As the tester at my second failed attempt to get my driver’s license said many years ago, I am easily “attracted and distracted”. That, and the fact that I at one point drove on the sidewalk, no doubt contributed to my poor marks.
On any given day, my To Do list would crush a Hummer. I have more lofty goals than I have time, but at least I am trying. I’m admittedly not a pioneer, but I am an aggregator. I read, listen, learn, and then assimilate the information and ideas in an ongoing attempt to build a better mousetrap.
This week, I owe my inspiration (okay, distraction) to Project Blogger and to Phil Hoover. Like a lot of you, I have been watching the Project Blogger apprentices at work, and have filed away a hundred good ideas. In particular, Greg’s insanely great idea fell under my “Why didn’t I think of that?” category. The hyperlocal or neighborhood blog is a concept which I have since been toying with, but I hadn’t quite mentally worked through the process. The problem for me was two-fold.
Time – There is never enough of it. I try to contribute here, and I have my own blog to feed. I also have to manage a static website (not to mention a real estate business). Duplication – I am currently knee deep in cross-contamination. I link from here to there to here and back to the other. Too much synergy, to use a word from the corporate muckity-muck dictionary, risks confusion, lack of focus, and ultimately a lost audience.
Enter Phil Hoover. In a series of emails, Phil has been keeping me posted on his efforts to expand his blogging efforts into the hyperlocal arena. We know him from his Boise Blog, more recently from his Eagle Real Estate Blog, and now, at the subdivision level, from the Brookwood Subdivision Blog. And I think he may have built, at least in concept, a better mousetrap.
Static websites and the dodo bird: One is endangered and the other extinct. I suspect I won’t get much argument from this audience of bloggers and blog readers. Blogs I have seen to date at best complement the website but do not propose to replace it. The unwritten (and sometimes written) rules of business blogging prescribe that we keep them non-commercial, always dancing around the central issue – our real jobs. I have come to believe that subtlety, while socially proper, can only take us so far. It is time to beat the audience upside the head with the truth – We are in business! For those of us who have a business to run, there is no shame in effectively advertising that fact. Otherwise, all of this is just a huge distraction, a hobby.
“You dropped your peanut butter in my chocolate!” The recipe card mailers and swag door-droppers are no less enlightened than the business blogger. The perfect storm of marketing would be to successfully marry the two. At an open house this weekend, Steve was told my a visitor, almost giddy that it was Steve hosting the event, that he was “famous”. We get this a lot. People see our names and our grinning mugs online and in our print marketing, but when they encounter us a real people, the picture is complete. Therein lies the opportunity.
A blog is not a literal personification, of course, but it is our voice, and it makes us real, as real as one can get without sitting in your living room. And, sitting in your living room is precisely where I endeavor to be. So, thanks to Phil, and to all of the Project Blogger bloggers. Maybe there should be a new competition: Best New Blog by an Old Blogger. This is my entry and how I see it fitting in:
- Bloodhound Blog – I am just a guest, but I’ll hang around as long as I am welcome. The audience is primarily industry wonks; my potential clients won’t generally be found here. This has been the best education I have ever had, and the resulting benefits to my real estate business have been immeasurable (the subject of another post, perhaps). Oh, and it’s fun.
- San Diego Home Blog – This is my local blog, and the audience is a healthy mix of industry professionals and consumers. Topics range from the local and oft mundane to the waxing philosophical variety. Only certain consumers will find an ongoing appeal in this potpourri of dialogue. And, we keep it pretty non-commercial. I don’t attempt to overtly sell my services there, although we have had some limited success in generating business as a result.
- Scripps Ranch Home Blog – This will be my new community-level blog. My goal is to have the discussion be less real estate and more everything else. At the same time, I am unabashedly promoting the fact that WE ARE AGENTS. The side bar has as many links to our website as it does to community sites. By the way, while I have migrated a few posts over from our other site, we haven’t begun to populate the new blog with new material yet. It’s our soft opening, and a work in progress.
