Don't expect organic leads until you do this

The real reason you don't get organic leads is because of where you post your content.

I'm Amara Andrew.

I'm Jeff Sarris.

And this is Useful Not Famous, the show where we teach you how to actually be useful and ignore fame. I already forgot what our fucking tag was.

No, it's perfect. No, but being useful, how useful is the only way to make money.

There you go. So, tell me what we're talking about.

Yeah. So, today we're talking about the three Ws of finding organic leads. That's when, where, and how.

And yes, how is a W.

He failed out of all basic math and English.

So, organic leads come down to those three things. Today, we're focusing on the where, but basically when, it's when people, say you're in real estate, when someone is buying or selling. The where is where they actually spend time.

The how is how you need to say it in this moment for it to click and have them want to connect with you. So, last week we talked about where in the IRL sense. Today, we're talking about where in the online social sense.

So, I am going to put 5:00 on the timer.

I was going to I was just doing my little intro. Let's see, can I do it over here?

So, here's our 5:00 timer. It's not even focusing. Oh, there it is.

Yay!

Let's go.

So, first, I want to talk about what does it mean to post everywhere. So, it's We're sort of reframing the old adage of, "You never know where your next client is going to come from," and that is like stupidly especially true in the social media sphere.

Yeah, I'm I was just going to say of where, so not even post We didn't even say post everywhere yet, but that is sort of the like what we're what we're talking about is why it's important to post everywhere and specifically where you should be posting that you are skipping.

So, most people tend to only focus on one platform because they realized success of some sort, whatever it is, whether vanity metrics, business, whatever, but, yeah, we really want to hammer home why you actually need to cross-post everywhere, all platforms, and we are going to talk about that a little bit more because you might be leaving your business on the table.

Not your business, you might be

Leaving your business on

If you're not doing this, you're leaving so much business on the table is what Sweetie Pants was trying to say.

Nope, you don't know what I'm trying to say.

So,

Something I want to talk about specifically though, the problem with tying everything to one platform is we saw with the TikTok ban. So, if in case you don't know, what was it? Like a few months ago?

It was like December 31st or something like that. TikTok was banned in the United States for like 24 hours. I almost died because that was one of my favorite platforms, and I was like, "What am I supposed to do?" But so many people who built platforms on TikTok then were like, "Shit, my entire business is on this one platform.

I didn't build anything else anywhere else or try to yeah, just post to different platforms." So, if you're doing that, let's say specifically using Instagram, because so many real estate professionals, for some reason, are just in love with Instagram, which we know why, but we'll talk about that more in a second. They If Instagram went away tomorrow, would you be screwed?

Most people, yeah.

Or if they changed how the algorithm works. And, so, one of the things organic content is currently free. Reach is free, and that won't be forever.

Like one day, we will have to pay for this reach that is the first time in history. Like, we're doing free advertising without having to pay for it right now.

And especially to the landscape of where social media is going is I guess let's dive into the difference between social graph and interest graph. So, social graph is Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, sort of. LinkedIn is like kind of a hybrid sort of that we were talking about.

It's where your friends are. It's where your community, your social network is.

So, it's where it's most comfortable because all the people you already know are there. So, it's where you feel the best because everyone's like, "You can do it. I'm supportive." Meanwhile, interest graph is like the Wild West.

You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know if your content's going to do well, but interest graph is mostly sort of, and we're talking about the algorithm, interest graph algorithm, so that would be TikTok, YouTube Shorts, X, well, Twitter. They're mostly based in is your content entertaining and are you being consistent with posting your content?

Well, actually not entertaining, but connecting with the right people.

It's entertaining to them.

So, like But so an interest graph is trying to find what this content is and find the interested party, the interested viewer or reader or whatever, and connecting those two, where the social graph is showing you to your friends.

You also can't be boring, though. But, yes.

Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, but just, yeah, sort of at the core of what it's doing, it's connecting interest with content. So, that's why we're so big on these platform because the interest graph is how you reach new people and the whole point of your business is to bring in new organic leads.

At least that's what we're talking about. We're taking that assumption that new organic leads is the point.

Especially because we primarily focus on organic content marketing. And like you just said, it's not going to be free forever. So, how are you going to get your audience And again, we're not all about vanity metrics and things like that, but just trying to build your audience on various different platforms because you need to reach people where they want to be reached.

