The key to leveraging social media to grow your real estate business is adding value to the community by sharing good quality content. Yet when I sit down and meet with agents to discuss blogging and social media, content creation is often their single biggest concern. If I had 5 cents for every time I’ve heard “I don’t have anything to say”, “I am a terrible writer”, “I don’t have the time”, etc. …
I have put together a couple of points that should help real estate agents get a handle on this whole content creation ‘monster’:
1) You are a real estate agent who blogs – not a blogger who also practices real estate. All too often I hear from agents that “I am a terrible writer” and use that as an excuse to not create content. That does not fly with me because you don’t have to be rolling out award-winning content here. The key is just providing content that engages your target market. You should have good spelling and proper grammar; if you need to, find someone in your sphere who is strong in that area and have them proof your posts before you post them.
2) You are a walking, talking content source. You work in a service industry. People pay you for your expertise. Don’t forget this. If you are stuck for content ideas, just think “Who do I want to reach? What do they want?” Or even easier than that, think about the questions you are asked on a day-to-day basis. Your answers to those questions form great blog content.
3) Keep it short. We are not talking essays here. Blog posts should be 250-400 words -that’s just a couple of paragraphs.
4) Make posts easy to scan. Only 16% of blog readers read posts word for word, so make sure your blog posts are easily scanned. That means that a reader can get the main points from your post in 30 seconds or less.
5) Keep it basic. You are writing for your consumers, not your colleagues. So keep the content simple. Think about the last time you went in to have your car serviced and how afterwards the mechanic started running through everything that was wrong and needed repair. If you are like me you probably recognized maybe one in every four words. Well, the same goes when you talk to your clients. Real estate is not their business, so keep it simple and cut out the jargon.
6) Write as you speak. Your personality needs to shine through in your writing. So write as you speak. I know some agents who will even dictate their posts to an admin assistant to ensure there is consistency between what a client reads and when they meet face to face.
7) Interesting content gets shared. Your network will share your content with their network if it is interesting and engaging. This is some of the most powerful word of mouth marketing you can ask for. And the best part is, it’s free.
8) Become the source of the source. Don’t get caught up in thinking you always have to be sharing original content. Be a content curator at times. Find other people’s content that you think is particularly relevant to your network and share it. The key is to always be adding value. Here are a couple of blogs and sites that have content that might be worth sharing:
- http://www.yourhome.ca/
- http://propertywire.ca/index.php
- http://www.moneyville.ca/realestate
- http://www.blogto.com
Content creation seems a lot more daunting than it actually is. Keep the above tips in mind and just jump in, and you will be surprised how easily the writing will flow.