Ask An Ambassador: Efficient AND Productive Blogging

Time is precious.  Once gone, there's no getting it back, unless you're H.G. Wells it moves in one direction only. 

We have to find a way to balance our personal and business lives in a manner that makes sense and doesn't red line our blood pressure at the same time. 

So that brings me to blogging.

Realistically each post we write has a primary purpose:

1.  To attract business

and/or

2.  To entertain

For either type of post, I can be efficient, but not necessarily productive.

I can write most posts quickly.  Source and add the eye candy.  Start to finish 20 minutes or less unless I am trying to do a really deep dive into a topic (e.g. new construction top level process from start to finish).

That checks off the Efficiency criteria, right?

But did I check off the Productivity criteria also?

If the purpose of the post is to gain business, the scorecard on Productivity may take some time to give me that answer, but there are things I can do to increase the odds of a blog post leading to business.

It's a bang the drum moment (again), but UNIQUE & RELEVANT REAL ESTATE CONTENT is the key to productive blogging.  Content matters.  If you're not already top of mind for your audience, you've got to produce content that will get you top of mind.

What real estate information does your potential client base seek?

Can you provide that content?

Are other agents providing that information? (and if so, can you do it better?)

Does the content appeal to enough people to make it worthwhile to write (absurd example, I COULD write about homes for sale on the 17th green with a view of the water hazard.

Obviously, that's a REALLY small segment of the society that would care and an almost nonexistent segment that would try and use the internet to find them.

Better choice?  A post about Golf Course Community Homes for Sale in _________".  That's a much broader appeal and still more specific than the big real estate portals offer.  The odds of that post being productive and leading to future calls is good.

That's not to say that other types of posts can't be efficient and productive too, but that depends significantly upon your audience.  If you've got a fully established sphere that already follows you, recipes and posts about pets might work great as supplemental and showing the human side.

But if a potential home buyer or seller doesn't already follow you, what are the odds that someone is going to use Chicken Florentine as the search term to find their next agent?

If you're just starting blogging, my recommendation would be to focus heavily on producing the Unique and Relevant Real Estate content that will lead to the reward of consumer contacts.  You can branch out later into any topic you choose once you've established a critical mass of posts that can help you gain business.

Of course, the blogging path you choose is always in your own hands.  There are many paths and blogging success to you may mean something different than it does to someone else.

Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,

Bill & Liz aka BLiz