Part 1

Reflecting back on the course I feel I am very interested in branding a future client. This experience was fun because I already had something to work with and the team was incredible but I was intrigued by the aspect of creating branding kits for them and curating for the specifics that the team needed. I enjoyed the week 7 module where I was able to create a presentation for the class but the client as well. They were pretty impressed by the layout design elements of the presentation and I have been offered to continue to create marketing collateral for the team moving forward as well as be an advisor to their social media content and strategy moving forward.

My personal online reputation was a lot of fun as well. I tried harder to do the things that my buddy had advice about how to make my social media more relatable and inviting. I tried to post more and to include more thought-out captions on Instagram as well as include more visibility on my Facebook specifically. Continuing a consistency in my Instagram will always seem a bit tough for me since my schedule is so busy with work and school but I think it will always be in my mind to make it better each day.

I am certified!

Part 2

DHKC Flyer-01

Top 5 lessons learned:

1. Continuing education such as Hootesuite is eye-opening and should be taken seriously
2. It’s crucial to read more about trends and ways to improve social engagement
3. Consistency and engagement is KEY to a great and effective social page
4. Branding and a mission is detrimental to a company that is starting on social
5. social media marketing never stops, you have to keep going to continue growing

It was so fun working with Dream Home KC this summer. I learned that there are many personalities in a business and that what the boss says usually goes unless you find a way to open your eyes to something different. Meaning, my client was sometimes difficult to get to accept some new changes because she didn’t know any different and she did not want to give up the reigns but I showed her that delegating the social media aspect to someone who knows a bit more of the subject and that will truly enjoy it can be very beneficial to the brand. I worked well learning everyone’s personalities and roles but it did take me by surprise. Next time I’ll know to come in a bit slower and not assume everyone wants to do what I say.

Client Project DHKC 

I have learned that social media marketing takes a lot of planning, creation, and more importantly, it takes consistency. I have learned that it will take much more than one month to grow a healthy and successful business through social platforms and with a good plan in place, slowly but surely growth may happen. I have also learned the importance of engaging with other people on social media. It is not just about posting on a regular basis but it is crucial to participate in commenting, liking, and sharing with others that will help you optimize your brand awareness and growth.

Online Personal Brand Reflection

Thank you 🙂

The main advertisements I receive online are clothing and shoe stores. It’s not a shock to me since I do a lot of online shopping when I have free time. The reason why they are so effective is that the stores advertising are hip and trendy as well as budget-friendly for the most part. For example, Zara, Nasty Gal, and DSW are stores that I would normally go to and I tag them in some of my posts or stories so it really does make sense to advertise to me. I’m a sucker for a cute outfit so if that pops up, I’m probably one to click on it and scroll through. I have also been guilty of purchasing things through ads on Instagram.

From what I have learned, companies can use platforms such as Hootesuite or even the Instagram, Facebook, and google ads platforms to track the insights and other analytics to see if their ads are a success or not. They can also make changes or tweaks to their ads and see if the changes improve their consistency or rate of clicks, engagement, etc.

I created some ads to post for my client’s Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The purpose is to engage potential customers to call the Dream Home KC team for their home buying needs. I am estimating a $15 budget, I’d like us to start with $5 for each ad and stay on top of the insights for a day or so. If the ads do well, I’d like to increase the budget by double to see if we can multiply it’s effect. I think it’s important to start slow and really analyze what is working and what is not.

To me, content marketing is the creation or curation of online collateral that can be shared in order to promote a brand or service.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ9RMHoBQn1/

In this Instagram post, workout influencer Whitney Simmons creates a video carousel that promotes “glute day.” The reason why this content marketing is successful is that Whitney shows how to do a specific movement on a short clip while also captioning the workout and reps. Each clip is short and simple which creates motivation for the people watching. Whitney writes captions on her feed by using her voice, emoji, and text differentiation to capture attention. She also places the entire workout on the caption in sequence and in reps which makes the workout easy to follow.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQZd8RhFyxD/ 
In this short video, Instagram influencer Julia Havens illustrates 2 ways you can wear a scarf. The reason why this content marketing is successful is that the video is relatable to Julia’s brand in styling. She influences her followers to purchase the products and use them as she does while keeping her content short, simple, and relevant to clothing trends. Her caption is straightforward and also has a question that invites followers to comment and engage with her.

