CityBlast Social Experts Save Me 4 Hours A Week
CityBlast lets me focus on the money tasks while keeping me top of mind and present with clients.
Gaelen Patrick is a real estate agent in Toronto who works for Sutton Group Realty Systems. He recently sat down with us to talk about his marketing strategies.
When did you get started in the real estate industry and what drew you to the business?
I got started in the real estate industry in 2009 and I was drawn to the business because I’ve always been very interested in the real estate market, buying and selling houses, condominiums and seeing how they can grow in value and appreciation in a city like Toronto.
What are some of the more traditional forms of advertising and marketing that you use for your business?
Some of the more traditional avenues of marketing and advertising that I’ve used in the past would be: postcards, print media, flyers, posters – that type of thing.
What was your reaction to using social media as a form of marketing? Did you embrace it? Or resist it at first?
Definitely I embraced it. I’ve always been a proponent of technology and social media and using that avenue for marketing and advertising.
How has using social media helped you establish your personal brand?
It helps by getting my brand and my business out there on a 24/7 basis to social media feeds, be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Having those things in people’s faces 24/7 in a properly curated way has definitely helped grow my real estate business.
Are your friends and family looking to you as a go-to person for real estate information since you’ve started posting great content to your social media accounts?
All the time. Through Facebook or LinkedIn, they see that I’m posting really interesting stuff and very informative articles and interesting listings. So they look to me all the time for real estate information.
In your opinion, what works better: a great social media presence or dropping off 1000 business cards?
In my opinion, definitely social media works better than dropping off 1000 business cards. The reason being, because social media is in your face 24/7 and business cards end up in the garbage.
What have been some of the challenges you have faced managing a professional social media presence?
Time. Time is the greatest thing for a real estate agent to be able to manage properly. One of the ways to manage it well is to have someone help you with your social media presence because it can be very time consuming. Having someone help you with that eliminates the challenge of finding the time to do it.
Why would you recommend CityBlast to another agent?
They’re a great company, very professional, always there to help you if you need help. As I mentioned before they have very carefully curated information and posts that they post on your behalf. I can trust them to have researched articles and basically know what’s in the best interest of me and my business.
