Brandon Farmer. Charlotte, NC
Brandon Farmer recently posted the 1,000,000 blog post on the Realtor Blog Network of Active Rain. I’m sure that came as a total surprise for Brandon and I’m sure he was honored by it. Brandon blogs on Active Rain. Active Rain is the worlds largest network of Real Estate bloggers. As I was reading Brandon’s article about being the one to post the 1,000,000 article, he encouraged the reader to check out his Charlotte, NC “Showcase Charlotte” web site. I decided to do just that and Brandon is the latest review of NC Realtors Who Blog.
Brandon has posted 4 blog articles on Active Rain. Brandon obviously understands the power of blogging in today’s real estate market. The requirement to establish relationships with possible clients is at an all time high. A real estate agent can’t possibly establish that personal touch with everyone and that is why an online presence is crucial. How do clients get to know an agent from afar? Easy, start blogging.
Brandon has been in real estate for over 2 years and is a graduate of the University of Virginia. Real Estate is full time for Brandon and he works for Allen Tate in Charlotte, NC. Brandon is jumping feet first into blogging and social networking. Brandon understands the power of both and every real estate agent should be doing the same. If you are a Realtor and you are not using the power that is readily available to you, you will be left behind. Technology will not wait for you. Brandon’s decision to participate in social networking shows me that he is willing to go the extra mile and he is the type of agent that clients should seek to represent them.
Brandon’s Showcase Charlotte web site has a lot of good information for the prospective buyer and seller in the Charlotte, NC real estate market. Standard MLS searches for Charlotte homes, mortgage rates etc. Since this is a review, I would make some recommendations to Brandon. As a possible client, when I land on Brandon’s site I’m looking to buy or sell real estate most likely. As a Realtor, I want this person to stay on my site as long as possible. I feel there are too many outbound links to other sites. Once the client clicks away, chances are, they are gone from the site for good. Most people will Google specific information they are looking for. A Realtor needs to capture the web surfer and hold them.
There is not a blog or a link to Brandon’s blog on the Showcase Charlotte site. Brandon should provide the reader a very visible link to his blog. This is where a client decides to make a call or click away. In my previous article about Active Rain, I have some real concerns for any real estate agent to put all of their blogging eggs in one basket, especially when the terms of service states that you do not own your own content and your account can be terminated at any time for any reason. Active Rain is a wonderful compliment to a Realtor’s blogging efforts but all Realtors should own their own blog and content. Starting your own blog and owning your own content is very easy an inexpensive. This article explains just how easy.
I would recommend that Brandon use Twitter and Facebook to dive further into Social Networking. When a client lands on Brandon’s page a graphic link would a great idea to allow clients to follow Brandon on this social media.
Bottom line: Brandon is making a great effort to build his business in a positive way by using the tools that are available to him. Technology will continue to lead the way and Brandon will be there offering tech services to all of his clients. Brandon is the type of Realtor that you should seek to work with and I’m sure he will be very successful.
Visit Brandon’s Showcase Charlotte.
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This entry was written by , posted on March 26, 2009 at 7:17 am, filed under NC Realtors and tagged Active Rain, Allen Tate in Charlotte NC, Brandon Farmer, free wordpress blog setup, hosting account, nc brokers, nc mls, north carolina realtor, north carolina realtors, realtors of nc, realtors who blog, Wordpress Blog. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Active Rain
I think Active Rain is a wonderful site that gives real value to everyone who uses it’s platform to blog. Realtors all over the country use Active Rain to blog. As of this writing, there are over 138,000 members. I’m a member and I have written many blog articles on Active Rain. There are wonderful tools available to Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Builders, Home Inspectors…you name it. There is a wealth of information available for members as well as the general public. Because of Active Rain, I have listed properties.
If you are a Realtor and you are not on Active Rain, I think you are making a big mistake. If you are a Realtor and you are only on Active Rain, you are making a big mistake. Active Rain should supplement your blogging endeavors, not be the one and only. Practice on Active Rain and perfect your style of blogging. You will be critiqued by other members who read your articles. You will be praised or you could be scolded. It’s a great learning environment.
Own your own blog and your own content! I cannot stress this enough. If you read the terms of service on Active Rain you will understand what I just said. Active Rain owns their site. Active Rain owns all of the content placed on their site. The following statement appears in the terms of service:
ActiveRain also reserves the right to cancel the account of any member it believes may be engaging in infringement of the rights of others, copyright violation, or any inappropriate behavior. We also reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to terminate your access to all or part of the ActiveRain Community for any reason or no reason , or without notice.
Active Rain can terminate your account at anytime for any reason at all. If you have built a significant part of your business on Active Rain and you are terminated, you are in a world of hurt. If you have placed links all over the internet to your Active Rain blog and it disappears, so could part of your business. It appears to me that many, many Realtors use Active Rain as their only blogging platform. They make great claims as to the business they receive from their Active Rain blog. When I look at their personal web sites they list in their profiles, it takes me to a cold corporate site that I have absolutely no reason to read. If this is you, you better have a backup plan.
I will close with the following statement. Active Rain is a wonderful site and if you are a Realtor, you should probably be on it. That’s a personal judgement call. If you do not have your own blog site that you control 100% of the site and content, you are asking for trouble. If you’re a Realtor, you need a separate blog on your own hosting plan on a domain name that you own. Consider it real estate that you own and this piece of real estate can never be foreclosed on unless you say so. By owning your own site, you will gain strength, traffic and page rank with Google and the other search engines. Do you realize how valuable this can be to your business over time? Extremely valuable. It only cost $10 to get started. If I visit your AR Profile page will I find a link to your personal blog? I recommend Wordpress as a blogging platform. This blog you are reading is built on Wordpress. For hosting I recommend BLUEHOST.COM.
Coming soon on NC Realtors Who Blog: A review of the Kodak Zi6 flip camera. Why every Realtor should own a flip camera.
This entry was written by , posted on March 10, 2009 at 9:02 am, filed under NC Realtors and tagged Active Rain, bluehost, nc association of realtors, nc brokers, nc mls, nc mls listings, NC Realtor, NC Realtors, north carolina realtor, north carolina realtors, realtors north carolina, realtors of nc, wordpress. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.