How Do You LinkedIn?
30 Minute Read
Transcribed from video interview. Please excuse any brevity. You may also watch the video version here.
Todd Sachs:
Hey guys, Todd Sachs of Sachs Realty. Welcome to this podcast, episode of things you should know. Today, I’m honored to be here with Raquel Borras and she has a company, a branding company called True To You Branding. We’re going to talk about something that I’m not very good at and if this may help you, if you’re not very good at it either, and that’s LinkedIn. So Melissa and I are here and we’re excited to dive right in. So Raquel, welcome.
Raquel Borras:
Thank you for having me. It’s exciting. I love to be here.
Todd Sachs:
Thanks for showing up at our home office in here.
Raquel Borras:
It was a really long drive.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah, really. So let’s learn a little bit about you. So you started your business January, right?
Raquel Borras:
Yes.
Todd Sachs:
January of this year, your branding company?
Raquel Borras:
I sure did, right before the pandemic. Perfect timing.
Todd Sachs:
So why did you start and give us a little backstory of what you’ve been up to.
Raquel Borras:
So I was doing branding. I was a brand ambassador or brand relations manager for a mortgage company. So I was doing it for them and I realized how much I absolutely loved it. I think people saw the passion and saw how much I enjoyed doing it, that I had a lot of people reach out to me almost every single day asking me for advice and how I managed to be putting a company on the map and how is it that I do so many videos. I had a lot of people just asking a lot of questions.
Raquel Borras:
It got to the point where I was also being asked to speak on panels, at conferences about it. So I thought, “Okay. Well, I guess I must be doing something right.” It just came to the point where I wanted to be able to help everyone and anyone in any industry. So that’s pretty much why I went out on my own so that I have the flexibility to work with everyone.
Todd Sachs:
So LinkedIn is like one of the oldest social media platforms, right? I mean it hasn’t been around forever.
Raquel Borras:
I think so. I don’t really know when it actually started. I know that I got on it, I think 2014 and it was still fairly new, but I think it had been around for several years.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. I mean I look at your engagement. I mean you really have a lot of engagement, which for us, I mean, I post things on LinkedIn and I’ll get three and it’s the same three people. We want to learn your tricks. So you do a lot of nonprofit work too, right?
Raquel Borras:
Yes.
Todd Sachs:
I was checking you out and we spoke and something, a couple of things you were real passionate about. So just talk for a second on what that’s all about.
Raquel Borras:
So four years ago I started working with LAWS, which is the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter out here in Loudoun County where I’m at. I wanted to volunteer in my community. So I actually googled nonprofits and that is one that actually it turns out that I know a few people that have used the resources. So I went ahead and did, it was like a 40-hour volunteer training section because it is pretty serious because we are dealing with people that deal with child abuse or domestic violence and so forth.
Raquel Borras:
It turns out that I’ve volunteered by watching the kids. So when a lot of these parents go in and get counseling or they have special programs, they have to get someone to watch their children. So they bring in their kids to the nurturing center, and then I watched them while their parents were getting services. So that’s nice. So I do that. Well, I volunteer also with the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America, NAMMBA. So I got involved. I was in the mortgage industry and I think it’s really important to bring more diversity, more women, younger professionals into the industry.
Raquel Borras:
So I actually launched the Northern Virginia chapter for NAMMBA. So I think I’m technically still currently the president. I actually have a call with them after this, but we were supposed to have our national conference next week and I was going to be one of the MCs. So I was really excited for that. But obviously that’s been moved. Then lately I’ve started collaborating with the imperfectly perfect campaign, which is to bring mental health awareness and I’ve been helping Glen Marson who’s the founder to kind of crossover into LinkedIn.
Raquel Borras:
He’s really good on Instagram and Facebook. He a huge following on Instagram, but I’m helping him with LinkedIn because it is different to try to promote mental health awareness kind of in the corporate world if you will, but I believe that that’s where you need to be addressing mental health, especially right now.
Todd Sachs:
That’s awesome. You just became really good at it? I mean why did you start your branding company? I mean, obviously you were in corporate America, you were doing marketing. What made you decide to branch out on your own?