Call it my version of peeing on trees (a most delightful phrase coined at BHB, I believe), but the beauty is that they are all my trees!
Many years ago, Steve was interviewing for a position with a local real estate developer. Upon being dazzled by Steve’s vast resume of experience, the company president offered the following: “&*^% the experience – It’s time to make money”. Colorful language aside, it has been an invaluable piece of wisdom that we dust off from time to time. And this could be a blogging mantra. The static website is dry and informative, your online business card. The blog is your online face time and brings your business card to life. Why not cross-pollinate a new breed of online presence that delivers both?
If anyone has the opportunity to take us for a test-drive, I would value your comments.
(Note to Teri and Greg – I don’t have any puppies, but did throw in some ducklings and a swing set. Will that suffice?)
Jeff Brown says:
Kris – I’ve also been allowed to watch Phil get his Eagle and Brookwood blogs going. I agree with your take on being this local. It’s my opinion Phil will dominate Brookwood very soon.
When will we be seeing the name change to Scrippsberg Ranch?
June 14, 2007 — 9:56 am
Greg Swann says:
We have a puppy that you can have. We call him Coronado, but he will happily ignore any name. He’s a mutt, but he’s a champion mutt. Here’s a picture of him conquering Odysseus:
We found him at a house, hiding under the porch furniture. He’s eminently adoptable, which means, if you don’t take him, he’ll be here forever.
June 14, 2007 — 10:17 am
Kris Berg says:
Greg – I am such a Realtor. All I can see in that photo is very nice, neutral carpeting and 12″ designer ceramic tile. 🙂
June 14, 2007 — 10:40 am
Jeff Brown says:
Pullleeaase – sounds like it might be time for a weekend visit to the family cabin. 🙂
June 14, 2007 — 11:20 am
Rob Green says:
This is my first experience with reading blogs and seeing how and what they do. I must say that I’ve found your comments to be very well crafted and substantive.
I’ve added this to my “favorites” and hope that I’ll continue to glean potent insights from you and your co-contributors.
In accordance with that, I wondered if you or someone else in the Bloodhound Gang could point me to some good, constructive primers on blogging for real estate agents.
Thanks!
June 14, 2007 — 2:07 pm
Russell Shaw says:
Kris, Some months ago, when Greg and Cathy came to my house for the three us to plan out the original success seminars he went through the kitchen – almost inch by inch – looking over what was original and what had been upgraded or changed (new counters, new French door) commenting and asking about each item.
Only after that, could we sit in the family room and talk.
June 14, 2007 — 11:29 pm
Greg Swann says:
> he went through the kitchen – almost inch by inch – looking over what was original and what had been upgraded or changed (new counters, new French door) commenting and asking about each item.
I put a magnet on the fridge, too:
You never can tell…
June 15, 2007 — 5:56 am
Kris Berg says:
Everyone’s a prospect.
By the way, thanks for all of the feedback on my new endeavor. I will be spending the day incorporating all of your comments to make the new blog even better! 🙂
Rob – If you are looking on primers for content, a search on this site will keep you reading and linking for the rest of the week. If it is the mechanics of setting up a blog you are asking about, I am the wrong person to ask. I googled my way through the process and have learned just enough to customize (“screw up”) any good WordPress template in seconds. As I mentioned in an email to you, there are a million people I am sure who will screw it up for you, for a fee.
June 15, 2007 — 6:47 am
Jeff Brown says:
Kris – When it comes to the success of your most subdivision blog, if it was mine, the biggest challenge would be viewed by me as getting the URL into all the owners’ hands, and getting them there the first couple times.
With your writing ability they’ll make that blog a daily habit in no time. I truly believe those who figure out how to successfully create that habit quickly, will own that subdivision. I realize that’s like saying grass is green, but it’s obviously easier said than done.
