A Message About The Power Of Content, Any Content, For Your Real Estate Blog.
Regular contributor, Teresa Boardman delivers a no-nonsense post on the (seemingly random) Power of (seemingly random) Content. Enjoy!
Speaking of Tomatoes…
By Teresa Boardman
I get a little introspective this time of year and usually send Jim some kind of a post about things that I have learned. I have been writing my real estate blog for four years now and have over 1800 posts, not to mention a couple more blogs.
The biggest lesson for me this year has been that no matter how strategic my blogs are there is a random element that usually works in my favor, but not always. I start by writing a certain type of content with a goal in mind. I put the content out there and something completely different happens.
We make connections through our blogs
and some of those connections are seemingly random
and certainly unanticipated.
Here is one example:
I decided that I wanted to take photos of the local parks because they are an important part of our neighborhoods not to mention the fact that they impact property values and make certain areas of the city more desirable. I want my readers to understand St. Paul and I want to show it to them.
I posted the photos, wrote a little about the parks and put some of the photos in an album in my side bar. A month later I was contacted by someone at the city. The next thing I know I am taking photos for the city web site. It has been a great opportunity for me.
As I took the photos I began putting them on a web page with a gallery so the people that are working with the parks can see my photos and the progress I am making. They are being passed around the office and they all know that I am a Realtor. In fact, one woman indicated that she wished she would have found me sooner.
A woman who needs to buy some photos for her office found the shots of the parks through Google and I am now working with her. They will buy some photos which will help my real estate business and my blog because the proceeds will help pay for a lens that I need. Photos taken with the lens will go on my blog, and there are some cases where it will be used to photograph my listings.
Somewhere in this whole process real estate transactions will be generated, too. Chances are it will happen in some unexpected way, it usually does. My sellers are coming from the most unusual places and it is fun to find out how and where they found me.
There are other unintended consequences and opportunities, as well. In the last couple of months I have been on three radio shows, quoted in a couple of local papers and two weeks ago quoted in the Wall Street Journal. This all came about because of blog posts that I wrote. On the Wall Street Journal article a couple of people in a Flickr group I belonged to congratulated me, who knew?
Back to the tomatoes… I took that photo a year ago for a blog post about laws pertaining to crops in Minnesota. I put it on Flickr. Someone found it and they want to use it on a web site with a link back to mine. Again, I have no idea how that will help my business but I know that it will in some unexpected way.
Content is king. Get the content out there, let it keep working for you year after year and good things will happen.
As for the idea of social media metrics I don’t believe social capital or the benefits of blogging can be measured in the same way as a drip marketing or snail mail campaign. It’s too random.
[Update]
Shortly after I sent this post [to Jim] I went to one of my listings. I grabbed my camera and have no idea why I brought it in with me but I did. I dropped off some keys and as I was walking back to my car I met someone interesting. He recognized me from my blog. He has some work for me that I am interested in: a little photographic type project. Interestingly that listing came from a blog post I had written about the building some months ago. One thing led to another and it is leading to yet another. Content makes connections.
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Thank you so much Teresa!
Web: TWasHere.com
Blog: StPaulRealEstateBLOG.com
Voice: 651-216-4603
