"Stop Wasting Your Time on ActiveRain!"

Did I get your attention? Good!....

(Disclaimer: If you have the good fortune of having more business than you can handle, and have no interest in improving your business through effective blogging, simply click on through to the next post)

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Never before in the history of our industry have real estate professionals been called upon to work harder and smarter. The demands of today's consumers, along with the current state of the market, require us to achieve and maintain the highest levels of expertise, knowledge, and sophistication.

As such, we must be extremely prudent and cautious with how and where we invest our resources, time, and energies. Additionally, we must ensure that the time/money investments we make will provide a reasonable measure/rate of return on our investment.

Obviously, by virtue of your membership here on ActiveRain, you have recognized/perceived a value associated with your participation here, or perhaps you're new and you've have been told by a fellow associate that there is value/benefit to your involvement here.

Either way, you need to ask yourselves these probing questions:

"Why am I here on ActiveRain?" and "How do I make the best use of my time on this Network?"

These are very serious questions that need to be asked. Your future success and livelihood depends upon it! Each of us only has a limited amount of time each day to invest in marketing activities. Most of us have learned the importance of keeping our pipeline full. Even though we may currently be working with Buyers and Sellers, we need to also be consistently involved in promotion and marketing efforts to attract new clients.

People join ActiveRain for a variety of reasons. For some, this is simply a social network - a place to let down their hair, relax, let off some steam, and mingle with the crowd. For others, they're here to absorb the wealth of helpful and practical information being freely shared by fellow professionals. But for most of us, I think we would heartily agree that we're here to generate more business, either through consumer contact or developing referral relationships.

Maybe you're new to ActiveRain, and you're still not sure what the benefits are to participating in this community. You've accessed the ActiveRain Success Stories and are hoping that will be your experience at some point. Or perhaps you've been hanging around here a while, but really don't have anything to show for the time and energy you've invested.

Well, it's time to get serious about what you're doing here, and how it is that you can maximize the return on your investment in the Rain!

Let me just state at this point that while ActiveRain should be a vital part of your marketing arsenal, it shouldn't be your only weapon. Don't expect/allow ActiveRain to replace the importance of other viable marketing methods. Always remember that real estate is first and foremost a relational business. You need to balance your time spent on ActiveRain with other proven methods, to ensure constant contact with your sphere.

DEVELOP A PURPOSE/PLAN

First, you need to have a plan. What do you want to accomplish through your involvement on ActiveRain? Do you want to reach/attract potential clients/consumers in your local market? Do you want to develop valued referral relationships with other professionals? Whatever it is, be proactive and deliberate in identifying your plan.

For the purposes of this post, let's say you want to reach and attract potential clients in your local market. What tools/features does ActiveRain offer that will effectively help you to achieve that plan?

CREATING CONSUMER/CLIENT CONTENT

What are you publishing to your blog now? Has it been effective in reaching/attracting potential clients? Have people called or emailed you directly from something you've written on your blog? Well, depending on how long you've been blogging, if you've had zero response thus far, perhaps what you're publishing isn't perceived as something that's valuable, interesting, or engaging to consumers.

Look back through your blog archive. View your articles through the eyes of the consumer. What do you see? Lots of listings? Cold, clinical market reports with rows of boring statistical data? Post after post of the same blatant self-promotional clutter, filled with eye-popping widgets, and gadgets, and link buttons?

As I've stated in previous occasions, one of the most basic and foundational tenets of conversational blogging is to engage/intrigue your readers, resulting in meaningful discussion/dialog. This is accomplished by writing about topics that are of particular interest/value to your intended audience. In your writing, you need to convey a sense of your unique personality, perspective, and passions. You also need to demonstrate your understanding and knowledge of your particular local market, and establish yourself as the area real estate expert.

TARGET/DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT

Now that you have this awesome local content chock full of valuable information for consumers, you have to find the most effective means of distributing that content so that it reaches your intended readers.

Here on ActiveRain, everything you contribute/publish is searched and indexed by the search engines, with the exception of posts that are categorized for 'Member's Only.' Through the effective use of tags and relevant search terms in your post, your chances of being 'found' through your articles will improve.

My good friend and fellow ActiveRain Community Builder, Brad Andersohn, recently wrote an excellent detailed explanation on "How to Use the new ActiveRain Channels." Following his suggestions will help to improve/ensure greater opportunities that your well-crafted content will be discovered.

Publishing good local content to Localism offers another viable portal to provide added exposure for your articles. You can geo-target your post to show up on the relative State, County, City, or community/neighborhood pages within Localism.

Your ActiveRain 'Outside' Blog can become an effective distribution channel as well. Your Outside Blog allows you the added ability to publish your articles to your own private label domain. Your private domain title can contain key search terms, and be promoted in your marketing pieces as a destination for relevant area information.

PACE YOURSELF THROUGH TIME-MANAGED HABITS

Establish and discipline yourself to maintain specific time-frames within the course of your business day that allows for your involvement and participation on ActiveRain. Many of us have the tendency to spend an inordinate amount of time in front the computer, and can end up neglecting the other vital elements of our marketing/business plan, let alone other major priorities in our lives like family.

Hopefully, you've come away with some practical ways to better maximize the time you spend on ActiveRain, and directly enhance/improve the positive impact it will have on your business!

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For Your Further Reading Pleasure, please consider the following articles:

Katerina & Nestor Gassett, "ActiveRain Blogging for Business - How do you make Your Phone Ring?"

Brad Andersohn, "How to Start Your Own ActiveRain Outside Blog"

Jeremy Blanton, "How to Set Up your Outside Blog Domain"

Rich Jacobson, "All Things Localism"