June 15, 2007 — 8:50 am
Rob Green says:
Thanks for the feedback Kris. I appreciate the honest representation of your abilities, although you appear to have beautifully muddled your way through the process into a very skilled blogger.
As for making your new subdivision blog a success, I agree with Jeff that direct marketing is going to be your key to success. I would imagine that you’re already “farming” the area currently. Perhaps in your next farm piece you could offer a free drawing for those that visit and post to your blog a specified number of times. Then take those names and put them into a random drawing of a weekend getaway of dinner at a nice and an evening at a nice hotel. I’ve found that sort of drawing to be fairly effective in the past.
Any thoughts?
June 15, 2007 — 9:03 am
Phil Hoover says:
Thanks for the kind words, Kris.
FYI ~ I am already getting business from http://www.EagleBlog.com ~ visitors are especially resonating over my mention of being a “no-growth Realtor” in the post on Eagle’s impending growth.
The secret to microblogging is to target a smaller market and establish a credible presence.
You can’t be all things to all people all the time and have any credibility!
June 15, 2007 — 9:34 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Coulda, woulda, shoulda, (the title for a future post). I’m glad you have taken all Greg’s advice and run with it. Now I get to learn from you, too. 🙂 I’ve had a few epiphanies myself this past week and plan on making some changes. One is to spend some time focusing on a general Dayton blog (TBR is a hyper-local Dayton). I’ll ask you- would you separate the San Diego blog from your website? And are you using a WP.com or .org blog? I’m very excited to see what you do with this. Should be insanely great stuff!
June 17, 2007 — 5:39 am
Kris Berg says:
Rob – I am not sure I love the free drawing concept, although I will give it some thought. I have never been a fan of the drawing as a marketing tool – It just smacks of a spam-filled future to too many and the quality of entrants (for our puposes, anyway) is generally poor. I am going to be trying a slight twist on this in our local newsletter this month, however, in an attempt to drive a little traffic our way. We have amassed a pretty respectable archive of floor plans over the years which are all posted on our static website. I am going to offer a courtesy Starbucks gift card to anyone who will send me a missing floor plan. My goal is two-fold: Complete the inventory; and get some attention for the sites. If they like what they see, they will hopefully stay and participate. At least, they will have been exposed.
>When it comes to the success of your most subdivision blog, if it was mine, the biggest challenge would be viewed by me as getting the URL into all the owners’ hands, and getting them there the first couple times.
Yes and no. We market pretty extensively in our community, and have done pretty well getting the word out on our San Diego Home Blog. Like any good marketing effort it takes time to develop (6 to 12 months), but I am confident that this won’t be our biggest issue. Time will be the challenge. This past month, as business has picked up, I am lucky to manage a post or two a week, and I know that this is not a sufficient amount of new content to keep the Google Gods happy nor to hold the interest of an audience.
>I’ll ask you- would you separate the San Diego blog from your website?
I’m not sure what you mean, Teri. I have my static website which is packed to the brim with dry information, not to mention my listing webpages. The website, the local blog, and the neighborhood blog all link to each other (or will, when I am done). The Scripps Ranch Blog will come closest to replacing the website in that it duplicates many of the links and much of the information available on the website. It can’t entirely replace the website in the foreseeable future, however, since the listing promotion resides solely on the latter.
By the way, that was the concept that struck the biggest chord with me in my offline discussions with Phil – The static website as we know it is becoming ineffective and antiquated. I can see a day (some day) when the local blog format completely replaces it. But that is just my hunch.
I don’t know how Greg does it – This Big Thinker stuff gives me a headache.
June 17, 2007 — 9:15 am
Greg Swann says:
> The static website as we know it is becoming ineffective and antiquated. I can see a day (some day) when the local blog format completely replaces it. But that is just my hunch.
