Submitted by: Edwardo Bouma

How to build client relationships through the power of blogging

Once upon a time, blogging was seen as just a hobby, a way that people could express their personal feelings on topics they cared about but in today’s media landscape blogging has taken on a bigger role, becoming one of the most important and cost effective ways for companies to promote their brand.

It is estimated that there are now over 200 million public blogs in existence and unlike other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook; published content on a blog can be far superior. On a corporate level, blogs humanise a company, educate clients, aid meaningful social interaction and separate brands from competitors and when it comes to the property industry, one that is fiercely competitive and relatively unpredictable, blogs can hold great power in achieving effective results.

Nigel Lewis, renowned property journalist and editor as well as prolific blogger for FindaProperty.com comments,

“Many people and businesses shy away from blogging because it’s a time consuming and a creatively taxing process, often opting for the seemingly obvious routes of Facebook and Twitter but in my view they are missing a substantial opportunity to get their website higher up in Google’s results rankings as well as attracting an audience that would otherwise would pass them by.

“Blogs are a win-win from several perspectives. Firstly, it is the easiest way to publish content regularly with free and easy to set up services such as WordPress and Blogger. As well as this, blogs are also more likely to be trusted by users because they have an ‘editorial’ look and feel to them compared to more traditional website content or posted press releases. Another point to remember is that good content will attract readers on a long term basis and create an informal but strong bond that can be difficult to otherwise generate. Lastly, remember that blogs have a lot of social potential where readers can post their reactions to your entries allowing you to gain greater insight into your audience.

“But be warned – blogs also need a lot of thought and hard work to make them successful. All of the advantages of blogs come to nothing if the content is dull, copy-cat or infrequent. I would suggest a minimum blogging rate of once a week, and that the content needs to have at least an element of exclusivity – republishing in-house or third party press releases more or less verbatim (as many people do) is almost pointless. You want people to read your blog regularly because it’s interesting and offers a new perspective on (or information about) a subject.”

In spite of the obvious advantages, research conducted by The Group has discovered that only 16% of FTSE100 companies have a corporate blog, compared to 73% using Twitter and 55% using Facebook.

Ray Withers, Chief Executive of leading property investment company Property Frontiers, client of AB Property Marketing and avid blogger remarks,

“Blogging is an essential component of our social media strategy and has really helped build our company brand. We wanted a different way to communicate with our clients and by creating what is essentially a company diary of news, market comment and activities, our clients have built a greater awareness of who we are and what we’re about. To give some insight into how well our blog has done, we receive on average 500 blog visitors each month with 32% returning month on month. As a result, not only do our clients know us better but they trust us – you can’t put a price on that!”

For more information on the power of blogging and social media, a service which AB Property Marketing offers exclusively for the property industry contact Charlotte Ashton on 0845 054 7542via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or at www.abpropertymarketing.co.uk

About the Author: Having been in property most of my life, I started working for

abpropertymarketing.co.uk

a few years ago and really love all aspects of online marketing.

abpropertymarketing.co.uk

Source:

isnare.com

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