(I wrote this article over a year ago when we launched Localism in its BETA form. With the pending launch of the New Localism, it's still very much applicable ~ Jonathan)
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The end game in real estate blogging is blogging about your local geographical area of expertise.
Why blog about the real estate industry? Why blog about the latest real estate technology that was just announced? How is it going to generate you business?
It isn't going to generate you much unless you are a real estate coach, someone amazingly interesting, or a company selling real estate blog sites! Home buyers and sellers just don't care. Internet home buyers care most about three things:
Listings, home values, & neighborhood information.
Listing information can be found on thousands of agent, broker, and lead generator websites. There was a time not too long ago that you could generate a lot of business from throwing up an IDX feed on your website. That time is no longer.
In Fortune magazine's most recent issue they did a cover story on Zillow and referred to home valuation websites as "real estate porn". However inappropriate they were in their description, I think they described the Zillow site pretty accurately. Consumers love their site and the love will only continue to grow. It will grow out of our society's craving for "more information now". The values on Zillow are just accurate enough to be captivating, but home buyers and sellers still need a real agent to fulfill their true valuation needs.
However, I am getting off point. You've already heard all of this a million times before. What I should be talking about is:
"What should agents do in this day and age to generate business?"
The consumer's great appetite for information is being neglected when it comes to Local Neighborhood Information. When someone wants to move across country, across state, or sometimes even across town, there is no where to go on the Internet to find information about the character of certain neighborhoods, or even what neighborhoods exist.
This post really starts here:
Localism.com is not the big picture. Localism.com is only a symbol or a glimpse at where we are going as an industry with local content. The big picture is localizing your content. You localize your content when you geocode a post and make it available for syndication onto other sites.
Localism will not be the final destination, no more than google is. Localism will resemble more of a search engine than a national-local weblog. Don't get me wrong, the site will be really cool; it will likely generate a lot of press, rank high in the search engines, and most assuredly generate a lot of clients for the agents that are creating good content now.
But the big vision is in the action now known as localizing.
Localizing means that someday soon every local post you write will not only have city, county, and state, data associated with it, but it will also have specific latitude and longitude coordinates embedded into it.
As a consumer looks at an online map, a newspaper article, or even a local house listing, they will have the option to see the best local content written or created by their local real estate experts.
You will have the option to select which web sites/portals you would like your information syndicated to. Or if you don't want it syndicated at all.
Every article you write will be attributed and link back to you.
This will be our industry's chance to firmly reestablish ourselves as the center of the real estate transaction.
I wish I could put into words how excited I am to see what the new "localism" is going to be about. Jonathan, thank you. THANK YOU.
Hi Jonathan...Looking forward to the new Localism. Even now, I make sure most of my posts are there. That is exactly why many of us came to Active Rain although we have found 95,738 other reasons to stay.
Kathleen
P.S. It is impossible to imagine what this site would be like if only all those Rainers realized the full value of AR.
Jonathan- I am still excited about the ease of sending posts to our own outside blog. I'm really looking forward to seeing the new version of Localism
You said:
Localizing means that someday soon every local post you write will not only have city, county, and state, data associated with it, but it will also have specific latitude and longitude coordinates embedded into it.
How exciting !!
Exciting times to be a rainer. Thanks for reposting this. I think most of us were not on the site when it was first posted.
Jonathan, Thanks for sharing! I am new at this and I am learning daily! I am sure glad to be a part of this family!
Mike Kelly
Thanks for all the valuable information! Please keep on posting this great info.
I love localism. I want my name all over the cities. It is like having another webpage
Localism is a Great Source for Everyone. Thank You! Keep up the hard work!
Jonathan, good direction, keep up the good work. can you please give some direction on minimizing widgets. most are just too amateurish and only slow down loading.
Okay....more info...a little more to make me salivate...lol! Thanks Jon...you folks are doing wonders for us!
All good stuff and thank you for being supportive of us agents out there trying to do our best for our communities! Will the new form of localism be arriving soon?
It looks like there is a big push toward the new web 2.0 and local content. I'm on board for Chapter 2.
By chance is localism down for the weekend during the revamp? Thanks for the reminder.
Just gotta say, it has been amazing watching all the developments take place. Wow! To think, I can say, I was part of this way back when........
Hi Jon,
Really good information. I will definitely keep it in mind.
All the best
Ok, so I want my super secret sneak peek password... And I would LOVE to be able to embed GPS data to my posts. That would seriously rock to be able to do that on a post level.
I have to really hand it to you that I have dug myself deep into my geographical farm (and a little beyond) because of localism.
I am wondering if you are going to keep the "about", "news and events", "market reports" and "listings separate. I spent quite a bit of time diligently posting an article in each of those sectors of the subdivisions which I would love to represent.
