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Welcome back to the 8th episode of our informative series,

“Developing a Social Media Strategy”

If you’ve missed out on the previous installments, here they are:

“Social Media is a Conversation, not an Advertisement!”     “The ‘WHY’ of Social Media?“

“Taking AIM”      “Social Media Sushi“      “5 Keys to Having a Killer Blog!“

“Top 10 Ways to Feed Your Blog.”      “What’s in Your Social Media Tool Belt?“

In this next part of our series, we’re going to take a bold step….

“Beyond The Blog”

At this point, we’re going to assume that you have a blog and that you’ve been diligently posting good quality content there on a regular basis. The content that you generate can be one of the most valuable and effective marketing resources that you have. Think of your blog as the publishing house where your wealth of professional knowledge, advice, and experience is skillfully formatted and attractively packaged for consumption by your intended audience.

Your Blog Content is Like Cow Manure

In order for your valued blog content to be most effective and achieve its fullest impact, it needs to be spread around. The next successive step or key in your social media strategy is selecting the best tools/methods to spread/push/distribute/syndicate links to your prized content, thereby exposing it to the largest audience possible. Fortunately, given the tremendous amount of inter-connectivity being offered across multiple platforms, we have an abundance of viable venues to choose from.

Before we identify a few of those venues, allow me to make a couple of helpful suggestions as you’re evaluating potential sites:

Push Come to Shove

Don’t push or syndicate your content to a site unless you intend on actively participating on that site. In other words, don’t just automatically post a link from your blog article to your Twitter account if you never or rarely engage in actual conversations there. As with traditional ‘Interruption-Style’ marketing/advertising, your links simply become elevator noise to be ignored.

If You Blogged in the Woods, Would Anyone Listen?

Ensure that the platforms you choose are relevant for your content subject matter as well as your intended audience. Few things can be more frustrating than spending an inordinate amount of time and energy attempting to converse with a brick wall. Do the people you’re hoping to attract through your writing frequent the targeted site regularly? Are they actually being exposed to your articles? Obviously, this is where some good analytics need to be consistently employed and evaluated. We’ll discuss that in more detail later.

Go to Where the Conversations Are

While there are the obvious choices of highly popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. there may be other smaller regional or even local platforms you can access as well. Does your local newspaper have a web presence with community bloggers? Or perhaps the Chamber of Commerce or Regional Visitors/Convention Bureau? Even hyper-local Neighborhood Blogs/networks are becoming more and more popular. You need to have an intimate knowledge of the ‘webscape’ of your specific market area and know what platforms/networks people are frequenting to connect and converse.

Stay Focused and Disciplined

When accessing social networks, it’s very easy to become sidetracked and lured away into time-consuming activities that offer very little, if any, return on your investment, i.e., Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc.. Even on networks such as ActiveRain we can become overly absorbed in chasing points or engaged in heated debates over politics/religion. Develop a consistent daily time-frame and task schedule for your social media involvements. Being focused and disciplined will allow you the time necessary to accomplish all of your traditional methods of marketing.

The Usual Suspects

It’s relatively easy to identify the more popular sites currently being used for effectively expanding one’s digital footprint and engaging in meaningful connections/conversations with your Sphere and potential clients. I’m going to name a few here, and in our next installment, I’ll begin to break each of them down individually, demonstrate how they can be incorporated into your social media strategy, and used  to effectively grow your business.

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DISCLAIMER: The author of this series is not a social media guru. Any similarity to such title, character or history of any said individual is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

An avid blogger since 2005, Rich has published over 1000 articles, most related to real estate. He enjoys using the tools of social media to brag/boast about the quality of Life on the picturesque Kitsap Peninsula in scenic WA State. He is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, Crabbing in the Hood, Everyday CK, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Stuart Kaufman, noted Personal & Business Coach, who writes a column for the Washington REALTORS® News, contacted me the other day and asked if I would contribute to an upcoming article he is putting together on Blogging.

In this article, he is posing the question:

“It seems like Blogging is the current rage. I took a class and know the basics, but can it really help me build my business? Is it really worth the time?”

Stuart e-mailed me 5 questions relating to Blogging that he wanted me to answer:

1.   What are the ingredients of a winning Blog?

Well, that really depends on how you want to define &  measure ‘winning.’ If your goal is to grow your business and attract potential clients, then there are definitely some key elements to incorporate into your Blog that will help in achieving those goals.

Content – Blogging is not another form of advertising or self-promotion. It’s not about you, but the consumer. Publish good, relevant information that is geared towards helping educate consumers about real estate, understand the unique nuances of your market, and empower them to make informed decisions.

Consistency – Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. Like any good marketing endeavor it takes a commitment of time and effort. Cultivating a loyal audience and attracting potential clients to your Blog won’t happen overnight. The more good, relevant content you contribute to your Blog, the better it will rank with the search engines.

Connection – One of the main benefits of Blogging and Social Media is that they create the opportunity for meaningful connections/conversations to occur. Be authentic in what you write. Allow the 3 Powerful P’s of Blogging to come through – Your Personality, Your Passions, and Your Perspectives.

2.   How often do you need to Blog in order for it to pay off?

Today’s Internet-savvy consumers are more  spoiled and fickle than ever before. Our fast-paced microwave, drive-thru culture breeds demanding expectations. You need to feed your Blog at least a couple times a week to begin with. Don’t feel like you have to publish a literary masterpiece each and every time. Some of my most popular posts have been basic, short, and to the point. Certain kinds of articles like market reports, local business reviews, neighborhood showcase, etc., can be regularly repeated and help maintain your publishing consistency.

