Executive TLDR
Social media is a powerful tool that complements traditional recruiting methods.
Most people spend hours daily online—ignoring it means missing opportunities.
Use the Hunt, Farm, and Cultivate messaging strategy to generate engagement.
Posting strategically builds belief and produces immediate inbound interest.
Duplication through social media posts accelerates team growth.
Video Summary
In The Social Media Advantage: Building A Business In The Digital Age, Joe Catanzarite explains how leveraging platforms like Facebook and Instagram can dramatically expand recruiting and client acquisition.
He emphasizes that social media should not replace traditional warm market methods—it should enhance them. With 74% of Americans active daily and users spending nearly two and a half hours per day online, the opportunity to connect digitally is massive. Additionally, 81% of Instagram users research products and services on the platform, reinforcing its value for client education and credibility.
Joe introduces a simple three-part messaging framework:
Hunt — Direct messaging with clear intent. Example: “This might be a weird question, but who handles your life insurance?”
Farm — Softer outreach focused on opportunity and motivation.
Cultivate — Relationship-based engagement without pitching, staying top-of-mind.
He shares how consistent posting creates inbound interest. When new recruits make a professional post using their own photo, engagement often generates immediate responses. This builds belief quickly—especially for new team members who doubt whether their network will respond.
The key strategy is duplication. Once a recruit joins, they immediately post and begin their own outreach. As each new recruit repeats the process, growth compounds. Joe reports consistent team recruits month after month directly from social media posts, proving that digital platforms can become a scalable recruiting engine.
The message is clear: social media is the icing on the cake. When layered onto traditional prospecting, it accelerates growth, expands reach to younger generations, and creates a modern pathway to building a large organization.
FAQs
1. Should social media replace warm market recruiting?
No. It should enhance and complement traditional methods.
2. Why is social media so important today?
Most people check it multiple times daily, creating constant visibility opportunities.
3. What platforms are emphasized?
Facebook and Instagram are highlighted as primary tools.
4. What is the Hunt method?
Direct messaging with a clear, intentional question to spark conversation.
5. What is the Farm method?
A softer outreach focused on opportunity and motivation.
6. What is Cultivate?
Maintaining relationships without pitching, staying top-of-mind.
7. Why use personal photos in posts?
It builds authenticity and avoids appearing like spam.
8. How does posting build belief for new recruits?
Immediate responses prove their network is open to conversation.
9. Why is duplication critical?
Each new recruit repeating the same process multiplies growth.
10. How does social media help reach Gen Z?
Many younger individuals prefer digital interaction over in-person approaches.
11. What percentage of Gen Z makes friends online?
Approximately 66%, showing digital relationship-building is normal.
12. How does social media generate client leads?
Consistent posting keeps you visible so prospects reach out when ready.
13. What happens if someone doesn’t respond immediately?
Continued posting and engagement often lead to future inbound interest.
14. Is social media growth linear?
No. It fluctuates, but consistency produces long-term results.
15. Why is permission important when connecting with recruits online?
It builds transparency and strengthens relationships.
16. How quickly can results happen?
Sometimes within minutes of posting, especially for new recruits.
17. What mindset should be applied to digital growth?
Consistency, patience, and duplication.
18. What is the ultimate benefit of social media recruiting?
Expanded reach, scalable duplication, and accelerated team building.
Glossary
Hunt
Direct outreach messaging designed to create immediate conversations.
Farm
Strategic messaging that nurtures potential interest over time.
Cultivate
Maintaining relationships without direct selling to build trust.
Duplication
A repeatable system where each recruit performs the same proven actions.
Inbound Lead
A prospect who reaches out after seeing a post or online activity.
Warm Market
Existing personal connections who may be open to business discussions.
Digital Prospecting
Using online platforms to identify and engage potential clients or recruits.
Engagement
Interactions such as comments, shares, or messages that create opportunity.
Transcript: Great to see everybody here. This is a packed house. Denise and Joe, thank you as always for putting this together. I know it’s not easy. Saw you at the office last night scrambling around and getting things done. And I saw your car there, Joe. I got worried for a little bit when I left. Yours was still there, so.
But guys, listen, I am, uh, I want to give some nuggets of really what has kind of helped us get some success lately. Am I going up or down on this? There we go, down. Alright, perfect. So. I want to talk about, right, building a business in today’s world. Right, can we all agree today’s world is a little bit different than maybe 20, 30 years ago?
Okay, now, not all of us maybe have even entered the world 20, 30 years ago. Alright, we’ve hit that point. We are a millennial and I know what you guys are probably thinking right now. What is he going to be talking about? He’s going to be talking about social media because he’s a millennial, right? That’s what you’re all thinking right now, right?
So, listen, what I want to share is right, The power of the social media and the tool that we have. Now, I don’t want you to just take this and run with it. I want you to add this to what your vice presidents tell you to do. And add it kind of like icing on the cake, right? Cake’s not that great unless it has good icing, right?
This is the icing, okay? Let me ask you, what’s the first thing most people do when they wake up in the morning? Grab their phone, check social media. Everybody’s phone’s probably in their hand right now, video recording, in case I mess up, right? Before they go to bed, they check their social media, right?
They park their car, before they go into work, check social media. They get stopped at a red light, it’s really long. They open social media, right? Morning coffee, workout. Everybody’s videotaping themselves working out, right? Except me, because we’re not in the gym right now, right? We’re working on that, right?
Let’s be honest, bathroom, right? That’s it. People, you’re on social media in the bathroom, you’re going to see nobody want to take a picture at the end of team’s pictures of people’s phones at the end tonight, right? But, listen, I want to give you some quick facts because I know sometimes we don’t realize how big this can be for us, right?
