In part 1, I left you a teaser about how our brokerage uses blogging to connect with OUR community. I am the technologist for a large brokerage of 110 agents that sell a LOT of real estate. I don’t apologize for that. We deliver VALUE to the agents that choose to work under our roof. Our market share is GROWING and our AGENTS are faring better in this tough market than our competitors. I am proud of that.
We DO have to communicate that success to our agents (just as you do to your clients) though, not in a “look at me” sort of way, but rather in a way that helps all of them feel a part of our large family–even if they are working out of home and are in the office infrequently. Oh yeah…we also wanted a way to connect with agents who might want to become a part of our office. Until lately, that was done via dead tree media.
One of the drawbacks was the high cost of printing quarterly newsletters. Many of our agents liked them, but some thought is was a waste of paper, and less than environmentally friendly. Our Director of Operations (there are 4 of us who kind of run the day to day here) came up with the idea of a blog as a brokerage online newsletter. Extreme Newsletter Makeover – online edition began and HotAirChronicles.com was born.
Why mention all of that? Well, there are a couple of neat plugins that we use as well as having multiple authors to keep the load light on all of us:
NextGen Photo Gallery – Ryan Ward showed me this one. Click here and on this category, you can see three posts with galleries of photos of our recent events. Here’s the thing about multiple photos with a single event: If you are doing a community blog and post about an art festival (for example) and have 20 photos. Then send a quick email out to the 30 business people in the 20 photos with a link to your blog, how many folks have you connected with in 1 post? ANSWER: 30 plus any friends they tell about the photos. In a brokerage like ours, that rocks.
WP-Calendar – We use a monthly office calendar to let folks know what’s up in the office, advertising deadlines and etc. Fun little plugin that is EASY. This is different than the Google calendar method used earlier.
Final point about this second post in the series…multiple authors. There is a lot that I have learned from Greg Swann since arriving in this community. Chief among them is to let people (authors) be themselves. Authenticity is important. Our management team is a group of strong individuals. We can either spend our time worrying about creating a message in our blog that is a perfect blend of NONE of us, or we can celebrate what we each do and celebrate our agents’ individuality as well.
It is a work in the early stages…you can expect more fun and witty (and strange) ideas to come. Just wanted to share version 1.0 with you. What else could / should we include? Thoughts?
For part 3, I am going to use some WP plugins that are still under development on a community blogging environment, so it may be a week or two away. The idea with these tools is truly connect with a mass amount of local people quickly. I’d also like any creative WP ideas that you have as well. Send ’em over via email and I will happily include them with credit for great ideas.
Wayne Long says:
HotAirChronicles is rocking Eric! Very well done and much better than a newsletter IMO. Saves money and Trees 🙂
October 21, 2008 — 10:45 pm
Teri Lussier says:
::Ditto Wayne::
>…let people (authors) be themselves. Authenticity is important. We can either spend our time worrying about creating a message in our blog that is a perfect blend of NONE of us, or we can celebrate what we each do and celebrate our agents’ individuality as well.
This is brilliant thinking, Eric, and our young brokerage could use this. I’m just a grunt on the ground there, not a broker or a top producing agent in the brokerage, but I still can’t stop my brain from thinking about what could be. I’ve been talking to my broker about how to create a more valuable (from the client’s perspective) online presence. With a newsletter like this, we could dominate this market in zero time, and add to the community- so very badly needed right now.
You’ve not just given me food for thought, you’ve given a feast! 🙂
October 22, 2008 — 6:44 am
Wayne Long says:
@ Teri – I can tell you from experience that it is hard to move a Broker to do things that are not in his goals.
You are probably better off to do a blog for yourself and when your blog takes off and you are getting leads – others including your Broker – will want to know how to get on your train.
Just my Opinion 🙂
October 22, 2008 — 7:48 am
Eric Blackwell says:
Wayne and Teri;
Thanks for the kind words.
Brokers often find creating a blog more expensive if they don’t have a tech guy hanging around 24/7, but if they do, I think this is kind of a no-brainer. Costs reduced. Better connection established.
Best to both of you;
Eric
October 22, 2008 — 8:30 am
Malok says:
Yup, the HotAirChronicles is definitely a great way to do the newsletter. With 110 agents, you are able to get the information much more quickly – wherever you are at, and it cuts down on costs (monetarily & for the environment).
October 22, 2008 — 8:31 am
J Boyer Summit NJ says:
Hi Eric,
Love the HotAirChronicles, What a great idea.
I totally cannot even imagine my broker going down this road. You are doing such a great job there. I am interested, how is your offices sales volume so far this year, as compaired to this time last year?
Jim
October 22, 2008 — 7:51 pm
Eric Blackwell says:
Jim;
Our broker is one of a kind. It is pretty cool to work where a person has the freedom to create that I do. Average (but motivated) guy in a great environment. The other fun part is being part of a management team where ideas like this get brought up and we can act on them instantly. If I had to get approval for each change to the company website, I’d be toast.
Our sales are off this year, like practically everyone’s are…that having been said, we are gaining market share on our competition.
best;
Eric
October 22, 2008 — 8:33 pm
J Boyer Summit NJ says:
That is what I expected Eric, if total volume is down, it would be very hard for your sales to be up, unless you were taking huge market share gains.
My office here in Morris County has become the #1 office for volume over the last year, Moving to I am told 10% market share. Keep in mind we are competing with all the other RE/MAX’s and all the other companies.
Though I have not gotten where I want and need to be, in this so-called horrible market I have personally managed to increase my volume by 70%. Looking for 2009 to be up 140%.
I attribute a good share of it, too what I have learned from people like Greg, Morgan, Eric, Knox, and you Eric.
October 23, 2008 — 5:09 am