Learn how Realtors can create a Facebook Group for business to business marketing to increase the number of real estate client referrals they receive from local business owners.
Today, Icenhower Coaching and Consulting head coach Brad Baldwin talks with one of our ICC coaching clients, Tiffany Hernandez, about her idea to create a Facebook Group for business to business marketing. As you know, 2020 has thrown all of a unique set of challenges to face as Realtors. One of the biggest has been trying to navigate Covid-19. Realtors were forced to figure out how to continue to generate business and grow their SOI while not being able to meet face to face with members of their community. Creating a Facebook Group, as Tiffany talks about in this video, provides a great solution. It acts as a bridge between Realtors and local business owners, sparking a new way to generate connections and referral business.
VIDEO: How Realtors Can Create a Facebook Group for Business to Business Marketing
Learning to pivot
Tiffany Hernandez is a Realtor in Pismo Beach, on the Central Coast of California. She sold $24,000,000 in sales volume last year, and despite all of the challenges that came along with Covid-19, she looks to more than double her business this year. Incredible! In 2019, most of Tiffany’s business (59%) was from her sphere of influence. The remaining 41% came from three sources. 15% was from open houses, 12% was online searches, and 14% was paid online leads. Because of Covid-19 in 2020, Tiffany couldn’t depend on generating any business from traditional open houses. That means, Tiffany stood to lose 15% or more of her business.
This forced Tiffany to pivot. One of the things that Coach Brad worked on with Tiffany was her sphere of influence. If most of her business is already coming from her SOI — how can she tap into it and get even more business? Working closely with her coach, Tiffany was able to devise a strategy that would work to grow her SOI and make it easy to stay first of mind with these people.
On one of their weekly coaching calls, Coach Brad told Tiffany that he was out jogging and saw something that he thought was a great idea. He saw a sign that said #BurlesonStrong. As he continued to jog, he saw that sign repeated throughout his neighborhood in Burleson, Texas. It struck him — this is a great way to show support for local businesses during a pandemic.
Loyal to local
After sharing this great idea with Tiffany, she wasted no time. She hit the ground running and took the idea and put her own spin on it. Creating signs that read, “#CentralCoastStrong” and “#LoyalToLocal”, she wanted to promote small businesses throughout her community. As we talk about all the time here at ICC, as a Realtor, you should always be coming from contribution, and this is exactly where Tiffany’s head was at.
Originally, Tiffany envisioned that these signs would be distributed among her friends, family, and clients. That’s when Tiffany’s 17-year-old son came up with an inventive idea. Why not make a Facebook Group to promote this concept? They decided to create a group called “Central Coast Strong” and invite local people and business owners from across the Central Coast of California to join and post about their businesses. It grew quickly and along with it grew Tiffany’s sphere of influence. It became a huge connection, business to business.
Tiffany and her son began distributing the “#CentralCoastStrong” signs to anyone who replied to her Facebook post on the Group. People began sharing posts about the hours their small business was open during the week. Community members were reaching out to each other for help and for encouragement. And there, in the background, was Tiffany, facilitating it all.
Tips on how to create a Facebook group for business to business marketing
- Be responsive. It’s one thing to create a Facebook group for business to business marketing, and it’s another to keep the ball rolling. As the creator, you need to respond to posts. You are the unofficial facilitator! Besides, the more people see your name, the more they will think of you first for their real estate needs.
- Engage. You need to engage with posts and act as a moderator. Make sure all posts are positive and remove the ones that aren’t. Interact positively with comments, likes, and shares to show your support.
- Post interesting and relevant content. In Tiffany’s case, she posted weekly interviews with small businesses. She was able to highlight these businesses, which meant a lot to the business owners. Interact positively, ask questions, and help connect the members of the group. You can come from contribution in a big way within your community.
Grow your community Facebook group, grow your SOI
After you create your Facebook Group for business to business marketing, you are able to “meet” new people. You can network virtually. And then suddenly, you are able to start adding new contacts to your sphere of influence database without ever meeting in person. Those contacts get put on to the 40-contacts-per-year plan that we promote here at ICC. On that plan, you can expect that 1 of every 7 contacts you have will provide you with business. This is significant!
At the end of the day, as Tiffany said, she has had so much fun creating this group. Doing something you love, and coming from contribution at the same time, can be so rewarding!
