Your Posts Are the Stone, Your Readers Are the Ripples ...and the Ripple Effect comes from how your posts touch & connect you to people, then a result is born of that connection.
I use many social media platforms to promote my business and blogs from Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Houzz to LinkedIn and Active Rain. I also try to get clients to post reviews on me in my comment sections of Realtor.com and Yelp.com. I produce local interest videos and local entrepreneur interviews on YouTube.com and of course post all my listings…everywhere social.
While the cumulative exposure and effect from social media has certainly elevated my exposure as a Realtor and benefited my posted listings, none has done more for me than Active Rain and blogging combined with my Yelp.com testimonials.
I never understood why people blogged, nor did I get why people read other people’s blogs. I mean I have classic novels on my book shelf I need to read before I read Joe Realtor’s opinion on his blog post, right? Wrong!
ActiveRain woke me up to the fact that, while sorting and qualifying is required, I now had a window in to very experienced agents thought process, systems, strategies and problem solving techniques. This was gold! I could be like a Napoleon Hill and essentially connect one on one with some of today’s most successful agents and glean from their combined knowledge.
I also discovered I had an audience of peers; people started to follow my posts and chime in on my comments. I discovered my voice and learned to have an opinion that I knew would be both contested and agreed with, but I could be more like an ambassador than a bull in a China shop about it. So it helped me level off and thicken my skin; dare I say enjoy the debates.
This alone would be enough of a success story, the growth, the learning curve and the exposure to the treasure troth of knowledge in one concentrated website, but that would leave out my favorite victory within ActiveRain: No Guarantees.
No Guarantees, was not my first “viral blog post”, in fact my first one went viral because so many people disagreed with my philosophy in it, it’s actually still my most commented on blog. But, I grew from that experience and out of that growth cam No Guarantees.
This went featured in ActiveRain, then it got shared throughout Buffin & Company and somehow made it to the President of Coldwell Banker SoCal that same week it posted. The President, Rick Hoffman, sent it out to the entire SoCal agent roster as a company in-mail and that’s where the magic started to happen!
Through Buffini & Co I received e-mails and phone calls thanking me & complimenting the post; this put me on the radar for the first time in that community which has lead to some amazing referral relationships. The Coldwell Banker effect was more immediate & profitable in the dollars and cents manner: a broker from Leucadia, CA (a very high caliber town) called me out of the blue. He said he had a very good investor client that he shared my blog with and that man wanted to talk to me, so this broker was personally referring me based on the character of my blog post essentially. When I contacted this gentleman, he asked me if I was the Realtor that wrote that blog post, I said I was. He said, “ well then, the guy that wrote that post, is the kind of Realtor I need to represent my daughter on her home purchase. She’s getting ready to buy in San Diego, would you like to be her agent?” (WOW! In my head) and “yes sir I would.” out of my mouth. That was my first closed escrow from a blog post!
No Guarantees was the first time I felt pride as an author, genuine passion and proud of what I wrote, because it came from the heart. It’s my #1 most viewed featured post at (4,190), it’s my #2 most commented on featured post at (98) and my #1 Short URL Clicks featured post at (222). It also has produced 1 closed escrow for me and one current listing for me, which I can unequivocally attribute to the post. The closed escrow grossed me $13,3375.50 and the current listing is a potential $8,550.00. So I can actually assign a $ value to
No Guarantees of almost $22,000 and of course the priceless value of encouragement and confidence it gave me to become and avid blogger and now, published author.
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