Top 10 Ways to Use Blogging in Real Estate #8: Stay Ahead of Your “Peers”
Learning Tech Tips
I don’t know about YOU, but I have learned more about technological tips and tricks as a blogger than I EVER did as your regular, run of the mill, non-blogging real estate agent.
No, this is not a direct result of blogging, but it is a very powerful INDIRECT benefit of blogging, and a very important way that I use blogging in real estate.
What Have I Learned?
It’s more like what have I NOT learned. Almost all the things that I do, as a real estate agent, are tied, somehow to what I have learned since I began blogging in 2006. The top 3 technological benefits that blogging has brought to me is: Listing Tools, SEO and Social Interwebbing.
Listing Tools
My interaction with other real estate bloggers has given me advanced knowledge (compared to my local peers) of awesome tools that I can use for my listings.
- Real Estate Shows – This has to be my all-time favorite listing tool. It costs just $125 a year and gives me unlimited amounts of “virtual tours” of both my listings and various neighborhoods. My seller clients love them. My potential buyer clients love them and I just think it is one of the coolest things ever. What’s more? Real Estate Shows offers a flyer template that syndicates to different real estate sites and even includes a version for CraigsList. .
- VFlyer and Postlets – I had no idea what a “virtual flyer” was before I started blogging. Nor did I know how to use it. I figure the more virtual flyers that are out there pimping my listings, the better for me and my sellers. Right?
SEO
As I began to blog, I started learning more and more about SEO. By no means am I an SEO expert, but since I have started blogging, I have garnered enough knowledge on this topic to know:
- Who to turn to when I have questions ( Jack – Mary – Brian )
- What to avoid when putting together a SEO-able post
- Who to stay away from when seeking advice
- What to read to learn more ( SEO School – SEOBook )
This bit of knowledge has given me the upper hand when evaluating my competition. I can smell a spammer a mile away, and am confident that they wont be “competition” much longer. This allows me to focus my energies on building my web presence in a way that ensures my search engine placement, and not waste my time trying to compete with an eventual nothing.
Social Interwebbing
As a blogger I have joined um-teen social networks, and have made many, many friends. These are the friends that I know I can turn to when I have questions or concerns about different technological difficulties that I run into. These are the friends I can turn to when I need advice about a new platform or web application. These are friends that keep me on my toes and ahead of the curve when it comes to ALL things real estate.
So even though this is not a go-and-do kind of blogging idea, staying ahead of your “peers” is an extremely valuable way that you can use blogging in real estate.
