We updated the 2012 Blogging for Real Estate Planner to help you kick your online marketing plan into top gear.

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Sign up here for SMMCamp 15 – Blogging for Real Estate on Thursday May 3 at 12 Noon EST. Features 5 real estate blogging pros.

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I recommend that you set up each new blog and periodically audit your existing blogs with the blogging planner.

In particular you need to make sure your blog is hyper-local and engages on a personal level with your target community.

Download the 2012 Blogging for Real Estate Planner right here! (all we ask is that you hit the share button above)

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1. Blogging for Real Estate Planner I listened to all the past speakers at SMMCamp and...

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I listened to all the past speakers at SMMCamp and wrote down their best blogging strategies, tactics and tips in a Blogging for Real Estate Planner.

I now use the planner to manage the creation and content production for all my real estate blogs. I’d be lost without it as it gives my blogs the focus and planning they need to zero in on my exact target market … and earn their business.

You can download a copy of my Blogging for Real Estate Planner right here ===>>> - My Blogging Plan

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is bald, a Realtor and Investor and founder of Social Media Advocate, the free real estate social media guide.

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If you’re in the real estate industry and you love social media then you need to follow the five best real estate social media blogs. Like the name suggests the blogs are all about how you use social media to grow your real estate business.

Here’s the list:

Shameless Honorary Mention

Ross Hair

I’m not allowed to vote for myself so I added my blog at http://rosshair.com to the list under the honorary mention category. This also meets the FTC requirements that mandate the inclusion of at least one bald guy with an ironic yet iconic last name in all lists that have anything to do with real estate social media.

inman Next

Before moving to Inman Next as the Chief Evangelist, Chris Smith was the Tech Savvy Agent and a regular speaker at Social Media Marketing Camp. Chris has a cult like following derived from his countless speaking engagements all over the nation and his charming boy band good looks. Inman Next has an exceptional team of writers who share the latest real estate social media news and trends (not to mention the one and only Katie Lance as editor).

But most of all you get the latest news and reviews on critical social media and real estate tools and resources that will help you grow your real estate business.

My Tech Opinion

Nicole Nicolay is another popular national speaker and keynote presenter at Social Media Marketing Camp. I love reading her borderline genius blog posts or reports on how social media and technology can put you ahead of the real estate sales curve and generate an endless pipeline of buyers and sellers.

You can catch up with Nicole at My Tech Opinion, a blog she writes with her partners Reggie Nicolay and Chad Johnson.

Real Tech Guy

Jonathan Rivera is the Real Tech Guy and founder of the Real Estate Referral Group on Facebook with over 54,000 fans.

Jonathan and I disagree on everything except that his blog and weekly podcasts provide cutting edge social media and technology tips for real estate professionals

The MLS App

Jimmy Mackin (he writes his name as Jimmy but answers the phone as James) has burst onto the social media scene with The MLS App. The MLS app really is an app that allows you to add the MLS to Facebook but it’s also the best place to find detailed “how to” reports on using Facebook to find more clients for your real estate business.

Are We Connected

Mike Mueller is a real estate social media pioneer who provides the pots and pans for many of the social media gold miners. In between speaking at every conference ever, Mike writes for his blog at Are We Connected, creates fan pages and consults to real estate professionals looking to leverage social media to take their real estate business to the next level.

Bonus Mention

The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Jay Thompson is the Phoenix Real Estate Guy. Jay doesn’t share how he publishes his blog so you need to work it out for yourself or listen to one of his seminars. But his blog is uber successful so you should probably follow it and start to copy, reverse engineer and steal his best ideas.

General Social Media Blogs

I read and recommend the following social media blogs:

Mashable – http://mashable.com

Social Media Examiner – http://socialmediaexaminer.com

All Facebook – http://allfacebook.com

Real Estate Social Media Community

If you want to hang out and connect with other real estate social media fans then you must join Social Media Advocate. It’s packed with free eBooks and videos showing you how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Activerain.

