[00:00:00] Chelsey: When it all comes down to it. Can people really imagine a life without social media and without Facebook and without Instagram anymore? And I think these sites have made such a large impact that regardless of what news comes in and out and what phases come in and out, it. Well, it will not affect the majority of people because at the end of the day, they want to be social and they need to know what’s going on.

And Facebook has given them that outlet to find not only news sources, brands that they follow, but also all of their friends and family that they follow. And there’s no other place that you can go to to find. All of those, those different connections.

[00:01:00] Matt: Hi and welcome to building perspective with Matt Riley and Mollie Elkman. 

Chelsey: We’re here to bring value to you and your 

Mollie: team by exploring all things sales and marketing related, 

Matt: all from different perspectives. And today, our focus discussion of the week is a state of the union on social media with our very own Chelsey Keenan.

Mollie: But first, let’s dive into our top topics of the week. And I’m going to go ahead and go first. Um, I want to talk about something very important. I want to talk about beer. So I’m, I’m going to share, I’m 

Chelsey: a 

Mollie: new TV spot by Heineken. And what this spot does is it takes a playful look at gender stereotypes. And I, this really resonated with me because [00:02:00] people are always shocked when they find out that I drink beer.

And sometimes when we’re out, I’ll order a beer and I’ll have someone come up to me and be like, I love that you’re drinking a beer. They think it’s like so funny because they just don’t think that I would be someone who drinks beers. So what Heineken did was they know that there are women all over the world who drink beer.

So they, uh, made a. Oh, 

Chelsey: a playful spot. 

Mollie: Um, that really, essentially, instead of saying women drink beer, they have this whole interaction. And then at the end, the whole idea is men drink 

Chelsey: cocktails 

Mollie: too. So what happens in this spot is every time a server comes over, they assume the beer is for the guy in the cocktails for the female, and they kind of look at each other and smirk and switch drinks.

Um, they even do it with. Food at one point, which is really funny, where it’s a salad and a burger and they just assume the salads for the woman and the burgers for the guy. [00:03:00] Um. It’s very playful. And what I like is it’s not over the top, like making some kind of political statement about gender or, um, you know, anything too aggressive.

It’s, it’s subtle. And also something that really resonates and is, um, you know, I got a, I got a kick out of it because it really speaks to me because that happens to me all the time. 

Matt: That’s funny because, uh, the beer thing doesn’t, I’m not a big beer kind of sewer. Neither is Amy. Uh, but we do have the occasional beer, but we do go when we do go to the restaurant, uh, most of the time she will be the one that’s like, Oh my gosh, I want a burger.

And I’ll be like, yeah, I’ll take a salad. And when they bring the food out, if it’s not the actual server, almost every time, they will immediately, if they don’t check, put the burger down in front of me. That is funny. 

Mollie: Yeah. And then just taking it even further into [00:04:00] our industry, you know, we, as sales and marketing professionals, we have to try to understand people and connect with people.

But I do think that there’s a line where we take that a little bit too far. Um, it is not always the woman who is thinking about, you know, um, the home. You know, for her family and, and, um, you know, looking at it from this female perspective, I think there is a lot more gray area. I think that the majority of families are dual income households where, um, responsibilities are much more 

Chelsey: split, 

Mollie: um, across work and home life.

So I think it’s just what I like about it is it questions our natural assumptions and. You know, I love anything that makes you kind of think or laugh because we do all have these natural assumptions. 

Matt: Oh, absolutely. I mean, no matter what, you know, we, we do have assumptions. [00:05:00] We do, uh, can fall into that gender role, um, very quickly and easily.

Um, and we do have to be aware that. When we’re, when we’re doing marketing, when we’re talking to people and sales, um, that we do have to be aware of who we’re talking to and really understanding what’s important to them and to that individual, that individual couple, that individual person or family, because.

They are all different. Um, and it’s easy to kind of fall into that. That generalization. 

Mollie: Yeah. And my absolute favorite part is that it is very clear this spot is targeting the female beer drinker, but it doesn’t ever say, you know, women like beer too. It, it switches the narrative and says, men drink cocktails too.

So, you know, it’s just like a really thoughtful way to get that same message across. And then. Just to put this out there, any of our beer lovers on the line. [00:06:00] Um, so I am really into like very hoppy beers, so I love like double IPAs. So usually like the happiest beer you can possibly imagine that most people kind of like cringe.

Those are the kinds of beers 

Matt: I like. That’s funny. I actually like Heineken. It’s one of my favorite beers. There you go. Yeah. I’m not a big, I don’t, I’m not a big hoppy. Beer fan. Uh, it’s a little too, too strong. Yeah. Yeah. Well, cool. Good stuff. Always good to see people putting a little different spin on things.

Um. And, and just a little bit different way. So I think that’s a, that’s a good pick. I like it. Good. Good call. Okay. Um, I’m going to jump in. I don’t have a particular, um, article or piece of news that I want to talk through. I, I’m, I do want to reference a little bit, so we, we. Our last podcast, we titled GMs good markets syndrome.

