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In the first 4 parts of this series on generating more referrals this holiday season, we unpacked the importance of having a methodic, ROI-generating referral strategy for the holiday season with the Referral Generation Matrix, tips to host an impressionable holiday party without going over budget, 3 best practices to gifting clients via pop-by visits this holiday season and how to use philanthropic activities to help your community and create referral generation conversations with clients along the way.
In our final installment of the holiday season referral generation playbook, we’re going to unpack how to tastefully leverage social posts to maximize the awareness of your philanthropic activity to your entire social network and beyond.
Raise your hand if you have ever woken up and thought to yourself, ‘I know I need to publish something to my social media this week, but I just don’t know what to share?’ Everyone should have their hand raised! Like most technology, social media has made it easier for us to connect with more of our network but the burden of creating the content for these channels can be cumbersome! At Handshake, we believe social media posts are a key part to your referral generation strategy and with a little coordination, can easily help you originate referrals from your network.
Like any great movie, a great social media campaign has a beginning, middle and end. We suggest breaking-up your social media campaign into four stages, one stage for each week of the campaign. That’s right, this is a one-month, easy to apply social media campaign!
Holiday Philanthropy - Social Media Campaign
Stage 1 - The Announcement
The ‘Announcement’ post should introduce your philanthropic activity for the season. Include information like who the beneficiary is, why you selected this purpose and the recipient of your charitable contribution. Include details like how this charity or purpose connects back to housing, gently reminding your network that you’re a real estate professional in the community.
Stage 2 - The Collection
The ‘Collection’ post is your chance to showcase your effort in action! Consider pictures and / or videos of you meeting with clients at their homes and collecting donations. To maximize the reach of your post, link to the bios of the clients you visited to collect donations. By linking your clients in the post, you can extend the reach of your campaign to the network of those you link in your post and may not be aware of your contribution!
Stage 3 - The Donation
The ‘Donation’ post is your chance to share photos and videos of the donation size and completion of your philanthropic activity. The donation post should convey the culmination of your effort and reiterate how the charity or purpose you prioritized connects back to housing. For many people in your network, they may only see 1-2 posts in the entire campaign, so be sure to reiterate (often) your purpose and connection to housing.
Stage 4 - The Recap/Results
The ‘Recap / Results’ post is an opportunity to recap your philanthropic effort with data. In this post, you should personally address the camera and speak to the number of donations collected, the expected number of families or beneficiaries from your donation, how others can join if they missed the opportunity and thank everyone for their contribution. This is your chance to end the story through a personally-addressed video.
Maximizing Your Reach
Now, maximizing the reach and impact of your social media campaign is as important, if not more important, than establishing your campaign schedule. Poorly executed posts will minimize their reach, creating less awareness for your business and potential referrals. Some keys to success when creating your social media posts:
Using social media during the holidays is a low-cost and easy way to maximize the awareness of your community-building efforts, create more top-of-mind awareness, and provide you a valuable reason to reach more members of your network. We hope you can apply all of the strategies in the holiday season referral generation playbook and join Handshake to be a part of the agent-to-agent referral movement that is changing the industry!
