Let’s unpack what is limiting your growth and opportunity on social media by exploring the I.C.E. strategy and leaning in to what needs to change!

Items you need to find in this edition of LiveTime with Alec:

• I.C.E.
• Be a Human and connect
• Engage, engage, engage…even if it’s uncomfortable
• Take a moment and listen to the responses.

Episode Transcribe

Hey, what’s up, everybody?

Happy whatever day it is today. Is it Wednesday?

This is what happens when you get the coronavirus. I don’t really have the coronavirus, but it’s possible. I have a sore throat, I’m surviving. Fun topic today, man, fun topic today, and thanks for those of you that are joining me live right now. As you know, this stuff is stored on YouTube, and it’s part of my experiment of leaning in to this power of social media and engagement with you guys online. Thank you for joining me on LinkedIn, Facebook, I see you guys, and YouTube, it’s pretty cool. Let me mute this right here before we get going.Comments on LinkedIn are always awkward, I have to watch it on my phone because LinkedIn’s kind of broken. All right, what motivated me to jump into the content today is watching a lot of you guys go out and put yourself into social media really aggressively, which for me to see is awesome, because I know, potentially, I played a small role in giving you a little push, and I was talking to the new guys at orientation today and I was just pushing everybody in the video, because even though Gary V. disagrees, if you’re a writer, write. If you’re in sales and you’re in the mortgage industry, man, you got to meet customers face-to-face. You got to be chest-to-chest with people. If you’re not, you’re losing out.I always bring up the same thing: don’t you love meeting your customers face-to-face? And everyone’s like, well, yeah, that’s where I build rapport, that’s where they get to see my energy, they get to know if I’m trustworthy, yeah, I love meeting my customer face-to-faces. And I’m like, there’s a thousand of them, if you just want to turn the camera around and meet them face-to-face there, digitally, where they are, because they’re staring at their phone all day long, all day long. You know what the recent statistic is about how often people check their social media accounts per day? It’s high. Google that stuff, it’s amazing. There’s of ton of people, this right here, all day long. I’m one of them, so I know, because I am that person. All right, you’re diving into social media, you agree with what I’m saying, you’re putting out all this content, are you getting the results you want? It’s time to unpack the process so that you can actually start getting the results that you want from your efforts. If you’re getting the results, you don’t to pay attention here. But if you’re not, oof.Oh, Minh Nguyen. Yeah, 45 times, checks your social media. I think the average is, like, five, so Minh’s at 45, checking his social media. He’s a little broken, I’m not judging. I’m following in your footsteps, so don’t judge me. If you’re on LinkedIn and commenting, I cannot see it yet, so give me a second, I’ll get it queued up. All right, let’s get this thing going here. Social media in its finest right here.So for those of you that are playing but you’re not getting the results you want, here’s two strategies I want to unpack: the first one is I.C.E., the I.C.E. strategy. Now, for those of you that have heard me talk about social media before and growing influence before online, the I.C.E. strategy is, in my opinion, foundationally true. I got to give a big shout out to Daniel Probert for helping me unpack this concept, the guy’s amazing, he runs a great company called WOWMI. I love that guy. And let me just break down what this means: it’s an acronym, you got that, right? So I.C.E., it’s not really ice. If you are trying to grow influence on social media, if you’re putting out content and not getting any response and nobody’s listening and nobody’s paying attention, then chances are you’re not following this strategy, and it starts with identify. I always joke, if you’re tweeting a ton and your only follower is your mom, hi, Mom, you’re not getting the connection to humans. So the first thing is you have to identify … I didn’t spell identify right, did I? It’s the coronavirus, I’m getting through it.Oh thanks, Scott, yeah, Face-to-Face, that’s an amazing book. Identify who you want to connect with and start to connect with them online. So the I is identify. If you’re in mortgages, start with your real estate professionals, start with your past customers, start with your sphere of influence, start with your friends and family. How many people are connected with on social media? How about business owners, everybody. Everyone that you want to influence, you should be connecting with, and you need to identify them first. Once you identify, you get to go to the C, which I’ve said 17 times as we’ve been talking: connect. Like actually connect, reach out, virtual hug, get them in there. Make a connection. If you want a pro tip, always send a personal message: hey, wanted to connect with you. Personal message. Don’t just send out invites. Be a human, okay? Connect.And