Raquel Borras:
Like I had mentioned, there was just enough people that wanted to, for me, to consult and give them advice and the stars just aligned in a way that I needed to take that leap of faith. It was a little scary about how it all just aligned. The people that I was meeting, I came into some security money. Just everyone was super supportive. I know when I was telling my parents I was really nervous. I thought they were going to be like, “What are you doing? Are you nuts that you’re going to go out on your own when you have a really good stable job and you get good income and so forth.”
Raquel Borras:
No, if anything they were like, “You know what Raquel, go for it.” We believe in you and we believe that this is something that you’re really good at. Yeah, they were actually really supportive. So I think because of that, and even my kids, because I was nervous with my kids too. And same thing, like my 19 year old son who’s a little bit tough on me, tends to act like he’s my dad and my husband. He was like, “You know, mom, I think you’re going to be really good.”
Todd Sachs:
That’s awesome.
Raquel Borras:
That’s all I needed really is their support.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. Well, I’m sure people are really benefiting by what you do. So let’s talk about LinkedIn. So what is different and why? What’s the audience like? Take us from the perspective. It’s certainly not like Facebook.
Raquel Borras:
No. So at the time that I got on LinkedIn. I actually had been off of Facebook for several years because I had gotten divorced prior to that, and I just felt like Facebook was just everyone is in your business and I didn’t need to explain myself because I knew everyone was going to be like, “What? You’re divorced?” So I got off of the platform and I was so happy. Then Instagram was fairly new. I had gotten it just because of my kids actually. That’s the only reason why I had it initially on Instagram.
Raquel Borras:
Then I thought, “You know what, I’m now officially in the corporate world.” I think I had just been in the corporate world for a year. So I thought, “Okay, this is my opportunity to connect with other business people because I was a stay at home mom, before I got divorced.” So this was my introduction to kind of figuring out what it was like to be in a corporate job. So I got on LinkedIn and I wanted to be taken seriously. I wanted to be on there and actually see content that made sense.
Raquel Borras:
I didn’t want to see rants of people talking about politics or religion or their families. Not that I don’t care about people’s families, but for me, I wanted to be more intentional on the platform and LinkedIn just felt like it was the perfect fit.
Melissa LeVie:
Would you say that you get the majority of your clients through connections through LinkedIn?
Raquel Borras:
Everything’s through LinkedIn. I have yet to get anything through. Maybe a couple people have inquired through Facebook. But as far as all my connections that I’ve built, and all these amazing people that I’ve met, and become friends with and built amazing relationships with, all LinkedIn.
Todd Sachs:
Well, that’s how we met.
Raquel Borras:
Yes. I mean, that’s where people see what I do. I mean, even though I’m back on Facebook and I’m on Instagram, I really focus on LinkedIn because I tell people all the time that, yes, you need to be on different platforms but you need to focus on one, because it’s really difficult to try to manage all three at the same level. So for me LinkedIn is where I focus the most.
Todd Sachs:
So, Raquel, what’s the difference between the personal side of LinkedIn and the business side of LinkedIn? I know I have 2,300, 2,400 connections and then I have my business which is a little more harder to get people to follow. I think we have like 800 or so. So what are the primary differences and how do you sort of merge the two together?
Raquel Borras:
See, that’s the thing is I never had a separate business page. So when I was doing the brand ambassador, all the brand stuff for the company that I was working for, I put it on my personal. Yes, we had a business page, but a lot of stuff that I was doing was I was using audience and my platform and that’s how we built their audience because the algorithms on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, they don’t really like business pages.
Raquel Borras:
So a lot of us don’t have them. For instance, on my Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, I have a True To You Branding page. The only reason I had that is because when I have my experience, my job experience, instead of having just that generic building that’s on there, I like having my logo. So that’s why I did it. But I haven’t really posted anything on my True To You Branding page. It’s everything I do on my personal because the algorithms honor the personal and plus people want to see you. They’re going to relate more to your personal page than they are to a business page.
Todd Sachs:
So that’s interesting. So unlike Facebook, so that’s a major difference because with Facebook people get annoyed I guess when you’re constantly posting things about business on your personal Facebook, but they’re kind of expecting it on LinkedIn.
