We all have a circle of people with who we communicate every day or occasionally. This can be friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, among others. For a real estate agent, one way to generate leads, strike deals, and earn a commission is through the circle of people surrounding you. In the real estate industry, this circle is called the sphere of influence and it is an essential aspect for you to start out building your career. But first, it is vital to understand what SOI is and how to leverage it to build your business.

What is a Sphere of Influence (SOI)?

An agent’s Sphere of Influence is the people in her circle that they have some sway over. For example, family, friends, neighbors, and business associates understand the value that you bring to the table and influence others in your direction. Your sphere of influence is an important asset and a powerhouse that can help you generate leads to fuel your real estate business for years.

When you understand how vital your sphere of influence is for your real estate career, then the effort to build it and take care of it will come naturally. However, it is critical to understand that you should focus on meaningful, authentic, and professional relationships with people while building your SOI. It is less of a strategy and more of a relational approach because people are relational beings.

How to grow your Sphere of Influence

As you are going to see, building your sphere of influence in the real estate industry is dependent on you and your social impact as a person more than strategies. Here are some ways to jumpstart and grow your SOI.

Start with your existing SOI

When you venture into the real estate industry, you already have a circle of people you have influenced, interacted with, and are still in good standing with you. These include your coworkers, your former school friends, your family, your neighbors, and other groups that are and have been in your circle.

Start by reaching out to former classmates, colleagues, and friends who are your friends on Facebook and other social media platforms. Reach out to contacts on your email list from previous jobs or organizations you have interacted with and send them emails.

Introduce yourself anew, if it is people you have not talked to in a while, and talk about what you do. Starting with the available SOI should be a way of you reconnecting and catching up with people you are already comfortable with; slide in what you do and make it clear that you are available to help with any real estate needs subtly.

Organize your Contact List

Once you have started with your available sphere of influence, you want to determine which contacts are buyers, sellers and which one will connect you to other buyers or sellers.

This way, you get to plan how you send out messages not to overuse your social privileges. Organizing your contacts list will help your plan, which leads to follow, where your strongest potential lies and where to go slow.

You can segment your contacts according to relationships, where you met, or the meeting time and prioritize them accordingly. Not all individuals are looking to buy or sell a home in your sphere of influence; keeping this organized in a contact list helps you know the kind of send-outs each contact needs.

Include notes sections to jot keynotes for reminders. For example, you can jot down a friend’s favorite or a referral’s name with the potential to buy or sell.

Participate in Social Community Events

The best way to connect with people is to participate and play alongside them. Showing up to community events and actively participating is a way to establish a relationship with people in your community and setting a baseline to work with them in the future.

Get involved in community events and interact with people in the event. In the small talk and introductions, you will get an opportunity to talk about what you do; when it comes, do it enthusiastically. If there are houses in the community you have sold, casually talk about these. Volunteering in local non-profit community events is another way to give back to the community and build your sphere of influence.

Start and Join Conversations on Social Media

Social media play a big part in how people connect today, and the same applies to businesses. If you are inactive on social media, this is the time to be an active participant. What is it that you want people to know about the houses you are selling?

Share your thought on prime areas, house renovations, and listing prices. People will like, follow or comment on your posts, and others will reach out in your inbox to ask for advice or even show interest in the houses you have listed.

Join conversations that make sense to you and your industry and jump in. Share your thoughts respectably on local trends, what’s going on in the market (whether real estate or not), and local happening. Be social on social media to make people comfortable enough to relate with you.

Reach Out using Appropriate Methods

As an agent, you are probably used to sending out postcards for realtors using direct mail to market. This is very appropriate for connecting to potential clients and other people you want to bring into your prospect’s circle. It is a formal way of reaching out and keeping them in the loop.

As you build your sphere of influence, the organization of contact lists comes in handy because you can determine how to contact and communicate with your SOI. For some, a simple text or WhatsApp message will do. Email marketing is another excellent way to reach out to your contacts and tell them about your listings.

Provide Real Estate Information in your Neighborhood

The simplest way to do this is to start a blog or get a segment in a newsletter. Run regular updates on what is happening in the real state industry. You can talk about how-to tips on renovating a home, interior décor ideas, high-end estates, among other real estate interests.

You can also develop a mailing list and start sending out postcards for realtors alongside the newsletters, telling your contacts about market updates and automated home valuations.

Keys to Consistently Stay in contact with your SOI

Schedule your Marketing

Keeping in touch with your SOI is essential in staying relevant and in their minds. Find a balance between too little and too often and work with that for a year. For example, if you communicate too often, you will annoy your ROI; if it’s too little, they will quickly forget you. You can choose to send an email once a month and stick to the schedule for the rest of the year.

Follow up on Specific Requests and Interests

Send postcards to your contacts whenever you close or gain a listing to let them know they are on your mind. When you come across a listing that matches your potential contacts’ interests, send an update or make a call to let them know. Reaching out at personal levels shows your contacts you care, and they will refer you to their circle.

Send eblasts

Keep your contacts regularly informed by sending emails and messages on new listings, market updates, newsletters, upcoming trends, etc. You can use bulk messaging applications like Real Geeks. You can sync contacts between your Facebook lead ads and real geeks so that your followers on social media can get your emails and messages too.