Quick Thoughts on Reputation and Mindshift

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Look: I said some things that are apparently going to haunt me, and the only picture I took was of a couple of Teletubbies at the restaurant, but it wouldn’t have been Vegas if things weren’t at least a little bizarre.  I’ve been flipping through my notes from BlogWorld, both the Real Estate and the Regular variety.  There were 3 things that have floated to the top of my mind.

You Are What the Web Says You’ve Done

First was a session about taking risks with your online reputation: Google is forever, and if you don’t make an effort to craft your own reputation online, someone else will do it for you – you are not just what you publish, you’re what the web says you’ve done.  Which is a scary thought to me.  I’ve spent a lot of time and energy building Housechick.  Feasibly, it’s a saleable brand, an exit strategy when I decide I’ve had all the fun there is to be had from selling real estate.  If I’m not actively managing my brand – which would mean that I’ve first clearly defined it – then my whole brand’s reputation is dependent on what everyone else puts online, good and bad, consistent or not.

Think Different

Second was a gem from David Bullock, who said:

The only way you can do something different is to think something different.

I liked that so much, I put a star by it on my notes page.  Also, he had an example of a relatively low traffic, but highly targeted site he built with an insanely low bounce rate – I want to say in the single digits, but I didn’t note the exact figure.  Low traffic, high retention, high conversion – anyone sensing a theme with so many RE bloggers touting niche sites as well?

My Apologies

And lastly, but not leastly: I apologize to those in attendance the first day.  It may be my fault that Jeff Turner yelled at us all for not using more offline methods to garner more referral and repeat business (although calling us Freaks for being techno-proficient while wearing a t-shirt that says #FFFFFF is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black).  I think I saw a small portion of his brain explode the previous day when I may have mentioned, in an offhand manner, that I don’t really do past-client follow-up.  Admittedly, I am quite cognizant that this is not my forte, and being told that I *ought* to do more of it isn’t exactly breaking news.  So now the challenge is to find some method of staying in touch with past clients – at least with the ones I liked – that is neither trite nor boring, and preferably doesn’t involve a telephone.  Unless we’re talking text messages.  I’m going to have to let that idea percolate for a while.