Plain and simple, real estate buyers and sellers are online. With so much multimedia to choose from, and the desire for buyers and sellers to reach out and engage you, it is important to create outlets and vehicles for your prospects to do this.
I was reading a post this week from Lisa Heindel and it truly blew me away. She used her blogging know how to create a very personal and informative portal for her buyers who were out of the country. Needless to say, her efforts paid off with a happy client and a closing.
In my comments to Lisa, I recommended that she include this blog in her digital resume, and she asked if I could comment back or post further on the topic, so here I am.
I created a blog today for the purpose of this post. You can easily use a slide-show or some other multimedia format. I like the use of a blog, because you can incorporate your other multimedia into the blog.
First Step: Update your resume
I have kept a copy of mine in Google Docs so it is stored in a place I can access easily. If you don't have a resume on hand, now is a great time to create one. You don't have one? Your an independent contractor, business owner. Well, a good resume is important, because at least some of your clients will want to know your qualifications in black and white.
Here's a refresher if you need to start from scratch or need updating.
Step 2: Choose a theme and a title.
You will want to choose a theme and a title for your electronic blog. I chose the title "Rebecca's Journey", because my prior experience in sales, real estate, and the Internet all culminated to get my feet pointed towards the path of blogging. You will want to chose a theme and title relative to your real estate business, if you have a niche, this will be easier for you to do.
Step 3: Add the Basics to your Blog
You want to make sure that you include an About Section. Make sure to get both professional and personal. You
will want to let the reader know that you specialize in short sales.
Let your reader know that you love dogs, or have kids, or an avid motorcycle enthusiast. All the details make up the person you are and allow your reader to make a personal connection before they pick up the phone and call you.
Add your paper resume to this blog. You will add it right in your blog entries, like you would when you write a post. Just copy and paste your paper resume, make setting adjustments as needed and voila. Your resume is now online.
Step 4: Customize and add some pizzaz
To the left of my blog I chose to add links to the other sites I belong to, as well as blogs I author. If you are a real estate professional, you links could be:
- Testimonials
- Your Website
- Your social network sites
- Your preferred partners
Now this is an electronic blog, so how bout taking it one step further. Add a section of links on questions you have answered on Trulia and Zillow and other real estate discussion forums. Add a section of specific resources for first time home buyers, investors, waterfront enthusiasts, the months market reports, etc. from your blog. Might as well get some extra bang for the buck for the hard work you already put in on your full-time blogs.
Step 5: The grand slam
Consider this blog to be your work in progress. Continue to add blog posts on:
- Recent success stories with specific details (o.k to protect privacy and use pseudonyms)
- Lessons at the closing table.
- Sold Homes
- New Awards and how you got them
- New Marketing and why you are doing it.
- Video- of new listings and more.
- A webinar you conducted or a training you gave or a conference you spoke at.
There are many ways you can share your story on this electronic resume. The key is to keep your digital resume current and make sure you keep telling your story.
Resources
I used the blogger platform to create my digital resume. I chose a free customized template to match my blog to my resume's theme and title. I used the Snag-It tool to take snapshots and customize them for this post.
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