I’m still recovering from four days attending Inman Connect in San Francisco, including RE BarCamp the day before. Not only did I have the opportunity to listen to talented speakers and engaging panel discussions, I also got to meet so many people in person that prior to this week I knew from their writing or from interacting with them in various social networking places.

The online real estate community is an interesting bunch; I spend an awful lot of time listening and have thus picked up so many great ideas that I have implemented in my writing and my business. Being able to shake these folks’ hands (or hug them, most likely) and engage in face to face discussions on how they write, how they work their businesses… wow.

To recap what I learned, I have to write in soundbites, as there were a number of things that struck a chord with me:

• Dustin Luther’s suggestion to interview industry folks that we use and recommend on our blogs…lenders, title folks, inspectors, stagers, etc. They can be the ‘featured interview’ and you can send them a link to the post when you publish so they can send it to their sphere.
• Daniel Rothamel taking that suggestion further; interview/feature your past clients on your blog, highlight their unique story
• Quoting Frank Llosa, who was responding to someone who suggested that listing agents work way harder than buyer’s agents: “If you think a buyer agent is only a taxicab with a keycard, then you had a sucky buyer’s agent”
• Dustin on using social networking sites: you wouldn’t walk into the middle of a PTA meeting and yell “Hi, I’m a Realtor! Here’s my phone number and my website!”, so don’t do that on those sites either.
• Nicole Nicolay’s suggestion to become more involved with local schools to help them get the things they need
• Dustin: already established online communities are “low hanging fruit” of opportunity
• Jeff Turner and YEO…You Engaging Others, reinforcing face to face contact going hand in hand with internet marketing
• Dustin: “The internet doesn’t replace contact, it enhances it”

Overall, I think the most prevalent theme from the Bloggers Connect portion of the conference was that we need to remember to blend our online marketing efforts with our more traditional, face to face skills.  I heard it said in many different ways that we need to use those efforts to grow and enhance relationships that are already there, as well as give us the platform to make new connections.

When agents in my office asked why I was going, I told them I wanted to come back with ideas on how I could improve my blog and my business. I definitely came away with tons of ideas (my head is still spinning). Just as important, though, I had a chance to strengthen the relationships with the amazing friends that I continue to learn from. Worth every penny I spent to be there.

Cheers,

Heather