Blogger Connect Recap

I am down at Inman this week, as I noted in a previous post, and thus far have seen heard some pretty interesting things. I thought I’d give a quick recap of the Bloggers Connect panels I listened to today:

Avoid the content brick wall: ideas for fresh and frequent blogging - This was a superstar panel that consisted of Kris Berg, Jeff Corbett, Dan Green, and Rudy Backraty. Kris recommends avoiding extremes relating to the state of the real estate market. Another thing to utilize is a “Ask the broker” button. Also, Jott.com is a favorite technology of hers (which I first heard about on Geek Estate). Dan noted that people don’t talk about mortgages at the dinner table like real estate, so queuing up blog posts is not really an option like it is for real estate agents — data & information changes daily. Pick up the phone and call a client for content ideas. Reputation management is important — everything you write online is there forever. Jeff said that he tends to give a stronger version of news on tv, whereas Rudy said his best ideas come in the shower and he uses twitter, which he views as yet another way to waste time.

Beyond the written word: videoblogging and podcasting - Panelists were Douglas Heddings, who runs True Gotham, Rachel Natalie Klein at IntoTheBox.tv, Mike Price from MLBroadcast, and Daniel Rothamel over at RealEstateZebra.com.

Michael stated that the main difference between podcasting and videocasting is that podcasting is a distribution whereas video blogging is content. Rachel’s main take away is that Content is King (which I agree with) and also said to teach people something in an entertaining way.

Daniel - “we don’t have a traffic light” meaning that, where he lives, there are no videographers to outsource the work to as there are in Manhattan — so he just does it himself. Rachel said “I don’t sleep anymore” (since launching her site). No doubt, video creation is a huge time commitment.

Keynote: Future of Blogging - Lockhart Steele delivered the keynote and touched on the subject of the “Future of Blogging”. He focused on three main areas: editorial, distribution, and community. Erik has a good summary at Future of Real Estate Marketing.

Marketing your blog - I participated on this panel along with Erik Hersman at Zungu, Reggie Nicolay of MyTechOpinion, and Brian Rothenberg at Yahoo! Real Estate. I wrote a summary of my thoughts and tips over at Geek Estate earlier today.

Brian - “Smaller blogs can compete with the major online players by focusing on hyper-local content; neighborhoods, shops, streets, homes.”

Erik - “There’s a fine line between writing for people and writing for search engines. You should primarily write for people but secondarily ensure that your content includes the keywords you want to rank for in the SERPs”

Reggie - “A really big strategy for me was commenting on other popular blogs that have the audience I’m interested in. I also use traffic analytics tools extensively to understand what content readers are interested in.”

Drew - “I use mybloglog.com’s reporting daily to learn what people where searching for on the search engines when they found my blog. Those search terms are a great place to find inspiration for writing future blog posts. Also remember to add your blog’s URL to all of printed marketing material; start with your business card.”

Brush up your netiquette: blogosphere’s best practices. Teresa Boardman and Jay Thompson.

Jay reiterated that you shouldn’t think that too much of not getting comments on your blog - even if you don’t get many comments, your blog doesn’t automatically suck. Teresa made the point that you should not delete comments that disagree with you. You’ll never start vibrant conversations if you delete comments from opposing viewpoints.

Steer your blog toward the long tail. Brian Brady and Dustin Luther wrapped up Bloggers Connect. There was definitely differing opinions on pro-actively marketing to people (brian) vs letting them reach out to you when they’re ready (dustin). Brian recommended focusing on building your OWN community that come back again and again. Dustin falls in the mindset of providing value to readers and help readers who pro-actively reach out to you when they are ready to engage with a professional. Brian stressed the importance of having posts with calls to action and reiterated that “Blogging is just a tool”.

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