00:00:18:21 – 00:00:48:01

Michael Conrad

Hey, everyone, welcome to the Business of Homes podcast. This is Michael Conrad. And today we are actually back with Marie Lee, who you will remember was one of our earlier guests where we talked a little bit about why not doing it her own way, cutting trail and some of the difficulties of being an entrepreneur. And we only really got to touch briefly on social media, really the thing she’s probably known best for and the things that she’s doing some great innovation in now, Marie, is not just good on camera.

 

00:00:48:01 – 00:00:56:09

Michael Conrad

She knows the nuts and bolts and the technical behind the scenes as well. And that’s what we’re going to do, a little bit of a deep dive on. So, Marie, thank you so much for coming back.

 

00:00:56:10 – 00:00:58:15

Marie Lee

Thank you for having me again.

 

00:00:58:17 – 00:01:20:19

Michael Conrad

What I really would love to kind of go a little deeper in the weeds on is the fact that in general, people are always talking about social media like it’s one big box and that all the different platforms are more or less all the same. Most hilariously, you’ll hear this from certain folks, maybe an older generations or even certain politicians with their hilarious gaffes about what Tik Tok can or cannot do.

 

00:01:20:21 – 00:01:43:18

Michael Conrad

And so I know that the folks listening here are probably going to skew towards a entrepreneur or business and real estate audience. And so we’re going to probably touch a little bit on your experience in those categories and what platforms you’re on and how we can best use them. So just to give me the big overview, what platforms are you on today and what platforms are you really not focusing on at all?

 

00:01:43:18 – 00:02:19:12

Marie Lee

Sure. So the platforms I’m most known for are Instagram, and then I’ve had some successes using Facebook, some successes using LinkedIn, and then I also use Twitter as a thought leadership piece. But there’s so many other social media platforms out there. I have had some clients that have come to me through Tik Tok, and it’s really just been a hit or miss like, Hey, I’m going to try this out, see if this works.

 

00:02:19:14 – 00:02:41:23

Marie Lee

Some of them I’m stuck with and some of them I’m like, All right, now the ship has sailed. So even right now I have closed a few deals that came through TikTok, but I don’t focus primarily on Tik Tok anymore. I focus primarily on Instagram and then take that content and repurpose it into other platforms for various reasons.

 

00:02:41:23 – 00:03:17:10

Marie Lee

So I use Facebook a lot. That is mostly Facebook groups. There was a period of time where I was using Facebook for marketing with e-commerce. I was doing a lot of paid advertisements there. Since moving into real estate, I focus primarily on direct organic marketing and I don’t spend money on ads, but I do use Facebook for my Facebook business profiles and then really just connecting with people, giving value in Facebook groups.

 

00:03:17:12 – 00:03:36:07

Marie Lee

And then with LinkedIn, I join a couple of different networking groups which have also brought me clients. I repurpose, repurpose everything from Instagram and Facebook into LinkedIn, just honestly copy paste. And there we are on a whole nother platform.

 

00:03:36:07 – 00:04:04:19

Michael Conrad

All right. You’ve given us a lot to unpack here because each of those things you mentioned is a rabbit hole unto itself. Okay, So for an audience member here that maybe isn’t familiar with some of the granularity or the nuance, isn’t it safe to say that Facebook and Instagram are the same? They’re both owned by media. They are two different platforms, but you can easily just click a slider toggle and repurpose that content immediately onto Facebook that you’re natively posting in to Instagram.

 

00:04:04:19 – 00:04:13:09

Michael Conrad

So for folks that are saying, Well, what’s the big difference between Facebook and Instagram from a content platform? What’s been your experience?

 

00:04:13:11 – 00:04:51:17

Marie Lee

So they are very different. Instagram. I feel like it’s a really great opportunity to reach more people to develop an audience, to tell, to entertain people. Facebook, I feel like, is a really great platform for community and for knowledge creation. Yeah, it’s a lot of yeah, community building conversations. A lot of people are looking for referrals, looking for recommendations, especially like in neighborhood groups and things like that.