This is something I’ve been thinking about for nearly a year, but not working on nearly enough. Jimmy Tomatoes is building them this way: Realtor blogsites that use WordPress (capital-P) Pages as the Buy/Sell/Relo/Listings/MLS pages you would expect to find on a static site. The blog gets the Google benefit (while it lasts) and the other pages reap the proceeds.
June 17, 2007 — 9:35 am
Jeff Brown says:
Kris – Doesn’t it makes sense that there might (I believe it’s axiomatic.) be an inverse relationship driving the ultimate success of the subdivision type blog? Here’s what I mean.
The more local you’ve ‘drilled down’ the more richly detailed must be the info you provide. For instance, if I was blogging to a La Mesa subdivision (SD community) I’d be pounding the local Little League All-Star teams. I’d be naming the players and what they did during games.
I’d know what was going on in all the schools – including their various events. The high school’s sporting events, debating teams, clubs, all of it.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The subdivision blog should be THE place to go for absolutely ANYTHING to do with that neighborhood, no matter how esoteric it might seem.
The agent who successfully provides a neighborhood blog with that much info will, in my opinion, own that neighborhood. I’m convinced this is the best thing since sliced bread, and I’m green with envy, because most of the factors tht will make it successful, aren’t in place for investment guys.
That said, I think I’m making progress in figuring out how to translate this to my side of the biz.
Of course, I’d be eternally grateful to anyone who shared their ideas with me.
Kris, you’re gonna BE Scripps Ranch soon.
June 17, 2007 — 9:51 am
Kris Berg says:
Teri – Oops. Forgot to answer your question. I use WordPress.org (self-hosted, not the free one).
Jeff – I think you are absolutely correct, and while I have done a good job of convincing myself that this is going to work, I also know it is going to be a LONG-term project.
June 17, 2007 — 10:50 am
Greg Swann says:
> The agent who successfully provides a neighborhood blog with that much info will, in my opinion, own that neighborhood.
The real trick, IMO, is the insanely great idea. Kris cannot write everything that might be of interest to Scripps Ranchers, but there is someone who can write that content for every possible niche interest. The challenge is to recruit those people (and their loving warm networks) to participate. Done right, the thing runs itself — and it might eventually need a phpBB-like interface to support the level of conversations.
Jeff, you can do the same thing with investors, a community of voices supporting a community of readers and commenters — who are in their turn the voices.
June 17, 2007 — 11:51 am
Linda Slocum says:
Love the peeing on trees analogy! I’ve had that philosophy for a while – if you mark your territory well enough, then you should get most of the calls. Problem is that marking territory isn’t always as easy as it seems!
I have more of a regional blog, and will definitely put more thought into creating a neighborhood blog (or two) as well. My regional blog has “peed on trees” by generating some free press in the regular media, and that definitely increases traffic and visibility as well.
June 17, 2007 — 6:36 pm
Austin Realtor's Wife says:
Kris- you CoRE weiner! 🙂 Congrats, Big Dawg!!!
June 17, 2007 — 8:28 pm
Teri Lussier says:
>The static website as we know it is becoming ineffective and antiquated. I can see a day (some day) when the local blog format completely replaces it.
That’s the answer to my question. I’ve completely neglected my site for my blog because TBR does so much better in searches. I can blog on the site, but…Not the way it should be done. It’s that damn pursuit of excellence. 😉
June 18, 2007 — 5:59 am
Kris Berg says:
Lani – #2 is indeed a weiner, not a winner. Always the bridesmaid. 🙂
Teri – I don’t think we can ignore the website yet – It is a more familiar vehicle for delivering the dry information. For now, effectively cross-marketing will have to suffice as we continue to move toward the blog entirely replacing the website. I think we will see that day sooner rather than later.
June 18, 2007 — 8:36 am
Rob Green says:
Greg,
You make an interesting point about micro-blogging and owning the neighborhood.
I’ll admit that the concept of microblogging a neighborhood seems very enticing until I look at the monumental amount of data that one person would have to know to be known as “the source” of information for any particular neighborhood.
