Project Bloodhound: How to write a question post that gets answers

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Our new contributors are true Bloodhounds, equal to all the others. We don’t have rules, we don’t play status games and we don’t want for anyone to feel less than perfectly welcome here.

But: We do recognize that the new Bloodhounds are going to have questions. We want for them to have questions, since their questions will kick off great discussions of how to manage the world of Social Media Marketing.

However: The question post can be the death of weblogging. You set something up and then you say, “Does that makes sense?” or “What say you?” or “Am I wrong?” Sounds harmless enough, but, for some reason, posts like that tend to die a commentless death. It’s plausible to me that you see them so often on weblogs where the host is desperate for comments that that trailing question comes to seem like desperation in the flesh — like a blind date who turns out to be a sweaty Trekkie with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Here’s a way to put together a question post that will spark a conversation rather than languish in perpetuity, unremarked on and unloved.

First, instead of ending with the question, start with it: Just exactly how do you establish a following on Twitter without looking like another pushy Realtor?

Second, take some responsibility for yourself: Here’s what I was thinking. I thought I might just go in and start talking about the things that fascinate me in the neighborhoods I work in.

Third, give your readers the respect they deserve: I know there are a lot of people out there who have been successfully tweeting real estate for quite a while, so I was hoping someone could give me some direction.

Fourth, get right back to the questions: Am I all messed up in my thinking? Is there something I’m missing? Is there a better way of going at things?

Fifth, go one down, graciously: I know you guys know so much more about this than I do. Thanks for taking the time to hold my hand.

Like this:

Just exactly how do you establish a following on Twitter without looking like another pushy Realtor?

Here’s what I was thinking. I thought I might just go in and start talking about the things that fascinate me in the neighborhoods I work in.

I know there are a lot of people out there who have been successfully tweeting real estate for quite a while, so I was hoping someone could give me some direction.

Am I all messed up in my thinking? Is there something I’m missing? Is there a better way of going at things?

I know you guys know so much more about this than I do. Thanks for taking the time to hold my hand.

That’s a formula, and posts that are too-obviously formulaic have their own problems. But your point in asking a question is not to goose a few comments, thus to stroke your ego. Your objective is to get good answers. And, as with all weblogging, to make things work, you have to engage with the audience.

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