Raquel Borras:
Yes, because that’s the thing is LinkedIn has taken it a shift for sure where people are bringing in their personal because they’re realizing that people don’t like to be sold to and then they want to buy from people that they know like and trust. So then that’s why people are starting to show their personalities and who they are because they’re realizing that’s where the sale comes in, not the canned, this is what we do. It’s wow, I really liked that person.
Raquel Borras:
I mean, that’s how I get clients. It’s not because they go to my business page and they see what I’ve done, it’s because they follow my journey and they feel like they know who I am so then they feel like that’s someone I can actually work with and I feel comfortable with. So that’s how I get my clients. It has nothing to do with the business part of it.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah, that’s a great perspective. I’ve had it completely wrong. I mean, I’ve been trying to… So what I end up doing is I like Facebook. I’ve tried and say, “Well, should I share this? Should I not share this to my personal LinkedIn account?” But like you said, I mean why have… I mean, your personal LinkedIn account, that’s why they’re buying you because… They’re going to LinkedIn because they want to be connected on a business level.
Raquel Borras:
Yes.
Todd Sachs:
That’s great. Well, what about connections? I know I get hit up all the time and it’s like as soon as I accept the connection, I’m instantly messaged and they’re selling me on their blog. They’re just like…
Raquel Borras:
Which is unfortunate.
Todd Sachs:
So what is the etiquette of that? Do you accept all the connections that come in? Do you really sort of…
Raquel Borras:
People have different thoughts on that. Like most people, I think the majority of people on LinkedIn will take except any connection. I mean, I see it all the time. For me, I don’t. In the beginning when I first got on LinkedIn, I did. But what happened was, is that remember on LinkedIn it’s different than Facebook. On LinkedIn, if you like someone’s post or comment on there, your entire network sees that. So that’s why you have to be careful too, right? So when I started connecting with random people and then I started seeing what they were liking and what they were commenting on, my feet was getting inundated with stuff that I didn’t want to see. I didn’t care about certain people. I mean, I’m going to get a little specific here. There are some men out there that tend to like a lot of just the women and their selfies or whatever.
Raquel Borras:
That is on LinkedIn. And just for me personally, I didn’t want to see that. I want to actually see something that has to do with the business that I am or the people I respect. So I started disconnecting with a lot of those people. Then I realized I’m going to be picky about who I connect with. So in the beginning it was all in my industry. So when I was with a builder, it was everyone in the building industry. And when I moved over to mortgage, it was everyone in the mortgage industry, real estate agents, title.
Raquel Borras:
Then now that I’m on the branding side, I am a little more lenient when it comes to connections, but I still don’t accept them all because what happens is, is when I was studying LinkedIn back in the day, I realized that a lot of people are just kind of creepers. They’ll start commenting things that absolutely makes no sense. You can tell, they never actually read your post or listened to your video. I don’t want that. I’m trying to protect my brand too. It’s my reputation. I’m kind of picky. Sorry.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. So when we talk about what connections are good for businesses, so you had said when you were in the housing business, you focused on housing connections or things like that. Is that what you advise your clients? I mean, do you advise them to stick to people that service the industry or that would become referral partners? What kind of advice-
Raquel Borras:
For instance, with you in real estate, your client is everybody. Most people want to buy a home. So for someone like you, I wouldn’t be too picky about it. Maybe you’d kind of go towards business owners or people that you know that are older obviously. People that have maybe been established a little bit. So you maybe understand that maybe they could afford a home. I don’t know. I just know that someone like yourself, everybody’s pretty much your client.
Todd Sachs:
Well, what about as far as, but only in Maryland. So if they’re not interested, we’re only in Maryland. So if they’re not buying Maryland real estate, would you advise somebody like me only to connect with people that were in Maryland?
Raquel Borras:
No, but once again, it’s up to you. That’s the thing is you might not be comfortable just having people from all over the country maybe engaging in your content. Maybe that’s not something that you want. I want people from all over the world engaging in my content because what I do carries over to any industry in any country. So it has to make sense to your business and you have to feel comfortable.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. So how do you get the engagement?