Uh, we wrote a blog about it. Um, I’m actually in the process of writing a little LinkedIn [00:07:00] article about it as well to post, and by the time this airs, that will be out. But, um, yeah, I want, so I want to talk about that a little bit more because had a few people reach out, had a few conversations, had a few other just random conversations, not related to the GMs topic, but they were GMs related.

So the, the title of the little, the article that I’m writing for, uh, you know, just a LinkedIn post, um, is, is really called, uh, you know, I’m playing around with it right now. It’s called stop tweaking the plan and start executing. And one of the things, and it just, it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me, is when we settle and we start to say, you know what?

We’re just not gonna do. Um, I’m not going to do best practice here because. It’s just the team’s not executing on it. Right? So I’m just going to throw out some random examples. Uh, you know, we’re going to say, all right, we’re going to [00:08:00] stop doing email marketing because we’re just literally not sending it out.

So we’re, we’re taking the time. To create a thoughtful plan and strategy, a creative around it, engaging copy hours on the, you know, the design and the strategy itself, loading it up, teeing it up to send out, and literally the team itself is not physically going in and picking the list that it goes to and hitting the send button.

And so instead of. Actually, you know, demanding execution. We’re just going to stop that particular strategy, right? We’re just not going to do it because we’re not using it or we’re not executing on it. Uh, another example, it could be, Hey, look, we’re going to dial back our overall marketing spend simply because, um.

Leads are the leads are being followed up with. Right. And I get that. I get that to a certain [00:09:00] extent. Like, Hey, if we have too many leads, we, you know, literally too many leads, then we that we either a, need to hire help, or B, we need to temporarily dial spin back. So we’re not wasting. But in certain scenarios it’s, we’re just not following up.

With prospects. And this kind of falls into that GMs or good market syndrome that we talked about, uh, last time, and again, wrote an, wrote a blog about. And I just really want to take a second and talk about what that actual execution looks like and, and really not even ex what the execution looks like, but what the accountability looks like.

Because if we don’t hold ourselves accountable, if we don’t hold our team accountable for the ex, for the actual execution of best practices, we’re going to get caught. Um, you know, we’re going to get caught when. There. You know, the market’s not as good as it is, and not to be this like doom and [00:10:00] gloom, but you know, we’re at the pinnacle.

We’re at the peak of a 10 year run, and we really have to make sure we take a step back and are looking at. Our plans, looking at our execution. Do we have processes in place to deal with these things, um, to, to get ourselves better or, cause I, I remember after I say this, Mollie, I’m, I’m interesting. Would love to hear your opinion cause you went through this as well.

But I remember being in the industry at the last, at the great recession. Uh, you know, I was in it. We went through the peak and then we went through the absolute fallout where we never knew where the bottom actually was. And what I remember vividly is that the, the peak really formed a lot of bad habits.

And what I mean by that is. It CRE, it allowed us to think that any activity that we did created a positive [00:11:00] result, and it wasn’t necessarily a best practice. It wasn’t necessarily a good process or heck even a process, but it was just any activity that we did created a positive outcome. And that CRE that made a lot of bad habits form, and when things started getting shaken up and things started dipping, whether it, at the time it wasn’t just like.

A switch work turned off. It was a, it was a, a decline over time. Um, and sometimes it was sharper than others, but we never really knew how we were supposed to execute because we were trying to figure that out on the way down, instead of dialing in our strategy and our processes. When you actually had the cushion to figure that out.

So what do you like Mollie? What do you think from, I mean, you’re on a, you’re, you were in it, you were there when the market was there. I mean, 

Mollie: yes. So you, you know, this, um, I am a huge believer in [00:12:00] process and the reason that I like to have. Processes is for the exact word, which is the key to what you’re talking about.

It’s accountability. So 

Chelsey: it is, it is impossible to hold everyone 

Mollie: accountable for the many, many things that we all do every day without some key processes in place. Now, the one thing that I do always like to make sure that everyone here knows is that. Just because we have a process doesn’t mean it can’t be changed.

So we are  processes are not written in stone. Our processes are always improving, always evolving. So change is a constant with our process. Just because we have it written down on paper doesn’t mean that we’re not going to make it. 

Chelsey: Better. 

Mollie: Um, what I keep coming back to you though, as I was listening to you talk, of course, have those processes hold people accountable, but it also comes down to creating a culture of no excuses.

And Matt, you know this, [00:13:00] um, in our gym at our house, Daniel and I have a sign, one of our signs and it says, literally all it says is no excuses because. That is what we do. We make our excuses, okay? And there can be a hundred reasons in our own mind that we’re not doing the things that we’re set out to do or we want to do.

But really, if it’s not getting done, those reasons are actually excuses. So if something is a priority and needs to be done, um. You know, having those processes, holding people accountable and having a culture of no excuses is what’s gonna make the difference. 

Matt: Oh yeah, absolutely. And I think you, you. That was a key thing that you said is just because you have a process doesn’t mean that that’s the way it always should be.