 

00:04:51:19 – 00:05:16:12

Marie Lee

So I use that as an opportunity to kind of show what I know. And then, you know, it gives me a little bit of momentum going forward. Oh, she kind of knows what she’s talking about. She has recommendations for this or for that. In fact, I had connected with somebody who’d moved here. They were part of a Facebook group I was in, and I was just constantly giving recommendations.

 

00:05:16:12 – 00:05:27:13

Marie Lee

We met up in real life. She was like, I knew I had to meet up with you. You were that one girl giving recommendations in the Facebook group All the time. I knew you knew your way around the city. I was like, Yeah, that’s what I want to be known for.

 

00:05:27:13 – 00:05:54:17

Michael Conrad

Yeah, it’s interesting. Facebook has really morphed over time and I think the groups is like the last great benefit of Facebook and it’s like ever attempt to be relevant. I’m not sure it’s succeeding in a lot of other places necessarily, but you’re able to pass just from a volume standpoint, a lot more information through Facebook because of conversation and the way that they thread, you know, typed out conversations much more simply.

 

00:05:54:19 – 00:06:15:23

Michael Conrad

But I guess by contrast, they would have put a lot more energy into that visualization, that storytelling piece back into Instagram by on purpose. Really. Yeah. And so that’s a good, I think, distinction for people here listening to know, okay, well, where am I going to be putting my effort? Do I just do the same post on Instagram and Facebook?

 

00:06:16:04 – 00:06:18:20

Michael Conrad

Or maybe is there a more intelligent way to do it?

 

00:06:18:22 – 00:06:53:06

Marie Lee

I think for Instagram, I’m focusing in on the content and the message that I want to put out. And then with Facebook, I’m focusing on the conversations to be had. So if I’m posting something to Instagram, I usually am posting like, Hey, this is the story, this is the win, this is the information. And when I’m repurposing that into Facebook, I’m usually having a follow up conversation either in the comments or in the caption to start asking questions, to get people to answer via the comments versus and mediums.

 

00:06:53:08 – 00:07:13:20

Marie Lee

That’s been really great piece. I know a lot of people want to forget about Facebook and they want to abandon it, but it’s a platform that remains really strong and I think it’s strong because of its community piece. There is not another platform that has as strong of a community piece as Facebook has.

 

00:07:13:21 – 00:07:34:07

Michael Conrad

I mean that you heard it here, folks. Seriously, I feel like that is a kind of a big gold nugget that is missing a lot of your younger audience. Yeah, you’re skewing younger audience is almost from a social aspect running from Facebook to try to get away from the boomers joining it. But you’re right, it really hits very well in those kind of narrow areas.

 

00:07:34:09 – 00:07:56:20

Michael Conrad

Look, every entrepreneur, a business person, needs to have people who know like and trust them, okay? But we don’t always get people to know us or like us or trust us on every single social platform. And using a combination like what you’re talking about, to pick up those different pieces, I think can be very beneficial. And right now what you’re talking about, Facebook, I think it’s a trust piece.

 

00:07:56:22 – 00:08:14:02

Michael Conrad

There’s a trust piece. Maybe they know about you. Maybe they begin to really like you on Instagram because it’s very visual, it’s very evocative, it’s very storytelling focused. But then the trust like what you’re talking about in the long term conversation, oh, they’re not just a pretty face that’s been propped up by someone else’s content or someone else is editing.

 

00:08:14:02 – 00:08:23:09

Michael Conrad

Oh, they actually know their real person who knows the city. Yes. Specifically for your industry, I think that Facebook is that trust piece that you’re needing.

 

00:08:23:09 – 00:08:50:08

Marie Lee

Yeah. And I think another really good distinction that we’re talking about, Instagram is had some scrutiny from younger generations and from people. Instagram was a leading platform for a long time, but it got to a point where people were so focused and consumed on esthetics and the visual that they were trying present. People were editing videos and photos a lot, and it almost started to lose that authenticity piece.

 

00:08:50:09 – 00:09:13:18

Marie Lee

Oh yeah. And so I think that’s why Tik Tok blew up. It’s very much real time. It’s very much short format, easy to digest content, and people are showing like the real behind the scenes. It’s a very authentic, intentionally unpolished. Yeah, yeah. Like if I’m going to make a video on Tik Tok, I’m probably not going to make sure my hair and makeup are done.

