1. Social Media 301…Blogging! Essentials to Creating your Real Estate Blog. Written and Instructed by Patrick Flynn

2. BLOG…What's it mean? Business Building LeadGeneration Online Marketing GetInto Relationships

8. SECTION ONE: 6 Ways Blogging Can Increase Your Real Estate Business Top of Mind Marketing Word of Mouth Marketing Permission Marketing Return Marketing Visual Marketing Credibility Marketing

10. Allows You to “Pattern Interrupt” Your Database with Helpful Information.

12. Lets Your Database Show and just not Tell Others About You.

14. Creates a more relaxed exchange with Your Database.

16. Your posts find people not even looking for you.

19. Blog about & with Your Community.

21. SECTION TWO: 10 Essentials to a Strong Blog Post. Categories Size Post Tags & Keywords Call To Action & Engagement ???’s Share Buttons

23. Add the Name of Your Blog in Every Title. (Branding)

24. Twitter/LinkedIn-Title is all you get!

25. Reposts-Your blog name on other sites means new readers!

28. Add Bold, Italic and Underline Fonts & Colors when necessary

31. Convey a Thought or Idea

32. Communicate in the first person

33. Create a Reason for your Community to want need to Comment on your post

34. Engage with EVERY Comment

37. Link to a Blog or Website that has ‘further’ information about your post subject

40. Consider adding multiple photo’s

41. Keep a folder on your computers desktop of nothing by photo’s for your blog posts

44. Filters and defines your posts

47. 75-100 per Paragraph

48. No more than 300 words total

51. Your name

52. Your Brand

53. Your Area you Work

54. Type(s) of Service(s) You Provide

55. 15-25 Post Tags pertaining to your post

58. “What do you think about this?”

59. “How would you handle that?”

60. “Who do you know who…”

61. End you post with an Engagement ???

62. “I would love to know what you think”

63. “Let me hear from you”

66. Invite or flat out ask your readers to “please share”

68. Compliance Essentials While we are on the subject of essentials, to gain success with your blog there are also essentials you need to be aware of that keep you out of trouble with the Department of Licensing and other entities (like lawsuits!). The DOL requires that real estate agents inform the public who they are working for by having the Firm’s name easily recognizable on anything they publish - that includes all internet sites. You can use your Team or Group name as long as your Firm’s name is easily seen. The actual term used by the DOL is “clear and conspicuous” so using a size 4 font for your firm name isn’t going to meet the criteria! If you don’t want your Firm’s name on your blogs you need to have written permission from your Firm to get a separate license from the DOL in your Team or Group name. Also, check the contract you signed with your firm - most of the large regional and national franchises require their name on everything so leaving it off internet sites violates a contract you signed. Check WAC 308-124B-210 for more info on the DOL requirements.

69. Compliance Essentials And don’t forget federal copyright laws. If someone has a copyright on their information be wary of using it without their written permission. Our school has used quotes in a number of our courses but always with written permission of the author - a piece of paper that is carefully guarded. And please don’t plagiarize or use “content farms” - that is as bad as violating copyright laws. We frequently see posts on Facebook that are word for word identical with other posts coming up the same day…sometimes within minutes of each other! There is a big difference between using information from another source to stimulate your own ideas and just doing a ‘copy and paste’ or subscribing to a blogging service that uses the same content for multiple users claiming it as your own. It won’t take long for your readers to figure out what you are doing.

70. SECTION THREE: Adding Video & 7 Other Ways to Help You Blog Every Day. Sphere Newsfeeds & Subscriptions Sharing Community Awareness Groups Polls Yep…Your Own Stuff

71. SECTION THREE: Adding Video

72. HUGE HINT: Sign up for a YouTube Channel… NOW!!! Go to YouTube and find a Video…Click Share.

73. Step 1. Click the Embed tab Step 2. Copy the Code WAIT! Make sure you only use old embedded code

74. SECTION THREE: Adding Video Step 3. Paste the Code & Publish That’s it!!! HINT: Be Sure You Have Your Tab set to HTML

77. Your Inspector can post about home maintenance & things to watch for

79. DSNews.com

80. AgentGenius.com

81. InmanNews.com

84. Expand on an upcoming local functions

85. Holiday Event

86. Block Party

87. Local Festival

89. Social Media Marketing for Real Estate Professionals

94. SECTION THREE: Adding Video & 7 Other Ways to Help You Blog Every Day. Yep…You’re Going to Need to Write your Own Blog Posts Every Once in a While…however, I think we can easily see how simple it is to BLOG Consistently!

95. SECTION FOUR: 5 Places to Syndicate Your Blog & Create Your Own Traffic. Facebook…Fan Page & Fun Page! Twitter LinkedIn Other Blog & Website(s) The World Wide Web & Social Media

97. Add the Title of your Post…a Punctuation and Space…Then the Shortlink!

104. Posterous.com

105. Joomla.com

106. Blogger.com

107. TypePad.com

108. Tumblr.com

109. LiveJournal.com

110. Blogspot.comAND HUNDREDS MORE!

112. Thursdays and Fridays have shown to have an 18% higher engagement rate that other days

114. There are 2 types of people who already use blogging…YOUR CLIENTS & YOUR COMPETITION