Real Estate Bloggers
Blogging – A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video (this is our blog)
How can a blog help grow your business?
An office blog can enhance the communication and culture within your company. It also builds credibility, branding your company as one that is “the expert” in your local market or niche. As an agent, you can really give prospect buyers and sellers an idea for who you are as a Realtor and as a person. The importance of community is huge in such a relational industry and that is why blogs have been so effective in communicating this aspect in a way that has previously been difficult to obtain through online avenues.
I’ll give you an example of how I found a blog useful: Last October I did a Google search for “first time home buyers tax credit”. One of the first things that came up was a local real estate agent first time home buyer article on their blog. I was able to get some great information and post a comment with some questions I had on the credit. “Can I get it early? Can I use it towards my down payment?” That is one case of how a Realtor was able to generate a lead (me) from their blog.
Connecting with the local community and it’s members is a great quality of blogs. Charities or area events will build credibility for you and your business. Posting those events to your blog gives you a platform to share what you are doing to make your city and world a better place. Now who wouldn’t want to work with a Realtor who has a blog dedicated to them, the local community?
Getting Started
1. Find a blog platform: Beginning a blog can be one of the hardest parts if you don’t know where to look. A few great free blog sites are Active Rain, Blogger or WordPress. Active Rain is a Realtor favorite because it’s build specifically for you! There are groups of agents and specialized niches where you can connect with others that write about similar topics as yourself. Blogger.com is a very easy to use platform that doesn’t really have all the bells and whistles but it’s a great starter. WordPress.org is a bit more complex but can be customized to specifically what you are looking for. If you have some experience in blogging, than you may want to check out WordPress for additional themes and functionality.
2. Post articles: Once you have your blog setup, it’s now time to start writing. What should your write about? Start with writing about what you specialize in or excel at. You can always post tips for buying or selling to get started. We will be posting a bunch of topics later this week so stayed tuned for more information. Here are a few examples of top real estate blogs: Real estate agents Teresa Berry and Amanda Wernick both use Active Rain for their blog platform of choice. Teresa uses her blog to post events and charity causes very well. Amanda is more focused on posting about current market trends and controversies to spark discussion. As an office, Jumper Realty & Associates provides national news and trends in the industry with the majority of their posts.
What direction have you guided your blog? Where do you go from there?
Please share with us successes, failures or other experiences that you have had from your personal blog in our comments section below.
Looking forward to next weeks post - Realtors: “What to Blog?”
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