Raquel Borras:
It takes time and you have to reciprocate. There are so many people that get on these social media platforms and they’re just voyeurs and they never like or comment or do anything, and then they wonder why. They don’t really have much of an audience. I mean, it’s funny because I’ve had quite a few people message me on LinkedIn telling me, “Oh, I love all your posts. I follow you. What you’re doing is great.” I don’t think they ever liked or commented on my post. I think that’s kind of weird. If they’re fans and they follow what I do, at least say something.
Raquel Borras:
But I definitely make sure that I reciprocate. I have my own little tribe if you will. You have fans and so I’m someone else’s fan. I’m a fan girl over a lot of people and so I make sure that I’m always commenting, I’m always liking because it’s a give and take. You can’t expect to get the amount of engagement if you’re not willing to do it yourself. So that’s why I go down on my feet and if a post makes sense, something that I really enjoyed or something that I think I could add insight, then I’ll go ahead and comment.
Raquel Borras:
So it’s work. Once again, I take it seriously, it’s a job. I get on there and I go into my network and I check and see like, “Okay, you know what, this person’s been reacting to a lot of my posts. They’ve been commenting. I need to return the favor and do the same for them.” So I always try to have a balance.
Melissa LeVie:
Well, it’s working for you because you have a lot of engagement.
Raquel Borras:
Yes. It’s interesting because I didn’t realize people were doing this on LinkedIn was there’s engagement pods on there and I actually was just invited into one last week. It’s a group of people that want to help each other with their engagement. So then what you do is in their messages, they put the link up or the post that they had just posted on LinkedIn so that we know to go and comment and like. Luckily, it’s a really good group. There’s some amazing people in this group. So then I feel like it makes sense. But I made sure, I told the guy said, “Listen, don’t put me in a group just to like and comment just because. If it doesn’t make sense, like once again this is my brand, people see what I like and comment. So it’s working out and that’s how we’re helping each other. But I didn’t know that that was a thing. See I learned something new last week.
Todd Sachs:
So do you find when you engage with others they instantly start to engage with you?
Raquel Borras:
Pretty much, yeah. And then people tag others. So for instance, if I do a post and I know that I have connections that are going to appreciate my post because I know that they’ll have something great to comment. So it’s almost doing it as a favor as well. Like I have my mentor and he has great insight. He always has such an awesome perspective on things. So then when I do a post where I know that he could say something amazing on there, I tag him on it and he knows that. He knows because what happens is a lot of times when we go on our feet, we don’t see each other’s posts because of the algorithms. If you have a lot of connections, you only see people that you kind of engage with. So I make it a point to tag people so that they are aware of my posts.
Todd Sachs:
So do you ever tag people that aren’t part of your post?
Raquel Borras:
Mm-mm (negative).
Todd Sachs:
No?
Raquel Borras:
I don’t. That’s another thing too is that people get very tag happy. It’s like tag, you’re it. It’s like LinkedIn is on a game of tag folks. But I understand where a lot of people, once again, they think if I tag these people and they see my posts and they like and comment them, their engagement is automatically going to go up. That might be great, but at the same time, how annoying would it be if you’re getting tagged constantly by a particular person for no reason. I don’t know if I would block them. I haven’t gotten to that point. But I sometimes ignore people because I’ll get tagged on posts that are religious and I don’t comment or like on religious posts. So I just kind of ignore it. But then I just get confused.
Todd Sachs:
So other than knowing that they were tagged, what happens to the news-feed? Does it show up to more people? If people are following them, does it populate the people that follow who you tag’s feed? What happens in that tagging process?
Raquel Borras:
Well, what happens, which can be annoying and this is why I tell people don’t tag the same people all the time because what happens is if I am tagged on a post. I am notified every time someone likes that post or comments on it. So that can be really annoying for some people, right? Because they’re like, “Oh my gosh, now I’m getting notified,” but for every single thing. Then not only that, once again, whoever likes or comments on that post, their entire network is seeing that on their network. That’s why people tag because they’re utilizing each other’s networks.
