Reflections on Bloggers Connect
By Joel Burslem, Thursday, July 24, 2008.Bookmarking Sites
Bloggers Connect kicked off yesterday to a full house at the Palace Hotel. Over 200 people crowded in to the Gold Ballroom to hear how blogging has evolved as a marketing tool for brokers, lenders, vendors and agents.
The conversation was spirited at times, but tempered too. A much different vibe than last year at Connect, when the room could barely contain its enthusiasm for this new medium.
I think what I felt is that many people are now taking a much harder look at the business return of blogging. The novelty has worn off - and the question is can this tool work for me in my business and deliver me real leads, real clients, real customers?
I think the general consensus was yes. With caveats.
A few observations I took away...
Photos. Many of the panelists felt that was the easiest way to quickly get content and that consumers/readers respond very positively to that type of content. So has the written word worn off? Are we going to see the rise of the Realtor photoblog instead?
Use a social media marketing strategy to leave a trail of comments around the web and through social networks. David Gibbons outlined this strategy by explaining how you can reach a much wider audience than just waiting for people to come to your blog. The key is finding the right communities online to reach out to - so find your niche and go talk to them.
The legal concerns around blogging merited a whole discussion unto itself. The rule of thumb seemed to be; when writing on your real estate blog, speak in generalities. Don't name names. And as Todd Carpenter put it "You're not John Stossel..." - leave the investigative journalism to the pros. If you find something awry - bring in the local media, your job is to sell homes.
Finally, move beyond writing your blog for other Realtors. Get away from your computer. Get outside and engage real people. The best way to build an audience for your real estate blog is out in the real world not online. Jeff Turner coined the term YEO (You Engaging Others) to encompass this idea. It's time real estate bloggers move beyond writing for the search engines and start writing for people.
So what else did you learn?
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Submitted by Antonio Ciccarone on July 24, 2008 - 3:22pm.
I came to this conference as a php developer and designer who just so happens to work in the Real Estate field. Though halfway through, I've realized that this is an extremely interesting field cluttered with some exceptional and intelligent folks.
Even though I am not in Real Estate per say, I'm going to follow most of the tips and tricks from the speakers and apply it to my web development and see what comes of it.
All in all, I'm having a good time here and there's still a whole day to go. Props to Brad for hosting some interesting forums and asking some juicy questions.
Submitted by Tina Merritt on July 25, 2008 - 6:12pm.
I learned so much that my brain is still in overload processing all of the great information. What I really liked was the suggestion to "schedule" your blog posts (i.e.: area history on Monday, events on Tuesday, Week-in-review Wednesday, etc.). Also, to pre-write posts so if you get short on time, you have something to "grab and post".
Submitted by RIck Spencer on July 29, 2008 - 8:16am.
My initial impression was that people are starting to question the value of maintaining a blog at all, maybe it is not a critical thing for all agents to do. Many agent bloggers seemed to have a hard time articulating how blogging helped their customers. I thought that it was useful that people are being thoughtful instead of panicked that they are missing out on something.
In general, I thought the best advice for bloggers was to keep it very local. Get ideas for posts from your customers, blog about your neighborhood and your listings, don't discuss other bloggers, especially not in a snitty way.
Rick Spencer
Windermere Services
Director, Product Management
http://windermere-technology.blogspot.com/
Submitted by Desiree Daniels on July 31, 2008 - 2:48pm.
I have to say this was my second Inman convention and I was thrilled to attend again. Overload of information is putting it mildly but this is all NECESSARY information to our success in the future.
Thanks for another great event!!