Start a conversation that gets things moving

If you were to do a survey, you would certainly find that many blogs from real estate agents all seem to start from the same place.

That’s fine. That’s what blogs are about – local market conditions, new offerings, sales just closed.

But we’ve seen a few blogs that wander from the norm, yet they all seem to generate quite a few responses.

Responses and comments on your blog are great. It shows you hit a hot spot with readers. But more importantly, it starts the process of engaging with your readers.

And who knows, that engagement could go somewhere. Maybe create a referral for you. Or maybe get you in touch with another agent who has the perfect buyer you have been searching for.

We see a few agents who vary from the usual and perhaps list their favorite restaurants in town. People love to read those. In fact, if you look at many local city publications, their “Top of the Town” lists are very popular.

As a blogger/content creator, you are just like a writer for a local magazine or newspaper. Use the techniques they use to attract readers.

But instead of bringing them back to your newspaper website, bring them back to your real estate website. In fact, go one step further and bring them back to the neighborhood real estate map SpatialMatch software embedded on your site.

You not only can list the restaurants, but with SpatialMatch, you can show where they are located. What good is pointing out a restaurant if the person has no idea where it is?

Here are a few benefits you may gain from naming your top restaurants/coffee shops/sandwich shops/art galleries, etc.

1) Credibility that you possess local knowledge – surveys of homebuyers show that this is one of the main traits people want to see in an agent.

2) Starting a dialogue – people like to eat. And they like to give their point of view. So the chances are good you will start up a conversation with others.

3) Introductions made – and once you start that conversation, it’s easier to go further. This person is no longer a complete stranger, you’ve been introduced, through your blog.

4) Referrals/goodwill from the restaurant (or any business) – do you know how hard it is to run a restaurant? You got your picky customers, your employees who don’t feel they need to show up on time, your suppliers who forget your favorite dish, your clean-up, your morning prep, etc., etc. etc.

It’s a tough job. With endless hours.

So, when someone does something nice for a restauranteur, entirely out of the blue, like perhaps give them a great personal endorsement and post their location on your site (on SpatialMatch, of course) they are going to be grateful.

Extremely grateful.

Perhaps throw in a free appetizer grateful.

Better, yet maybe send some business your way grateful (after all they, do run into quite a few people during the course of a day).

If you want to be the hyper-local expert real estate agent in your town, then you want to have the best, state-of-the art neighborhood real estate map embedded in your site. Then you want to write about local places and events.

Go ahead. Take a walk off the beaten path with your blog every once in a while. Get out that SpatialMatch map and mark your favorites.

Take your readers on a stroll through the neighborhood. Start a conversation.

Click here to see the SpatialMatch real estate map technology.