Todd Sachs:
What does trending mean? When I get these alerts that says so-and-so’s trending.
Raquel Borras:
Okay. So just like hashtags on Instagram, Facebook, you can follow hashtags. Well LinkedIn, you can follow hashtags as well. So what happens is if enough people are looking up that hashtag and seeing your posts, then you’re trending. So it’s really cool because I trend a lot for whatever reason. And so when I trend, what happens is they tell everyone in my network, Raquel’s post is trending in hashtag personal branding for instance.
Raquel Borras:
So then it kind of revives that post because then people who maybe didn’t see it are like, “Oh, what posts is this?” Then they’ll go back into it and it’s like it breathes brand new life into that post. So it’s really cool to trend. Plus, it makes you look like you know what you’re doing.
Melissa LeVie:
That’s awesome. How about grouping? Can you explain how you get like the groups, what exactly that is?
Raquel Borras:
I’m not a big group person. I don’t ever form groups. I’ve been asked to be in groups. So I think on LinkedIn, even if for instance that engagement pod, they just go in your LinkedIn messages and you can just choose your connections and put them in a group. So then when you message someone, you’re all on the group. As far as like Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups, I don’t really follow them. I don’t see much value for me personally in those groups. I think what happens is there are so many groups out there and then you get into these groups and then you realize that you’re really not getting much information or people just start kind of inundating it. I know that with Facebook, it’s different. I can’t really say much about…
Todd Sachs:
How about hashtags? How many are good, too many? how do you find what hashtags to use?
Raquel Borras:
So I’m still learning. For instance, Instagram, I’m super confused with their hashtags because they want you to… I think they tell you that you should do 15 to 20 on average in your post, and they should be different because if you do the exact same hashtags and they think that you’re a robot, so they’ll penalize you. As far as Facebook, I don’t know how the hashtags really work on Facebook. As far as LinkedIn, I only put two or three because what happens is, is in order to trend, it’s that first hashtag that you put. It’s that hashtag that people have to follow. That’s what I found. If I’ve never ever trended with that second or third hashtag, which I thought was interesting. So that’s why I always make sure my first hashtag is what I want people to follow.
Todd Sachs:
And then I guess the algorithms are kind of the same for all the platforms. Are they based on engagement? What is it? A reaction, I think it is with LinkedIn or a comment. So are both of those the same?
Raquel Borras:
Yeah. It’s like a point system almost. Yeah, almost if you get a like, you get a point and if you get a comment, you get two points. If you get a re-post, you get three points. So you definitely want to make sure that you are engaging. What people also don’t understand is that all those platforms want everything to be organic. They don’t want you sharing posts. On LinkedIn, I tell people all the time, if you’re going to share a post, don’t just share it. At least say something on there because LinkedIn doesn’t like that.
Raquel Borras:
They want you having your own content. And then not only that, so many people will put links on their posts to like a YouTube video. Remember, it’s Google that owns YouTube and so LinkedIn, all these platforms, they want to keep you on their site. So any kind of link or anything that’s going to take you off of their site, they’re not going to promote that. They’re going to push that down at the bottom of the algorithm. So that’s another thing that people don’t realize that they want organic video. Anything that’s actually naturally uploaded, not where they have to leave the site.
Todd Sachs:
So upload them straight to the LinkedIn platform because see, I’ve been just posting the link to the YouTube and playing it that way. You say we should just be uploading them straight to LinkedIn?
Raquel Borras:
Oh yeah. I’m telling you, there’s been many times where I’ve done a link and my engagement sucks. It’s because I know that I am doing something to where… Not only that, if you noticed… Back in the day with LinkedIn you could do a website link and it would show the website. Now, it’s the little LinkedIn thingy on there. Have you noticed that?
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. You’ve got a little snippet, right.
Raquel Borras:
Yes. It changes to a LinkedIn link.
Todd Sachs:
URL, yeah.
Raquel Borras:
Yeah, or URL. They don’t want you getting off their platform.
Todd Sachs:
So what’s the difference between an article and a post?
