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SMMCamp 15 – Blogging for Real Estate on Thursday May 3 at 12 Noon Eastern.

Every real estate marketing plan needs to include connecting with your community online and on social networks. The best way to set up an online presence is to create a blog that focuses on your hyper local community. Our 5 real estate bloggers will show you exactly what you need to do to find new clients and close more business.

Register to the right (or go to www.SMMCamp.com) ===>>>

When it comes to real estate blogging content isn’t just king, it’s kong.

That’s why we invited six real estate bloggers to share the exact content strategies they use to engage and connect online with new clients.

SMMCamp 10 – Blogging for Real Estate features 5 real estate blogging experts who will share the exact tactics and content strategies they use every day to generate real estate sales from their blogs:

Thursday July 21

12 Noon to 3pm Eastern

Online and Free!

Join thousands of real estate professionals on the best 3 hour workshop you’ll attend this year.

Sign up at SMMCamp or to the right of the page =======>>>>>>

One of the most effective ways to use real estate video to engage your clients is to create a neighborhood real estate video.

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Register for SMMCamp 6 Mobile Marketing for Real Estate on Dec 9  ===>>>

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The goal of the video is to capture the look and vibe of the neighborhood (and position you as the local real estate expert). Take your audience on a virtual tour and capture the best and most iconic local features. Pay special attention to the style and architecture of homes in the neighborhood.

One company that has really incorporated real estate video into their marketing is Nest Realty in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Not surprisingly Nest Realty was received the 2009 Inman Most Innovative Brokerage award.

Nest has produced quality videos for the town and each local neighborhood. The videos are short (between one and four minutes) and really reflect the feel and flavor of the community.

Nest has produced a high quality product but you can produce your own professional looking video using an inexpensive camera and even an iPhone. The key is that if you can’t afford a professional production then make the video a little more personal and really inject your personality.

A couple of power tips:

You can shoot a video with a Flip camera. It’s very low tech and includes very basic editing software. I recommend that you shoot very short clips of up to 5 seconds and simply splice them together using the Flip software loaded on your laptop (Flip makes it easy).

Blend your brand into the video through “product placement”. Make sure you record a scene with your listing sign in the yard.

Upload your video to YouTube and don’t take short cuts when it comes to adding the right title, keywords, tags and description. You can also add your video to WellcomeMat and use their tools to spruce up the presentation.

Don’t forget that the purpose of the video is show case you as the local real estate expert. Make sure that you look credible, knowledgeable and professional if you introduce, narrate or appear in the video.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is bald and a huge fan of real estate social media.

Last week’s Social Media Marketing Camp’s blogging webinar was such a success that I decided to write a follow-up post on 7 Real Estate WordPress Blog Essentials.

I will share a tip that has been bringing more traffic to my site as well as a list of wordpress plugins that you will get your blog off and running to a great start.

I’ve noticed that I have been receiving additional traffic to my site just by making sure to do 1 simple thing:

Label All Pictures With Keywords In Your Blog

Images are great for your blog but it is so easy as you upload them to shorten the actual name of the file to wp.jpg for example using the above image. There are more internet searches for wordpress plugins so labeling it wordpress-plugins.jpg or real-estate-wordpress-plugins.jpg is even better.

However, you want to use the words for your particular specialty whether it may be open house, tax credit, forensic loan audit or commercial cost segregation. Be sure to start implementing this right away as well as add this plugin to work simultaneously with this strategy:

SEO Friendly Images

SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress optimization plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. This plugin improves traffic from search results.

Platinum SEO Pack

Platinum SEO Plugin is the ultimate wordpress SEO solution.  Platinum SEO Plugin offers all the features of All in One SEO plugin plus more. Here are a few key features:

Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post with new content.

Great Real Estate

Great Real Estate Plugin – enables real estate agents, brokers, and REALTORS to display and manage information about their listings. Widgets and custom page templates permit display of only available homes, only sold homes, a random “featured” home, and a detailed property page for a listing.

