Real estate professionals understand the importance of personal branding.  Rarely will you see a business card or advertisement that does not a picture of the agent.  Phenomenal practice! Many people have trouble with names.  Few forget a face. Couple it with a recognizable company logo, and you have greatly increased your chances of being remembered.

Those who know me know that my hair is my favorite thing to play with.  Naturally curly, blown straight, cut it short, grow it back out, color it again.  Never crazy, just noticeably different.

This compulsion has led me to ponder, when is it time to change your photo?  Not just in terms of hair, but growing older, losing weight, getting "work done," - whatever.

When is it time to display your "new self"?

and not just to AR - but to Century 21 Ways Station in Richmond Hill!

Jolondaand I went to high school together. She has always been smart, beautiful, and personable. We had lost touch for quite sometime. Then a year ago, we met back up at a class. It was very exciting to be back in touch with an old friend.

But not nearly as exciting as the day she called me and asked about Century 21 Ways Station. When she decided to make the transfer, I could not have been happier.

Welcome, Jolonda, we are so glad you're here!

If you haven't been meme'ed yet - I am sure you will be...it is tons of fun.

I was meme'ed again and decided to toss a bit of spice into the mix - it's a bloggy contest!

I am inviting all Active Rainers to participate - and I hope you have a good time.

You can find the meme and the contest at Beautiful Chaos.

There's a lot of talk going around about the state of the market. More sellers, fewer buyers, slower business. This affects many areas of our business strategies as agents. One of the biggies is marketing dollars. Now, more than ever, it is important to ensure that your advertising is everything it can be to get the bang for your buck.

Let's talk about the good and the bad.

The Men's Warehouse has a commercial out that I think is utter brilliance. The scene is a wedding. The bride is walking down the aisle and the groom is sharply dressed. The voice over says "When everybody is looking at her, she'll be looking at you." Succinct, accurate, and emotional. I want to buy clothes from there - and I'm a girl!

Hardee's, on the other hand, has rolled out my least favorite series of commercials. Most notable, a couple is sitting on the couch watching TV. The guy has the burger. Girl decides she wants a bite - a loud, noisy, sloppy bite. The burger then inspires her into some Al Bundy/Homer Simpson clone. Not at all appetizing. Which doesn't seem like a good residual for a food company.

What does this mean about our own advertising? Simple, what seems like a good idea to us may not resonate the same way with the public. I think AR could be a great resource for us in this arena. Where better to submit ideas for ads and get objective feedback? It's just a thought.

What are the campaigns out there that make the money jump out of your pocket? What is it about them that motivates you? Which ones turn you off? How do we hedge ourselves against making the same mistakes?

I have to be honest - when I found Active Rain, I wasn't sure how much I would be able to participate.  My other two blogs were already up and running, I manage my own website, I handle a few others for non profits - and did I mention I am a full time agent? Ack.

But AR is addictive and there always seems to be more than enough stuff to talk about - judging from the way my reader stays full all the time.

I have noticed that some bloggers have "The Blog" here on AR and "the outside blog" belonging to their website.

I participate in all because, for me, they serve different functions

• AR - The Networking and education
• The Outside - Client relationship and SEO 
• The Other Outside - Because I know not everybody wants to hear about my husband, kids, folks, and other random musings, but I want to write about them.

I am curious about this decision and why some do one and others do another...

In the comment, please leave links - I would like to do some exploring!

sellsius posted an interesting question concerning self censorship about a month ago and it has plagued my mind ever since.  How much do we self censor ourselves when we blog?

The beautiful thing about blogging is the ability for others to get to know you outside of your alphabet soup of designations, business model of your company, and the name rider on your car. But, this requires some transparency.

In order for blogging to be beneficial, it must be done on some type of regular basis or readers get bored and they don't come back. Even if you are consistent - if you are consistentlyn not interesting, they won't come back either.

One suggestion could be to stir up the controversy. I am not sure I am comfortable with this approach.  I am incredibly opinionated and love political philosophy - you can imagine how many ideas I will not write about, or post even if I did. They would be, by their nature, controversial. Add to the controversy the hardness of the written word (no body language, inflection, immediate feedback) and you are possibly cooking up disaster.

This would probably generate large comment numbers and big buzz.  That is great marketing. But, it can also lead to client alienation. While I am fairly certain on my beliefs, I am generally open to new and different ideas. I am usually good at agreeing to disagree in the professional arena.  Mr. and Mrs. Client is unaware of this point.  They are only aware of my current view on a particular hot topic.

We could even be talking about something as simple as sports.  College football is a big deal (understatement) here in the South. Root for the wrong team...call it day.

So, where is the line? How do you know when you've crossed it? What do you do when your blog has hurt your business?