then this one, the E of the I.C.E. is arguably the most important thing, and I put down engage, educate and entertain; pick one. Pick the one that you like the best. But let’s start with engage: if you have a massive network on your social media and you are not engaging with them, why do you think they’re going to engage with you? It’s like standing at a party in a corner and being like, I’m the coolest person here, and never talking to anybody. Do you think they’re going to come talk to you? You got to get out and talk to people, and if you need an example, then just Google Brian Covey and watch him online. And then just do that. Engage people online. I get it, I get it, it’s sometimes uncomfortable, you don’t like it. Maybe it’s a competitor and you’re feeling weird. I don’t care, engage. Engage with human beings. It’s never a bad thing. If you want people to engage with you, engage with them. Once you’ve identified and connected to humans, and now you can start to educate, entertain and engage, now, now we go back to this. Are you listening?Look, every time, I did 100 video in 100 days. Every time I did one of these livestreams, every time I put out a piece of content on social media, I sit back and go, how are people responding? Is it landing? Anybody there? Anybody care? This is how you get better. Be a student of your own experience, pay attention. There are so many of you putting out content, and then I wonder, are you actually going back and looking and going, is it landing for people? I just released a podcast episode with Minh, who’s commenting and giving me some love, and Adam Encinas, great guys that work here, and I’m proud to work around them because I’m learning a ton from them. One of the things they said which really struck with me was, do you have the right people around you to give you the feedback on your content? Even today, when I was coaching somebody, make sure you send your stuff to people that aren’t in the mortgage industry, and ask them if they understand what the hell you’re saying! I know, mind-blowingly powerful insights there, coming at you from the land of common sense. You feel me on this? We get stuck using industry vernacular, that’s true all the time, right? We’re so in our business, DTI, PITI. People are like, I don’t know what the hell you’re saying? Are you cussing at me? Is this a threat? You got to break it down in the simplest way. You got to listen to your audience. If you’re posting a ton and nobody is there and engaging, maybe you need to pivot your message. Maybe you need to go back and look at your I.C.E. strategy and go, do I have enough connection to people? Am I engaging enough with other people to reciprocate engagement?These are important questions. Are you listening? This is not going to be a long livecast today, I tried to push 20-30 minutes; number one, I’m a little sick, number two, this message is clear and to the point. Identify who you want to connect with, be intentional in a connection strategy to grow your base of community online, and the engage with that community, comment, like, be part of the network, be part of the community. Don’t go to the party and stand in the corner, go to the party and talk to everybody about what they’re interested in, because if you just turn the camera on and you’re like, just give me loans, it’s not going to work. But if you’re going and engaging and supporting their business, engaging and sharing their content, asking questions, complimenting, affirming, challenging, all the stuff that is life, if you’re that person, and then you start putting out your own content, you’re going to see the reciprocation. You’re going to see your community develop and blossom. If you are just a walking, talking billboard about your company, you’re missing the boat. You hear me? I know you hear me, because you’re watching. And that’s my main comment. Today I just got passion, I’m like, all right, I’m going to put a 10-minute little live thing up here on listening, because there’s a lot of people that need to hear this. There’s a lot of people that are putting out content, have not spent the time on the I.C.E. strategy, they do not spend the time engaging with other people, and they just content, content, content, and they’re getting muted. You’re getting muted for sure. Someone’s being like, ah, I love this person. Mute. See you in 30 days. That’s not what you’re going after, guys. So think about this. Listen and ask for feedback. Ask for feedback from people that are watching, ask for feedback from friends and family outside the industry, and you’ll get it. And you’ll get better. The whole game is about getting better. The whole game is about getting better. I was just talking to Dan, who runs Utah for us, and we’re just joking about videos and livestreams, and he was on live today. I said, “You did great.” He’s like, “Ah, yeah … ” I’m like, “No, dude, you did great.” We’re all getting better every day, and the more we flex our muscles, the stronger we get. That makes sense? Identify, connect, engage. Put out content and listen. It’s all I got for you guys today.Keep getting better. I’ll see you online. Take care, everybody.