Taking your Online efforts Offline – Part II

I can’t stress enough the need to be GENUINE and not sales pitchy….remember that with everything I tell you.

I already mentioned an official launch and complementing your on-line and off-line marketing efforts.  Also mentioned the opportunity to reward your sphere of influence with your online influence, but now it’s about taking action and being creative.

Where can series posts lead?

Paul Chaney is going to get tired of me giving him credit, but I give credit where credit is due.  (BTW, he is writing a book on Social Media…..shameless plug for him).  Paul, as my mentor, suggested that creating a posting schedule for your blog is often a good idea to keep juices flowing and content fresh – he mentioned that many had series posts like fun Fridays or photo Mondays…..that’s when MIAMISM FRIDAYS was born! (have I said thank you Paul?)

Here’s what’s interesting – we started posting videos and photos of Miami to promote our community.  But later realized that not only could our readers contribute to the brand but they would be part of it.  People like recognition and will share posts with friends and loved ones and WILL remember you.  We created a Flickr group and constantly invite people to collaborate – the posts always give them credit and link love – so once again we are using our online influence to promote their business while they build our brand.

What’s important about this concept is that you need to be open to new ideas and be willing to open doors.  Test different things, be creative and keep in mind that you do not have to be a great writer, a great marketer or even a techie (I’m neither of the 3).

Branch out your blog

With the idea of promoting our city and the help of a techie friend, I decided to create a photo-blog – taking impromptu photos from my phone directly to the photo blog.  I usually go back later and include addresses and contact information.  It’s a city resource of places to visit – nothing fancy.  Interesting opportunities have come out of this blog:  A Swedish TV channel featuring Miamism in their show, photos used for Airline Magazines with credit to us and local organizations contacting us for help.

Taking a crazy idea into the Twilight Zone

Here’s where it gets wild – hold on to your seats – it shows how a trivial idea can turn into a great one.  December of 2007 I was doing some keyword research and found that “mojitos” was the number 1 searched keyword in Google at the time.  I decided to try out an experiment, told Rick to get his mojito ingredients and we would shoot a quick “how-to” video for our blog (no fancy equipment and no editing skills whatsoever).  That single post has over 32,000 views and has led to “mojitos” becoming our staple.

It doesn’t hurt that we love mojitos and it creates great conversation – but most importantly, that great conversation has lead to F2F meetings where the ice has already been broken.   The fear of negative connotations related to an alcoholic beverage being unprofessional was superseded by the powerful social implications it has brought to our business.

We get emails on a regular basis from readers of our blog saying “we feel like we know you and can’t wait to have a mojito with you” – or Twitter comments “I had a mojito last night and thought of you”.   If people are thinking of us when they think of mojitos, it is very likely they will think of us when someone mentions Miami Beach Real Estate.

From there we have created a Flickr Mojito Group, a Facebook Mojito Group and Mojito411 with reviews of mojitos from people all over the country.

I mentioned at Inman that I really don’t know where this idea will take us and don’t even know if I’ll drop it in a couple of months.   What’s important is that we are seeing positive results and making connections because of mojitos and that’s ultimately what is important.

Understand that you are capable of grabbing a simple concept and turning it into a conversation piece – conversation leads to engagement and that leads to making an impact.  Don’t discard small notions….roll with them and make them powerful.  It’s up to you to build a brand that works for you and showcases what you represent.

…..stay tuned for F2F efforts