Taking your Online efforts Offline – Part I

A lot of you know that I just spoke at Inman News Real Estate Connect in New York and I have to tell you that it was an amazing experience.  After the presentation, a lot of people approached me and thanked me for inspiring them to do things differently and to go above and beyond and not settle for average.

Because I was asked to share the presentation, I decided to do it here at Agent Genius.  The whole concept of New Media is that you can take a small idea and make it great.  There are no rules when it comes to Internet Marketing and the more creative and open you are, the better.  As long as you are genuine and have no hidden agenda, there are no boundaries.

Official Launch

The first thing I will share with you is that you must complement, link and find a balance between your online and offline marketing efforts.  I’m not just talking about the obvious, like including your blog and social media efforts in all your print advertising (a lot of us have done away with the majority of print due to the high costs and weak results).  I’m talking about doing an official launch of your efforts, your blog and your brand.

You can achieve this with a press release (both online and offline).  We had a professionally written press release done when we launched Miamism.com and sent it not only to the local media (small and large publications, news channels, magazines, etc), but also to PRWeb where it was picked up by a lot of different sources.

We’ve also found that press releases are helpful when you change something in your marketing, whether it’s a fresh new look to your blog, announcing a new team member or even an upcoming speaking engagement.  It’s official, local media channels are now looking to local bloggers for content.

Expect good and bad press….it’s part of the equation – but always remember that the way you react to that press will set you apart from your competition.

Identify your sphere of influence offline &

reward them using your online influence

When you go to Realtor School (for the record….i am not trivializing this, although I should), the first thing they teach you is to hit your sphere of influence.   In my opinion there are good ways and bad ways of doing this.  You can choose to just mail them hand written cards from here to eternity, you can call them and remind them what a wonderful Realtor you are, or you can be different.

So why not use your online influence to help others?  We started with restaurant reviews of places where we know the owners and they take time to engage us (very similar to the way we do business).  We took photos of with the owners, made fun posts and later asked them to include simple window clings with our website somewhere in the entrance to their establishment.

We are also constantly looking around to see who can benefit from our online presence – our pediatrician, a new local business, local photographer…..you name it.  We help them and expect nothing in return.

New Media gives you the power to connect with your community at many different levels and in the words of Benn Rosales (who I thank for letting me attempt to fill his shoes at Inman) –

By using social media we are able to create what we call “the bowl” – we’re able to actively help others, and in return, they very often pay it forward.

….stay tuned for taking your brand to the next level