 

00:09:13:21 – 00:09:42:19

Marie Lee

I feel like those videos actually do better than if I’m, you know, put together because people want to connect with you. And Instagram is starting to make some changes to try and promote, I don’t know, community and things like that. But the people who are tired of Instagram because of its high esthetic standard are either using Tik Tok or they’re using Facebook.

 

00:09:42:19 – 00:09:47:15

Marie Lee

And Instagram’s trying to find a way to maintain its relevance with both and bring back.

 

00:09:47:17 – 00:09:48:03

Michael Conrad

Shows.

 

00:09:48:03 – 00:09:49:13

Marie Lee

Audiences. Yeah.

 

00:09:49:15 – 00:10:12:06

Michael Conrad

Interesting. This other piece of it, it’s not just the type of messaging that you’re sending out in the world, whether it’s filtered or unfiltered, polished or unpolished. There is also audiences that skew to certain platforms for a variety of reasons. And so have you taken much consideration of like, okay, I’m attempting to get this type of audience, so I need to be focusing on this type of platform to get that audience.

 

00:10:12:06 – 00:10:13:06

Michael Conrad

What’s been your experience with that?

 

00:10:13:07 – 00:10:57:18

Marie Lee

Yeah, I think that’s why I had a focus on Instagram. Feel like the bulk users of Instagram are primarily first time home buyers or people in a younger generation. And I think that has been beneficial for me and my business and why I have focused my attention there. I’m not going to say that Tik Tok isn’t fruitful. I have gained clients through Tik Tok, but the people who are consuming content on Tik Tok in my experiences have not been in the same place to, you know, make a purchase like a home purchase or a transaction, whereas Instagram, um, it’s been pretty right.

 

00:10:57:18 – 00:11:00:17

Michael Conrad

There’s the simple fact of like, who can buy a house, right?

 

00:11:00:18 – 00:11:30:12

Marie Lee

It’s the demographics. And then on Facebook, because of that community piece, I feel like that has really allowed me to position myself towards older generations. So I feel like I do have different messaging for each platform on Facebook. I’m giving some thought leadership, but some community pieces in hopes to appeal to an older audience. Instagram It’s mostly people my age and then Tik Tok.

 

00:11:30:12 – 00:11:39:09

Marie Lee

I’m trying to get some of the younger millennials or I don’t even know what the next generation is. Yeah, yeah.

 

00:11:39:11 – 00:12:14:21

Michael Conrad

Yeah, that’s interesting. But there’s those aren’t the only ones. I mean, those are probably get the most discussion in the Common Forum now, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. But there’s other platforms that still have an immense relevance with certain audiences and certain demographics. YouTube, I feel like very wisely adopted shorts. Yeah. To sort of compete with reels and I feel like there’s a pretty good user base now that was sort of departing from YouTube because it was only long form content and we don’t have the time or the attention span now to sort of consume long form quite as much.

 

00:12:14:22 – 00:12:34:18

Michael Conrad

But I think they did well with shorts. And then quite frankly, there is a growing resurgence, shock of all shocks at LinkedIn. I’m seeing a number of influencers is going back to LinkedIn and LinkedIn and spending a fair amount of effort to compose stories and like gain followers and network through LinkedIn. Have you seen some of that?

 

00:12:34:18 – 00:13:12:20

Marie Lee

Oh yeah. I think LinkedIn is trying to position itself as like the professional, and it always has been, but as a professional content platform where people are showing off their their industry knowledge and that’s okay. It’s widely accepted there. YouTube is a great platform and if I had the time, effort and energy to put in a YouTube, I would be and I feel like that’s the smartest thing you could be focusing on right now because it’s so easy to repurpose that long format content and into these other platforms like we’re talking about.

 

00:13:12:20 – 00:13:32:23

Marie Lee

It’s also owned by Google. It’s, you know, one of the widest used search engines in terms of search engine optimization. Like if somebody is going to go and Google you, where are you going to pop up? YouTube’s going to normally be number one or number two. So another platform people aren’t really thinking about or maybe have forgotten about is Pinterest.