And I think that now is the time where we should be examining our processes and [00:14:00] saying, okay, does this work? Does this still work for us? Does it need to be tweaked? Because sometimes you can have a process that’s in place. So. I, when I’m talking about this and examining processes, most people do have a process, but a lot of times I should say companies have a process, but a lot of times you can outgrow the current process as it is, and because that process worked.

And, and we’re talking about homebuilding here. So because that process worked to, to build, to get you to believe building 150 homes a year, that process may need to be readdressed and tweaked to build 200 homes a year because there can be a different strategy. That needs to be, that needs to happen to go to that next level or sustain that next level.

Um, and so for me, it’s just, I want to challenge everyone to take a step back [00:15:00] when we have the time to take that breather. When we have that, that built in buffer, let’s take a step back. Examine our processes are a, are they being followed? You know, we used to say. We don’t need more gun control. We need to follow the gun control that we have.

Uh, you know, and so a lot of times the processes that you have in place are still really good processes, but yet we’ve strayed away from them, uh, in some way, shape, or form. And is one of the things that we like to say at group two is mission creep. You know, we have that mission creep that can, that can come into our processes and, and take things a stray.

Unintentionally, and so when things are going really good is the perfect opportunity to just take that step back, look at it from that 10,000 foot overview or 20,000 foot overview and say, Hey, are we following it the way that it was originally designed? Or B. [00:16:00] Does it need to be tweaked because either a, we’ve gotten to a new level or or B, that we want to go to a new level, and then once we’ve identified those things, then let’s dive in and talk.

When we talk about accountability, you know, is the process being followed? A lot of times that’s going to be no. We need to have accountability to make sure it is being followed and that we shouldn’t adjust our plan or process to the lowest common denominator. And, and I mean is don’t stop doing something simply because the process isn’t being followed.

Like, Hey, we’re not going to do this just because the process isn’t being followed. We’ve got to make sure we, we do the things that we need to be doing now because if the time comes and it will eventually, the time comes where we look around and we go, Oh my gosh, we haven’t sold a house in a month. It is, it is a lot harder to adjust and [00:17:00] understand and, and tweak and figure out the processes that need to happen or need to be changed.

When things are good versus when we’re freaking out cause we haven’t sold anything in two weeks or a month and people are going to get fired. Right? Like that’s, that is where I want everybody to think about and take a step back and understand that, um. Examine your processes. Now, don’t get sucked into that.

That GMF that good market syndrome and things are just okay because we’re selling and you know, it’s easy to fall into that. You know, sales solves everything problem because when sales are really good, you can really. Glaze over, or I say gloss over, um, the, the problems that may be hiding or being maybe have been swept under the rug because we’re selling and we just really don’t have the time to deal with it.

So that’s for me, what I want a challenge, our audience to think about, [00:18:00] analyze. Um. Right now, this time of year, um, while we can, and while, while we still have the ability to do that. So that’s what I have. That’s what I wanted to kind of get on my soapbox. Now I’ll get off my soap box for a little bit and, uh, now we can, we can transition into our topic.

Topics and our focus discussion of the week this week. And so what we’re going to do is we’re going to take a quick break and then we, when we come back, we’re going to have our very own Chelsey Keenan come in and join us and she’s going to kind of give us a state of the union on social media. So really exciting stuff and uh, hang on and we’ll be right back.

all right, and we are [00:19:00] back and we are going to dive into our focus discussion of the week this week. And we’re going to get into a little bit of the state of the union on social media and where we are today, what are some trends and some best practices. And we have our very own Chelsey Keenan with us on our podcast.

Welcome back, Chelsey. 

Chelsey: Yay. It’s so good to be back. 

Matt: It. Is it ms Stoker 

Chelsey: on building perspective? 

Matt: It’s once you’re on, it definitely holds a special place in your heart, 

Chelsey: right? Absolutely. All 

Matt: right. Okay. So what we’d love to do, obviously, you know, last time Chelsey was on, we did a whole episode and we had the team on and we did a social corner.

Uh, but today what we wanted to focus on in chat about it, cause this is just a topic of conversation all the time. What’s new, what we should be doing, where things that heck, should I even be on social media [00:20:00] anymore? And so we thought we would bring our. Social media director, Chelsey, in to talk a little bit about what she sees, what’s kind of ahead of us, what lies ahead and some trends.

And, uh, so Chelsey, I know you had some stuff, some, some articles that you had seen that had actually some interesting statistics on it as a whole from a social media side. So why don’t we, why don’t we start there and then we can unpack it a little bit as we go. 

Chelsey: Yeah, of course. I was going to say this is, as opposed to like a social media corner.

This overview is like a social media room. It’s like a whole room. Um, but yeah, one of the articles that I saw and now that we’re in the new year. Um, we’d like to collect all of the stats of what happened in the last year. And so we have the top 10 Facebook stats for 2020. Uh, there’s a really cool infographic.

You can find this link [00:21:00] in the show notes too, to see the more statistics. But one of out of the many stats in here that I found fascinating, of course, is that. Facebook has 2.4 1 billion monthly active users, and Facebook is the world’s third most visited website. Third, that is the entire world, the entire internet.