Content_Calendar_DHKC 

I believe DreamHome KC’s audience would appreciate more Instagram stories and they could use an attention-getting Call to Action every now and then.

Dreaming of a Bigger Yard 

This post features a fancy backyard set up with the Dream Home KC logo, including a question, “Dreaming of a Bigger Yard?” as well as the call to action, “We can help.”

Facebook: Wouldn’t you want to walk out to this beautiful patio on a lazy Sunday? Call our team today.

Instagram: Comment your favorite emoji if you’re feeling as inspired as we are by this backyard.

LinkedIn: One of our clients just renovated their back yard and we cannot stop sharing. If you have any before and after shots of your home, feel free to share them with us. Our team is always looking for the next “level up”.

Part 1

The Profile I chose is Rose Knows Real Estate https://www.instagram.com/roseknows_realestate/

Rose is a Kansas City realtor that works for the Keller Williams Plaza office and I found her through a friend’s social media. They bought a house with her and I noticed she has 1,500 followers and has pretty decent engagement on all her posts.

Rose posts about her clients, features homes/listings, and posts interior home images as well as promotes herself through selfies and other personalized photography. I can tell that she is the brand because she shows herself a lot through pictures. She also consistently posts on IG stories and is often sharing photos that her clients/followers tag her in which makes me believe that her community does engage with her.

I believe what makes this social community successful is that she seems very personable. I’ve noticed she sends people gifts and they post about it. This shows that she has a great relationship with her clients. She also doesn’t only focus on featuring homes with a stamp that says “sold’ as many realtor pages do. She uses her captions as more of a storyteller than a stamp on a photo does. In my opinion, I think this is the right way to do it to engage her community through her text instead of only the pictures.

Sometimes she goes through lulls where she doesn’t post much on her feed so I would recommend keeping a content calendar as a backup as well as her instinctive posts to keep the content coming and the community engaged. I would also recommend using more calls to action and asking the community questions or even making polls. This may help grow her community as well.

I believe all my recommendations to Rose would be excellent for my client. Dream home KC has a good client base but they are not promoting themselves enough through social. I would say start by implementing their content and savvy consistently and giving their clients incentives to join their online community. The thing I’ve noticed about my client is that they are very close to their clients but everything is done over the phone and in-person because they are of an older demographic. I believe my client can branch out and really reach more clientele if they were to begin the social strategy that we have discussed.

Part 2

My first “do’ item is giving their VIP clients an incentive to follow the Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn social pages and to share them with their friends and family. An incentive could be a Starbucks card. I believe even a small incentive could mean a lot to a client. It shows you know who they are, you remember them and it also shows that you need them. People love to help, especially if it’s as easy as a follow and a share. If my client can have at least 40 people share them with fellow homeowners or prospects it could be a great way to engage the community. The real estate community is very big. Everyone at one point or another either wants to buy or sell or knows someone who wants to buy or sell. This is why I believe that asking 40 clients to follow and share with one friend would be as easy as it sounds. This action will get the clients involved in the brand and it will open the doors to other people that may not know of the real estate team.

By the end of this course, my goal is to improve the engagement on Instagram for my real estate client Dream Home KC since this is the platform that is the most exciting and least used for them. But first I believe there are a few aspects that I need to keep in mind before proceeding with a strategy. First, lack of IG stories, Two, consistency in posting, three, concentrate on real estate lifestyle and useful information rather than only static listings.

1. Lack of IG Stories: This is an area that can be easily improved with little guidance. The team are already experts on all things real estate and they are the most friendly people I have ever met. lets put these personalities and knowledge to use and let’s get started with at least three stories a day showcasing what they are doing, what houses they are showing, if they are at an inspection if they are with a lender, and even if they are just working at the office on a contract. I believe people want to know they are working with people that love what they do and are busy making business happen.
2. Post consistency: Days and weeks go by without a post from the team. Let’s start with 4 posts a week, scheduling them Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. We have to assign a content creator first.
3. Lifestyle and Tips/Tricks rather than static listing posts: People want to engage and want to learn about the market, the real estate process, and general useful housing info. Let’s revamp the posts and make them more about things that people can enjoy looking/reading through and trickle in a few listings.

