Linking Inward versus Outward is awkward. Actually, it’s maladroit.

Maladroit social media is not the way towards business success today. And with the real estate brokerage business “situation” as it is this Q4’24 I know that measurable success is coming for many real estate agency businesses in the coming years. Businesses who focus on the power of Linkedin.

The reason why I write that is because there are so many others who are meeting with important new clients and building referral relationships on LinkedIn and have been doing so for years. Yet, they are few in comparison to the 1,000,000+ real estate agents in the US who spend more time on Instagram than on any other social media app.

In lieu of being maladroit, I’m building skills daily because today’s real estate market is indeed a skills based market.

Now,  nothing wrong with Instagram, nor Facebook, nor Nextdoor; what is most certain to me is that linking “inward” and being less social on social media is a limiting stance. Linking inward was kinda sorta my mindset for a long time about LinkedIn.

Recently, I realized that staying out of social media, particularly LinkedIn, for a business, just doesn’t make sense.

My Wife and I guarantee our real estate services so we have work to do, daily on social media to toot that horn.

I’m convinced that linking in as a well known Realtor on LinkedIn is quite likely the very best, most positive and effective direct lead generation machine for our business right now.

Searchable, public profiles on LinkedIn get far more views than the subdued, neglected profiles. Profiles matter. Today, my public profile is not even on display. The fix is underway this week.

I soon will have a public LinkedIn profile. Why have I been so private over the past few weeks? Why have I been so “LinkedIn weak” since the debut of the site in 2002?

The story begins in June 2024 when I went to my former employer’s office. At the time, I earned a full-time salary doing business development in the Southern US for a Pennsylvania based commercial roofing contractor. The CEO insisted that all employees have a LinkedIn profile back in November 2023. I had a private profile for years until I got the order to get going on LinkedIn. So I got going!

The company’s CMO liked my LinkedIn posts. The CEO, on the other hand, thought that I colored outside of his particular lines online. I took quite a few posts down if these posts got called out by the CEO – usually these were posts about Atlanta business, and stuff like the language of sales. The CMO was often complimentary of me, nonetheless. The CEO said to post 1 original post week that I created, and then repost 1 per week of the CMO’s beautiful work. That was our minimum weekly activity metric for all social media.

I scrubbed all of those posts yesterday because none of that content is relevant to me and my clients’ success in Georgia real estate purchases and sales.

Just a few weeks ago I was going through the motions of employment and not honoring my best, most creative, superpowered storyteller talents.  I suppressed my skills as a marketer in order to comply. I developed B2B and B2C marketing talents as a full time Realtor before my corporate employment break between 2021 and 2024. I’ve been a Georgia Realtor since 1999 and by 2005 I became an award winning marketer of real estate and a hard-negotiating buyer agency expert in Intown Atlanta.

My Wife and I now work together as agents at Coldwell Banker and Mary is a blessing from God in my life. Mary is amazing, and the best business partner that I could ever imagine. Because she is so awesome, when that company let me go in August I quickly became a full-time Realtor in Georgia, again!

Now, because that company “let me go” on August 23, and because that company dismissed one of my business development coworkers 3 weeks prior to my dismissal and because they even let the CFO go without replacing him, and because they did so all within about 6 weeks, I don’t miss that drama from Pennsylvania one damn bit.

I’m grateful for the experience nonetheless. I’m even more grateful that my beautiful Wife, Mary and I are a great real estate team and I’m thrilled to go to work everyday looking for prospects and serving my clients.

Soon I’ll be all in with a new LinkedIn profile and I intend to keep the contacts that I have, even the contacts from the commercial roofing business! They deserve to bear witness as my LinkedIn profile rises and rises and rises.

LinkedIn is a steady lead generation engine for “a few” Realtors and I’m going to be one of those Realtors. My research yesterday indicates that my LinkedIn goals are very achievable.

All of that being said, I’m taking a Lead Generation class right now with Melissa Henault and her incredibly talented Burnout to Allout team. This blog post is how I’m turning in my Day 1 class assignment. All those wordy words just to get to my assignment … I must be a blogger!

My first goal is to rank my “Social Selling Index” within the top 5% of the real estate industry before July next year. If you don’t know about the Social Selling Index on LinkedIn, then click here.

I added screen shots from yesterday with my current SSI measurements, plus screen shots from my private profile page in the space below.

In about 7 more days, I’ll write another post and reveal my fresh, new PUBLIC LinkedIn profile.

Do you have a LinkedIn profile? Do you go to LinkedIn seeking talent and vital information? Do you have a LinkedIn network with hundreds or thousands of contacts and do you make an effort to connect with them?

If so, then I’m interested in your particular success on LinkedIn. Please contact me directly if you need a Georgia Realtor and please lead me to your LinkedIn profile.

As soon as I’m ready! Give me a few more days.

Here’s my SSI from yesterday, November 12, 2024 plus some screenshots of my private profile.

Fun fact – yes indeed, that LinkedIn banner photo is with my friend, the 3 time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and the 2017 inductee into the WWE Hall Of Fame, the master of the Diamond Cutter, the founder of both DDPY and Powercuffs, the movie star Diamond Dallas Page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These screenshots capture a brief moment in time. I shall never, ever be maladroit again!