I first thought it might be odd for a relatively new blogger(March 15, 2007) to post about blogging tips. Then I decided, "No Way!" Knee deep in learning is the time when the lessons are fresh. Earlier is better than later. Learning from the mistakes of others is better than learning them yourself.

• Realty Blogging by Richard Nacht and Paul Chaney(both Rainers) is a must read in the first days of blogging - before if it's possible.  There are quite a few great reviews on this book right here on AR. These guys do a fanatastic job of explaining the entire process, including setting up a brand new blog. After reading the book, I had to go back and tweak what I had already done.  Rework is never fun, but it was worth the effort.
  
• Content, Content, Content. Via Lorelle on Wordpress, I found the "20 Blogging Commandments" written by Letters Home to You. While the entire post is great reading, number 1 is the most important (which is probably why it is number 1). Don't post for the sake of posting. While it is good to blog on a regular basis, people will quit coming back if your content is lacking (or if you continually forget to hit the "spell/grammar check button).
  
• Answer your comments. If your blog is receiving comments, comment back. Anything else is rude. Blogging is successful because it is relational. It is a virtual conversation. Readers who talk to you expect to be talked back to.
  
• Visit other blogs.  This is a fantastic way to mold your craft. Don't stop at RE blogs either. There is a wealth of information and inspiration in the blogosphere. Leave comments, get to know the other bloggers, learn what you like and don't like and use that knowledge to better yourself.
  
• Have fun! Blogging is work - there is no doubt about it. Many don't succeed. Some stats out there say there are as many as 200 million abandoned blogs. Combat that statistic by simply enjoying yourself. Remember, blogging is relational - write like you speak. Blogging, while it has the need to be effective and professional, is not rocket science.

So, the viralness of the Meme is undeniable.  I have been tagged once again.  This time, it has been part of a movement here on AR.  Jeff has started to encourage all new members (and maybe older ones who haven't done it yet) to complete the meme and post it.  Well, Jeff, I am new to AR, but I currently have three memes under my belt.  I am so glad to share them with you and thanks for asking!

1 - The Original - Here is the typical meme, 5 things you don't know about me.  This is April 101 and it was fun!

2 - The Starbucker Meme - I was tagged by Chris Cree to participate in the meme created by Terry Starbucker.  This one was great because it was really neat to watch other people respond - some literally and others were more symbolic.  Very creative and kudos to my fellow optimist.

3 - The Opi - Started by yours truly, I was inspired by Liz and Vernon to think big about not who I was, but who I was going to be.  The exercise was educational, empowering, and eye opening.

So, there's the memes.  You now know more about me than you ever wanted to!

Of course AtholK is in my reader and I often read the articles he links to because our tastes seem to jive that way. Nothing new when I did it this time. Read a facinating article on whether or not we blog too much. Actually, the article claimed that most of us did in fact blog too much. Pshaw I say!

I think it has to be a personal thing. You don't like to blog very often, then don't. It doesn't fit into your schedule, great - I am not gonna hold it against you. However,I served in the military 11 years and I have a husband and four kids. I learned a long time ago that I don't require a whole lot of sleep and I am most productive between 3 and 6 in the morning. Unfortunately haven't found a client, broker, agent, ad service, or anybody else for that matter that has interest in anything I have to say at that hour - except my blog. Make the coffee, drink the coffee, write the blog, post the blog - it's like the morning paper - on your doorstep whenever you or the dog is ready to come fetch it.

Trevor does raise a vaild point that there may be a faction out there that have allowed blogging to take over their profession. So what? Is this really any different than any other situation where a fellow agent fails to facilitate their business? Poor marketing skills, refusal to participate in training, lack of real estate knowledge in general. As a small business owner, I am either going to work my marketing plan or let my marketing plan work me. Either way, the only person that knows which is going on, is me...same is true for the only one who's bills are getting paid.

I do have a job...I really do. I provide client services for those interested in real estate. I am a full time real estate agent. Therefore, marketing cannot take up my whole day - or even half. But, as I am sure you well know, there are eleventy BILLION networking/social sites out there. It's even so now that you can play-by-play your day ala Twitter. Who has that kind of time?

So, attempting not to produce duplicate AR content, I blog searched the term "networking sites". There were posts on which ones were out there, but none really got into the rate of return versus time invested. And none that I saw asked the consumers what they perfered (if you have one, please send it to me).

So, here are the two things I'd like to know:

Industry folks - which site have you found to be the biggest bang for the time? Have you found any that blew your socks off in regards to client touches?

Consumers - which sites do you trust? Where are you likely to go first? Do you even care that we have a myspace/facebook/linkedin/(insert whatever here) profile?