Meet Lane Bailey:
-blogger:
social media user, activerain member,
all-around good guy...
...and kick-A$$ marketing dude!
This mild-mannered Realtor from Duluth, GA,
is determined to shake up his market,
and tells us how he is doing it with:
blogs, social marketing and traditional techniques:
He is just getting started:
....And I'm not done, because it isn't sold, but it will go north of $2000 on marketing. Before the listing went live on the MLSs, I had spent $1000. Of course, the marketing also may drive sellers to me, so it isn't just about the property. That said, I'm not advertising to people on the basis of marketing me, it is about the property. Let me boil it down to car terms... Dodge doesn't make the Viper for the pleasure of people that get passed by one on the highway. They make them for the owners. However, there are a lot of buyers of other Dodge cars that see the Viper and go to the dealership. Many of them walk out with Caravans and Magnums and Chargers... insert Corvette and GM, or GT and Ford instead if you wish. The concept is the same. I build the marketing for the benefit of the house I am selling. Everything else is a bonus.I'm not doing anything that most agents can't do, but I am working at making it all tie together. I don't want to send someone 10 pages of info about a house. I want to send them one link. I can send them everything they need to know in one text message... and they can know more about that property than someone living next door.
So, do you have a life outside of blogging?
My wife and I like to watch a lot of TV, and I will spend a couple hours each evening writing blog posts, updating websites and working on other projects.
If I didn't multi-task, I wouldn't have time to sleep.
I guess the answer would be yes. I am the President of a 4wd club, and helped put on a fairly large blood drive. I like to work on my Jeepster... and it needs it. My wife and I love to travel. I take my kid to the ice skating rink twice a week. Of course, a lot of blog posts come out of those things.
What do you want to tell all the Realtors that are reading this about social media marketing?
Look elsewhere for the silver bullet. Just like you can't join the Bridge club or the Country club and expect that everyone is going to gather around to hand you business, you shouldn't expect the internet to act like that either. Instead, give. Give advice. Give experiences. Give feedback. Teach. Share. Join the conversation. Those are the same things you would do with any "real-life" group you would join. And the result is the same. There are some folks that join and get business or accolades immediately, but they are the exception.One of the great side benefits of that is that you get to learn and be shared with.
Short story:
...I was reading one of my regular blogs, Bloodhound Blog, which is targeted at agents and brokers. Greg Swann had a post about this cool product, SpaceDesigner, and another about StyleDesigner. I followed the link and thought it was cool, too. Soon after, I wrote a post on AR (link: http://activerain.com/blogsview/372175/Obeo-Looks-like-a) about the company that was offering these things, Obeo. Steve "Obeoman" (our host) commented on my post. He knew where his product was being mentioned, and dropped in to say thanks. Not pushy, just supportive. Later, when I joined Twitter, he started following me... no, it isn't creepy, that just means he was subscribed... and when I had an appropriate listing, I shot him a tweet and he answered my questions. When we finally got around to talking, I had been interacting with him for months. I have been on the other end of that with consumers. Even though they weren't talking to me, I was talking to them. They knew about my son learning to skate... and had seen the videos. They knew about the new baby. They knew about my opinions on real estate. They were comfortable with me because I was already interacting with them.
Can I get a Lane Bailey T-Shirt?
What size? As soon as I do a run of them. I've been thinking about it for GarageHomesUSA.com. I love my new logo, and have been thinking about shirts... I just hate to spend the money and have 500 shirts in boxes in the sunroom... I keep thinking about those chip clips.
Thanks, Lane-make the t-shirt an extra large!-just like your plan for success!
...and you can plug into what he has going on at the links below!
Thanks, Lane!
Steve
Obeoman
Obeo Wisconsin-262-325-8687
Obeo in your area:800-729-6236
Lanes' Links:
(Old Faithful-Thanks, Dad for moving to a condo!)
Michelle and volunteer/
Plenty of dancing...
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