Realtor Leigh Thomas Brown argues that chasing viral posts wastes time. Instead, focus on local content about neighborhoods, zoning, and community stories that build trust with people who might actually buy or sell. Strategic calls-to-action turn engagement into real business.
How do you create a viral social media post? This question, y'all, was asked of me last week when I was doing a coaching call, and I asked the lady, I said, why do you want to go viral? And she had to stop and think about it because in her head, the best thing in the world that could happen is to go viral, when in reality it's not. I want you to think about what your social media content looks like and what your desired outcome is. In fact, I'm going to give you a homework assignment right now. Write this down and post it on your computer or your desk or your tripod, your ring light, wherever it is that you create content. And ask yourself this question before you hit post: What is my desired outcome from this post? Because you don't really want to get started until you know what the end goal is. If your goal is to go viral, okay, great, you have clicks and views. And what do you get from that? The algorithms don't pay most of us. In fact, the algorithms are going to determine who sees your content. You got to ask yourself, though, once somebody sees it, what are they going to do with it? If you get 50 million views from around the world, but you're a REALTOR® in Concord, North Carolina, or in Harrisburg, North Carolina, or in Kansas City, Kansas, or in Springfield, Ohio, wherever you are, if 50 million people around the world see it but have no intention of supporting your local business, then What was your point? We get so hung up in what are lovingly called vanity metrics, and that's the number of clicks, the number of views, number of shares. And in fact, it's pretty appropriate that we call them vanity metrics because one of the risks of going viral is that you start attracting bots. You start attracting pretty nasty people who want to tear you down or who say ugly things about your hair. I love my hair. I don't really care what the bots say. But that outcome isn't going to benefit my business. It might actually tear me down. Viral content can do as much to hurt you as it can to help you. So let's revisit this. What do you want from your post? If your goal— if you're in real estate, if your goal is to sell more houses, you want to talk to your marketplace. So how do you create social content that works in your marketplace? If you are a good realtor, then you know your area. So talk about things that are relevant to where you are. Talk about your local history. Have you been to the museums in your area? Probably not, because most people go elsewhere. They don't look at home for really cool places. Talk about your historical markers. Talk about things that are unique. What's the name of your county's origin? Where are the founding people buried? I mean, there's just interesting little tidbits you can find to talk about that increase your area knowledge. Talk about neighborhoods that are coming. Think about the future of your community. Have you gone to a planning and zoning meeting to see which developers have something in the pipeline? Is it apartments or single-family? Is it townhomes? What's going on in your area? Talk about that, that kind of content. Now, it's not going to be exciting anywhere except where you live, but when you notice that I talk about historical things that are in this part of North Carolina. First of all, I love genealogy, and I can spend way too much time down those rabbit holes. But as I uncover interesting facts, it makes me more in love with the place where I live. And that means that if you're moving here, I want you to be in love with the area too, not just the walls and the roof and the foundation. So when you're thinking about this desire to have people look at your content, This is what you should ask yourself. What's my desired outcome? My desired outcome is to create engagement in this county that will also eventually benefit my business. I don't have to help somebody buy and sell today. I mean, I kind of do, but that's not the end goal. The goal is that people start following and they get interested in the content and maybe, just maybe, they feel like I'm a trusted local person so that one day when they buy or sell real estate, they'll call me. Now, your social content, you'll notice if you're just talking about houses, open houses, neighborhoods, all the real estatey things, that's hard to build a long-term relationship off of because that's so specific. What do you build relationships off of? You probably build it off of shared beliefs. So what's your shared belief in faith life? What's your shared belief in the arts? What are your ideas about parks and rec? There are so many angles you can broach where you can showcase who you are and what you think in a way that increases your trust factor and your likability so that somebody will use you for real estate in the future. I'm just going to go ahead and lay it out there. If the only goal you have, if your only desired outcome is to go viral so that you can say, "I got a million people to watch this video," you need to take a step back and ask yourself if you really need a million people. 'Cause spoiler alert, you don't. Now, that being said, if you want some coaching like I provide, I mean, you can follow my links and hire me right now. But if you want to hire me as your REALTOR® here in this area, you can follow these links and hire me. And if you just want to watch some videos because you're bored out of your skull, then you can watch some videos. But most importantly, say something in the comments. Tell me what you want me to talk about because I'm always looking for ideas. And spoiler alert, that right there is a content creation strategy. Ask and deliver.
