We talk to Leslie Heindel, realtor at Crescent City Living in New Orleans, about her hyperlocal community-focused website, Be New Orleans, and how she uses it to bring in business and develop her brand.

We discuss:

1) How Leslie connects her real estate business to the Be New Orleans site.

2) How Leslie gets people to discover her site.

3) Her sources of new content for her blog.

4) How Leslie measures the ROI of her site.

5) The sources of Leslie's traffic.

Links mentioned:

Insight Timer

Marco Polo

Move To Tacoma

Homesnap Pro+

Ryan Rodenbeck, broker/owner at Spyglass Realty in Austin TX shares his best tips for using Instagram. If you listen to only one podcast episode on Instagram, it should be this one! He is a wealth of information.

You'll learn:

1. How to balance "items of value" with calls to action in your Instagram posts.

2. The "stairstep effect" of hashtags and why you should pick hashtags that you will rank in. Also, national vs. local hashtags.

3. How to develop effective Instagram content.

4. How to look up your Instagram analytics. (You need a business account.)

5. How to use Linktree to post multiple links in your profile.

6. How to grow your following through hashtags and engagement.

7. What an engagement group is and how to use it.

8. How to use Instagram filters and why editing photos is so important. 

Links mentioned:

Ryan's article about Instagram in Inman

Ryan on Instagram

Spyglass Realty on Instagram

Hashtagify.me

Later.com

Planoly

Linktree

Adobe Lightroom App

The Agency on Instagram

PicPlayPost

CutStory

We talk to Lauren Goche, realtor at Think Realty in Portland, OR, whose content marketing strategy includes sharing her clients' buying stories and other content that shows her authentic self and builds relationships with people who are the right fit for her.

We discuss:

1. The type of content Lauren shares on Instagram, and why being vulnerable and honest pays off.

2. Lauren's neighborhood guides and how they provide value to clients.

3. Where Lauren draws the line on personal content. ("Share the scab, not the open wound.")

4. Why Portland is a unique market and how that impact Lauren's marketing.

5. The golden rule of marketing: "Market to your sphere how you wish you were marketed to."

We talk to Peter Schravemade, Strategic Relationship Manager at BoxBrownie, which offers digital retouching services, image enhancement, twilight conversion, virtual staging and other services for real estate agents to showcase their homes, about trends in listing photos and the ethics of enhancing photos.

We discuss:

1) Why quality over quantity is important for listing photos.

2) Where Peter recommends drawing the line, ethically, on enhancing photos, and what needs to be disclosed.

3) Common mistakes agents make with listing photos. (Prepare the property!)

4) Digital renovation - where it's permitted, and how to use those images where it's not permitted on MLS.

5) Trends in digital staging.

6) What consumers want from listing photos.

Peter Schravemade Instagram

We welcome back real estate social marketing expert Katie Lance to the Snapshot to talk about what has changed -and what hasn't - since she was last on the show back in 2016. Also, Katie has a new podcast, The Katie Lance Podcast, which everyone should listen to!

We discuss:

1. What is still important in social media: being social! 
2. How important creating unique, valuable content is for engaging audiences.
3. Social media is still a long game.
4. Trends in consumer home search.
5. Repurposing content across platforms (but not scheduling it all at the same time!).

Links mentioned:

Katie's podcast

Known by Mark Schaefer

Hootsuite

Meet Edgar

WordSwag

Ripl

Voxer

Later.com

Canva

Inshot

Videoshop

We talk to Sarah Layton, a real estate content marketing expert, about how to craft content that brings in the clients you want. 

We discuss:

1. What content marketing means today.
2. Why Amazon is a Trojan horse and how to incorporate Alexa into your digital marketing.
3. Why real estate lends itself so well to content marketing.
4. How content can serve as a stream of revenue (and an exit strategy).
5. What you should outsource - and what you shouldn't.
6. Why agents should have their own website.
7. How to match your content to the audience you want to reach.

We talk to Ross Seligman, principal broker at Living Room Realty in Portland OR, who developed his own CRM system called Sphere that does exactly what he needs it to do.

We discuss:

1. How Seligman decided to create a CRM system that would let him grow his business while maintaining his lifestyle.

2. How saving a few minutes a day on key tasks makes a big difference.

3. Seligman's plans for expanding Sphere to other markets, and the source of most of his referrals.

4. How Seligman based Sphere's functionality by looking at best practices of other agents.

5. Which type of agent will benefit from Sphere, and which won't.

Homesnap chats with Lee Davenport, real estate trainer and educator from Learn With Lee, about some basic guidelines to keep in mind while sharing content on social media, including a deep dive on Instagram Stories.

We discuss:

1) What agents should be sharing on Instagram Stories (and why they should also be cautious on that platform). 

2) How to tell a story about any house.

3) How to use Instagram Polls to generate engagement and leads.

4) What Facebook chatbots are and why they are underutilized by agents.

5) The benefit of adding a call to action to everything you post.

6) Why consistency is key.

We chat with Katie Busk and Josh Kahn of Coldwell Banker Premier Group in Eureka, MO about why they changed their Facebook strategy to focus on community-focused content, and how that has helped build their brand.

Topics discussed:

1. How Katie and Josh changed their content focus from their own business to the city of Eureka, MO.

2. How they partnered with the city to become the unofficial source of information.

3. The time commitment needed to maintain a community-focused Facebook page.

4. Why they focus on Facebook vs other platforms.

5. How the Facebook page leads to real estate clients.

Links mentioned:

Eureka Community Facebook Page

We chat with Brian Persons, a home inspector with Front Range Home Inspections in Greeley, CO about using drones for marketing and home inspections.  

We discuss:

1. Why drones are an agent's secret weapon.

2. What drones offer that traditional aerial photography does not.

3. Safety issues around drones.

4. The benefits of using drones for home inspections.

5. What an infrared thermal camera can tell you about the condition of a house.

6. How to get started with drones.

7. How Brian markets his services to agents.