Dream Home KC Real Estate already had a Facebook and Instagram but I felt they also needed a LinkedIn to really establish themselves in the community as a business. That is why I created one for them and made sure to remain consistent with thir brand by following the About Us section from their Facebook Page. They were founded in 2017 and I believe they are on the right track to continuing their success and with my help, I hope to progress that even further.

Some of the best practices I used were making sure their brand was consistent and that their hashtag was consistently seen throughout all pages. I talked to the team members and asked them to use their hashtag any and every chance they got to increase their SEO.

I also learned that it is crucial to engage with your client/customers on all social platforms. I made sure the team knew how important it is to be mindful when posting and to have an agenda such as posting a story and asking questions and/or answering questions in a timely manner. I learned it is very important to interact with people almost immediately after there has been a post to improve client/customer satisfaction.

https://www.facebook.com/DreamHomeKCRealEstate

https://www.instagram.com/dreamhomekcrealestate/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/dream-home-kc-real-estate/?viewAsMember=true

This week I learned that I may not know as much about the social networks I am using on a regular basis. For example, I know that LinkedIn is a platform I use to keep my resume updated in order for recruiters or potential companies to reach out to me for potential career opportunities. I strictly use it for professional reasons and am not avidly on the site as I am on Instagram and even Facebook. What I didn’t realize is that LinkedIn is also a platform that is widely used to promote products and services, create brand awareness, and listen and engage with others. I am a complete beginner to LinkedIn and I hope to learn how to use the platform to its full potential.

I am also extremely interested in Instagram. I can say that I am on the platform multiple times a day but I do not dedicate myself to posting regularly. I mostly scroll through pages and wish I was better with my own page. I feel I have so many ideas and so many things to say but very rarely do I optimize the opportunity to post and when I do post, I am not consistent nor doI find the right words to say to encourage engagement. I guess I am just really impressed with the amount of time and thought that our generation’s “influencers” have. I guess what I’m trying to get out of this Hootsuite experience is more knowledge on what Instagram really is so that I can start creating something special on my own page that people can relate to. In the meantime, I’m very into this Hootsuite learning.

As for my selected client, I will be supporting my brother who just started working for a real estate team in Kansas City called Dream Home KC. This brand is already established but needs a lot of social media help. They are a branch of an established real estate team named Casa Sonada KC which in English means Dream Home KC. The team is made up of Bilingual realtors who have focused on helping the Hispanic community in KC but now have expanded their brand to English-speaking people as well. I believe they realized they were selling themselves short by only gearing their brand to one type of community therefore are trying to be all-inclusive. I understand the initial mission but I feel this is a great opportunity to grow their business. They have a Facebook and Instagram, as well as a website but their social media presence is not very good since they are not so active. They have not been able to expand as much as they would like and therefore I believe this is something I may be able to focus on for them.

I am honored to have gotten someone to audit my online presence. I have never received this type of critique and I am so happy it has happened now. I have always posted about the things I love to do and the people I surround myself with, fiance, friends, and family. I never really thought about branding myself specifically but I always knew I wanted to show my cute outfits and my travels. Victoria, my audit buddy, was concise and to the point with me about my Instagram and Facebook presence and I have taken note of a few helpful tips. First, she made a great point that my captions are not very informative or engaging. I knew this! I am so bad at captions and I mainly just think of a couple of funny words or a goofy quote and just call it a day. I really want to start being more purposeful in my captions, as Victoria said. I should elaborate on what I am doing and give more of a back story to the photograph. I should also engage my followers to want to comment on my posts by asking questions on my captions or creating a storyline that would create questions. I also appreciated that Victoria has noticed that I am not very consistent in posting. I post here and there but I forget and really leave my page unattended. Therefore I believe I should become more alert of my page and post more frequently. I believe I can accomplish this by taking more memorable photos of my everyday life and post them with more frequency so that I am engaging with my followers more.