So, Jonathan, my friend...if we write a member's only post...does that go out there everywhere...to that newness? Or does just the one's we post to Localism?
As I'm not sure.
We are just seeing results from 6 months of Localism, posts and I expect it to continue to grow.
Wow
That sounds exciting.
I also believe that real estate is a very local business, and you don't just sell houses or condos, You sell the area and the lifestyle
Anne Hensel
Real Estate Broker ABR, E-PRO,
C-CREC, TRC, ASR, RECS, AHS
St. Petersburg Florida
www.AnneHensel.com
I am so ready for this....don't go rolling it out while I am on vacation though!
Localism is a great source for everyone and it seems as if that is the direction we are heading.
The "old" localism has brought me business. Can't wait to see what the new one will do for me.
Hi Jonathan, A comprehensive post and glad that what was planned is actually about to come to fruition. It will be great asset and one I am sure that will be quickly embraced.
There was something you said that also stuck out and I wondered about this. Allow me to repeat it here:
Why blog about the real estate industry? Why blog about the latest real estate technology that was just announced? How is it going to generate you business?
It isn't going to generate you much unless you are a real estate coach, someone amazingly interesting, or a company selling real estate blog sites! Home buyers and sellers just don't care. Internet home buyers care most about three things:
Part of what this network so great among the users was the help we all got to get started and grow with the the network. Many times there are things shared here that really make a profound difference in out business lives and especially as it pertains to blogging. So I can see where the majority of our efforts should be concentrated on Localism, but in I also know that we would never have built these relationships that keeps this network growing and prospering with the other social aspects of ActiveRain. Balance is the key but to me , certainly no one way or the other, both work when in balance.
One of my ideas I shared with Rich was to literally double the points on localism and double the feature bonus. It also would pretty well chase away gamers that mostly hide behind those with real talent.
Jonathan, it looks like Active Rain has more good stuff coming for all of us. Thank you.
Localism has really made Active Rain a much more powerful tool for real estate professionals. I have been found several times by clients through Localism. Thank you for creating such a wonderful forum.
Interesting concept to geocode written content. I've seen it done with photos on Flickr, but am not completely sure of how the AR Team will execute this. Looking forward to seeing the new Localism and providing a lot of great content for it.
Jonathan, sounds like it's getting closer and Closer and CLOSER for the unveiling...I can't wait.
Jon - I have seen a few featured posts lately that say 'Localism Feature' at the start of the title. I haven't noticed that before - is there a separate feature page on a localism area page? Or, where is it featured?
JONATHAN - I'm looking forward to what the new Localism is all about. I know that this has been a long time coming.
I love writing for localism, and am looking forward to having the new platform. THanks for all the hard work you guys are putting into it!
So true! I'm also looking forward to hearing/reading more about the new Localism as it is my lifeblood!
I've been a huge fan of Localism and look forward to seeing the new changes. . You've done a great job.
I've enjoyed uploading pictures of Chico and surrounding areas. I've found that it also forces you to interact with your community. People ask where the pictures will be posted and engages the community as well :)
Scott
I'm very much looking forward to the changes coming up!
Thank you for the updates and direction to go ... pippa
It's like waiting for Christmas morning. I hope it's good for those of us that have been loyal to it's Beta content. Some will only jump on board when it benefits them to do so.
"I have seen a few featured posts lately that say 'Localism Feature' at the start of the title. I haven't noticed that before - is there a separate feature page on a localism area page?"
Virginia,
We don't have a separate localism features page; we are just highlighting some past localism posts that we believe are exceptional so that our members have examples of what we would like to see on the new localism site.
I'm excited to see the new site. We are working on adding local content to our Hawaii real estate search engine. The first to areas we will be focusing on are Honolulu and Maui. We're hoping that the addition of the localized content will be useful to visitors and also help us in the search engines.
Yes, we all need to be busy stuffing the Localism pipeline. Thanks for the nudge.
Wow, this is so exciting. My farm area is a very small area outside of Miami, so I am excited that people who google me will be able to see that I am local and a specialist of this area.
Jonathan - It has been a great journey. Just want to thank you again for your contribution to the industry, and I am eagerly awaiting the new Localism.
Oh...
I forgot to mention it on your other post...I love the little RSS Guy who's sitting on the toilet? It sorta reminds me of someone I know. Don't ask...And I won't tell :)
P.S. I'm still chuckling at the visual :)
TLW...ROAR!
Jonathan~ I just can't wait and I am so excited about this all falling into place and actually happening. Thank you!
What is geocode is it like tags and keywords?
The idea of geo coding posts is probably one of the most significant new ideas that I've read in a long time. It's an idea whose time has come. Great Vision Jonathan.
Ok, we read the second on on Rich's list too. First thought is just about every post we do, or have done has to do with our core maket. And we're constantly updating each of our area neighborhoods as well.
so far, so good.