 

00:13:33:01 – 00:13:57:05

Marie Lee

It’s one that I’m trying to find ways. That’s something I don’t see anybody in the real estate world focusing on. But I had somebody tell me one day, Hey, you should think about using Pinterest. Pinterest still has a very alive and well user base. People are using it almost like a search engine. And then your formats or your your content, it’s pretty much evergreen.

 

00:13:57:05 – 00:14:14:13

Marie Lee

If anybody’s searching for it, bam, it pops up and it would be linked right back to a website, maybe like a blog post you did or something like that. So I’m trying to creatively think about that. That’s kind of YouTube and Pinterest are my next moving steps forward. I mean.

 

00:14:14:15 – 00:14:58:18

Michael Conrad

Yeah, yeah. Pinterest has a I think a pretty well defined audience in the design and crafting space, which encompasses in the female demographic, just a huge swath across income and age demographics. People go there looking for inspiration classically. And so positioning yourself in any business, but really specifically real estate as someone who can provide inspiration, again, that’s almost cutting and pasting the old process of let me become an education leader and then you will begin to trust me because I have provided you something valuable or many things valuable, and then you’ll come and use my business in whatever fashion.

 

00:14:58:23 – 00:15:07:00

Michael Conrad

And so I think Pinterest, that’s very smart. I hadn’t thought a lot about that, but that’s a great place. I think that’s probably an undiscovered country yet again.

 

00:15:07:02 – 00:15:08:11

Marie Lee

Gold nugget, gold nugget.

 

00:15:08:11 – 00:15:31:11

Michael Conrad

Write it down. Yeah. Okay. So we touched briefly on this idea of the time for long form and how a lot of these platforms are skewing more and more and more focused on short form video and short form content. And of course, the shortest form content is a static image, which has been a post as a concept has been around for a long time.

 

00:15:31:13 – 00:15:50:04

Michael Conrad

But a lot of the conversations being had at the marketing level, social media level, are all about short form video, short form, video, short form 30, 60, 92nd max, whatever. And so is there a place for long form and what do we do with long form now that we have these platforms that are moving away from it?

 

00:15:50:06 – 00:16:12:08

Marie Lee

I think long form has a place almost like a foundation, and I feel like a lot of people when they’re using YouTube, they’re wanting to know something about a very specific topic and they’re there to be educated. So if you’re on YouTube and you’re looking up something specifically like you want to watch that entire how TOS Yeah, sure.

 

00:16:12:09 – 00:16:29:02

Marie Lee

Yeah. And you’ll see I feel like a lot of them are now timestamps, like, hey, if you want to get to this part, click here. Oh, yeah, great. Love that. But I don’t know, maybe it’s just the ADHD in me. I’m like trying to skip through to the, you know, the next part. Like, all right.

 

00:16:29:04 – 00:16:31:12

Michael Conrad

You watch it fast. Like at 1.5 or 175.

 

00:16:31:12 – 00:16:34:03

Marie Lee

1.25. Okay, That’s the magic.

 

00:16:34:03 – 00:16:38:18

Michael Conrad

Like we could separate the population and how fast they watch things. Yeah, my wife does 175.

 

00:16:38:18 – 00:16:40:05

Marie Lee

I couldn’t. Yeah, that’s.

 

00:16:40:05 – 00:16:41:05

Michael Conrad

Intense.

 

00:16:41:07 – 00:17:11:05

Marie Lee

So I think there is that there is a good foundation for it, but I feel like our country or country, I feel like users right now just want gold nuggets. They want short actionable gold nuggets. That’s where short form trumps and is king. You know, if I could take that, I feel like the best messaging, the best messaging comes down to simplicity.

 

00:17:11:07 – 00:17:24:18

Marie Lee

If you can take a broad concept and boil it down to something small, like you’re going to win.

 

00:17:24:20 – 00:18:01:15

Jake Hall

Hey, everyone, it’s Jake, director for the Business of Homes Podcast. I hope you have been enjoying today’s episode, starting with which platforms Marie is finding success on. The biggest difference between Instagram and Facebook and Marie moving towards YouTube and Pinterest. When we return, Michael and Marie answer the question Do you need to be on every platform? The most important thing to do as a content creator and Marie’s exact funnel for content creation, Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram @thebusinessofhomespod, where you can interact with us and see some great bite-sized pieces from all of our episodes for you listeners out there.

