What’s the Forecast?
If you Google the word “weather”, you’ll find national sites like the Weather.com and Wunderground.com. Both sites start with a national forecast. Then, you can narrow down to the local area you are interested in and find what the weather will be for that day or week. You’ll see a 5 day forecast and all the local data about current weather conditions. Google “New York Weather” and Wunderground.com, NYTimes Weather and Intellicast.com appear. They are all national sites that allow you to focus in on your specific area and get hyper-local weather related information.
So What’s All this Talk that Real Estate is Local?
We all know that just like the weather, real estate is local. Unique micro-climates exist in each of our Cities and towns we live and work in. You won’t hear the weatherman say the average national temperature in the United States is 65 degrees. Nor would you hear him say that it will be 82 degrees in California today.
Real estate is a very local and relationship driven people business. As agents, we live in the markets we serve. We know our neighbors. We know the people who work in the local businesses we frequent. Over time, they become our friends. They become our clients. But we can only be in so many places at once. We can only meet so many people each day. Wouldn’t it be great if we could expand our reach and grow our sphere of influence? Yes it would. And yes you can.
Have a Home Base
Having a local blog or website about your business is essential. You need a “Home Base”. You need a place to add your listings and create local content that consumers could use. You need a place share your expertise. Your blog and website are great for this. But is this all you should be doing? Some would have you believe that it is in your best interest to just contribute your knowledge and listings on your own site or blog. I believe otherwise.
In addition to your “Home Base”, there are numerous national and local websites, social networking sites and micro-blogging sites where you can establish a valuable local presence. Consumers are frequenting these national sites and are actively participating on them. You should too. They are sharing information about themselves, their home buying and home selling wants and needs and are asking questions. You should be there to engage them. Say it ain’t so Rudy? Really? Yes. But most of you reading this already know this. I am talking to those who might be confused, on the fence or just unaware about how YOU can be sharing your knowledge by marketing yourself and your businesses and networking outside of your own blog or website.
Were you hoping for more details? Great, for those of you who are interested in being more proactive in the Social Media space, my answer is coming up in a follow up blog post…….later today.
Note: Hurricane IKE is bearing down on the Gulf coast of Texas. Our thoughts are with everyone. Stay safe.
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