NUTS & BOLTS
TECH TOOL REVIEW
Socially Speaking
DON’T BE ONE OF THOSE REAL ESTATE INVESTORS WHOSE ONLINE PRESENCE IS MEDIOCRE—OR WORSE, NONEXISTENT.
by Robert Springer
T
media to showcase your business and your authenticity to really have an opportunity to engage people, whether they’re sellers, buyers or potential pri- vate lenders,” she says.
he wealth of social media plat- forms that real estate investors
your projects so that you have the op- portunity to attract the kind of relation- ships and investment partners to your business that you want,” she says. For example, Instagram is a natural for rehabbers, according to Lassit- er-Lyons, as before and after pictures immediately establish credibility with potential investment partners. “If some- body is going to check you out online, which they absolutely will, for them to go to your social media pages and just be able to see for themselves the exact projects and the kind of work that you do and the kind of feedback that you get is valuable,” she says. ‘A SOLID D’ Lassiter-Lyons isn’t impressed by real estate investors’ use of social media. When asked to give the group an overall grade, she unhesitatingly says, “a solid D.” “The first problem that I see really is that they don’t believe in the power of social media and they don’t understand social media,” says Lassiter-Lyons. She says that a typical conversation she has with a real estate investor about the need to be on social media starts with the investor saying, “‘Nobody’s going to be interested in what I had for lunch.’ I tell them, ‘You’re absolutely right,’” she says. Once the kidding stops, Lassiter-Ly- ons asks the investor if he or she is trying to generate leads and relation- ships that can help further the investor’s business. “If the answer to that is yes, then there’s no better way than social
have available to find deals, attract fund- ing and meet other like-minded people is unprecedented, yet many investors aren’t taking advantage of them, says an owner of a social media management company that helps real estate investors manage their social media presence. Susan Lassiter-Lyons has written a seven-part series called “The Real Estate Investor’s Social Media Plan,” where she details how to use Facebook, Twitter and other services to help real estate investors use those platforms to achieve their invest- ment goals. Lassiter-Lyons also owns The Investor Insights, a training and coaching company for real estate investors. She believes that most investors are using social media poorly and need to up their game if they want to compete in a marketplace that increasingly values an online presence as a sign of credibility. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS AMUST The correct use of social media isn’t just a nice-to-have in 2017 – it’s a must-have, according to Lassiter-Lyons. Using Facebook or Instagram is not just for young or beginning investors, as Lassiter-Lyons says that all investors will experience improved relationships, transparency and credibility by wisely using the tools. “One of the things that I really talk to my real estate investing students about with regard to social media is making sure you’re showcasing yourself and
OVERCOMING SOCIAL MEDIA RESISTANCE
Lassiter-Lyons’ online subscribers and customers skew about 70 percent male to 30 percent female, and the age range is 45 to 64. Males in that age range generally do not see the value of social media, she says. “I tell you, that demographic is the most resistant bucket to social media,” she says. “The younger guys who come in ‘get it.’ They absolutely understand it right away.” Once she tells the younger guys that they need to showcase their projects, they im- mediately start posting photos and updates on Facebook. “That’s really a documen- tation not only of their projects or their potential projects, but it’s a document of their day-to-day activities,” she says. Lassiter-Lyons believes the older demographics’ biggest hurdle (“Which they’ll never admit!”) is feeling that they don’t know how to “work” it. The mechanics of uploading and posting are foreign and therefore intimidating as they’re not on social media all day like their younger counterparts. “I think it’s that kind of fear of they don’t know what they’re doing and so they just decide to reject it out of hand because they don’t want to seem like they don’t know what they’re doing,” she
86 | think realty magazine march :: april 2017
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