Facebook is the third most visited. 

Matt: That’s mind boggling 

Chelsey: before, uh, probably think before. It is like Google. I bet you Zillow is not before Facebook, but Facebook is the world’s third most visited website. So if any of our listeners still don’t believe in social media. Your stats from for 2020 really prove that people are on there.

Matt: Well,  to just to kind of talk about this a little bit on the show, [00:22:00] but one of the things that we see is know PR. We’re talking about homebuilding, how does this apply? But one of the things that we see is. 20 to 25% of website traffic to the home builder site is coming from social media specifically. Now, the lion’s share of that is going to be the paid side, just simply because of the way that Facebook has.

Structured business pages and the amount of reach that you can get organically and unless something like goes crazy and goes viral, but we can talk a little bit about that as well. Just like, should we even be posting organically if, if it’s that little of a reach in general. But just to kind of put that into perspective, it’s 2020 to 25% of total website traffic we’re seeing is coming from social media specifically.

Chelsey: Definitely. And to answer what you were saying earlier, Matt, about should we be [00:23:00] posting organically at all within that 20 to 25% a portion of that is from organic social media. So we separate it out so that we can see how many people are coming from paid social media and how many people are coming from organic social media.

And while it. While organic social media does not Trump the paid side, there is still definitely a significant significant amount of people that are coming from organic social media. Um, but to make sure that’s happening, of course, you have to make sure you’re putting links in your organic social media posts because if you’re not putting links to your website from your organic social media, then no, people probably aren’t going to go to your website from it.

But just in terms of content that you’re posting, it’s very beneficial to have, um, open house, social, organic social media posts out there, move in, ready home, social media posts out [00:24:00] there, because those are types of. Content that doesn’t need to be shown 24 hours a day and have $15 a day behind it on an ad, but it’s definitely something that will show up and spike someone’s interest that is following you while they’re scrolling through their newsfeed.

Matt: Absolutely. I I, the other thing to keep in mind when we talk about organic, social or social media, you know, when we’re unpacking the organic social side of things, I think that there’s a couple of things that come along with posting on a day to day. And we can talk about frequency and what we see from a frequency perspective on it.

Cause I know you’ve got some insight on that as well, but. I, I think that a couple of things happens, right? So it’s like, is it worth our time? You know, my time, our time to post organically on Facebook, Instagram, you know, the, the socials. Um, is it worth our time to do it if we don’t, if we don’t get that reach, I think there’s a [00:25:00] couple of things.

One. When someone decides that they’re going to seriously consider your company to make, to buy something from, they will go to your Facebook page, they will go to your Instagram page, and if they go there and say. Barren wasteland of no content, then your legitimacy takes a hit because they may not be seeing those day to day posts all the time.

Um, but they will go check them out when their intent is greater and when their, when their intent has increased of engaging in purchasing something. Um, the other thing that is. Easy to, in my opinion. I’m interested on in yours as well, obviously, but like in my opinion, the thing that we can easily lose sight of on this is there are two, we just said 2.4 billion monthly, and the Keith term here is active users, not just users, active users on a monthly [00:26:00] basis.

This Facebook specifically Facebook and Instagram, gives you the ability to be in front of more eyeballs than any other platform out there. Now, that doesn’t mean that they’re going to click through. That doesn’t mean that they’re always going to interact, but when we talk about from a branding and messaging and in your face perspective.

There’s an there, in my opinion, there is no other platform that puts you in a position to get in front of so many more that many eyeballs on a monthly basis. 

Chelsey: I completely agree, and I wouldn’t be here doing what I do every single day if I didn’t believe and also know that it works. Um, and that those eyeballs ultimately end up seeing you on social media.

And while they probably stock you on social media for a couple of months, maybe even up to 90 days, um, which is what we can see in the [00:27:00] Google backend. When we look at. The buyer journey lens. Um, they ultimately do convert and they ultimately come to your website after they’ve liked you. And after they’ve looked at your posts for awhile that their ads, your ads pop up, they go to your website, they get retargeted with ads.

They can stalk you for a long time without ever liking a post without ever commenting on a post and then ultimately convert on your website. And buy a home. We’ve seen it happen. 

Matt: Absolutely. And like you said, they’re stalking you, but, and they’re not liking your page. They’re not liking. Your posts are not engaging, so they’re stalking you and watching what’s happening without you even knowing it.

Chelsey: On. Another fun thing that I always love to see on the reporting that we pull is for Instagram specifically. We’ll see engagements and it’ll be maybe a couple hundred engagements for the entire month across everything that we post, [00:28:00] but profile visits. Tend to be in the thousands, and so people will see your post in their newsfeed, probably won’t like it, but like you were saying earlier, Matt, they go back to your actual profile, your Instagram profile, and they look at your entire collection of posts, everything that you’ve posted within the past couple of months.

