About
a year ago, our marketing guy started posting goofy stuff on a personal Instagram
account on a daily basis. His sources of
material were either odd photos he took himself while out and about or
something he found while cruising the ‘net.
An example of the former would be a photo he took of a gas station sign
that reads, “Fried Gizzards/Livers, Non Ethanol (Pump 11).” An example of the latter would be a meme that
reads, “Another day has passed, and I have not used algebra once.” Sure, these aren’t the heady stuff being
discussed by political think tanks or tested at Cal Tech to disprove String
Theory . . . but
he found that if he went more than a day without posting something, he was
getting short messages from friends and “followers” asking him if he was okay –
more importantly, they wanted to know when he was going to post another weird
photo or snarky meme. Weird, huh?
So,
a few months ago, he decided to try an experiment in the business arena along
similar lines: he started creating small “ads” for the company and posting them
throughout social media twice/day (once in the morning, once in the afternoon)
Monday through Friday. The ads usually
consist of a photo, a short headline, and sometimes a little text – and best of
all, they don’t cost a dime to produce and post all over social media where the
outlets are practically infinite. One of
his particular favorites has a photo of two chickens pecking away at the ground
with cartoon speech bubbles above their heads to indicate a conversation. The chicken on the left says, “I keep telling
Carl to check into his VA eligibility for his mortgage, but he’s too scared to
ask. He’s being such a ch.
. . .” And the other chicken jumps in to
finish his sentence with, “Child. I
believe that’s the word you’re searching for.
A child!” The headline reads,
“You’ve EARNED
your VA eligibility. We’ll make sure we
look into it.”
After
a month of posting these consistently, he would receive messages from different
people if he hadn’t posted something by a certain time in the morning or the
afternoon. Like his goofy posts on Instagram,
he had created an audience and a desire in that audience to see something on a
consistent basis. His purpose from the
outset wasn’t necessarily to create a “fan base” but to create a presence for
the company that made them recognizable and distinct – in other words, he did
it strictly for branding. Once he got a
sense that his ads were taking hold in the social media world and the Priority
brand was established (at no cost), he started reaching out to agents who are a
part of his selected audience and asking them for a few minutes of their time –
and it’s worked. They’ve already gotten
a sense of how different we are among mortgage companies from the messages and
tones of the ads, so they’ve been more open to meet and learn what we can do
for them. The meetings aren’t a sales
pitch – they’re a planning session on how we can help that agent.
So,
that begs the question for you as an agent: what are you doing to build YOUR
brand? That question leads to a second
question: are you doing it consistently?
If you change your message and your image as often as a teenager changes
clothes, you don’t have a brand – you’re perceived as a fad. Sure, fads make money, but brands make
fortunes. Which do you want?
Comments
Post a Comment