I am the vice-chairman of our city’s planning and zoning commission and would like to think that I know a lot more than the average Joe about what is going on in my community. I spend hours and hours in meetings with the community about anything to do with real estate in our town. But, I’m always amazed at how there are things about real estate in the town that I don’t know about! It almost seems like I’m chasing the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: all knowledge about real estate in my town.
But, I am convinced that if I can create a noticeable presence that is viewed as one of authority, that it will still produce measurable amounts of business.
As for getting a few other people who are interested in blogging on the site about the town, I find that to be a great idea. It’s just a matter of making sure that the RIGHT people are your dedicated bloggers. When you said that your blog practically runs itself, did you actively recruit some of your top participants, or did the just find it by happenstance and get hooked on your blog?
June 18, 2007 — 11:41 am
Rob Green says:
Jeff,
In line with your comment about providing a neighborhood blog, I’d recommend a great marketing book to anyone who’s interested. While the book is directed to targeting affluent clientele, the concepts are equally applicable across all strata of the market.
It’s called, “Marketing to the Affluent” and is written by Thomas Stanley, the same author of “The Millionaire Next Door”.
In his book he talks about some of the key strategies of ultra-successful salespeople with one of those strategies being, “Run narrow and deep”. In his example, his talks about a jeweler who specializes in servicing the wants of professional atheletes. That is his ultra-narrow market niche. But because he has established such deep contacts in that market, he essentially owns it.
So in order to running narrow in our discussions is easy: provide a neighborhood blog. It’s the running deep that I’m trying to figure out how to most effectively accomplish. That leads me to my next question, what have you found to be the most effective methods of attracting people to your own blog?
June 18, 2007 — 11:49 am
Kris Berg says:
Rob, I think Greg was saying that the goal is to have it run itself. I don’t think anyone has implemented the “insanely great idea” successfully yet. Finding the people who care enough to participate is the key. Every neighborhood has there share of Mrs. Kravitz’s, so the potential exists. In my opinion, the biggest hurdle will be getting the community involved in what is most obviously a commercial endeavor.
Not to answer for Jeff, but to get “civilians” to my blog, I put my blog url next to my website url on virtually every piece of marketing that goes out, from property brochures to mailer to my email signature (another idea I “borrowed” from Greg). In addition, the first button on my website, which was already getting good traffic, is a link to the blog. It has taken awhile, but they are finding me. Initially, it was long-distance traffic, but I am starting to see more San Diego-based visitors.
June 18, 2007 — 12:30 pm
Greg Swann says:
> When you said that your blog practically runs itself, did you actively recruit some of your top participants, or did the just find it by happenstance and get hooked on your blog?
As Kris said, that was hypothetical. We have a site where we want to do this, but we haven’t done it yet. Both recruiting strategies should work, though.
June 18, 2007 — 1:15 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Rob – Thanks for the book referral, I’ll take a look at it.
Our firm’s approach has always been deep and narrow, at least as far as the profile of our clients are concerned.
Also, we’ve yet to find a firm using our model in the three states in which we’ve done at least $10MIL in business. So you’ve made our day with your comment. 🙂
Thanks again for the book.
June 18, 2007 — 1:59 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Rob ->That leads me to my next question, what have you found to be the most effective methods of attracting people to your own blog?
That’s where I’m often at a disadvantage when compared to house bloggers. Though many of the concepts they blog about demand more space, most doesn’t. In investments, much of the subject matter simply doesn’t lend itself to short posts. That said, when done clearly, readers have often said to me how much they appreciate the detailed explanations of sometimes involved principles or concepts.
Being a BHB contributor hasn’t exactly hurt either. 🙂 I can say with confidence there are many deals I’ve done either directly or indirectly as a result of BHB.
My blog, according to its readers, is informative, which is what keeps them coming back.
June 18, 2007 — 2:50 pm