And you’re right. If. They don’t have a collection of posts. If you don’t have, um, a lot of posts that show your team’s personality or the variety of poems that you build, interior photos, exterior photos, construction photos, they’re not going to be interested in you and they’re not going to continuously come back and visit your profile.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. And, and there are some other interesting, so I was, um, there, there were two things that I think, and not just two things, but two things that really stood out to me. Um, on, on these [00:29:00] numbers. One was talks about you, cause you’re talking about, it was a third most visited website. Ever all out there, but the age range, right.

So there’s that misconception about Facebook specifically that the younger demo, the millennial demographic is not on, are not as present on Facebook. And I was really surprised to see that younger age bracket with the percentage as being so high, 

Chelsey: pretty much the highest percentage out of all that 25 to 29.

Matt: 84% or 84%. That’s, that’s huge. Um, and then honestly, the not so surprising was the ages 50 to 64. That was 68%. Uh, and then 65 plus was 46%. I would, I would have expected that one to be higher, the 65 plus. Um, but still that is, uh, it goes to show and we’ll put, like [00:30:00] Chelsey said, we’ll have this in the show notes.

Literally. The only one that is possibly not our demo is a home as a home builder is the ages 18 to 24 clearly not 18 year olds, very few. You know, 21 to 24 year olds, that’s 76% other than that, every other age bracket, you look at the numbers of that’s represented on Facebook and you, you can’t look at those numbers and say, I shouldn’t be paying attention to this.

You’re represented in every age bracket by a large number. 

Chelsey: Yeah, but, and even the 65 plus that 46% of that age group that uses Facebook, 46% is huge. That’s almost half of all 65. Plus Americans, and if you, if you think of people that are 65 plus, there’s 65 plus could go to like a hundred years old. And they’re trying a [00:31:00] hundred year olds in that, 

Matt: and you’re absolutely right.

Don’t 

Chelsey: think they’re using Facebook. 

Matt: No, you’re absolutely right. 

Chelsey: That’s what’s keeping them ticking the news. 

Matt: That’s right. Okay. So we talk about Facebook, we talk about all those, you know, unbelievable numbers. And there’s there, I mean, there’s staggering, even even with the talk, like it’s, I feel like I see this come through waves every few months of like this anti social media movement where people are trying to get rid of it and it’s nobody trusted anymore.

And do we even, it’s like we go through these waves, but yet still the numbers are still staggering. 

Chelsey: Yeah. I think when it all comes down to it, it’s 10 people really imagine a life without social media and without Facebook and without Instagram anymore. And I think these sites [00:32:00] have made such a large impact that regardless of what news comes in and out and what phases come in and out, it.

Well, it will not affect the majority of people because at the end of the day, they want to be social and they need to know what’s going on. And Facebook has given them that outlet to find not only news sources, brands that they follow, but also all of their friends and family that they follow. And there’s no other place that you can go to to find all of those.

Those different connections, 

Matt: right. And we could break down, or neither of us are qualified to break down why people are so addicted to social media from the needing of the social acceptance. And you know, and that’s all a lot of psychology, which we need to find somebody to come on the show and talk about that specifically.

But no matter what. It’s part of [00:33:00] our daily lives. Something, I don’t know what yet. Something will disrupt it, but it’s not. It’s not, we’re not going to go in reverse, that’s for sure. Like something will come along. That’s the new Facebook. Um, it just inevitable it always happens, but we’re not going to revert back to where we’re not social, quote air quotes, um, online and sharing information and looking people

It’s, it’s, it’s here to stay. It just a matter of what version of it. Right. Is here to stay. 

Chelsey: Absolutely. 

Matt: So. That’s kind of the numbers perspective of it. Like, you know, it’s like, Hey, here’s the staggering numbers. You still have to be here. Let’s talk about what do you see? What are some new things that are, we don’t want to, we don’t want to say like, Oh, squirrel and get distracted by the shiny object over here.

Um, but we do, we do try to pay attention to newer things that are coming along. And I, you [00:34:00] know, you hear a little pee, you hear people talking more and more about. Tick tock, uh, you know, in some, in some other platforms. You, go ahead. I’ll let you talk. 

Chelsey: Yeah. I wanted to talk about two different topics upon what’s new and what I’m seeing.

One of them being, um, platforms in general, but one of them being trends on social media and a big trend that. We are seeing, and I actually had a talk, a tech bites talk about this at IBS is that people are a trend is that people are engaging a little bit less and less nowadays. Like there’s a number in here that says an average Facebook user likes only 13 posts per month.

That’s . That’s less than one one post every other day. So if you’re scrolling through your newsfeed, um, people are now [00:35:00] getting so much on their newsfeed that they’re only taking one click and they’re deciding, will that one click be a likable, that one click be a comment, or will that one click be something that I’m actually interested in in going to the website.

And that’s kind of a trend that I’m seeing a little bit more is that a new trend is that people are opting out of liking a lot of things on their newsfeed and actually just going straight to the website and being more direct and being a little. Less, I guess passive aggressive on Facebook and starting the conversation right away by going to your website versus liking all of your things and focusing so much on.

