Blogging in the commercial real estate world is not as common as it is in other industries. Those real estate professionals who do are far and few between and more often than not, those that do are not brokers but represent another sector of the industry.
When I tell people in my industry that I have a blog, it is often met with shock and surprise; or maybe it’s confusion and I don’t even realize it. But never, not once, has the response ever been, “Oh, great, I have one too.” Colleagues, friendly competitors, business contacts and even clients find just the fact that I have a blog to be unique and interesting. The commercial real estate world just see the big picture yet. The “boys club” of the past still believes that regimented, daily cold calling routines are the way to generate business and exposure in my business. So the question becomes, how do you overcome years of successful business development and open an entire industry’s eyes to a whole new way of life? How do you turn general blogging curiosity into actual blogging interest?
What I see as the problem here is not the mindset, it’s the evidence. So many people, across all industries, don’t blog yet because they just don’t understand it. But, in commercial real estate, I think the real problem is not that they don’t understand it; it’s that brokers simply don’t have the time for it and they have yet to see any evidence that it’s actually useful. To convince a broker to take even two minutes of their day, you must also convince them that it is not a waste of their time because in commercial real estate, time literally is money.
As a skeptic in the beginning myself, I found it hard to believe that a blog, even given the complete time and attention it needed, could never and would never be a productive use of my time. I fought my “blog guru” for months on the process, arguing that it was taking too long and I just wanted to be set up and generating exposure already. That was back in August and here I am today writing this post as living proof that a blog is one of the most useful tools to a commercial real estate professional. I post about once a week, sometimes not even an original article, sometimes just a re-post of a helpful or informative article I’ve found elsewhere, and I generate anywhere from 12-15 new subscribers to my blog every week. My blog focuses on what I do, but more importantly, it is a living, breathing representation of who I am. Here, on my blog, you can find links to the charities that I support, you can find a dog to adopt, you can get advice on relationship development, you can check my calendar for fun events I am participating in, you can even get representation to create your own blog. But, more importantly than anything else, you can find out who I am on my blog. Commercial real estate representatives are not chosen because of the company they work for or the pretty picture on their business cards. We brokers are chosen based on who we are, what we represent and what we bring to the table. Every week 12-15 new people actively chose to be a part of my world and every week I gain 12-15 people on my team. What other real estate professional can say that?
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about how to duplicate the blogging process for yourself, contact me!
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