If you're a regular blogger, you've discovered that there's never a shortage of ideas for blog topics. However, there MIGHT be a shortage of topics you WANT to blog about any given day, and there's almost always a shortage of time, so what turns on the light for a particular blogging session?
I personally tend to draw on recent personal experiences and look for the hook that ties it to real estate or this community. Topic selection tends to run through a gauntlet of questions before I go look for a picture to attach to the topic.
Who is the intended audience: consumer or other real estate professionals?
What's the size of the audience? E.g. I saw a meme today that would have been perfect for ONE particular member of this community, but unless my target audience of 1 is one of my current clients, or a very narrow niche attempt, an audience of 1 probably isn't an ideal use of my time. Better to try for all potential home buyers for (e.g.) our local 55+ community Heritage at Miami Bluffs.
Can you nail the intended tone? Because as we've all seen, if there's two (or more) ways to interpret something, there will always be someone that will take the one not meant.
Is the topic controversial? Your call as to whether or not to dive into that pool of piranhas.
Will the post last? Some topics are like today's edition of the newspaper, they'll engage TODAY, but next week they're long gone in the memory banks. On the other hand, an evergreen post can work for years.
How many other people are writing about the exact same topic? Writing about common topics on your own web site fills a need for FAQ information, but being the 15th person today to post the exact same thing in a community such as this one probably limits your audience to people that already follow you.
What's my mood? If I'm ticked off about something, better to push away the keyboard and come back another time. But if the vibe is right, the words flow more easily and the post gets finished quicker.
So that could lead me to write about how we arrived at selecting the light in the picture for our new home. Who knew you could make lights out of bourbon barrel rings? Or how your brother-in-law could hang beach balls of the same size to model them for us?
Or it could lead me to write about how the weakest link in a company decides the entire company's reputation.
Or the importance of follow up communication from a contractor.
Or.... the choices could go on and on. Maybe one of them will make it to the top of the heap next week :)
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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