I love the movie Caddyshack.  It’s timeless… and ubiquitous.  I sincerely feel that if you are in your 30s to 40s and you cannot rattle off a minimum of three (3) key quotes from this movie - then you need make it a point to put it at the top of your Netflix queue ASAP!

One of the most Zen-like one liners from the film comes from Ty Webb - golf pro,  Chevy Chase’s character as he relays the following wisdom to young golf hopeful Danny Noonan:

Ty Webb: Just be the ball, be the ball, be the ball. You’re not being the ball Danny.

Danny Noonan: It’s hard when you’re talking like that.

It’s sort of like “Use the Force,” only I just like the golf reference better.  The question it makes me think of though, is this: It’s great to have a blog up and running, but isn’t so great if it’s out there and it’s putting out the negative vibes about you, man!  Let me break it down to you like this:

You have a blog.  Great.  But it hasn’t been updated in oh - a year. Or you have been adding information your blog… only it looks more like Homes and Land magazine or the Real Estate Book because you’ve jammed it full of nothing but home listings!

Your blog should represent a bit about who you are as a person and as a professional.  If you’re not careful, it can do you more harm than good. If you have a presence out there - keep it current.  Provide some useful community information, a funny story about your family, and then pepper in a few of your key listings.  If used properly, a blog will drive traffic… and leads!… to your website.  Rhonda Porter (AKA The Mortgage Porter) shared one strategy of giving folks a gentle nudge in the right direction in one of her recent blog posts. Though she doesn’t use it all the time, it definitely gets folks clicking away and thus, spending more time getting to know you.  After all, isn’t that what this whole social networking thing is all about?

What does your blog say about you?  Does it accurately reflect who you are as a person and a professional?  Or, is it a stale reminder to folks that you’re another Realtor or Loan Originator who simply saw your blog as a magic bullet rather than the tool (which implies that work is involved) it really is?

For some interesting reading on what Real Estate customers have said in regards to the power of blogging and a bit about blogs gone wrong, check out the comment section on this Consumerist.com posting by Carey Greenberg-Berger entitled “Would You Judge a Real Estate Broker by His Blog?” (Note: You can find out some wacky stuff in blog comment sections… make it a point to read them!)

Hello Yellow Book… Um… You’re Fired!

If I looked in your area’s yellow pages, would I find a full page or half page advertisement with your information in it?  If so, how much business has that ad brought you over the past two years?  I have a very small business card style ad in my local yellow pages, and I think it’s garnered me two phone calls over the past year.  I’ll be cancelling that service this week.

The beauty of your blog, micro-blogging tools like twitter, and networking sites like ActiveRain, Face Book and LinkedIn is that they function best for folks who put “sweat equity” into them!  These sites are not turnkey solutions by any means.  In fact, they’ll remain quite plain and uninformative if you set them up and then do nothing with them.

The thing Realtors and Loan Originators who spend tons of money on postcards, door hangers, paper newsletters, and donuts (I have this hangup on the donut thing… sorry fellow Mortgage Brokers) need to understand is that Money Really Can’t Buy You Love! — My Personal Musing

I really enjoyed reading the success story of a blogging, twitter-using Realtor in one of Simone Baribeau’s latest Washington Post article entitled “Web 2.0 Creates New Ways for Agents, Home Shoppers to Find Each Other.” In this article, Baribeau relays the story of Realtor Danilo Bogdanovic:

Danilo Bogdanovic, a real estate agent with Market Advantage Real Estate, says he uses a wide array of social networks to draw potential clients to his blog and its copious information on the Loudoun County real estate market, but he also attracts clients by getting them interested in him personally. Potential clients can follow him using Twitter, a micro-blogging service where users write short updates about what they’re doing at any given moment.

Interspersed with updates on his blog, Bogdanovic gives personal updates (”Back from a long bike ride — hungry and ready to make some dinner”), comments on news articles (”Is everyone in the DC metro area too busy to date, not want to get hitched, crazy or all of the above?”) and keeps his followers abreast of his real estate business (”On the way to Alexandria for a closing. Looks like my short-sale listing may finally be settling after 3 months of negotiations.”) .

“This type of personal information spurred Dan Shields, 41, to contact Bogdanovic.”

“It came down to these other two agents. I didn’t know anything about them,” Shields said. Bogdanovic “was the only one you could get a personality from.”

“Bogdanovic recently helped Shields and his wife, Brenda, close on the purchase of a Leesburg house.”

How are potential clients finding you?  If you’re already out there… what’s your blog saying about you right now?  Consider the state of your online presence as it relates to these ideas.