Mortgage Center

Mortgage Center Plugin – provides

• Real-time mortgage rates from Zillow’s GetRateSummary API
• A monthly payment calculator utilizing Zillow’s GetMonthlyPayments API
• Closing cost estimates (courtesy of Closing.com)
• A few educational mortgage articles (courtesy of Zillow.com Help Center)
• Links to the latest blog posts from Mortgages Unzipped, Blown Mortgage, and Mortgage Reports.

Real Estate Chart Of The Day

Real Estate Chart of the Day is a widget-based plugin. It displays relevant real estate and mortgage-related charts to your blog.

Data includes:

• Existing Home Sales
• New Home Sales
• Mortgage Rate Trends
• Fed Funds Rate
• Retail Sales Data
• Consumer Confidence
• Home Price Index
• Case-Shiller Index
• Pending Home Sales

BONUS:

Mortgage Loan Calculator

Mortgage Loan Calculator plugin is a great value-add for any loan officer or real estate agent looking to provide good-looking, functional, valuable content to readers.

The screenshot below displays The Calculation Summary and Chart, as it appears when a visitor clicks the Calculate button. 

Have you installed your FREE copy of wordpress to your website yet? Be sure to get in the game that will help you to dominate your local market and let us know in the comments any questions that you may have on this topic.

Naomi Trower
Real Estate Broker
Social Media Strategist
Social Media Real Estate Marketing
“Teaching Professionals Social Media”

Jonathan Kauffmann, owner of Nest Realty and winner of the 2009 Inman Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise award will present at Social Media Marketing Camp 3 – Blogging for Real Estate.

Jonathan will discuss the importance of building your web presence and providing highly relevant local information to your real estate clients. Jonathan integrates IDX search, market reports, neighborhood sales and statistics and quality video into his website and blog.

Social Media Marketing Camp 3 – Blogging Edition will feature 5 real estate blogging experts who will discuss how to use your blog as the foundation of your social media marketing strategy.

Thursday March 25, 2010 from 10am to 2pm Mountain – ONLINE and FREE!

You can register for SMM Camp at www.smmcamp.com

Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy and winner of the 2009 Inman Most Innovative Blogger award will present at Social Media Marketing Camp 3 – Blogging for Real Estate.

Jay will discuss the importance of delivering content that appeals to your your visitors and will convert them into real paying clients.

Social Media Marketing Camp 3 – Blogging Edition will feature 5 real estate blogging experts who will discuss how to use your blog as the foundation of your social media marketing strategy.

Thursday March 25, 2010 from 10am to 2pm Mountain – ONLINE and FREE!

You can register for SMM Camp at www.smmcamp.com

It had to happen sooner or later – a real estate blogger was sued in Florida for $25 million.

Lucas Lechuga had a bad day.

First he was sued for $25 Million by a Florida developer who didn’t like what Lucas had to say about one of his developments and felt defamed by information published in Lucas’s blog about Miami Condo Investments. (I’d give you a link to the site but it’s been taken down).

Then he was fired by his employing broker at EWM.

You can view the full CBS Report by clicking on Florida Real Estate Blogger Sued for $25 million.

Just one more reason why you should attend SMM Camp 3 – Blogging on March 25 (online and free)

P.S. – This story is a few years old but the lesson to be learned is very relevant Today!

Sign up for Social Media Marketing Camp 3 – Blogging Edition on Thursday March 25, 2010 from 10am to 2pm (Free and Online) and immediately download a copy of the eBook “Conversion, Conversion, Conversion – How to Convert Vistors to Your Real Estate Blog into Clients“.

To register for SMM camp and get the eBook, complete the short form on the top right of the page.

It’s official!

Social Media Marketing Camp 3 – Blogging Edition is on Thursday March 25, 2010 from 10am to 2pm Mountain Time.

SMM Camp 3 is an all day webinar featuring the best real estate social media experts on one social media topic.

Our topic is Blogging – How to Dominate Your Local Real Estate Market Through Blogging!

Over 2,000 real estate professionals registered for the last SMM Camp and raved about the event. You can view their full and unedited comments right here and register by filling out the short form on the right of the page.