The power of a thought leadership platform is something anyone who frequents this blog is familiar with. As a refresher, a thought leadership platform offers unique information, insights, and ideas that will position the owner of the platform as a credible and recognized expert in a specific business niche.
Many big named commercial real estate operators attribute their success, in varying degrees, to their thought leadership platforms. Thought leadership platforms allow you to build new friendships and business relationships while maintaining existing ones and to stay top-of-mind of real estate entrepreneurs. Essentially, it is a tool that allows you to network on a global scale 24 hours, 7 days a week.
However, the only way to benefit from a thought leadership platform is to build a large following, which is why you need to create a social media engine. Sure, it is possible to build a large audience organically. But that takes time. Understanding how to utilize social media to grow your thought leadership platform can expedite this process, garnering more attention to your thought leadership platform. More attention leads to more influence. More influence leads to more income. Therefore, understanding how to utilize social media to grow your thought leadership platform allows you to generate more income for your commercial real estate business.
An example of someone who has achieved a high level of success due to social media is David Toupin of Obsidian Capital, who was a featured speaker at this year’s Best Ever Conference. He has over 121,000 followers on Instagram. In his presentation, he outlined his process for building a social media content engine. Here’s what he had to say.
The three questions you need to answer before starting your social media content engine are (1) what platform should I use, (2) when will I create content, and (3) when will I post content?
What platform should I use? David recommends focusing on a maximum of three platforms at first. The top three platforms are YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Create a new Facebook page, Instagram account, and/or YouTube channel for your business to get started. Here is a Best Ever blog post about how to pick the right platform for you.
When will I create content? A common content mistake is spending a small amount of time each day creating content. David recommends spending one full day a week creating content (recording videos, writing blogs, etc.). Then, use this stockpile of content for social media posts throughout the week.
When will I post content? David recommends blocking out two hours at the same time every day to post content. However, posting content is only one aspect of building a social media content engine. The other aspect is interacting with the audience. After posting your content, spend the remainder of the two hours replying to comments and direct messages.
The above process is for beginners because when you are starting out, you will most likely be creating and posting the content yourself. However, like scaling anything to a massive level, you need to create an automated process to build a social media engine. Here is the process that David uses when generating content for his tens of thousands of followers:
Create lots of content one or two times per month: Eventually, you will transition from creating basic content by yourself once a week to creating content with a professional once or twice a month. David works with a professional videographer. He schedules one or two sessions per month to record content with the videographer. Once the session is completed, the videographer uploads the content to a shared Dropbox folder.
Hire an editor to create a content database: David has also hired a video editor who will use the video content from the videographer session to create a month’s worth of content. This includes longer videos, shorter videos, and captioned images. The goal is to create at least 10 social media posts for every one hour of video content.
Hire a content manager: David’s third team member is a content manager. Once the video editor has created a month’s worth of content, the content editor is responsible for using the database to create one month’s worth of social media posts.
Approve the posts: Once the content manager has created the social media posts, David reviews and approves the posts. When reviewing, David asks himself, “Will this post help me achieve my end goal?” The post is only approved if the answer is yes. This means you must have a defined outcome for your thought leadership platform – who are you targeting and why?
Schedule the posts: After David has reviewed and approved the posts, the content manager creates a schedule for the next 30 days and posts the content to social media.
Rinse and repeat: David will follow the same process each month: record content with videographer, video editor creates a month’s worth of content, a content manager creates a month’s worth of social media posts, David approves the social media posts, and the content manager schedules and posts to social media.
The process outlined in this blog post allowed David to amass over 121,000 followers on social media.
To begin, pick one to three platforms; spend one day per week creating a week’s worth of content; spend two hours each day posting content and interacting with your audience.
To scale, schedule one or two sessions with a professional videographer each month; send the content to an editor who will make a month’s worth of content; send the edited content to a content manager who will make a month’s worth of social media posts; approve the social media posts; the content manager will schedule and post the approved posts; rinse and repeat.
To learn more about how to improve your thought leadership platform, click here.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.