he following tips were drawn from a panel discussion moderated by Victor Lund of the WAV Group entitled “The Power of Social Networking: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogging Tactics of Top Luxury Professionals” at the 7th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat on Tuesday, April 29, 2009 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas.

Guest presenters were Perry & Co. Vice President Jon Larrance, Jim Walberg of Caribbean Islands Realty, and Bruce Hiatt of Las Vegas’ Luxury Realty Group.

BLOGGING TIPS FOR REALTORS

• Define your precise target audience and unique keywords.  (Monitor your
  keyword combinations with Google Alerts)  Incorporate your keywords in all blog titles and posts. 
• Purchase your keyword URLs, be specific for the target market you are trying to reach.
• Choose your blog platform of preference – such as WordPress, Blogger, or BlueHost.
• Write/post consistently.  Especially when getting started you need to build your content fast so commit to a frequency and stick to it.  For Realtors,
  the easiest place to start is to write about your primary service neighborhoods – blog about its restaurants, shops, parks, access to entertainment and recreation.
• If you write about a restaurant or shop, let the owner know, maybe they’ll offer your readers a discount or free coffee.  The owner will also become a great source of referral business.
• Anytime someone asks you a question about a real estate topic, turn it into a blog post.
• Link, link, link.  And link back to your earlier blog posts – this will enhance SEO.
• Get a blog coach, find a blogger you respect and pick their brain for the latest strategies.
• Incorporate “calls to action” – like the free coffee offer.
• If you blog about your listings, be as descript as possible about the interior design.  We see a tremendous amount of traffic based on those types of keyword searches.  And make cross-links to and from the property page/website.
• Blogging about your philanthropic efforts also garners big traffic.
• Use your blogging platform’s default URL generator, rather than renaming – this too will enhance SEO.
• With some slight modification your blog posts can be uploaded on other Realtor blogsites such as Trulia, Realtor.com, RealTown, ActiveRain, etc – but pick and choose based upon readership.
• Use lots of photos and embed videos – not only will this will enhance SEO, but it will keep visitors engaged longer.
• Cross promote your Blogsite on all of your Social Networking profiles,
  on Facebook, on your website, in your email signature, and on all your printed materials.

FLICKR & YOUTUBE 

• Like we said, people want to see lots of pictures and videos.
• Think of these primarily as blogging platforms and create compelling stories with your image strings.

FACEBOOK & LINKEDIN TIPS from the Panel Discussion. Click here to see TWITTER TIPS.  Read the conference attendee’s Reviews of the Panel.

Click here to see more of Jim Walberg‘s Winning Blog Strategies. Or here to see Jim‘s account of the LuxuryRealEstate.com Las Vegas Conference.

 

Written by Perry & Co Vice President Jon Larrance

Photos courtesy of Ilya’s Photography