By ANDREW GALE
Real estate isn’t exactly the most sexy thing for your audience to be sharing on its social networks. Because of this, most of the content you share will probably be read, but not reshared. It almost feels like a constant battle of creating content over and over and hoping something might change.
Why is this?
Traditionally, these types of people aren’t going to be sharing content, but they are going to be absorbing it.
This can happen for a number of reasons. A lot of people just don’t care to share this type of information with their friends or don’t want people to know what they’re reading — and a million other reasons. The key is to continue creating content regardless of the reshares you get directly on your blog because the people clicking through to it are the ones you need to be capturing. These people may not be influencing their peers with your content, but they’re all getting influenced somewhere.
Amplify your reach
Many users on social networks are in “listen only” mode. The key to getting your content amplified is to find out where these people are getting their information and start appearing in those places. Focus on getting these industry and community leaders to amplify your voice instead of just the consumer.
- Local newspapers
- Industry experts
- Local events and conferences
- Local publications
- Local bloggers
What influences these people who own the publications is not always the same content that will connect with your audience. This is where the challenge lies that you need to solve. I live in Orange County and we have the Orange County Register, which is a pretty big local publication. What I need to create for them to publish is completely different than what I need to create for my audience.
Doing so will harness the power of the audiences these publishers have built and indirectly reach your audience by thinking about where they’re being influenced first. Over time from getting the credit, your content will also rank higher and allow people to find you online easier.
Great outreach plan
You’re going to want to have a plan before doing any outreach. First, figure out where you want to be seen (which we covered above). When thinking about this, think about where your target homebuyers and sellers are spending their time online.
Secondly, refine your pitch before sending over to your industry leaders.
Third, follow up. The world does not revolve around you, and people can/will forget you easily. Not on purpose, they’re just busy. I normally wait two to four days after not getting a response to follow up. I also use followupthen.com (free) that allows me to set reminders, and it will email me when it’s time to follow up with them again.
Fourth, don’t give up. This is an easy one, but I have a great example for you. A while ago I published a book about 10 highly successful Kickstarters, and I needed to get coverage for it. One of the people I emailed was at Forbes and basically just said no. After 49 other emails sent to him of back and forth, giving him ideas on how he could cover it, he finally said yes. Persistence is key. It was also covered on Fast Company and other great news outlets. Every single one said no at first.
Mix up your content strategy
If you’re in an industry like real estate, it’s somewhat safe to assume people will share something exciting about their town rather than the new loan rates. Figure out what type of content you can create that is relevant in your community and mix that into your regular content plan. Some ideas for this might be:
- New events
- Celebrities moving in/out
- Big changes to the city and what that means to your audience
- Something awesome a small local business is doing
- Something awesome a local person is doing
- Controversial opinion pieces on what’s right/wrong with your city (Use this carefully, very powerful stuff)
And there are many more ideas that are all valuable to your community. One more thing to note is that when you build a relationship with someone like a small influential person/business and cover them on your blog, chances are that they’re going to share that with their networks, too. It’s directly going to amplify your reach by using someone else’s community they have already built.
‘Make everything easy’ checklist
The basics of what people need to share your content. You’re probably already doing this so it’s going to be a quick and dirty checklist just to be sure.
- Great content (Don’t expect people to read/share your 200-word post with no images you made last night right before bed)
- Easy social share buttons (shareaholic.com)
- Easy email capture (sumome.com)
- Great visuals (shutterstock.com)
- Good blog design (themeforest.com)
When done right, these are the only essentials you need to have a great blog that people will share.
At the end of the day, none of this stuff is highly technical or really hard. All it takes is proper goal setting with the right diligence to follow it through. Most people either don’t try it (the outreach part) or don’t follow through with it. This is great news for you because now you can use it to your advantage. I rarely see any Realtors in the updates I’m getting from the local news outlets I’m subscribed to. I hope to you see you in it soon.
Andrew Gale is the founder of FlyerCo.com, an innovative, easy-to-use real estate flier creator online. Passionate about all things marketing and startup related.