Raquel Borras:
So articles, you actually write an article and it’s in the article section. It’s actually really easy. I did an article about a couple years ago. I want to do more, but I’m not really the best writer. When it comes to writing, I get really nervous. So I did do an article, a simple one, and they have a template for it. They really do make it easy for you where you can put your picture in and then it just shows you where the content is and they make it look really pretty.
Raquel Borras:
That’s a great one too because what happens is when you post an article, it tells your entire network, same thing, “Raquel Borras just posted an article.” Then the engagement in articles tend to be really high as well. I know that there’s a colleague of mine who has a branding company and she’s had it for years and I follow her and she’s fantastic. She posts a lot of articles and her engagement through the articles are through the roof. But she’s a really good writer and she’s honed that skill. I’m just not at that level yet.
Todd Sachs:
So when you post an article, if you have 2,000 connections, every one of the connections gets an alert that you posted an article?
Raquel Borras:
Yes.
Todd Sachs:
Wow. That’s great.
Raquel Borras:
As opposed to when you do a post, if they’re just going through their feed and you happen to be on their feed, then you get to see it. But the fact that you’re being alerted that it’s an article, that’s really cool.
Melissa LeVie:
That’s awesome.
Todd Sachs:
What about news? So every now and then I’ll see that one of the people that I follow or that I’m connected to, it says that they’re in the news. Is that literally only reserved for the media or is there a certain influencer level that gets that kind of tagging in the news?
Raquel Borras:
I think it’s any kind of publication that has your name on it because I’ve been alerted… Many people that are in more local publications, but they’re still being alerted that they’re in that article. So I don’t really know specifically how it is just because I’m not in the media much. But I do know that I’ve been alerted a lot as well like you saw that so and so is in the news. Which I always think like, “Ooh.” It’s like when you see that, you think, “Oh, well gosh, I wonder what it was.” So you go ahead and usually click. So it helps. I think it is a good bait.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. So frequency. How often should one post on LinkedIn?
Raquel Borras:
Well, you know you have the school of Gary Vaynerchuk who’s like post a hundred times a day. Then you have some people that post once a week. I try to post at least once every single day. There’s been times where I posted three times in one day, which I think is a little much sometimes. But if it makes sense, then than I do it. I don’t do it just to do it. But I do try to post something every day because you do want to be consistent. It’s funny, I was on a Zoom call with a colleague of mine who’s pretty big on LinkedIn as well.
Raquel Borras:
Because of all the pandemic stuff, she just didn’t feel comfortable posting anything because she felt like she didn’t know if she was going to say something that people were going to take the wrong way. She didn’t want to be insensitive. She just, in her heart didn’t feel comfortable doing it. So she didn’t do it, which is fine. But she was off of LinkedIn I think for a good two, three weeks. She finally got back on and she told me the other day that now that she’s posting, she’s like, “I see my engagement level is down.”
Raquel Borras:
She’s like it’s like she has to work her way back up because LinkedIn pretty much kind of punished her being like, “Hey, you took a little time out, maybe a little too long, so now we’re going to have to make you work back to get it back.” So, I mean, they definitely want you to be consistent.
Todd Sachs:
Do you recommend the LinkedIn live?
Raquel Borras:
You know what, it’s actually really difficult to get. Not only is it difficult, but they want people who are used to being live. So they want people to show examples that they’ve been on Facebook live a lot, Instagram live. Someone like me, I probably wouldn’t get approved because I don’t do lives. I don’t feel comfortable doing them. I did my first one on Facebook by myself maybe three weeks ago and it was horrifying for me. I didn’t get back on it again.
Raquel Borras:
They definitely want someone experienced and then it’s a whole application process and it takes months. So people think like, “Oh, I’m going to get a LinkedIn live.” I’m like, “Okay, good luck with that because it’s not as easy as you think it is.”
Todd Sachs:
Interesting. I had no idea you have to …….
Raquel Borras:
Oh, yeah. It’s definitely a thing.
Melissa LeVie:
Wow.
Raquel Borras:
Yeah.
Melissa LeVie:
What do you think the balance between your video postings and photo postings? I know that you do both. I’m sure that the video goes over more engagement.
