Archive for the ‘lead generation’ Category

Two weeks ago I was speaking with Your East Cobb REALTOR® who not only happens to be a member of Positive Real Estate Professionals but someone I regard as a friend. We were talking about how her blogging style and choice of topics has evolved since she first began blogging last April. I bring up Jodi Smith because her efforts are a perfect example of how blogging can help you to achieve concrete results in terms of business growth. Below are some of the common questions (and my responses) when people ask ‘What will a blog do for my business?’

What Is Blogging?

This is fairly straightforward. Blogging is writing; more specifically, blogging is writing posts/articles online. There is often a common confusion of terms that I would like to clear up. A blog is a collection of posts/articles. When you are blogging you are actually writing an individual post/article. So you don’t actually write a blog, you write a post/article on a blog. A good analogy is that a blog is similar to a magazine/newspaper and the posts/articles on a blog are similar to the articles in a magazine/newspaper. Hopefully this will clear up some of the term confusion.

Why Is A Blog Important?

There is an often used and written about phrase ‘Content Is King.’ I too have written several articles on this very topic and would encourage you to read Content is King for more information on this topic. The main reason that a blog is important for any website is that it is an easy way to add new content. New content to index is what the search engine spiders are looking for. New content and frequent indexing is a contributing factor to a site’s rank, Page Rank (PR) for Google. Rank is one of several key factors in how high a site returns in search engine results. Semi-regular posting to your site’s blog gives you the new content you need to help your site return higher in search engine results. The higher your site’s placement in search engine results, the more visible your site is, and the more likely it will be visited by potential clients.

What Role Do My Content Topics Play?

Your topics are important because they fill out the content vacuums that static webpages inevitably leave. A static webpage is basically an informative page that doesn’t change or changes infrequently. This is fine as long as the accuracy and relevance of the information on that page doesn’t change frequently either. A blog can definitely be a great way to give a deeper insight into various topics that your site’s visitors are looking for. Say for example you are a REALTOR® who deals with a lot of relocation clients, your potential clients will probably looking for all types of information on the area they are relocating to. To get a real feel for the area many people write posts that highlight historic buildings and/or places, local parks and other outdoor venues, restaurants, nightclubs, and shopping. Other people take a broader approach and write less about specific offerings and write instead about local youth and/or adult sports, the various houses of worship, or the availability of public transit. This is a way to make your website a destination for relevant information for your potential client base. This is also a continuing resource for past clients and an easy place for those past clients to refer potential new clients. It is important to also show your knowledge of your industry by writing things like market reports  and legislation that may impact your clients. A good rule of thumb is to put yourself in your clients, or potential clients’ shoes when you are considering a topic for an article and ask yourself honestly if this would be something of interest.

Not The Journals Of Yesterday

I feel that it is important to draw the distinction between the journaling that blogging used to represent and blogging for business. There is absolutely nothing wrong with maintaining a journaling blog or a poetry blog but these should not be confused with a business blog. In many cases people hear the term blog and think of these personal types of blogs. It is true that in the early days of blogging these types of blogs were very popular, and they do remain popular today. I enjoy many personal blogs but blogging for business is far different from personal blogging. If you are blogging to attract clients to your real estate business then the funny thing your cat did, or photos of you modeling that robe you got for the holidays are not relevant nor appropriate at all. These types of articles will probably have the opposite effect of what you intended. Keep your posts on a business blog relevant and you will produce the concrete results in terms of business growth that you are looking for and have heard so much about.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Blogging Can Produce Concrete Results In Terms Of Business Growth is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals

One of the most powerful developments on the internet for both business and personal connections is the emergence and widespread use of social media outlets. I would surmise that most internet users and even many people who do not use the internet have heard of at least one social media network; even if they do not realize it. MySpace? Twitter? Facebook? One of these three will generally ring a bell with most people as they are mentioned often on television, the radio, and in print media. In addition to these three social medias there are others, lots of others.

As a PREP member you have access to a pre-loaded widget from your Dashboard that can easily allow visitors to your site to connect with you via numerous social medias. This tutorial is going to give you step by step instructions (with illustrations) on how to:

1. access this widget
2. enter your social media usernames
3. place this widget on your sidebar

To begin with you will need to be logged into your Dashboard. From your dashboard, here is the path to access the widget:

Dashboard > Settings > Social Media Page

As you can see from the graphic to the left, the Widget named ‘Social Media Page’ is where you need to begin. Locate the ‘Setting’ tab on the left hand side of your dashboard. When you hover over the settings tab a grey arrow will appear next to the tab name; click this arrow. When you have clicked this grey arrow a dropdown with numerous options will appear. In this list of dropdowns you will need to locate ‘Social Media Page.’ This is the widget we will be working with. In the image to the left I have placed a red box around the widget with a red arrow pointing to it. Click on ‘Social Media Page’ to begin working with this widget.

When you click on ‘Social Media Page’ the image below will appear on your dashboard:

From this point you fill in your Username/User ID for each of the social medias that you belong to and that you would like to utilize to easily connect with visitors to your site. Be sure that once you have filled in this information that you click ‘Update Profiles & Options’ at the bottom of the page to save the information you have entered. WARNING: If you do not click update the info you entered will not be saved and you will have to re-enter it. Now you are ready to place the widget on your sidebar.

To place the completed Widget on your sidebar, here is the path:

Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets > Add

On left hand side of your dashboard, locate the ‘Appearance’ tab. Just like you did with the ‘Settings’ tab above, hover over Appearance and a grey arrow will appear. Click this grey arrow to open up a dropdown. In this dropdown, locate ‘Widgets’ and click on it. I have placed a blue oval around widgets in the image to the right.

When you click on widgets, a new screen will open on your dashboard. From this screen, you can now add the completed ‘Social Media Page’ widget to your sidebar. Simply click ‘Add’ to place it in the sidebar you have selected. Once you have added it to your selected sidebar be sure to click ‘Save Changes’ or it will not be added.

That’s it! Now if you open your PREP site you will see the widget added to your sidebar with the various social media icons present and linked to your accounts. Just another way to connect with those potential clients.