 

00:18:01:20 – 00:18:20:18

Jake Hall

Did you know our entire podcasts are filmed and are on our YouTube channel? Check it out next time you want to see our amazing guests tell their stories. And are you currently watching this episode in video format? Don’t forget to follow us on your preferred audio streaming service to take us with you on the go. Lastly, do you have any feedback or one to suggest someone for the show?

 

00:18:20:20 – 00:18:37:00

Jake Hall

Email us at thebusinessofhomespodcast@gmail.com. Please enjoy the rest of today’s episode with Marie Lee. Let’s get back to it.

 

00:18:37:02 – 00:19:01:21

Michael Conrad

One of the things that we’re trying to do in sort of my world and something that I’ve seen be successful in other folks is trying to very intentionally build long form content that has opportunity to be cut up into smaller pieces if gold nuggets arrive in real time, and then you can begin to tease long form, you can begin to gain a user base through that short form pieces.

 

00:19:02:03 – 00:19:20:04

Michael Conrad

And so that’s something that I think we’re trying to do. And if anyone has. Again, like you said, the time to put in to build long form content, you can almost get I think I saw an Instagram reel one time where the woman was saying, you get 38 pieces of content out of a single ten minute long form video.

 

00:19:20:06 – 00:19:42:02

Michael Conrad

And of course they all have benefit. That could be blogs, that could be audio for short form platforms, that could be short form video. Of course. There’s a variety of ways to take that from transcript to audio to video and use it in a number of locations. So we start to get to this idea that maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not.

 

00:19:42:04 – 00:19:58:05

Michael Conrad

Do we have to be on every platform? So you’ve gained some popularity, you’ve built a user base and what’s the conventional wisdom now amongst these sort of micro-influencers and sort of proper influencer types about, do I need to be on every platform?

 

00:19:58:07 – 00:20:24:07

Marie Lee

I think most people would tell you focus on the thing that is most accessible to you or the most consistent for you. So for me, Instagram is really consistent. I’m on it all the time. That’s where I focus my time, effort and energy, and that’s why I am not focused on on YouTube. That’s going to be a really big stretch for me and it’s something that I want to do and something I will get to.

 

00:20:24:07 – 00:20:54:07

Marie Lee

But right now, all of my efforts are what’s the platform that I’m on? Where am I seeing success? And let me just put in my 10000 hours there so that way I am an expert in what it is that I am doing. So I don’t create specific content for Facebook, I don’t create specific content for LinkedIn. I’m just repurposing the content that I’m making for one specific platform, cross posting it with some slight tweaks and still seen benefit with it.

 

00:20:54:09 – 00:21:11:07

Michael Conrad

Amazing. So we’ve we’ve left someone out in the cold. One of the OGs Twitter. Yeah. So what place does Twitter have? If you are someone that’s trying to gain an audience, if you’re trying to gain a referral clientele, where does Twitter fall in the mix?

 

00:21:11:07 – 00:21:32:12

Marie Lee

Yeah, I think Twitter, when you’re looking at the App Store, is identified as a news app, right? They want to differentiate themselves as, Hey, this is where you can get content short form, right? So it’s basically like the Tik tok or Instagram reels of blog posts and.

 

00:21:32:14 – 00:21:33:12

Michael Conrad

What was it, 140.

 

00:21:33:12 – 00:21:59:08

Marie Lee

Characters or less. And so a lot of people are taking a Twitter for thought leadership right now. And I have recently begun entering back into the Twitterverse and and putting out what I would say is very, very thought provoking content on Twitter. But with the intent to repurpose it to Instagram. Right.

 

00:21:59:08 – 00:22:01:19

Michael Conrad

Because you can screenshot that and then pull it over.

 

00:22:01:19 – 00:22:21:00

Marie Lee

It’s a really popular format right now, and it’s really great for carousels on Instagram to just slide through. And because it’s such a simple format, people can read it easily, it’s easily saved and shared and it’s, I don’t know, transcends amongst generations.