Raquel Borras:
Yes. That’s why I try to do the majority of it is through video because I think someone had said there was a statistic out there that in the next year or two 87% of traffic is going to be video. So if you’re not actually doing video, you’re going to be lost. I mean, you have to do video period. You have to adapt right now, and everyone’s changing and that’s where it’s going is through video. That’s why these platforms are honoring video.
Raquel Borras:
So that’s why I do it because I understand. And not only that, people love to see your mannerisms, your expressions, your voice. I mean, you definitely connect much better. If I just did like a still picture of me smiling as opposed to me talking, there’s a big difference there. That’s what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to connect with the other person on the other side of the computer or the phone. So I think that that’s the best way to do it.
Todd Sachs:
So how’s closed caption work on LinkedIn? Because I know it’s a lot more difficult. I can easily do it on YouTube and Facebook, but as far as it being transcribed, how do you actually… Do you have to upload it that way as far as…
Raquel Borras:
Yes. I have a caption app and I tried it and it was a nightmare. So I don’t do captions, but you should do captions because if you think about it… I mean right now it’s not as bad because everyone’s pretty much at home.
Todd Sachs:
Right, good point.
Raquel Borras:
But at work when people were strolling through, when you’re maybe in a meeting and you got your LinkedIn, obviously you had your volume down. So if you see a video, you’re definitely going to stick around if you have captions. I do. If I don’t want my volume up and someone has captions and I actually will start reading it if the video looks engaging. So I’m guilty of not doing that and I know I need to, but it’s another thing that I have to work on because the way I speak, I don’t articulate as well as a lot of other people do. I think I have a little bit of slang words here and there. So the caption won’t pick it up as well. So then you have to go back and edit it.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. I have the same problem. Yeah, definitely. Same issue with that. I’m always correcting it. So tips for people on maybe the technology side of things. So how do you do your videos? Are you just using your iPhone? Do you have any kind of editing software?
Raquel Borras:
I have a 10XS. That’s what it is, iPhone. That’s what I used on my video. I have three apps that I use the most frequently and the first one is InShot. So that’s the one that I used to edit like if I want to slice my video or jump cuts. If I want to put a sticker on it or text, I do InShot. Then the second one that I use is Over. Over is where you can put your logo, you can upload an image on to your video. So Over is a good one and you can do a lot more, but over is more for the pictures and the logo.
Raquel Borras:
Then I have BeautyPlus which is for aesthetics. A lot of times if I do a video at night and the lighting is not very good, I’ll use BeautyPlus because it really lightens up the video. So those are the three that I use the most and they’re all free. Obviously, a lot of them have those in-app purchases, but let me tell you the basic on all three is good enough. I mean, I’ve upgraded just because I do so much with those three, but as far as anybody else, you don’t have to upgrade. You can still utilize.
Todd Sachs:
So do you run each video through all three apps or platforms or you only use one?
Raquel Borras:
You mean like what I post like a video that I do?
Todd Sachs:
No. As far as you say you use three different apps.
Raquel Borras:
Yeah, that’s just to edit it.
Todd Sachs:
So do you produce these videos through each app individually and then post it?
Raquel Borras:
On BeautyPlus I can actually record on there. There’s a video option. So it’ll record the video in that filter and then I can go over to InShot and edit it if I need to. But a lot of times sometimes BeautyPlus is all I’ll use. Or even if I use just my phone and I don’t have a filter, your iPhone has options to edit on there as well. So it doesn’t have to be a long process. It really doesn’t.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. I think people like a little bit of role too. I mean I think that it’s accepted. It’s okay to not have a perfectly produced video. We do a lot of video and full disclosure, we have a person in house, Joe, that that helps us and does a lot of that technical stuff. But what do you say to people that are watching and they’re unsure about social media for whatever reason. They’re not doing it. I know we’re constantly telling our agents if you’re not doing video, you’re not putting yourself out there. You’re just not going to exist. What do you have to say to those people?