So, personally, I, to be fully honest, I spend very little time on Instagram, only to keep tabs on people or be part of whatever the hell I'm trying to do on Instagram. But I spend a lot of my time on TikTok specifically because I find that to be it's just fun. You never know what you're going to find.

So, something we teased a couple weeks ago, too, which this brings me to, is that we were trying different things, which or I guess I'm jumping ahead, but

Well, no, but it's perfect because we're just about to hit time for this first section. I want to go further, but we're going to try to stick to our 15-minute show today, which it's three 5-minute segments. First why, what we're up to, and then how.

So, we're going to dive in. I'm actually shocked we nailed it. Look at that!

Okay, so, now, what we've been up to this week is something that we did tease. We've talked about a few weeks ago if you've listened to the show before.

Yes, and it's made me so excited because I've gotten back to my roots, quote, unquote, where I've been doing art history content. So, my whole background is in like arts, art history specifically, and pre-COVID, like around COVID time, I started doing art history TikToks. Took off phenomenally on TikTok, which also we have another story for that of why you need to post everywhere.

But for the sake of time, I started re I re Jesus. I restarted doing art history TikToks. You look so upset with me right now.

Get to your point, lady! And it's just so interesting because the same is true back when I was regularly posting them, around like 2020, 2021, to now. I post them on every single platform.

Instagram, fucking nothing. Facebook, negative nothing. LinkedIn, negative nothing.

TikTok, some. X, some. YouTube Shorts, this one particular video over half a million views.

Granted, we're not focused on just the vanity metrics and everything.

No, but like a few weeks ago we said, we're getting back into the lab and experimenting a little bit. And clearly this experiment is working because we know it will. We've done this so many times for so many different businesses and platforms.

And I can now figure out, "Okay, I think it's going to do really well in this platform. I think it's going to do better on this one," and I was 100% accurate. But I did not anticipate the amount of reach I got, which was insane.

And again, this is interest graph. So, obviously, this isn't half a million people that know you. This is half a million people who wanted to see what you created.

And if you only post this on Facebook or Instagram, no one, no one would have seen it.

No. And it's specifically trying new things and trying new methods, trying new hooks, trying very specific things, because then we can use it for our business as well. So, it's like I'm testing on myself to see, "Okay, did this specific delivery like work well, quote, unquote?" Yeah, it did fucking phenomenal.

So, I've tried it for a couple other videos, and those have also done very well. So, then it's something like, "Okay, now I can bring this to our Top Bananas," which is what we call our clients, "and try to try to figure it out for them." So, that's what I've been up to this week.

Well, yeah. Well, no, but just sticking with the interest social graph thing, that's just that's why you need to be everywhere. Like we I think you and I would

Sticking with the interest social graph thing. That's just

That's why you need to be everywhere. Like, we I think you and I would agree,

Maybe.

If you were going to choose, you being not you, the dear listener, Tori.

Hi, Tori!

Hi, Tori. No, but if you were going to choose, obviously, more than, anyone who's out there.

Hi, Tori.

If you were going to choose one platform to post to,

We would absolutely say it better be an interest graph. It better be TikTok or it better be YouTube. If you're If you are just dead set on only one,

Only choose one of those two, because you're just wasting your time if you're only doing Facebook, only doing Instagram.

And specifically talking about like because we primarily work with real estate professionals, the amount of people that have said, "I get my business from YouTube," is almost every single person. I never hear a single person be like, "Oh, I got business from Instagram." Or very few, I would say. It's a very different

Well,

No, no, no,

I'm not refuting because that's exactly So, like we filmed with Shannon recently and her whole thing was, "I have so much reach on Instagram.

All of my business comes from YouTube where I have…" I think it was 300 subscribers or 400 subscribers.

It was like 584 or something.

And, like, that is just one more example of how the interest graph works for business. The social graph works for social: social networking and all those things. You can use it.

It works as like in a way, but it's not how you're reaching all new people. It's how you're nurture You could use it to nurture connections.

And especially in real estate, you are trying to find new people. Like you'll have your repeat customers, but, presumably, people aren't moving every year, every other year.

I think that What if we framed it that way?

Yeah, as soon as I said it.

Look at me. I had my Wheties this morning.

Well, yeah!

Instagram, if we thought of it as Instagram for people who are already in your funnel, and we thought of TikTok, YouTube, at times, LinkedIn maybe, but TikTok and YouTube, specifically, as people to enter your funnel.

