Feed your blog local “food” and reap the rewards!
Your posts are local posts and local posts are fresh (sung to: brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are fresh! jingle from the 80’s)
I have noticed a growing trend for people to want to support their local business, eat locally grown foods, frequent local establishments…why not be local with your blog?
Let’s face it, the people we should be speaking to are the ones in our community and our blog should be very geographically focused around our targeted local areas.
Blogging locally
The following are some simple things you can implement to make your blog more “local”:
#1- drop your local keywords in your posts and titles often. Instead of writing “I love helping sellers”, write “I love helping home sellers in Western Massachusetts”.
#2- write topically about the area. For example: my city has been undergoing extensive road construction for two years now. I blog with updates on the construction, pictures of the proposed finished projects, photos of the current work, etc. I get at least a handful of visitors a day on these posts because people are driving through town, are frustrated by the traffic and mess and are researching what is going on.
#3- share a favorite spot or highlight a business. I helped with the restoration of a historic garden here in Westfield, MA and did a video and wrote a blog about it and my connections to it last year. It gets viewed often and I am happy to share a gem with my readers.
#4- share photos. Not enough time to write a huge post? Start something with just photos. Snap some along your way and then the post can be a continually updating source of information on the topic.
#5- cover events. Taking your kids to a community event? Snap a few pictures, grab a quick video and later that night write a summary post on the day’s events. Bonus points if you interview or photograph local “celebrities” and then share the post with them! They will take your post and share it with their sphere.
#6- share other bloggers. I did a post on my five favorite Western Massachusetts blogs. It was a win for all of us as I promoted their blogs and in turn they shared mine.
#7- use the content curation idea. Share news stories, videos, other photos, etc. around a local point of view (with proper credit of course!).
Going local
Since most of us work in a very defined area, shouldn’t you be trying to work your blog posts around finding potential clients and customers in your local area? What ideas can you share about “Going Local”?
MH for Movoto
April 18, 2011 at 12:23 pm
So true. We're a bigger brokerage so it's hard to go local while remaining relevant to all our clients, but we try to hi-light our NorCal roots whenever possible.
LesleyLambert
April 18, 2011 at 1:33 pm
If your agents in different areas are blogging, be sure to point out some of these ideas for them to use individually on their blogs, too!
Jill Kipnis
April 18, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Lesley, these are great suggestions. We've also found that for Realtor bloggers, the 80/20 rule for blogging works best: 80 percent of posts about the local community and news, and 20 percent of posts about real estate.
LesleyLambert
April 18, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Good thinking! Thanks for sharing!
Doug Francis
April 18, 2011 at 9:31 pm
When writing your posts, mention your town or keywords naturally. Maybe use an H3 headline with your keyword, that will also make your blog post more visually appealing.
Jason Chandler
May 24, 2011 at 11:26 am
Great tip. Thank you for sharing.