The likes of it all and the number and how many likes are we getting and how many likes does this post have. That’s definitely a new trend that has kicked off across Facebook and Instagram, but I really like it [00:36:00] because it’s sending more traffic to websites, but yeah, that’s, but that’s a little, a little bit more of a trend.

That’s kind of. Not, not something that you’re looking for on a daily basis. It’s not something that people are writing a ton of articles about, so it may be a little shocking, but I. I like it. I liked it enough to do a whole talk on it. 

Matt: So you did a whole talk on it. That’s 

Chelsey: definitely really cool. Um, but aside from that, another thing that people are really loving is tick talk.

Um, but the people that love ticktock we’ve found are, um. Gen Z, definitely gen Z has, has hooked on to tech talk, which was previously musically, if you don’t know, and if you don’t have a clue what tick-tock is, it’s a short video form social media platform. And you can go [00:37:00] on. And, um, a lot of tick-tock videos derive from a trending videos.

So it will be one particular dance move that people are doing, or one particular phrase that a lot of people try to catch on to. Um. Like my brother just told me about one that was like one rich friend and they go over there like one rich friend’s house and they capture. Something that’s like extravagant about their home, which is kind of cool to show off if you build luxury custom homes.

Matt: But 

Chelsey: it’s, it’s, uh, it ebbs and flows so much in talk with what’s popular and what are a ton of people doing right now. Um, but that is what gen Z has hooked on to. So I’m really interested to see if, unlike vine, if any of you remember the short form video, the short video. Platform vine, if it will kind of [00:38:00] crash and burn in a couple of years.

Or if tick talk will follow gen Z throughout the rest of their life, like if it’ll be the new Facebook, but gen Z has latched onto it and will continue to stick to it into there. Later developing years, and I don’t know, is the, is tick tock the next platform that we should be looking out for when they’re looking to buy homes.

Matt: Yeah. I think that one of the things that, I mean, it depends on what you’re selling, right? We’re talking about how housing as a whole, that’s not our demo yet, but like you said, we have to, we still have to keep our finger on the pulse of how is this following along? If you sell. You know, shoes and jeans, you know, like, absolutely.

If you can sell to that younger, younger demo, then it’s the platform you should be on. No question. Um, you know, I try to look at these [00:39:00] things. I go, okay, what is it like, what are the. Big nuggets that we can take away and apply to some of the other platforms because it’s so popular. Why is it so popular?

And I look at it from, uh, the aspect of, okay, this is, it’s, it’s entertaining and it’s also a quick hitter, right? Meaning it, it’s a really short, um, video. It’s short form video. Um, and I think it’s, I think you can take some of that away and apply that to, uh, to some of the other platforms. Other, I think, I think YouTube lends itself to longer form type stuff.

Um, but you get into Instagram stories and Facebook stories. I mean, I think Facebook stories, I don’t have it in front of me, but it’s like 300 million people use Facebook stories every day or something crazy. Um. So I, I think that taking some of the, the headlines out of what we [00:40:00] see in tick tock and applying them into some of the, the platforms that our actual customers are on.

Because. Our buyers, if they have, like for instance, if you have kids, right? You have kids that are old enough to be on tick talk. Cause a lot of times we’re us. The only place I sees tick-tock is where friends of mine are doing like funny videos with their 12 and 13 year olds. Right? So which what that 

Chelsey: means though is.

Matt: I know what that means though, is even though the parent may not be on tick tock, they’re familiar with the format, and if you take a similar format and apply that to a platform that they are on, there’s going to be that instant connection and they’re going to be like, Oh, and it’s going to be entertaining to them or informative to them.

So I think, look for those things, look, just because a platform doesn’t reach. The demographic that we’re trying to achieve, or your company’s trying to get to figure out what that, [00:41:00] what the big key things are, and then how can we strip that out and apply those to some of the other platforms of where they actually were, where our demo would be.

Chelsey: Yeah. I. We were talking earlier, Matt, about um, Superbowl ads and one Superbowl ad that came out was for Quimby and everyone saying what is, could be, what is, could be, it’s not a social media platform, but it is a. Almost like a Netflix or a Disney plus that’s going to come out, but solely for short form video.

And it’s Steven Spielberg has signed on to do a series, and so it’s this, this. Concept of videos that are so short that you can digest them in a couple of minutes or less is clearly something that not, not only gen Z is looking for, but a lot of demographics are looking for [00:42:00] if it’s big enough to have its own streaming platform coming out.

And so you’re right, taking from all of these platforms that are coming out featuring. Short videos builders should be taking from that, Hey, I should be working on how to film short videos. I should be working on short construction videos. Little little blurbs, sales team members going out there and just talking really quickly in a minute, or maybe even less than a minute about the sales process.

Something that people can digest really easily. That is clearly what we’re seeing, what people are looking for and needing in their daily lives so that they’re not bingeing things on Netflix for like hours and hours and hours, but maybe between podcast episodes, they can go and look at a short little video and retain some [00:43:00] visual content.