 

00:22:21:02 – 00:22:38:00

Michael Conrad

And you know, just from a nuts and bolts standpoint, if you end up laying down some content on a real or even a story that’s going to evaporate, you can recapture in permanence little pieces out of that in a Twitter post that allows that to be more durable. Yep.

 

00:22:38:02 – 00:23:06:08

Marie Lee

I think the biggest thing you can do as a content creator is find what is working for you and find every way to repurpose it. So like we’re talking about how can I get these small clips from a larger piece of format for me, I’m thinking, All right, what has done well in the past and how can I repurpose that and represent the information in a different way that gets people’s attention?

 

00:23:06:09 – 00:23:35:00

Marie Lee

I have reposted videos in the past. They usually haven’t done very well. But if I take that same information, tweak it and put it in a different format, it usually does the same, if not better, than when I originally posted it. So I’m not recreating the wheel every time I’m making content. Sometimes I’ll just go back into the archives or see, Oh, what has worked out well, repurpose that and put it out back into the world in a different format.

 

00:23:35:00 – 00:23:54:08

Michael Conrad

Yeah, I think an increasingly in social media intelligent audience, an audience that has consumed a lot of social media, is aware of the tricks that influencers and creators are doing, whether it’s like, Oh, let me pump out a bunch of content in a day and then I’ll like spread it out over months. I think we’re becoming more aware of that.

 

00:23:54:08 – 00:24:16:00

Michael Conrad

And so I think it’s more and more important that we, if we are going to try to batch creation, that we being smart about it and you make those adjustments, the little edits, even wardrobe changes, just to make sure that your content feels fresh because you don’t want an audience to lose that trust in you because, oh, you’re just doing it for whatever money influencer, you know, or followers or whatever.

 

00:24:16:02 – 00:24:33:15

Michael Conrad

So you mentioned stories, and stories were just like everything for a minute on Instagram, right? And then with the rise in popularity of reels, stories have taken a backseat, or at the very least, they’re sort of like the great divide. You have creators that are like, I still love stories. I’m all about the stories. This is my jam.

 

00:24:33:21 – 00:24:45:06

Michael Conrad

And they are people that are really going hard left into or right or whatever, into reels stories go away. Is that bad? Don’t we want our content to be durable and last?

 

00:24:45:06 – 00:25:08:22

Marie Lee

So I think it depends on what is your what’s your intent. So let me just break down my funnel, okay? When I’m creating content, this is really my strategy for marketing. So if I’m going to create an Instagram reel, Dodson hopes to reach a broad audience. People who don’t follow me, they’ll come to my page, and if they follow me, then great.

 

00:25:08:23 – 00:25:34:11

Marie Lee

The next scene you’re going to see is either an opportunity to get a lead magnet for me to continue to get more targeted information through an email marketing newsletter that I put out. Or you can book a call with me. If either of those don’t seem plausible to you, then you can stick around for either additional content or in my stories, I feel like my stories are where I convert people.

 

00:25:34:14 – 00:26:03:23

Marie Lee

My stories are where I’m having a more pointed message, where I’m able to speak to somebody directly, where I’m really able to build authenticity and build engagement. Instagram is not a very communal based platform at the moment, but stories allow me that people can interact with stories send DMS and the gold is in the DMS. That’s where you start having really valuable conversations and I feel like that’s where I convert a lot of my followers into clients.

 

00:26:04:03 – 00:26:33:15

Michael Conrad

Yeah, it’s almost like stories have a easier ability to create a call to action classically with like e-commerce folks, influencers, they’re going to be putting links to say, clothing or to items that are available for purchase. Or that interactive piece now puts a user on your radar right now. You can start to target them in more intentional and specific ways, offer them, you know, loss leader content or whatever it is so that you can get them into an email funnel or whatever.

 

00:26:33:17 – 00:26:47:05

Michael Conrad

And so it’s ironic because of its ephemeral nature, it’s going to just puff into smoke in 24 hours, but we can get a better call to action because of it. It doesn’t feel as salesy because it feels just fresh and in the moment.

