Jorn Barger Blog Pioneer

Courtesy Jorn Barger Wiki

As Business Director for Inner Architect, my first priority is solidifying relationships with prospective clients in our industries of choice. Before we focused on Direct Marketing driven social media marketing strategies for corporations, our first niche of focus was the employment niche.

As early as June of 2008, we began writing about how important blogging would be to job seekers in finding a new position. Throughout 2008 and through Q1 of 2009 we continued to postulate and support blogging as the near perfect method for job seekers to differentiate themselves in landing a job. Unfortunately our messages mostly fell on deaf ears–leaving us no choice but to look for other niches more willing to leverage blogging in their businesses.

Although many Realtors have adopted blogging, the vast majority (like job seekers) have ignored the benefits and failed to adopt blogging for their businesses. If you plan on staying in real estate for 5+ years, the following list of "Reasons" should make the payoff worth the effort.

In today’s world, Corporations, small businesses, and entrepreneurs have adopted blogging in a steady stream since the advent of Web 2.0. The actual number of established blogs is in debate, yet the rough estimate is that their are over 150,000,000 blogs in existence today.

The vast majority of Realtors are not  adopting blogging as a method and tool in their job search. Although this group has the need, and blogs are the nearly perfect application, the move to adoption is almost non existent. The following are 10 reasons why Realtors should blog.

10 Reasons Realtors Should Adopt Blogging

1. Publishing Platform: a blog is the writing platform to begin creating content about you
2. Control: blogging allows job seekers the opportunity to control their own information about their expertise and experience
3. Delivery: blogs are delivery systems for a job seeker’s content. The url for articles can be delivered to potential employers that currently blog
4. Networking: a blog allows Realtors to meet other bloggers; hopefully those new connections work for their targeted companies
5. New Skills: by adopting blogging, Realtors begin to learn about Web 2.0, social networks, blog software, delivering links, and how the new paradigm shift of information is being formulated everyday
6. Perception: Realtors that blog are perceived as being more savvy, as younger due to the perception that social media-blogging is a young person’s activity, and more relevant to employers because of these new skills
7. Visibility: blogging allows Realtors more visibility as a blog is “open” 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. It is a organic, living resume
8. Reputation Management: blogging provides a tool for Realtors to deliver messages that can correct or challenge erroneous information about them online
9. Due Diligence: when people perform due diligence on a Realtor, the first place they begin is with a Google search. Prospective clients are looking for information in Google (and online) that will give them a clue as to that Realtor's understanding of the internet. Equally important is the fact that prospects are also searching for any bad behavior or personal information that might signal the Realtor is unfit to become a service provider
10. Research: blogging requires research. Research requires skills in searching and finding information online which is a new skill for many job seekers. Research into specific subject matters that pertain to a job opening will increase a job seekers knowledge base on that subject