Matt: Yeah. I think whatever wins wins because it, it provided the least amount of friction possible. And friction can mean a couple of things. It can mean, um, you know, easy. How easy it is to get the information that I want, but also how adaptable is it to the way that I like to consume whatever it is that I like to consume.

And as you were talking, uh, jumped over to the Quimby website qui BI, um, and it’s going to be a paid service, like you said, like a Netflix. It’s launching April the sixth. Um, but what’s interesting is. It’s there. They’re saying new episodes every day, each 10 minutes or less. But the other interesting part, because if we talk about how, cause we all consume video so much on our phones now, like if you go back to, uh, game of Thrones, the last season, I know this is a touchy subject of the last season of game of Thrones, but they, when they were doing the, uh, the big, big [00:44:00] fight scenes at the night night and stuff.

They were asking people to not watch these on their phones, and they are come out and saying, don’t please don’t watch this on your phone. It’s not meant to be watched on a mobile device. Um, there’s been other films that have been made where directors are saying, you know, this is not meant to be viewed on a mobile device.

What Quimby’s doing is they’re saying a viewing experience for you, and no matter how you hold your phone, so you’re showing their phone horizontal land in a vertical format. And a, I think that’s really interesting. And that’s where we have to, uh. Be aware, like what can we use to pull into what we do?

And that’s what we have to be aware of. The type of content that we’re recording. If I’m going to go record a video walkthrough on a home, um, I might record one in horizontal, like landscape mode and I might go do it again or pieces of it in vertical mode and throw it out there and test which one gets the most interaction.

I mean. For 130 bucks. I have one sitting on my [00:45:00] desk. Um, it’s the DJI Osmo mobile three. It’s the new one, right. And for like 140 bucks, that’ll come with a tripod and I can 

Chelsey: tap the, 

Matt: yeah, sure. And, uh, and I can tap the button like twice, and it will literally go from vertical to Hort to landscape. Like it shifts.

The, the gimbal instantly so I can record in multiple formats. So making things easy to do. Like I, I don’t know, this is a whole rabbit rabbit hole that I’m going down. That was totally not planned, but that’s okay because. I think that we just have to look at what’s coming up or what’s popular and figure out what, how we can pull bits and pieces out of it.

Chelsey: Yeah. I was going to say video, we’ve known video has always been popular. We know video is successful on social media, but I think what we have to take from all of these different video platforms is what kind of video is [00:46:00] successful? What kind of video is going to resonate with people. 

Matt: Totally. Absolutely.

Okay. So when we talk, as we kind of start putting a red, big red bow on this social media, uh, state of the union conversation is. Influencers. So as we finished out 2019 a lot of things, you know, influencers was a big topic and a lot of things, they, they shifted some rules, made some rules and regulations last year that these social media influencers had to abide by.

Um, but there’s some interesting numbers in general for sure. That when we talk about how people are influenced, and I know you want to talk about, that’s a key word definition that we want to talk about there. 

Chelsey: Yes, I. I went to a talk, a social media talk a little bit ago, maybe, maybe like a couple months ago, [00:47:00] and there was an infill, a true influencer there.

She, she sold products. She was paid to do certain posts on Facebook, but she had a whole discussion with us about. What is an influencer? And every one of course was like people that are paid because everyone that was there was a social media director or manager and we were taking it very literally and she said, an influencer on social media is anyone, anyone that anyone follows is an influence.

Your an influence. Your. Your friends aren’t influenced. If you have a dog, if you have a social media profile for your dog, they’re an influencer because the things that you post on a daily or weekly or however often you post. They are influencing someone to make a decision. They’re influencing someone on where, I know I post a lot of pictures [00:48:00] of trips that I go on and people have made decisions about their next trip because of the pictures that I’ve posted, and that is an influencer.

I’m not selling things. I don’t have promo codes for fab fit fun boxes, but I make an influence on other people’s decisions. And a very interesting statistic that I found was, and it’s just about millennials, but 72% of millennials are influenced by someone they follow on Instagram. Again, going back to not using that traditional influencer word, but someone that they follow.

And now I find this so incredible in my daily work because. I see all of the time. How many people are influenced by other friends or other home buyers that are using. Your that are tagging home builders and [00:49:00] saying how happy they are about the home they just bought. And that influences someone else’s decision on who they’re going to choose to build their next home.

Matt: Only every time, 

Chelsey: every single time. And it, it amazes me that just posting a picture of a homeowner outside of a house. Can influence someone’s biggest purchasing decision of their life regardless of if they actually know that person or 

Matt: not. Without a doubt. No question. Um, here’s my, I’ll give you a, it’s not a housing story, but I, I had an I’ll, I’ll probably talk about this again on one of our updates.

Uh, but you know, I talked about, I went on my rant about the experience of our, you know, what was one of our other podcast episodes, and I really talked about a, honed in on the mattress stuff, right? And so, um, I give you an update on this cause it shifts into. [00:50:00] The social influencing, um, PR in person and digitally.

So we bought a Tempurpedic, uh, and it ended up working for us, meaning, well, let me rephrase that. It didn’t work for my wife. Uh, she was waking up hot. So what do we, what do we do while we’re obviously gonna return the mattress? And I do have to say that, uh, they were, they were really good with working with us and, and, you know, there’s no costs.

