Paul McEwan

Richard Branson, although from a well-to-do family, values personal adventure and risks more than some with less to lose. We understand Branson's Personal Brand.

Personal Branding is becoming an important topic as social media continues to be discovered. Most industries are starting to get it.

Realtors: with the addition of Social Media bringing about a change in marketing directions it’s now more important than ever to step up your branding. That is to say, ditch the old school slogans and awards and become authentic with who you are.

A Realtor’s business life and personal life mix on social media to the point where (I have read) that some create two different accounts on social media networks. Some good recent posts on the subject can be found here and here. What’s worse in my opinion is they have one account and only write about their business  activities, market reporting and name dropping. These Realtors seem to follow each other too. A better alternative  would be to follow your friends and community who happen to be your client base and not talk business, (but bring it up when asked or the opportunity arises).

Let’s do a case in point

(first a disclaimer): For this case-in-point I am going to pick any old slogan out of the hat and in no way intend to intentionally pick on anyone in particular. The fact is the slogan I choose to use as an example will sadly be in use by many Realtors – so you’re not alone if it’s yours.

“Vancouver’s Family Home Specialist”

Let’s choose that one (or something like that anyway- you’ll get the point). If this is a Realtor’s slogan but they don’t comment on family blogs, write blogs about family, advertise on family websites to support them, talk about family matters on Twitter and Facebook and don’t have a following of people with the same interest then what is the point? Their branding is not authentic and everyday people can now see this.

What I’m talking about here are some new concepts in marketing. Conversational Marketing, Permission Based Marketing and a Seth Godin’s new favourite, Leading a Tribe (which people are picking up now and calling Tribe Marketing). This type of marketing all begins with an authentic brand and story that are based on your values.

Realtor’s are always on when it comes to marketing. Anyone could be a future client. Why not just make your life easier and deal with people you choose, create a fan base and deal with all the residual business that naturally comes in as well.

Remember, with all things being equal people do business with people they click with. Even more importantly, with all things not being equal, people still do business with people they click with. So go out there and have real conversations online.