Yeah, I think that's a great way to put it. So, Instagram is like nurturing the people that already know you, like you, and trust you, but then this is how you can broaden your depth. Wow, you just heard it here first, folks.

This happened in real time.

Right on time.

Well, and just framing it. It's more like, like it's how we already think, but I think just

Yeah,

Changing our

Okay, so this is perfect. So, the third W is how.

How?

And how it needs to be said in the moment for it to click. There was something about how you said that. And we're going to have a whole episode about the how.

And it clicked for both of us at the same time.

Exactly. There was something about how you said that clicked in. The reason this show is called Useful Not Famous is because ev- This is what I've done forever.

But every single person I've brought it up to has either said how much they love Like, "Oh my- Oh, my gosh, that's something." Or they've written it down and told me later, "Oh, I wrote that down as like a little quote because that's so on the nose with how I feel and what I'm building as well."

And people in a variety of like fame levels, businesses, like people who are quote-unquote "famous," who are like, "Oh, that's so good."

-huh.

It's like, yeah, 'cause it's a great idea and it's true.

Well, it's true. That's all that it comes down to. It's how I've built my everything I've done for 16 years.

I sounded like Mickey Mouse. "Oh, ho!"

[laughter]

But it's it's just true, so that's why we rebranded. But anyway, let's put 5 more minutes on the clock.

Now, we're going to tell you how to do this.

Yeah, so we did the we did the why, we did the what we're up to, and now the how.

So, I have two hows. One is add locations to your posts. I know that's like old-school

So, actually, I want to clarify, this is the how of this episode because now we have our Ws and hows all confused and messed up. So, the three Ws of finding organic leads are when, where, and how. But our show is three segments of why, what we're up to, and how.

So,

Oh, my god, it's almost like it works.

This is getting a little This is getting a little confusing, but this is the how of how can you go to the places? How can you

Get to the places where you're going to get the most business.

Yes.

Yes, and this is how to do it easily and most effectively for your time. As somebody who has made over 10,000 videos, this is the most effective way that you can be consistent and find new people. So, obviously, the first thing is add locations, like I was saying.

So many people still don't add locations to their stuff and it boggles my mind, or even in their bios. Like, we just had somebody, which like no shade or anything, they had not where they live in their bio, and like we forget that because it's like, "Well, yeah, I know where I live and like other people do."

Well, and like just for a little more clarity, it was the county,

Yeah.

But it wasn't the state. And it was a it was a generic enough county that you would have no idea from coast to coast which state that was.

Exactly. So, you want to try to have people find you as best as possible and be so specific, because just people might not know. So,

Yeah, and if I'm searching, like say I'm searching for Denver, Colorado realtor, but if you put like a county name, and the county's like Smith County, that's not going to connect.

Exactly. So, making sure that you're very specific with your location locations.

I also like that I just I just declared that is Smith County. [laughter] I have no idea what it is.

Whatever. So, but being very specific with your locations. So, that's something that we do with like our local hidden gem content, we call it Out And Abouts.

I make sure to include the locations for all of our top bananas, because, obviously, people who are in your community are going to be looking up these places or find this place or whatever, or it's going to stumble upon their feed, which StumbleUpon was one of my favorite sites.

And I also want to just say, because, again, interest graph, so if you We're in Chicago, so if we tell TikTok and we tell YouTube, "We're in Chicago, and this is local to Chicago, what we're making," it's going to find people who are interested in Chicago. Now, that could be more broad because Chicago is a city people can be interested if they don't live here, but almost anywhere else in the world outside New York, LA, and a couple others, it's likely going to be people who live there.

Oh, 100%. 'Cause even on TikTok, when we travel to different places, because we travel basically more than half the year, in every single city we're at, I get things on TikTok, because I scroll through TikTok before bed, not a good idea, but I get things on TikTok that are hyper local to the area, even if it's the next town over, two towns over, whatever, it's still in the same state, and those are the people that you're trying to reach.

I know you'll have out-of-towners and blah, blah, blah, but that's something totally different. But, well, also on TikTok, if you search for specific things, then it'll pop up, 'cause I have a shit ton of Miami content that's always popping up, so I'm like, "Let's go to Miami." Anyway, so that's why you always, always, always want to include locations on your stuff no matter what.

Now, I know you can't do it necessarily on YouTube Shorts yet, but they might be working on it. I have no idea. I'm starting rumors.