We’re able to send everything back and it’s all great. However, what we’re going with, and it’s. Being delivered tomorrow. Today’s February the sixth this is being delivered tomorrow. The seventh is a sleep number bed and I didn’t consider sleep number before because. I was concerned about the air pump and think, you know, the thing, how the thing works and warranty and all that kind of stuff.

Well then I was in a conversation with our, my friend Meredith Oliver, and then Meredith even talked about this and our talk that she and I and Dave  did at the builder show. Um, and just how the sleep number process works and how she’s, she, you know, and [00:51:00] then I’ll obviously talk with her offline about it.

And she was like. Talking about how great she loved how much she loved it. So when we decided we were going to return this mattress, I said, you know what? Let’s go check this out solely because of someone I knew that had purchased it. Even though sleep number’s a huge company, we see their advertisements all over the place.

Um, but someone that I knew had a, loves what they had and had a really great experience. We went and checked it out and. You know, we went and spent a bunch of money on a mattress right with them, and we were influenced on a personal level. And that we know that happens like face to face and you’re, you know, you’re hanging out around the mailboxes or whatever, talking to your neighbors.

But it also, the same exact things happen happens on social media. 

Chelsey: Oh yeah. I was even so many people around me right now. Katie are one of our account executives, my parents, which I did not think this would happen right [00:52:00] now, but there Katie just bought a house. My parents just bought a house and I’m watching them all go through this home buying process and I am nowhere near ready to buy a home financially or.

Mentally yet. But I find myself, even though I know this is exactly what’s happening, Katie’s posting about it on social media. My parents are posting about it on social media, and I find myself looking at these posts wanting to buy a home. And I’m like, what is this Phantom, um, influence going on in my mind?

Because I know I’m not ready and I know these people so personally, but. I find myself wanting to go through that process myself and wanting 

Matt: to, 

Chelsey: yeah, it’s FOMO, fear of missing out, wanting to pick out colors, and I get to design my room in my parents’ house, but for me, like it’s not enough. I kind of want to do the entire house myself, and it’s [00:53:00] people that.

Influenced me on a daily basis, but, but on a topic that I am not even, I did not even think I was ready to be influenced on. And now I’m like itching to buy a home, but that’s not happening. I’m just going to buy like a sweet green salad and be totally fine with it. 

Matt: But the reality is those, even though you’re not

Mentally in the market, you’re being influenced just by the people that you know and what they’re going through and what they’re experiencing. And you’re sharing that same excitement for your friends and your family members. And, and I, and I think that as a whole, that is at its core is influence. Right?

And that’s what, that’s the, I’ve said this before, but the definition of a sale is the transfer of emotion from one person to the next. And so. That literally influences a sale happening. People are influenced, you know, and that can be, but that can be a good thing or a bad thing. 

Chelsey: Do you want to hear the sickest part about all of this?

Matt: I absolutely. 

[00:54:00] Chelsey: I am. So excited for this new house. And I have already this, I’m being completely honest, I have already started thinking about the social media posts for my parents that I’m going to do to like leave my childhood home and like move into this new home. And so I’m already there. Like they haven’t even sold their current home yet, and I’m already planning what social media post I’m going to do to exit my.

My childhood home. So if, if you’re talking to people and they’re like, I’m not into social media, they’re lying like it’s just all going on up in their head and they’re planning to influence other people. They’re planning out the posts that they’re going to make to talk about their new home or their new piece of furniture in their house 

Matt: there.

They just want to show them people. And when I say this, the interesting thing apart that about that is. You’re thinking about [00:55:00] making posts about, you know, your parents leaving the home you grew up in and you don’t live there anymore. Right? Like, 

Chelsey: I haven’t lived there for like three years. 

Matt: Right. So, yeah, that is interesting.

And, uh, and I think that people do that. I know I have, I’ve thought about, Oh, this would be, this would be a funny post or this would be cool. You know? Um, so, no, I, I think you’re right. And I think that, um. We’re fooling ourselves if we don’t think that, uh, people are being influenced in a positive or negative way about the interactions that they have with our company and our brand.

Chelsey: I was going to say, going back full circle to the very first thing we talked about on this podcast, that mindset that I have that. 2.4 1 billion other users have is exactly is exactly what makes Facebook the world’s third most visited website. Because this has now become a part of our thought process.

It’s [00:56:00] not just doing the action, it’s doing the action, and then how are we going to share it with our entire network? 

Matt: Totally. Okay. Well, 

Chelsey: the state of the union 

Matt: that is a good state of the union on social media. When I thought we could even dive into like really technical add, add perspectives and how to do we, we just, we really, it just is, it’s crazy what this allows us to talk about when it comes to like social media as a whole.

Uh, one day we’ll have to get into the science of the backend of like, how to. Actually make that thing sing, but, uh, anyway, all good stuff. Thank you, Chelsey, for coming on and sharing the state of the union of social media. [00:57:00] .