 minutes. I think that's the thing, too, is I try really hard not to sell. Right. I think that's my biggest. You're a community builder. And what value can I provide?

And I feel like, like you said, I feel like when I'm on LinkedIn and I post something, it's like, okay, what are you trying to sell me? What's the pitch here? What's the catch? I like this. This is a really insightful conversation because we're really getting into the Kristen Long psyche of truly what works for you on social media. It's a dangerous zone. It's an interesting place we're going here. It is.

But, I mean, this is interesting. Target, Instagram, and Facebook. Yeah. So, I mean, Target could start their own social network. They could. Which is interesting when you talk about that because there's a huge social following of Target. Oh, yeah.

I mean, it's just massive. It's crazy. And it is the people that make the decision in the home buying and selling process, the moms. I mean, I know my wife really likes Target, and I don't make any decisions in the household because she's in charge and kelly i know you're listening to the program uh and you know you're you know that's the way it is but uh i mean that's it's the truth of the matter is the

decision makers really shop at target so it's fascinating well and it's not you know it's fascinating. Well, and it's not, you know, it was never a, this is where I can get business. Right. It was absolutely a, you know, some people go to the gym. Some people. Guilty. Read books. Guilty. Some people run.

I go to Target. Like, that's my, I've had a day. I just need a moment. I'm going to Target. I'm lucky if I make it past a Starbucks at the beginning of Target. But I mean, yeah, you're right. If they could get the mobile order on the Starbucks at Target, game over. That's it.

Game over. Cool. All right. Let's dive a little deeper into business here. Do you attribute social media to being the thing that's made your business successful or the foundation for it? Because obviously, you're your business. You are the person behind your real estate transactions. You're the person

behind all the relationships. And we know this is a relationship-based business. It's completely emotional, justified by, OK, does this price work? Does the marketplace justify this price? So how do you kind of merge all those things together and say, look, it's me combined with some data and a lot of friendship. Big tip for anybody out there. What key tips do you have for people to combine those things to generate business from social media in real estate? Sure. So I think that that kind of proves the point. It is a relationship business. Your main objective on social media is to build know, like, and trust with the consumers. There are so many people out there that will say, hey, I'll run your Instagram for you. I'll run

your Facebook. I'll do X, Y, and Z. If you have somebody else running your Instagram for you and having those connections and creating those connections with consumers and then schedules an appointment with Joe and you show up to meet Joe and Joe starts talking about his kids and you're looking at Joe like, I have no idea you have kids. You've already broken the trust with Joe because you weren't the one having those conversations. So my biggest piece of advice is don't pay somebody to run your social media platforms for you. Just don't do it. I love it.

Because it's you, and that's what you're trying to sell. Right. It's your soul. It's got to be your voice. It's got to be your feelings. I mean, the things that people help me put these things online, Kayla, Mark, these folks. All the words that go out of this building are my words. Right.

And it's interesting because people can tell the difference. They can, you know, as soon as they start talking to you, they're like, that's not you. It's kind of interesting. It's like the big, you know, we talked about digital transparency on an earlier show. It is truly the digital transparency, the benchmark for that in society. And I love that fact because you can't hide behind it. You can't.

And the main objective is you're going to meet these people in person. So be yourself from the gate. Yeah, totally. It's just, and if somebody doesn't want to work with you because of your personality on Instagram or what you're putting out there, you're probably not going to want to work with them either. It's kind of a two-way street. So I think it's important just to know that you have to be yourself.

Be yourself. Hashtag be yourself. I love that. I love that. So, Kristen, we have a question we ask everybody on the show. It's called Start With A Win, of course. So how do you start with a win? So this is funny because Brie and I are so similar in so many ways.

We're also very different in ways, and that's why we balance well. But every day I make my bed. I love it. I have to make my bed. So that's a shout out to Brie White from Florida. Love Brie. Yeah, yeah. We had her on an earlier show.

We were talking about social media as well. Go figure. Yeah. So, you know, it works for building the business, but amazing human being. A lot of people making their beds. I like it. It's just, you know, starts the day off. I have accomplished something.

Here we go. It's great to get into a bed that's made, right? You look at it and you're like, oh, it's waiting for me. I like it. It's so cozy. Especially when there's 10 feet of snow outside. Yeah, exactly. And I don't like this turndown service thing in hotels because you're like, somebody unmade my bed for me.

Yeah. But anyhow, it's funny. They pull the cover back. You're like, no, no, leave it up there. Make the bed. But it is a great way. It pull the cover back. You're like, no, no, leave it up there. Make the bed. But it is a great way. It's a micro commitment to your day. It's the first step in doing something for yourself for your day.

And I love that. So thank you for sharing that. And I made my bed. Mark, did you make yours? You know, I was fortunate enough that it was a snow day. Oh, there you go. So actually, all my kids got into my bed with my wife

and they turned on the weather and I left. And you said bye. And I said bye. There you go. So my bed was filled with little kids. It might be made later.

Yeah, it will be made later. You started with a win. You went out into the tundra. That's right. That's it. Provide for my family. That's right. Time to go hunting.

That's right. So, cool. All right. Well, Kristen, I've learned a lot today. I mean, it's just, you know, this community, this, you know, the social media platforms we can work with. And really, it's, you look at it and I see constant consistency in your business. You're not out there trying all sorts of weird stuff.

You are out there being consistent, spreading happiness, giving value, talking to people about really this huge emotional investment in their financial future, their home. Yeah. Thank you for all you do. Thank you, guys. Of course, thank you for being on Start With A Win. Thanks for having me. It's been great. Glad to have you here.

Thanks. Thank you so much for listening to Start With A Win. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to go on to iTunes and subscribe, write a review, or rate the show. It helps us get the word out and reach more people. You can follow Adam on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And remember, start with a win.