I have had more fun writing this past year than I ever could have imagined.
Editor’s note — we indexed over 250 different articles and roughly 3 – 4x that in neighborhood descriptions. Not that we are counting…
At the behest of my technology partner (who wishes to remain anonymous), he suggested that I simply just start to write.
“You write. I will help you leverage it,” he said. “Write about the kinds of things your clients would want to know and the kind of things you know about…your clients will appreciate it and Google will love it.”
He was right.
What We Have Written
Since we started writing for our network of sites:
- We have written over 100,000 (now approaching 200,000) words between neighborhood descriptions, blog posts, how to’s’, pricing analysis and development/property history. We have offered up history and pointers on condo projects, new home developments, existing subdivisions, urban neighborhoods and trending markets.
- In 2013, we launched our first ‘non One South’ site for what is now a sister company, Bay Properties. Needless to say, their business has increased substantially.
- Sometime in mid 2014, we cracked 100 articles written.
- Sometime in 2015, we cracked 200.
- We don’t plan on stopping.
I was told that a novel generally begins at about 80,000 words (War and Peace clocks in at 587k, in case you cared) so I guess I can check the WRITE NOVEL box on the bucket list — with a few credits in the liner notes.
Why Does it Matter?
At One South, we are making a bet that the market’s ever increasing use of the web as the place to start their search means that those entities that create the valuable content will themselves, become more valuable. The creation of content both helps Google understand what you do and helps the market to identify the experts. With the ability to see how the public reacts to your online presence, Google can tell if what you have to say actually matters.Time on site, bounce rates and pages per session are just some of the methods they use to identify whose content has value. As Google continues to tweak its algorithm, it gets more and more accurate in displaying the information we are all seeking, and thus does a better job of matching the need to the answer.
Learn to Share
We are also making a bet that we can provide real value to our clientele via the right channels.
Jon Newman and Sean Ryan of the Hodges Partnership helped us to understand the “Best Practices” in social communication when we were still in our infancy. Jon’s blog is a step by step instructional booklet on best practices. I constantly catch myself losing 30 minute snippets of my life when I dive in to one of his posts. However, I find these to be investments in my business (not expenses in my time) and they help me to better understand how the world is communicating.
Far too many Realtors scream at their clients via the social channels with messages that offer little depth. It is sad to see these amazing communication platforms being abused for such shallow self-promotion.
It jades the public and fills the broadband with noise.
So we continue to write, grow and engage in conversations with some of Richmond’s sharpest minds who offer us guidance on our brand, our message and our strategy.