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Has Facebook killed the real estate blog?

I got caught up in a conversation with Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, about the role of Facebook in real estate marketing. Two things we debated were if it was advisable to add listings to your Facebook Page and whether new agents would start using Facebook as their primary website instead of a blog.

On the subject of adding listings to your Facebook Page (and by Page I mean your Fan Page and not your Personal Profile) I’m 100% certain that you must add listings. Jay is not so sure.

I like the idea that you can show listings (even of no one looks at them). It demonstrates your commitment to marketing real estate and your search box acts as an indirect contact capture form where you can convert your visitors into contacts. I also think that your clients will expect you to market on Facebook and we all know that perception is just as important as reality when it comes to closing a listing contract.

Jay doesn’t think Facebook is meant for listing real estate. It’s a social medium where people want to connect and communicate with each other and not look at listings. Besides, there are already so many better real estate search and listing sites.

What we both agree on is that we have no idea if adding listings to your Facebook Page will actually sell real estate.

This conversation gave rise to a larger conversation.

Is it possible that many new agents will forego the “traditional” real estate blog in favor of a real estate Page on Facebook?

Will Facebook kill the real estate blog?

It’s an idea that I’ve been playing around with for the last year.

The reason it interests me is because it is my experience that 90% of the real estate industry bump into a huge technology hurdles when it comes to online marketing. The primary hurdle is the lack of a credible and effective online presence. Most real estate professionals have some kind of online presence but this is normally limited to a page or sub-directory on their company website.

Few agents have their own blog, IDX search site or website.

It’s not that they don’t want all the online tools but they just can’t afford to hire a developer or subscribe to a service and they don’t have the technical skills to build them.

So they settle for a page or a branded sub-directory on their company website.

If that’s the case then why not settle for a Page on Facebook?

Facebook has more traffic than you can shake a stick at (600 million users), it’s free, it’s easy to set up, it’s easy to manage and it supports applications that allow you to brand and customize your Page,  add blog posts, contact forms and real estate search to your Page.

But more importantly you don’t need any technical skills and you don’t need to hire a developer.

And did I mention that it is an incredibly sophisticated viral communication platform designed to help you connect and engage with friends and fans?

This is where Jay gets very serious about his convictions.

“There’s no way that a Facebook Page can even begin to compare with hosting your own real estate blog and packing it with search friendly hyper local content.

With your own blog you control the look, feel and architecture of the blog. You own it. You own the content. You own the SEO and Google Juice, you own the conversation”.

All valid points! All really good reasons to host your own real estate blog!

Now you need to put some of this is context.

Jay Thompson is The Real Estate Guy, not just the Phoenix Real Estate Guy. He travels the nation talking about blogging and how it propelled his business from a small husband and wife team to a vibrant and successful real estate office with around 30 agents (and growing). Jay dominates local real estate search for the Phoenix area and can track dozens of closed real estate transactions (and closing checks) straight back to his blog.

Jay knows that hyper local blogging works so he spends a great deal of time and money making sure that he turns out a top quality product.

But I think that’s really the point about this article.

Jay and I don’t disagree about whether or not having your own real estate blog works and, if done correctly, will greatly improve your real estate business. If you have the budget or technical skills it is absolutely a no-brainer for you to create a local real estate blog.

However, if you don’t have the budget or technical skills what do you do? If you’re an agent who hasn’t yet invested in your own website and blog can you just use a Facebook Page?

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open an account on Facebook at www.Facebook.com
2. Create a Page for your business from your Personal Profile  or by going to www.facebook.com/pages
3. Name the Page the same as the name of your business and get a unique username (you first need to beg, borrow and steal to get 25 people to like your Page)
4. Pimp your Page with your branding, contact details and personal information
5. Add the Notes application to your Page. You can add blog posts to the Notes application.
6. Add the MailChimp application to your Page. You can add an online email capture form using Mailchimp which is free up to 2,000 subscribers or 12,000 emails
7. If you’re a Realtor add the Realtor.com See My Listings application to your Page, or
8. Add the Roost Listings application to your Page, or
9. Add the Static HTML application to your Page and insert an image of your company real estate search box or IDX search box into the Page. Make sure the image links back to your company or IDX search box.
10. Send out 20 friend invitations a day through your Personal Profile and then invite your new friends to become fans of your Page.

