by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
Dustin Luther’s seminar was an excellent primer for the real estate professional who is contemplating web logging as a business tool. Mary McKnight from RSS Pieces, wrote that you should have already established your web log by January, 2007. However, if you’re the type that puts off the book report until the night before it was due, here are the Cliff Notes to Dustin’s Seminar.
The full podcast of the seminar is hosted by Rudy over at Sellsius. I believe he has broken it up into three parts.
The “4C’s” of the RE.net evolution:
1- Change: The “techies” decided that there was inefficiency in the pricing of real estate brokerage and attempted to disinter mediate; they found that more than “raw data” access was needed bu the consumer.
2- Communication: Real estate 1.0 was all about publishing, 2.0 is about communication with the consumer. RSS feeds, weblogs, and sticky websites are the solution.
3- Community: social networking sites and web logs are creating communities where you, as a real estate professional, want to be known as an “expert”.
4- Consumers: This movement is about the consumer and inviting them to a conversation online.
The way to invite the consumer to a conversation and create your online expert reputation is to:
1- Create a weblog
2- Post interesting content
3- Link to other sites
4- Leave lots of comments
He further outlined the steps to creating a web log, the steps to writing a blog post (along with an excellent analogy to composing an e-mail message), how to comment on other’s web logs, and how to create a link.
The second half was dedicated to more advanced ideas for creating communities. It was agreed (as it was in Phoenix at the Webloggers Roundtable) that Active Rain is an excellent place to learn how to create and write a blog post. If you are in the profession, and haven’t joined The Active Rain Real Estate network, do so right now. It’s free and you can click this link to join.
Dustin also showed us how to effectively use a feed reader. He demonstrated Google Feed Reader and talked about how to track other weblogs. An idea that I had was to track phrases to capture potential clients by using demographic information about your typical customer. Some phrases I’m tracking are:
1- Hard Money Loans
2- Move to San Diego
3- I want to buy a house
My idea is to go to the post and join the online conversation in a helpful way without directly soliciting.. I “met” two interested parties this morning from that practice.
It wouldn’t be a Dustin Luther show without a mention of the importance of linking. Dustin’s piece, Linkation, Linkation. Linkation is the real estate web loggers bible. Greg Swann expanded upon that idea by suggesting that place-blogs link with cat-blogs in the local community.
An item of interest is that Top Producer, yesterday’s sponsor, has a weblog attached to its website product now using a WordPress platform. (the platform we use at Bloodhound). It can be integrated with their 7i CRM product, an MLS feed, and a Market Snapshot Report, as a turnkey solution for Realtors for about $150/month. I hate to be overly commercial but Top Producer’s technology suite for the Realtor keeps improving. They DID buy the coffee and muffins yesterday so I’ll give them a little plug.
Greg Tracy says:
Thanks for the recap-the audio on Sellsius is a bit rough to understand, besides I’d rather read it.
February 7, 2007 — 11:12 pm
Marlow Harris says:
I attended a “bloginar” a few months ago put on by Dustin and Russ Cofano. I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed more, the dazed and confused looks of most of the real estate agents in attendance, puzzling over the content of the seminar. “Blog? Is that like smog? Is it a GOOD thing?”
February 8, 2007 — 1:20 am
Chris Lengquist says:
I’m amazed at the lack of understanding and willingness to learn from many of my real estate associates here in KC. It is seen as one more technology thing rather than a way to attract and retain the curious. I find a blog an excellent retention tool.
February 8, 2007 — 8:24 am
Roberta Murphy says:
Brian: I emailed Dustin this morning, suggesting that Top Producer follow his advice about search term specificity. If they want to corner the market in automated MLS alerts, they MUST offer the client search options that go beyond city, price, bedrooms and bath.
Clients want specifics: Pool or no pool. 55+ or not. Single story, square footage, lot size and view are also important search parameters that are carried by most MLS systems. If HouseValues can do it, so can Top Producer.
I would give anything to consolidate to one functional database system.
February 8, 2007 — 9:27 am
Nigel Swaby says:
Good information here. I like a lot of Mary McKnight’s advice and recommend her site to agents I meet online. I also recommend Pat Kitano’s TransparentRE.com.
After blogging about real estate for five months, I’ve discovered there are some pitfalls to blogging. You guys have experienced some of this as well, especially Greg.
Every realtor should consider their potentially negative exposure should they go online with a blog.
February 9, 2007 — 7:24 am