Raquel Borras:
Well, just like anything in life if you can tell someone to do something until you’re blue in the face, but unless they are motivated to do it, it’s not going to work. Plus, why would you want someone on social media that is dreading it? Because it’s going to show, right? If someone’s miserable and they’re in front of the camera and they’re doing a video and they’re just awful, they’re probably better off not getting in front of the camera because if they look like they’re miserable, most people are going to be like, “I don’t want to work with that person.”
Raquel Borras:
So obviously you have to be comfortable. I mean you don’t want to force anyone to do anything that they don’t want to do. But that’s kind of where I like to come in with my business is helping them more on the psychological part of it because I think that a lot of people just are nervous about it because it’s more about, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to be criticized. People are going to judge me. My video production is imperfect.” So then they get in their heads so much and then that’s why they’re not out there.
Raquel Borras:
So it’s explaining to them and kind of holding their hand and coaching them in a way where by the end of the day they feel like, okay, this is going to be okay. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people by the end of the conversation, they’re like, “You know what, Raquel, I’m going to do it. I’m going to get in front of the camera.” They do it and it’s amazing. Then they realize it really wasn’t that bad.
Todd Sachs:
A lot of people will have other people post forum. And I know when we’ve spoken before you’ve said they want you, they want your original content, they want your true you. So it is all about coaching them to do it themselves.
Raquel Borras:
Yes. Obviously, you need to have a balanced in the sense that it’s okay to have kind of that canned content that goes out there and it’s scheduled. There’s nothing wrong with that. But at some point, if that’s all you’re doing, then it’s just going to go over people’s heads and people are going to start ignoring you. So you have to just throw in snippets of yourself here and there because then that’s when people are like, “Ooh, oh my gosh, that’s the person behind all these posts.” I want to know who that person is.”
Raquel Borras:
It’s funny how many loan officers or real estate agents, they’ll do business, business, business stuff, and then they’ll post a picture of like their anniversary, like with their wife or their spouse. They’re always shocked at how much engagement they get. They’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is the most popular post I’ve had. I’m like, I know. It’s because people saw something personal about you and it excited them and they were able to relate and they were happy for you. So that’s why it’s important to have that balance.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. So definitely mix it up.
Raquel Borras:
Yes, definitely mix it up.
Todd Sachs:
Yeah. Well, this is great stuff. So obviously you have a branding company and True To You Branding and we’ll make sure that we publish all of your information in our show notes. If you guys are out there and you’re knowing that you should be doing more social media and you’re having everybody tell you that, but you’re struggling with it, you just heard Raquel coach you right through that, and I’m sure she would love the opportunity to do that. So, Raquel, what’s the best way to get ahold of you, LinkedIn?
Raquel Borras:
Yeah, so I’m Raquel Borras on all platforms. So LinkedIn, Facebook, even Instagram, Raquel.Borras. So you guys can reach me on all three. But LinkedIn is the one that I’m most active on and that’s where I tell people to follow me because then that’s where you’ll see what I’m talking about when I tell people that you can have a balance of both. I mean, I’ve done stuff on there that’s super goofy, but people love it because they realize I’m human.
Todd Sachs:
Absolutely.
Raquel Borras:
You know what I mean?
Todd Sachs:
2020, you just started your business. Do we see any kind of book in the future?
Raquel Borras:
Oh my gosh. No, but I think I might want to start doing podcasts. I’ve been on so many that I thought you know what, it would be kind of fun to be on the other side as well? So maybe a podcast. I have had people tell me I should write a book because I have a lot of different experiences. I don’t know. I definitely want to go down the route of being a keynote speaker doing somewhat of those TED talks because I just at the end of the day want to help people inspire. I like having a purpose and I feel like my purpose is to help others.
Todd Sachs:
That’s awesome. Well look, we really appreciate your time and thank you so much, Raquel.
Raquel Borras:
Thank you.
Todd Sachs:
And for everybody watching, if you would hit the subscribe button and make sure that bell is selected so you get alert every time we post a great video like this. Raquel’s information is in the show notes and thanks for watching.
Raquel Borras:
Thanks.
Melissa LeVie:
Thanks.
Todd Sachs:
Sachs Realty Maryland broker number 607720, office number 443-318-4514, equal housing opportunity.
It was very nice meeting Raquel.