So, 74 percent of Americans are active every single day on social media. 74%. On average, almost two and a half hours a day they’re on it. Facebook. Has over 2.8 billion daily users on it. And then this one surprised me. 81% of users say they use Instagram to help them research products and services. Guys we’re on the products and services business as our client side, not the building side, but I’m gonna get to that ’cause that’s the most important tool that we have with social media, right?
So now here I want to give you, raise your hand if you’re under 27 in the room. Alright, so you qualify as the Gen Z. Alright, there we go, right? So 66 percent of Gen Z’s said they make new friends online.
41 percent said they feel intimidated approaching people in person. Now, that might not be you in this room, but what I’m telling you is more than four people you walk by every single day, you might not ever see again because they won’t talk to a prospect, they won’t ever open their mouth to a human being, and we are in the business of people, and if we’re not on social media, we’re missing four out of ten people every day.
Guys, this is just some of the facts. So, here’s a few little tips, right? If you’re new, now, I know what you’re thinking. Oh man, he must have been on social media. I downloaded Instagram February 17th, 2022. I was late. Very late. Still don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m just figuring it out as we go, but it’s working.
Okay, so here, there’s three messages, right? There’s a messenger I love on Facebook, Instagram. You can message people. Here, you want to hunt, farm, and cultivate. A hunt, what is that? It’s messaging. It’s a direct message. Hey, this might be a weird question, but who handles your life insurance? Hey, this might be a weird question, do you keep your income options open?
Hey, this might be a weird question, who handles your investments and kids accounts? That’s the direct message to get what you want. Farming is a little bit different, a little bit softer. Right? Hey. I know you’re probably not interested in this because I messaged you three months ago, right, when I was hunting.
But I’m looking for people that are motivated. I’m looking for people that want to do something different, are looking for a change, right, Grace? Right, are trying to better themselves, that are bilingual. Whatever it is you want to say. Want to protect their families. And then cultivating. This is basically just kind of running through the soil a little bit, right?
Going through. Hey, I was just thinking of you. Hope you’re doing well. Let me know if you ever need anything. Don’t mention anything about the business, products. But what happens is, is you get responses. Right? This is a person that we met on social media through a friend, a mutual friend. And, you know, I reached out to him because he talked to me about his wife maybe be interested in working.
And you see here, right? I did ask him. Right. Hey, if you ever need anything. Now, I asked him that question in December, but in May is when he reached back after me. Why? Because I was constantly posting, he’s a client. It’s another person right now. You see up there? I was kind of farming, right? Or cultivating, hey, she was just, uh, had was about to have a baby.
I said, Hey, congratulations. She said, thank you. Then I went with the direct message and she said, oh my God. She didn’t say that right. She said, I was actually gonna message you. We need life insurance for sure. That life policy was the reason we got our 15, 000 stock bonus when we went to vice president.
Guys, right? So why do I say that? Because it works. But what I want to share with you is because we came here to grow today, right? We want massive growth. That’s what we came here for. So, that’s great to make money, but that money was already spent. Okay? What, what, what’s not spent is what we’re going to have.
Now, this slide means nothing. I just wanted to look techie, because I know Rick’s my tech guy over there. Alright, so it looked really cool, so I kept it on there. But what I’m saying is, social media, it’s not going to be up and down. It’s not going to be perfect every time. It’s not going to be constant.
It’s going to be ups, downs, sideways. But, this is what we’ve been doing. I meet somebody, right? We recruit them into the business. We do a follow up one on one, and let me ask you, how many times has somebody said, Hey, so where do we find people? Do we cold call? Has that ever happened? And then I go, No, we don’t cold call.
And they go, Thank God. Right? Anybody? Right? And then when I say, Hey, listen, we build through warm market, and this is what I’ve been telling them, and social media. Perfect. They’re happy, and what I do is I ask them for permission if I can become a friend with them, because if they quit, I’m friends with them, and they’re going to see me succeed either way.
Right? And then what happens is I say, Perfect, you’re going to make this post, Right here, this is the post we’ve been using. Now it’s important to use a picture, not of some random person, of themselves. So it doesn’t look like a scam, because we know they’re out there, but that’s not what we are. We, I put this post out there, and I tell them, hey, as I’m building their list, I have them do the post first.
So when I’m creating their list, because the hardest part sometimes for people in the business is that they don’t believe this is going to work for them. Because the people that I know aren’t going to be interested in making more money. The people that I know aren’t going to be interested in any of this.
And then you make a post and you start doing that list, and 20, 15 minutes later, whatever it is, they have 10 people that reach out to them. Hey, I’m interested. Hey, I’m interested. They start making a bigger list. What also happens is people share it for you. I have no idea who shared this, but somebody did and she messaged me.
Hi Joe, friend of mine, share their posts with me as I’m currently a state home. I’m looking for work and it starts going and going and going and going. Now we’ve all heard this. If you’ve been in the business for probably over a month or two, right? A recruit isn’t a recruit until they have a recruit. And this is where we’ve had the growth coming from because great, I can get a person, but now it’s tap rooting, right?
For deep. Sometimes people, it takes a while for them to do that. But if you get them on a post and get that going for them real quick, you just repeat the cycle. Oh, what, they get a new person, what do they do? You go and make the post. And you have them do it. And now all their people see it. And it’s just a copycat system that we replicate.
And if you continue to do that, you’ll have a team. You’re going to have a team built up, right? I think I have about six new people here at the school. Now I’m not saying this to impress you. It’s just from the last week from social media, right? So in December we had seven team recruits from social media.
In January, we had 10 and 11 in, uh, in February, just from social media. Not just that, not the team, just specifically through our posts on social media. So if you’re not using it, add it to your repertoire, put it out there and let’s grow big business guys. Thank you.