Well, now, how do you get it everywhere? Because, again, time. How do you optimize all of this for time?

So, that's what I was going to get to, because I have no time. So, something I'm a spreadsheet freak. If you know anything about me, I love a spreadsheet.

It gets me so excited. It goes back to my archivist roots.

What?

And she tells me, "I'm not good with numbers. I'm not analytical." She doesn't want to believe

No, I like things organized and I like to be able to see everything. So, I have spreadsheets for every single specific person. I have, essentially, it's broken down, which I'll just tell you briefly how it's broken down.

The post date, the post time, which I try to choose the same date and the same time every week. Why? Most platforms, it seems, I'm talking with my hands a lot in this episode, most platforms, it seems, prefer you posting same day, same time, no matter what, because they know that you're going to show up every week.

You're going to be bringing people to their platform. People are going to have something to tune into. The longer, which so many people tap out at six months, but the longer you can do that, the better it is for you and your profile.

Well, and I just want to say think of the algorithm as a person. If the algorithm knows they can trust that you're going to deliver consistently, the

If the algorithm knows that they can trust you, they can trust that you'll deliver on your promises. And part of your promise is the type of content, when you're going to post, the consistency of what you're doing, they're going to show it to more people because they know they can trust you. Like, "they" being an algorithm, "they" being a human, like you turn to people that you can trust to deliver.

Exactly. So, super quickly for the rest of the spreadsheet, I have the like quick editing title is what I call it where I just need to name the file quickly, just to get it out, but then still naming it so it's keyword focused because YouTube, various other social media platforms, they search using the file name. Super quick little tip hack thing.

So, I do that. I have the real title that I'm going to use in order to keep create a curiosity gap, which we've talked about before, we'll talk about more in the future. Then, the description with hashtags.

People say hashtags aren't relevant still, but I disagree on specific platforms. And then, location, finally, and then the if it's a collaboration with a business, so if it's like local hidden gem content, then a specific tab for that, and then also a shortened one for X and Threads, but I don't need to go to the weeds for that.

So, that's basically it what I do for every single person. Yes, it takes a shit ton of time, but by having it all in one central spreadsheet, you can just copy and paste it for every single specific platform, which, I want to tease, we're working on a way to make that even easier for everyone.

-huh, yeah. So, like you have all of your stuff This is an absolutely free You can just use Google Sheets, you can do whatever, and just

That's what I use.

Yeah, just build this out. And then, okay, today's Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. For example, "I need to post." So, you copy-paste, copy-paste, copy-paste.

That is, yeah, it is repetitive. It's not amazing to have to do it, so that's why we're working on some software that'll make it very simple.

It's so exciting.

But you can do this absolutely free.

And you can duplicate each So, once you have your set template, so I have everything sectioned I'm getting way in the weeds. But I have each cell, so like I have it grouped by week, I have a color What?

When you look at your fingers here, your eyes cross a little bit.

They always do. [laughter] It's my whatever. But I have [laughter]

I was going to say it's my intuition.

So, I have each

So intuitive.

Inside joke time. It's slap-happy at the end of our 15 minutes.

So, I have each week sectioned off and then I have a color like a bar of color underneath it so then I can see each week super, super quickly. I try to think of holidays ahead of time. I don't really care about holidays, so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but doing it that way,

Meaning you wouldn't post on Christmas morning.

Oh, god, no. That's like the worst thing you could do. Unless it's

Even if it's on your Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.

No, then I order around the holiday, but if somebody wants to post holiday-specific stuff, fine, whatever. But then that's where your social graph comes into play, because your interest graph, nobody gives a shit what you're doing on Christmas morning. I don't care if you have matching pajamas unless you make it very tantalizing.

Anyway, I could talk about spreadsheets for 700 more minutes.

Well, yeah, and we'll talk more about the three Ws of finding organic leads. Remember, it's when, where, and how. Those are the

No one will ever know what that is.

Oh, no. Everything's an inside joke with us. We only We only speak in inside jokes.

But anyway,

On that note,

We'll talk more about, yeah, the three Ws. But if you enjoyed this show, make sure you leave a review. Make sure you leave a review.

If you could leave a review, that would mean a lot because it's the only reason we reach people. Post it on social, do whatever, tag us. If you have any questions, we'll be back next week.

Again, I'm Jeff Sarris.

Except if your question is, "Who said that?" I'm not telling you. I'm Amara Andrew.

And I'm very intuitive.

[laughter]