There’s always something to howl about.

I am not a blogger

This is an article I wrote on Active Rain, about a month ago.  I’ve since deleted it because it was behind the “Members’ Only” wall and the rules there state you can’t “out” a private post because of the comments:

I am not a blogger.

I’m a marketer, a social media marketer. There’s a difference between the two. Blogging is often portrayed as an “art form”. I am no artist. If you’ve ever seen my drawings, or heard my singing, you’ll quickly verify that.

Why do I blog? It’s part of my overall branding strategy within my social media marketing plan. I want to be a ubiquitous presence, in plain sight of consumers, giving them what they want. If I give consumers what they want, they’ll give me what I want; a chance to fund their mortgage loan. It’s simple economics if you think about it. Consumers demand; we supply that demand.

Consumers want to see houses and mortgage rates. How do I know this? I write on Long Beach Real Estate Home, Laurie Manny’s blog. Laurie has had tremendous success with blogged listings. Her readers (and subsequent buyers) want to see homes for sale. Her readers started calling me when I wrote the Long Beach Mortgage Rates report…AND put my contact information on the post! Readers want to see homes for sale and mortgage rates available.

Todd Carpenter takes it one step further:

I bet most of you didn’t realize that I had a second mortgage blog. That’s okay because it flies under the radar. When I talked to Brian Brady about it a couple weeks ago, he called it a Trojan Horse. I like that definition. The secret is, my other mortgage blog is cleverly disguised as a blog about Modern Homes in Denver. Yep, it’s a mortgage blog that never bothers to mention mortgages

Todd jokingly recalls the expression “Real Estate Porn”. The most successful real estate blog, Curbed.com, is laden with real estate porn. Consumers LOVE it. Alas, Todd reports that blogging theoreticians don’t:

Blog experts like Dustin Luther will tell real estate agents not to blog about there listings. I disagree with the idea, especially if the homes you’re listing are actually interesting to look at. Walk into any Barnes & Noble and take a look at all the Home & Garden design magazines are on the shelf. It’s a heck of a lot bigger than the Men’s Interests section. In my local store, It’s the biggest section on the entire rack. People like to look at pretty houses.

If you click through, you’ll see a post instructing real estate agents to not blog their listings unless there’s a story to go along with it. Here’s the problem with that advice; there’s a story about EVERY home because every home is part of a community. I said as much when I told REALTORS to stop selling houses and start making memories. EVERY home has a story, even the newly-built ones. Your job, as a real estate marketer, is to show that beautiful home and tell that beautiful story. Here’s what I said:

Neighborhoods don’t have character, they have Characters. Weave these Characters into the stories you tell when you talk about your market. Characters are what entice us. They make the memories your customer’s children will cherish .

Connect the sights, sounds, and smells of the present with a story from your market and you will have inspired the reticent homebuyer’s imagination. Characters call out and beg the buyer to join them in the comedy of life, unfolding on the stage (your market), from a seat in the front row (the house).

Read that last sentence, again:

from a seat in the front row (the house).

The house. Give them what they want. You’re no artist; you’re a marketer.

PS: I’ll be hosting a discussion about how blogging fits into YOUR social media marketing strategy. Join me.