No matter how long it’s been since you last communicated with your sphere, I have a reason you can use to reach out. This reason cannot fail to develop a personal connection with every person in your sphere. The best part, though, is that you won’t feel like you’re bothering your sphere. Plus, if you’re missing valuable contact information from your sphere in your CRM, you’ll receive that, too.
What is this great idea? Birthdays!
There’s no one in the world who doesn’t like to receive a personalized birthday greeting. You know what I mean — it makes you feel special. Of course, I put a technology spin on this idea to bring it into the 21st century. I don’t call my sphere: I send them a personalized video note.
What is this great idea? Birthdays!
There’s no one in the world who doesn’t like to receive a personalized birthday greeting. You know what I mean — it makes you feel special. Of course, I put a technology spin on this idea to bring it into the 21st century. I don’t call my sphere: I send them a personalized video note.
How to Know When a Birthday Is Coming Up
For this tactic to work, you need to know the birthdays of everyone in your sphere. If you’re like I was, you don’t have most of your contacts’ birthdays listed in your CRM. However, you can use Facebook to provide you with all the information you need.
Most of you will already be familiar with the feature where Facebook alerts you to daily birthdays. You may even use it to post on friends’ walls — which is better than nothing, for sure.
However, you need to go a step further to use birthdays to create a real connection with the people in your sphere. The last thing you want is to get lost on their walls with a hundred other birthday greetings. That’s why my tactic of a short, personalized video note is so effective.
Don’t overthink these videos. There’s no need for them to be high quality or professionally produced. In fact, they’ll perform better if they’re casual. Just turn on your camera and talk — or even sing, if you want. Just be you and brighten that person’s day with a personal message.
By using this tactic, you’ll not only make personal connections with your sphere (which may be long overdue), you can also use the opportunity to add valuable information to your database — which is why this idea is brilliant. Plus, from now on, you won’t lose touch with your sphere.
Most of you will already be familiar with the feature where Facebook alerts you to daily birthdays. You may even use it to post on friends’ walls — which is better than nothing, for sure.
However, you need to go a step further to use birthdays to create a real connection with the people in your sphere. The last thing you want is to get lost on their walls with a hundred other birthday greetings. That’s why my tactic of a short, personalized video note is so effective.
Don’t overthink these videos. There’s no need for them to be high quality or professionally produced. In fact, they’ll perform better if they’re casual. Just turn on your camera and talk — or even sing, if you want. Just be you and brighten that person’s day with a personal message.
By using this tactic, you’ll not only make personal connections with your sphere (which may be long overdue), you can also use the opportunity to add valuable information to your database — which is why this idea is brilliant. Plus, from now on, you won’t lose touch with your sphere.
How to Put This Tactic into Practice
I have a simple, easy, and free formula that will allow you to use this tactic yourself.
First, go to Facebook to see who in your sphere has a birthday this month. You may not know this, but you can see more than just whose birthday it is today. You can check upcoming birthdays by day, week, and month.
On the desktop version, go to www. facebook.com and scroll down the links on the left side. These can change, as Facebook changes its layout all the time. Look for the tab that says “Events” (you may need to click “See more”) and choose “Birthdays.” To avoid going through all these steps next time, bookmark the URL. This will make it easier to check birthdays on a regular basis.
You’ll see that today’s birthdays are at the top of the list. Scroll down and you’ll see recent birthdays. Keep scrolling and you’ll see that the remaining birthdays appear by month. If you hover your cursor over the person’s picture, you’ll see the day of the month as well.
Remember, you won’t need to send a video note to all these people — you just need to check who in the list is part of your sphere of influence. After all, some contacts may be other realtors, people who live too far away, or just not ideal clients.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to export the Facebook birthday list into an Excel spreadsheet. Facebook quietly removed that functionality to better protect users’ personal information. This means you need to store everything in your CRM manually.
First, go to Facebook to see who in your sphere has a birthday this month. You may not know this, but you can see more than just whose birthday it is today. You can check upcoming birthdays by day, week, and month.
On the desktop version, go to www. facebook.com and scroll down the links on the left side. These can change, as Facebook changes its layout all the time. Look for the tab that says “Events” (you may need to click “See more”) and choose “Birthdays.” To avoid going through all these steps next time, bookmark the URL. This will make it easier to check birthdays on a regular basis.
You’ll see that today’s birthdays are at the top of the list. Scroll down and you’ll see recent birthdays. Keep scrolling and you’ll see that the remaining birthdays appear by month. If you hover your cursor over the person’s picture, you’ll see the day of the month as well.
Remember, you won’t need to send a video note to all these people — you just need to check who in the list is part of your sphere of influence. After all, some contacts may be other realtors, people who live too far away, or just not ideal clients.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to export the Facebook birthday list into an Excel spreadsheet. Facebook quietly removed that functionality to better protect users’ personal information. This means you need to store everything in your CRM manually.
Gaining Additional Contact the Information
After you’ve figured out which contacts make up your sphere of influence, look up the names in your CRM to find out what information you’re missing. For instance, you may have an email address but no phone number. Whatever piece of information you’re missing is what you’re going to try to gain right before the person’s birthday.
Since you’re already on Facebook, it makes sense to use Messenger to collect the information. Send a simple message like, “I have something I’d like to text/email you. What’s the best phone number/email address to reach you at?” Just never say you want to call — most people dislike receiving phone calls, meaning asking to text is always the better option for gaining a phone number.
Once you’ve received the response, send the person a birthday video note using the contact information you’ve just received. Also add the missing information to your CRM. From now on, you’ll be able to stay in contact to deliver your sphere valuable content. This will ensure you stay top of mind for their referrals. After all, it’s only possible to create a system that generates consistent referrals if you have your sphere’s information.
Since you’re already on Facebook, it makes sense to use Messenger to collect the information. Send a simple message like, “I have something I’d like to text/email you. What’s the best phone number/email address to reach you at?” Just never say you want to call — most people dislike receiving phone calls, meaning asking to text is always the better option for gaining a phone number.
Once you’ve received the response, send the person a birthday video note using the contact information you’ve just received. Also add the missing information to your CRM. From now on, you’ll be able to stay in contact to deliver your sphere valuable content. This will ensure you stay top of mind for their referrals. After all, it’s only possible to create a system that generates consistent referrals if you have your sphere’s information.
When You’re Not Missing Contact Information
If you have both a cell number and email address for a contact already, send the video note via text. I’ve found that people love receiving text messages and will generally text me back, starting a conversation. However, if you want to schedule video notes ahead of time, email will be your best option. You can film a note right inside your Gmail using the BombBomb extension for Chrome and then use an extension like Boomerang to send the message later.
The Takeaway
Now you know how to connect to your sphere by sending contacts a personalized video note on their birthdays. If you need help building a model and system to stay in touch from now on — using just the latest marketing trends to generate consistent referrals — check out our spirit influencer program. For now, start making those personal birthday notes. I guarantee that the responses will blow you away.
