Make Your Real Estate Business Press Friendly
cial-media-300×199.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”199″ />How frustrating is it when your competitor around the corner grabs his slice of local fame and fortune and is interviewed as the expert real estate agent in the area. Your first thought might be ‘why not me?’
You might be the more knowledgeable of the two but maybe there is something in your approach that makes it easier for the media to talk to your competitor. If you haven’t yet moved with the modern day approach to business i.e. by making the most of your social networking opportunities, then you could be missing out. It’s important that you are seen to be the expert in the industry and this means living and breathing real estate and showing your enthusiasm by tweeting advice or properties on your books. You should use Face book and LinkedIn too if you really want to raise your social networking file and be visible to the media.
The media use all three (and more) social networking sites and you can easily forge good connections with reporters on Twitter for example. You can use Twitter hash tags to get those connections going by finding out what the local community is talking about.
If you think you have a newsworthy story, you can hire a writer to create a press release for you and then have it distributed through the relevant press release service. You can also see what reporters are looking for by taking a good look through Muck Rack. Take this a step further and sign up with www.helpareporter.com this way if a journalist is looking for an expert within the real estate industry, you can contact them quickly and offer your services.
If you enjoy writing and would love the chance of a regular guest column on real estate, take a look at your local small publications and see whether there is the chance of a spot for you. Because the smaller presses are thinly manned, having some extra, regular and guaranteed columns are worth their weight in gold.
Another great way to get the press involved and to boost your ‘expert status’ is to co-ordinate a local event and to be a guest speaker. Invite the press along and have them ask any questions. Make sure it is about real estate or a related subject and enjoy your moment in the spotlight.
If you are thinking about trying to sell a story to the media, try to define it in just one sentence as this is all the journalists will be interested in. The worst thing you can do is to create a long drawn out story; a journalist will know whether your story is newsworthy instantly.
Contact your local radio station and ask if they would like an interview with you whilst you tell
their listeners some good starting points for first time buyers for example. There is a lot of airtime to be filled and they may jump at the chance.
If you know your industry inside and out and want to help other potential real estate agents make their mark on the property market, then consider writing an eBook. There are many places to get it published nowadays including websites such as www.amazon.com . You could soon be stamping your authority on the e-book market and making some additional money on the side.
Think about what you do that is newsworthy. Are you a family real estate business and the fourth generation agent in a long line of dedicated workers? Have you gone beyond the call of duty to help
someone buy their house? Did you spot and prevent a burglary when you went to view a property? You get the kind of thing but it doesn’t always have to be sensational, but it does need an angle. Courting the press can be a fun thing to do but it has a long-term positive effect on your business too, you just need to develop your media skills.