 

00:26:47:07 – 00:27:18:16

Marie Lee

What else I like about stories is with reels. I can’t tell who’s watching it. I just get a vanity metric like, Hey, this is the number of views, the number of saves, the comments, etc. But when I’m looking at my stories, I can scroll up and see who is watching my story, who is interacting with my story. And if people are routinely interacting with my story and they’re not on my radar, I might make a note in my mind, Hey, I might need to follow up with this person, reach out, go grab coffee, figure out where they’re at.

 

00:27:18:16 – 00:27:30:05

Marie Lee

Honestly, just from a genuine standpoint. But, you know, it’s a really great way to reintroduce people into your sphere that you might not even be thinking about.

 

00:27:30:07 – 00:27:54:04

Michael Conrad

Right. Social media gets this terrible rap for uncoupling us from community and uncoupling us from society because we’re quietly alone in our rooms, doomscrolling or whatever. And so you’re right, there is a way for us to use it to sort of tie back to reality, which is for a business person who’s built on referrals, which all of us are in business predominantly through referrals, right?

 

00:27:54:06 – 00:28:12:10

Michael Conrad

We need that. We need that constant anchoring back to the human interaction piece. So that’s a very wise method for going. And I hope that listeners here are writing that one down because that’s going to be a useful piece to not get you sort of out in left field just as some sort of like random creator.

 

00:28:12:11 – 00:28:41:22

Marie Lee

Yeah. One last thing about stories. I feel like the whole game of marketing, it’s mindshare equals market share, right? And it is such a low barrier to entry to make a story, whereas it takes a little bit more time, effort, energy to create a real or to create videos or posts. I can easily pull out my phone, record myself and talk about what it is that I’m doing that day or a little funny tidbit and bam, I’ve got content.

 

00:28:42:04 – 00:29:10:20

Marie Lee

Whereas with a real or a post I might need to do some editing. I feel like if you have the intent of putting out stories, you can reach more people more routinely and at a O in a more tangible way. I feel like stories are a really great way to help curb burnout. You’re not having to focus on the end product as much as you are with a larger piece of content.

 

00:29:10:22 – 00:29:38:17

Michael Conrad

And let’s make sure that we mention stories are just dollar for dollar. Better way to connect with the audience. You already have, whereas reels, posts and other formats are going to be ways for you to connect to an audience you don’t yet have. Right? And so, yet again, there is a complexity in Instagram just as a single platform in the ways that you as a creator or as an influencer can be trying to either gain an audience.

 

00:29:38:19 – 00:30:03:07

Michael Conrad

Now we’ve been focusing heavily on user’s followers, likes, saves, whatever. We haven’t really talked about monetization. Sure, And I’m not sure that a ton of listeners here are involved enough in social media to even know very much about monetization or like what the sort of the the behind the scenes factoids are about that. But really simply, have you dipped into monetization at all?

 

00:30:03:09 – 00:30:31:19

Marie Lee

Yeah, I’ve dipped into monetization in a few different formats. So I was allowed an opportunity to dabble with Instagram reels bonus. So I have my Instagram set up as a creator with that, I have access to like a creator. Fun TikTok has the same thing where if people are watching my videos and I get a certain number of views, I start getting paid for that.

 

00:30:31:19 – 00:31:03:22

Marie Lee

So I have been paid in that way. There’s also a lot of other monetization pieces that people don’t think about. I am mostly monetized based on referrals from Instagram, so if people are looking for a Nashville real estate agent, I’m one of the first few to pop up. And if it’s another realtor or if it’s another, you know, person who’s going to be making the move to Nashville and they reach out to me directly, like, I’m going to be making money off of that one connection.

 

00:31:03:22 – 00:31:31:15

Marie Lee

Like I’m going to close a deal there. Some other things that I’ve done. I’ve done live workshops where I am sharing my my expertise with Instagram and opening it up to a certain amount of people and, you know, just charging a low barrier to entry fee for that. And then what I’ll do is I’ll just record it and whoever sign up for it, you’ve got lifetime access to that, that workshop that’s brought in a pretty penny for sure.