It’s a simple formula and I think it will work. Not as well as your own real estate blog but better than just a silly page on your Company website.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is completely bald, a full time real estate investor and broker and founder of Social Media Marketing Camp.

About Jay Thompson

Jay Thompson is a nationally recognized awesome guy and real estate blogger aka the Phoenix Real Estate Guy.

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One of the best ways to get the maximum return on the content you post online and protect yourself against being shut down by Facebook is to marry every new Facebook Page to a new blog.

The idea is pretty simple – whenever you create a new Facebook Page you should also create a corresponding blog on the same subject, ideally with the same name and a matching domain. Then when you post new content you first post the content on your blog and then syndicate the content to your Facebook Page.

You can syndicate the content by using an application like Social RSS or using a share plugin on your blog like Facebook Share.

This tactic has the advantage of creating and growing your own web presence through your blog and you get the benefit of publishing your content on Facebook.

You own the blog and all its content. You also own all the SEO and Google juice.

This is important if Facebook changes its terms of service or decides to restrict or even terminate your Facebook account.

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Congratulations to Krisstina Wise and the Goodlife Team for winning the Inman 2010 Most Innovative Brokerage award.

Krisstina runs a boutique real estate brokerage in Austin Texas and makes great use of video, neighborhood and market reports on the brokerage website.

The site has a simple, cool and clean design and immediately answers the main question on a homeowner’s mind (what’s my home worth) and addresses a buyer’s top priority (good, fast sticky search).

Take a look at the Goodlife Team website and stack it up against your site.

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After going through three developers I finally found a solution that delivers a quick, professional and free real estate blog – (see below).

It’s the perfect solution to the number one problem faced by most real estate professionals – lack of technical expertise.

So if you want a real estate blog, with a professional theme, social media icons and SEO ready with all the right plug-ins, you can get one at Free Realty Blog.

Note that hosting is not included but is available for as little as $5 a month.

Plus you also have the option of adding a Blog and Social Media Graphics package. I’m not sure if the package will be available when you order your blog but grab it if it is still under a hundred dollars.

Here’s the link again.

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I’m always amazed by how many real estate websites don’t do the one thing that they’re meant to do – convert visitors into clients.

Most real estate blogs and websites are nothing more than online brochures. They’re full of pretty images and links to local resources but they don’t have any compelling reason for a visitor to give up their contact details.

The only real exception to this is IDX or property search sites that promise instant access to listing inventory.

I’ve had this conversation with a number of internet marketers who shook their heads in disbelief when they viewed a number of real estate sites. Internet marketers understand that a visitor to your site is a complete waste if he or she moves on without contacting you.

But most real estate professionals don’t “get it” or are limited by the technical hurdles associated with publishing email capture forms, feeds and other interactive tools.

I’ve written a few articles on the subject but defer to Greg Clement, one of the best online real estate marketers, who wrote a great report on the subject.

You can download the report right here.

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I started to play around with PhotoFunia and and Animoto and created this cool video in around 30 minutes using one simple head shot.

Photofunia (free) provided the stock images like the billboards and Animoto ($30 a year) converted the images into a video.

The branding and marketing possibilities are endless. You can use images of your business and your products and quickly convert them into a cool marketing video.

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Here’s a fun tool to turn an ordinary head shot picture into a poster.

It’s by a company called PhotoFunia and it’s free.

You can use it as a cool way to spice up your regular profile photo and in your marketing material.

The best part for me was when I turned a number of images into a video using Animoto and showed the video to my children. They’re young enough to think that their ole dad is very cool and famous.

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