Blogging 101: How to Write A Quality Real Estate Blog

Briddick Webb — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:38:13 +0000

Getting to work with Realtors so closely, I’ve had the privilege to see first hand what problems arise in the process of building an ‘online presence.’ Two of the most common complaints I hear are “I’m not a good writer nor do I have endless amounts of time to grind out a post.”

So today, I want to try to solve these problems in the easiest way possible.

First of all, I don’t consider myself a natural ‘writer.’ In fact, if you read any of the stuff I put out three years ago, you’d probably laugh at how bad it was! Seriously, a 3rd grader would have shaken his head. But in the process of writing junk, I eventually realized writing was just like riding a bike; you fall a lot but eventually you get the hang of it.
>So below, I’ve laid out the process I use when writing a blog post.

Getting to work with Realtors so closely, I’ve had the privilege to see first hand what problems arise in the process of building an ‘online presence.’ Two of the biggest complaints I hear are “I’m not a good writer nor do I have endless amounts of time to grind out a post.”

So today, I want to try to solve these problems in the easiest way possible.

First of all, I don’t consider myself a natural ‘writer.’ In fact, if you read any of the stuff I put out three years ago, you’d probably laugh at how bad it was! Seriously, a 3rd grader would have shaken his head. But in the process of writing junk, I eventually found writing was just like riding a bike; you fall a lot but eventually you get the hang of it and figure how to string a few words together in a way that makes sense.

So below, I’ve laid out the process I use when writing a blog post.

Choosing a Topic

The first piece of the puzzle is choosing a good topic. Within the Real Estate Community there are endless things to blog about. Getting qualified, localism, F.A.Qs, etc. If you don’t know what to choose, here are a few questions you can ask yourself that will get the ball rolling:

What are the biggest questions and concerns my clients and passed clients have had?

Who’s coming to my site and what are they looking for?

What knowledge do I bring to the table that most other Realtors don’t?

If you get too caught up on choosing, here are 101 real estate blog topics that should keep you busy for at least a year. That’s right, no excuses!

Writing an Outline

It’s good to know what you’re going to write about before hand. This prevents rambling and getting off on unnecessary tangents that have little to do with the topic at hand. I know it’s hard to NOT relate the current market conditions to your recent fly fishing trip but keep it relevant or you’ll just end up confusing people.

The general outline I use is…

-Introduction/Importance

-Point/sub topic

-Short conclusion

Again, not rocket science!

Priming the Pump

The best writing is that which delivers the most value and flows naturally. The flow part is always the most challenging. One of the best ways to get into ‘flow’ is it to first speak what you’re going to say, out loud. If you want to take it a step farther, stand up and pretend your delivering it as a motivational speech to a knowledge hungry crowd. And what this does is allows you to articulate your thoughts and connect to your voice. If you haven’t tried priming the pump like this, I highly suggest giving it a go.

Putting it on Paper

The next step is taking a seat at the ol’ computer and writing it out. Don’t worry too much about perfect spelling and grammar just yet, simply get the words out of you. Working with your outline, create sub topics (like this post) and write within each. It doesn’t have to be flowery or use big words that make you sound smart, in fact it shouldn’t. Your language should be in line with your target audience namely buyers and other Realtors; not Shakespeare critics!

Edit

Though I’ve grown tremendously, this is still probably my weakest link. I hate editing with a passion but it’s very important and can make or break the authority of what you’re trying to say. Nobody is going to care how much you know about real estate, if you cannnt dun rite it douwn gud. The easiest way to edit is to reread your post out loud. This will show you what works and what doesn’t allowing you to make appropriate changes.

Titles and Tags

Interestingly, the last thing you’re going to do is come up with a title for your post. Yes, google is our internet superpower and right now everything you create should be done so with the intent that it will eventually show up in the search results. The first step is going to google keyword tool and doing a little research to see what keywords get traffic but don’t have an overwhelming amount of competition. Once you’ve got your title, go through your post and see if you can’t change some of words to match the optimized keywords you’re going after. Though keyword density is far less relevant than in the past, it can still make a difference.

Warning: Don’t go overboard here, stuffing too many keywords in the post, will compromise your content and can get you slapped by google. Moderation is key! Lastly, tag the post with the proper keywords. Use anything you can think of that would be relevant. If you’ve got Wordpress there’s an excellent plugin that allows you do all of this called Headspace.

And that, ladies and gentlemen is how to write a quality post! Once it’s finished, make sure to syndicate it and leverage on the proper channels.

The Power of Response in Social Media

Briddick Webb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:34:10 +0000

So I wanted to share something that’s been driving me crazy lately and that is the perception of social media as it applies to marketing your business. There are some people who see social media as a stand in for print advertising and this is absolutely absurd. When someone posts on facebook, youtube, or twitter, they’re engaging in a conversation, an interaction with other people. However, that conversation is not nearly as powerful when it’s only one sided and you simply throw out posts, links, tweets and videos without responding to the people who saw those and engaged you. Business relationships are built on trust and likability and when you spend the extra five seconds to reach out to people, you increase both.

I first realized this when I had responded to something @garyvee had said. Now at the time, I had just watched his clip on Conan O’Brien and mentioned him in a tweet and within a few minutes, low and behold he had responded. I was so thrilled! In that moment, there was a strange paradigm shift for me because I realized that by taking the extra two seconds to respond, everything had changed. It made me feel important. It made me recognize how social media removed barriers for connecting with so called ‘unreachable’ people. But most of all, it made me really like this person because they took the time to respond to me.

Responding and taking the time to care is possibly the easiest way to give value to others. And really this is no different than how we socialize in the real world. We gravitate towards people who genuinely care about us, people who are willing to take a few minutes out of their day to listen and engage in what we have to say.

And here’s the kicker; as a byproduct of those conversations and caring, you gain loyal fans, prospects and clients.

So how does this translate into actions? When you post something on facebook and people reply, always respond back! It breaks my heart to see a post where there are 8 comments on a status update and the person who posted it didn’t respond to any of them. That’s 8 people who could give you a referral. That’s eight people who might be looking for a home. That’s eight people who may just be really awesome people who you can share a laugh with. But whatever the case, reach out and allow that likability and trust to develop.

When someone retweets something posted, give them a shout out or thank them. It’s so subtle and easy yet it can make all the difference. When someone mentions you in a tweet, respond. Even when someone is critical of you or something you posted, take the time to address what they had to say by responding. This alone can protect your brand.

So whether it be online or in person, make a point to reach out and respond to others because if you can’t do that, you will always get less than optimal results when marketing your real estate business.

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