 

00:31:31:17 – 00:31:59:22

Marie Lee

I’m at a point right now where I think I’m going to start creating some small digital products for sale, maybe some courses in the future for release. But one thing that people don’t take into consideration is that Lincoln bio, that Lincoln bio is where the money is. That’s where entry baby. Yeah. Link tree links milkshake. I think there’s a thing called stand store.

 

00:32:00:00 – 00:32:18:01

Marie Lee

There’s a lot of different link websites where you can start linking products, linking meetings, workshops and things like that. And every time somebody goes in there and book something like that, I get an automatic notification from PayPal or Stripe. Hey, somebody has made a purchase.

 

00:32:18:01 – 00:32:42:22

Michael Conrad

When people are having a social media conversation to start talking about monetization, usually it’s going to be connected directly with the native platform from an ad revenue that that platform is generating. And I am aware that either Tik Tok or Instagram or both are using this sort of like fixed dollar fund that’s being doled out in small percentage to creators that are getting some number of views or some number of saves.

 

00:32:43:00 – 00:33:10:13

Michael Conrad

And there’s a non-linear ear quality to it. Yeah, that is frustrating to creators because very much so these platforms are still figuring it out, but I think it’s very wise and I hope everyone here is taking notes, is listening is that you’re talking about monetization in a much more expanded capacity. And if you truly are in business to do business, whatever that is, and you’re not like a full time influencer, then in reality the best monetization is always an offline one.

 

00:33:10:15 – 00:33:40:10

Michael Conrad

You know, I’m creating content per say so that people will find me, find my business, find my businesses, find my different places where I can be bringing revenue into the larger whole. And they’re going to be utilizing that. And I think the jury’s in no doubt on classes as a concept, whether it’s workshops or classes or events. No doubt that has been seen as a long standing of the last couple of decades method for monetizing a tribe that you’re building on these different platforms.

 

00:33:40:12 – 00:34:01:10

Michael Conrad

But, you know, really trying to take advantage of all of those, whether it’s little live events, asynchronous content that they could be learning and, you know, buying from you or it’s different products maybe that you’re rapping or whatever is a number of different ways. And that’s just sort of the the second or third layer out. The first layer is those people that are coming in directly working with you.

 

00:34:01:11 – 00:34:11:15

Michael Conrad

And I’m hoping here that, you know, all the efforts that we’re doing on podcasts like this and all the other things on social media is bringing stuff into our world. Are there ideas? Why are we doing it right at the end of the day?

 

00:34:11:17 – 00:34:12:22

Marie Lee

Mm hmm.

 

00:34:13:00 – 00:34:36:09

Michael Conrad

Well, this has been incredible. I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of really great nuts and bolts information folks here. If you are listening, I hope that you will hit the links in bio and reach out to Marie as well as us. And and let us know if you have questions more about this topic. We could probably go even deeper in the weeds on this because it’s a place of curiosity and interest for both of us, I think.

 

00:34:36:11 – 00:34:53:20

Michael Conrad

And it’s an ever changing landscape. I mean, gosh, you could probably have the same conversation in six months and we’re going to be talking about it differently. And of course, there’s new platforms coming out all the time. They’re trying to compete for mindspace, like you talked about. And so maybe they’ll end up in the next podcast. Yeah. Marie, I wish you all the best out there.

 

00:34:53:20 – 00:35:12:05

Michael Conrad

Thanks for coming out to our to our office and we’ll hope to catch you on the flip side. All right. Thanks, everyone. Michael Conrad here with the Business of Homes podcast. And I really appreciate you guys being loyal to us and hope that you’ll stick around for more good stories later on.

 

00:35:12:07 – 00:35:34:17

Jake Hall

Hey, everyone. Jake, again, director for the Business of Homes podcast. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. A huge thank you to Marie for being a part of the podcast. Go follow her on Instagram @movemetotennessee and let her know how much you enjoyed her story. Don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred listening platform and make sure to follow us on Instagram as well @thebusinessofhomespod.

 

00:35:34:19 – 00:35:43:18

Jake Hall

Do you have any feedback or want to suggest someone for the show? Email us at thebusinessofhomespodcast@gmail.com. Thank you again for listening and we’ll see you soon.