You Don’t Have to Be Shakespeare

You don’t have to be Shakespeare to blog…you just have to be you.

I know, the thought of blogging makes many real estate agents run screaming into the night… or, at the least, squirm quietly in their seat. I’ve got good news. You don’t have to be Shakespeare. You don’t have to be an accomplished writer, either. You just have to be you, to blog like a boss.

There are so many tools available to bloggers today, that weren’t around in 2005 or 2006, when business blogging first hit the interwebs. There are several ways to easily make great content for your blog that will attract today’s buyers and sellers. Here are some ideas:

• A short video of you answering a buyer or seller question. All you need is a smartphone and a decent video editing app. Here are a few apps that are popular: Qik Video, Magisto, Cinify, iMovie for iPhone. Free apps for iPhone include Viddy, Blip Snips, Super 8 and iMotion HD. Android apps include Clash Video Editor, Snip Video Trimmer, Video Slide Show Maker. You can see that there are many choices, so you can be sure that you’ll find one that you like to use.
• Use Facebook live to create short video updates. You can download the video, upload it to your YouTube channel, then embed it in your blog. You can go one step further and generate the text from YouTube, download it, and copy it into the blog post. Then you’ll have double the SEO.
• Attend a community event and snap some pictures on your smartphone. Upload them via the WordPress app right to your blog. Later, add some descriptions and talk a little bit about the event and the neighborhood. Search engines love original, geo-tagged pictures, and content with neighborhood details. The words you use to describe the event should be sprinkled lightly with some keywords.
• If you don’t like to write, get an assistant to write down as you dictate. Get a spouse, a teenager, or even a dictation program. Dragon is a good one. You are in the business of answering buyer and seller questions, and providing solutions to your clients every day. All you need to do is get that information that down on paper…er…computer. Hemingway App is a super tool to help you write. Simply copy and paste your content into Hemingwayand you’ll get great advice on ways to make your writing better.
• Neighborhood Updates are easy to create. Simply list what has sold in the previous 3 months and what is on the market. Give the basic statistics in bullet points. The easier this kind of information is to read, the better. Always end the post with your thoughts on what all those statistics mean for today’s market. Once you have the post the way you like it, copy it as a template and use it over and over again.

There are many creative ways to provide content for your blog.  You can build a blog full of information that buyers and sellers are looking for. Don’t get stumped by that ominous-looking keyboard… your public is waiting for your expertise.