3.   Where should you post your Blogs?

This is an important question because you can do all the right things and Blog your fingers to the bone, but if the platform you’re using isn’t constructed in such a way that it allows the search engine spiders to crawl, index, and rank your content, and give attribution to you as the originating source, most of your efforts will fall on deaf ears. There are an abundance of sites available, many of them free, that you can use to begin your Blogging journey, including ActiveRain, Blogger, BiggerPockets, Squarespace, Trulia Voices, WordPress.com, LiveJournal, Tumblr, and Blogster, just to name a few. Platforms like ActiveRain provide an easy and encouraging environment to learn the Blogging ropes. Their basic membership is free, but you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription fee to have your content show up on the search engines. Eventually, at some point, if you find Blogging to be a good fit for your marketing plan, you may want to consider hosting your own WordPress.org blog.

4.   How has Blogging helped your business?

Historically, the majority of my business has been ‘Referral Based.’ However, as is typical, when the market cycle slows down, especially to the extent that it has now, you don’t have the luxury of relying on any one source for new business. The use of Social Media, and Blogging in particular, now generates nearly half of all my business.

So many of our old-school marketing methods involve ‘chasing’ leads or potential clients. The beauty of Blogging is that potential clients come to you (your Blog). It allows you to engage/converse with consumers and reveal parts of yourself to readers/potential clients through your writing. By reading your Blog, a meaningful connection is made, a sense of familiarity is established. When you finally meet your clients face-to-face, it’s as if they’ve known you for years. Through Blogging, the usually awkward and uncomfortable ‘courting’ period with new clients is effectively eliminated from the process.

5.  What is your advice for agents who want to start Blogging?

Blogging is not the magical purple pill that will solve all of your business woes. It is simply one more tool you can add to supplement your current marketing methods. Develop and incorporate a Social Media strategy component to your annual marketing plan that includes a Blog and consistent involvements in sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, and others. Start off by lurking and listening. Subscribe to some of the top blogs in your area, real estate or otherwise. Read their articles and make comments. Partner up with someone who is already Blogging or is interested in Blogging, and meet together regularly for encouragement and accountability.

~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~

DISCLAIMER: The author of this series is not a social media guru. Any similarity to such title, character or history of any said individual is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

An avid blogger since 2005, Rich has published over 1000 articles, most related to real estate. He enjoys using the tools of social media to brag/boast about the quality of Life on the picturesque Kitsap Peninsula in scenic WA State. He is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, Crabbing in the Hood, Everyday CK, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Welcome once again to our series,

“Developing a Social Media Strategy”

So far, we’ve realized that “Social Media is a Conversation, not an Advertisement!”

We’ve answered “The ‘WHY’ of Social Media?” (Why it should be a vital part of your Annual Marketing Plan)

We identified that one of the key strategies is “Taking AIM” (Audience, Image/Brand, and Message)

We learned how to become a skilled blogging chef by serving up “Social Media Sushi”

We discovered the “5 Keys to Having a Killer Blog!”

And, we explored the “Top 10 Ways to Feed Your Blog.”

(for what it’s worth: I plan on discussing the use of both video and podcasting in subsequent series)

In this week’s episode, we’re going to venture beyond our blogs, and seek out other viable social media tools that can be used to effectively expand your digital footprint and improve your ‘findability’ factor.

Choosing Your Social Media Tools

Perhaps the biggest challenge in determining which social media tools to utilize is simply identifying and selecting the ones that best suit your business and marketing goals. With the plethora of tools currently available, and new ones constantly popping up, this is easier said than done.

Allow me to offer some helpful advice as you begin the process:

Take Baby Steps

1. Start off by taking baby steps and biting off only what you can effectively chew. What this means, is to start with the most obvious and popular tools, learn them, become comfortable and proficient with them, and then move on to another.

Don’t Sleep Around

2. Be discerning and selective in which platforms to join. All the more reason to have a well-conceived, goal-oriented marketing plan to guide your choices. Some things to consider in making your selection: How well does the site rank? Does it offer meaningful exposure/engagement with your target audience? Does it allow connection/syndication from other platforms?

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

3. Constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the effectiveness of your tools/involvements. Are you currently tracking where your traffic/potential clients are coming from? What sites are helping you to rank well for your targeted key search terms?

Make Your Life Easier

4. Utilize resources like Retaggr.com, Ping.fm, GizaPage, or DandyID, to help manage and maintain your network profiles.

Find Out First

5. Keep current on all the latest and greatest social media tools as they first crop up by subscribing to updates by Mashable.com and TechCrunch.

Here’s some excerpts from a recent article by Dan Schawbel that I think you’ll find insightful:

Can you join too many networks?

“PageRank is extremely important for your personal brand because it allows you to command your Google results. This is great for promotion and protection in the digital world.”

“Your Google results are your new business card. Your results are a depiction of who you are, so it’s smart to join the networks that best represent your brand, and carry a high PageRank (6 or higher is satisfactory).”

The most recent issue of Website Magazine provides a great list of the Top 50 Social Media Resources. This is a good starting point for help in identifying potential tools for you to incorporate into your social media tool belt.

ACTION POINT: Take a quick look at the list of Social Media Resources that are provided in the aforementioned magazine. Identify and investigate at least 3 sites that could be added to your tool belt.

In our next installment, we’ll begin to discuss my recommended Top Ten Social Media Resources.

~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~

DISCLAIMER: The author of this series is not a social media guru. Any similarity to such title, character or history of any said individual is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

An avid blogger since 2005, Rich has published over 1000 articles, most related to real estate. He enjoys using the tools of social media to brag/boast about the quality of Life on the picturesque Kitsap Peninsula in scenic WA State. He is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, Crabbing in the Hood, Everyday CK, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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