In today's technology-filled, online world, so many real estate buyers and sellers begin their real estate searches on the web. And those of us who blog, are more than happy to help provide the necessary information to those who seek it, so those seekers can make educated decisions.

But have you ever stopped to consider that although you may be spending countless hours gathering and providing this information for the real estate consumers who need it; it may still not be enough? Does that line of thinking leave you perplexed? Well let's think about this...

• We share our experiences
  
• We provide information
• We meet new people
• We learn from each other
• We do more research when we need to fill in the blanks...
  

But if our goals, as real estate professionals in our fields, are to be the best we can be, (after all, WE are the ones in the daily market, in our specific areas... NOT the media!) we must go beyond just posting bits of information on the internet. For if we do not go above and beyond this point, all we're providing is cold, impersonal data... tossed into the abyss of online real estate data that frequently only causes confusion, instead of providing answers.

So what do you do to be more than just average? 

• How do you use the information in your blog to do more than just wait for someone to stumble across it?
• How do you take it to the next level... to provide more than what even a specific, key word search by the real estate consumer will find?

Well, here's how I use my blog to reach out to my real estate customers in new and different ways. (And I can't wait to see what other real estate professionals are doing as well!)

1. This is pretty basic, but my signature for every e-mail I send contains not only my name, slogan, phone number, e-mail and web site; it also contains my blog address.  And to continue with this line of thinking, when responding to customer's questions, I frequently reference particular posts in my blog that may help answer my customer's questions.
2. In every day conversations, it amazes me how often someone will ask me a question, and I immediately remember that I've blogged about that very subject. I then refer whomever is asking the questions to a specific post, or I call them, or e-mail them with the link.
3. Because I've created my own personal brochure (which I've blogged about before, and will be doing again soon), I'm able to customize it for a particular customer, with links to posts I've written, that pertain to their particular needs. This method has enabled me to show my customers that I'm both professional AND personal, by means of a tri-fold glossy brochure.
4. When mailing postcards to a neighborhood, I've frequently already written blog posts about that neighborhood. So I quickly and easily purchase a simple domain name and point it to that particular post, then add it to the postcards I'm mailing to that neighborhood =)
5. I'm constantly adding and changing pages to my web site that contain links to applicable blog posts.

To be specific...

• I have web pages that contain links to statistical posts
• I've created pages that are specifically for real estate buyer info, and I periodically change the embedded links to my real estate buying blog posts.
• I've also created web pages that are specifically dedicated to real estate seller info; so I periodically change the links embedded in those pages, to update them to blog posts that contain seller info.
• And of course there are always my wonderful real estate sellers and their listings. Each of my listings has a dedicated web page on my web site. But I also have multiple locations on the internet that contain the information for my listings. Each of my listings gets featured multiple times on my Active Rain blog, and those links are used in many ways... via e-mail, embedded web links, links in other blogs, and cross-referencing with the dedicated web page for that listing, on my primary web site.

There are many more ways that I use my overall blog, and each individual post to educate my customers, and enhance my relationship with them. But I'm sure you don't want to sit here and read this post all night. So at this point, I think you get the idea of the many ways I utilize my blog(s).  Since I began blogging several years ago, I've met so many real estate consumers, and professionals, who have all enriched my own life, and helped me to remain successful in my career, even when it meant making changes in my business model, and including rental properties in addition to properties for sale.

*All content is owned and copyrighted by Lisa Hill.