Today we are talking about business blogs and one major thing that’s stopping a lot of people from making them. We work with a lot of property management companies at Fourandhalf, and anyone who owns a business wants to put their best foot forward and show their best face. One thing that might be holding you back from posting video blogs is that you want to make it perfect, and in trying to make it perfect, you delay and tweak, and then nothing ever gets made. You can’t let that quest for perfection stop you from putting out regular property management video blogs.
Business blogs are about content marketing. You get the opportunity to share a lot of content when you blog. Remember that this is not about the show. This is not television, you’re not making network news, so you cannot expect yourself to perform to that level of quality. So, don’t try. When you try to do this, you fail and that looks bad. Just be yourself and keep it simple.
Even the largest companies out there are making casual blogs – somebody talking to a camera or the person who happens to be standing behind the camera. These blogs are still effective. For example, at Google, one of the leaders of search over there – Matt Cutts – puts out blogs on a regular basis and they are nothing more than him sitting in a conference room and talking to the camera. You can do the same thing as Google. That is all you really need.
If you are stuck looking for that perfect subject, or you cannot think of what to talk about on your blog, here’s a tip: answer a client’s question. That’s one of the things Google does – they put the question up on the screen, and answer it. You can do it as well. Take a common question prospective clients have and make your blog about that particular issue. Then, when someone else has that same question or problem, looking for solutions and answers on the Internet, they can find your blog, and therefore, your company. This is great for SEO purposes.
Keep your blog casual. You don’t need a script and you don’t want to be looking at cue cards all the time. Have a notepad with an outline or a few notes that you can glance at so you stay on topic and keep your conversation relevant. You don’t want to try memorizing the entire thing. It takes too much time and effort, and memorized lines often seem false.
You might be wondering why you should do it at all if it’s not going to be perfect. There are two major reasons for doing it anyway:
1. You are showcasing yourself as a subject matter expert. That’s what you want; for your current and prospective clients to see you as knowledgeable. Your clients are not looking for a professional television star, they are looking for a professional property manager.
2. You are talking about stuff you know so well; you should then take the opportunity to write down what you said in the video and post it alongside in the blog. That all becomes searchable material. Why go to the trouble? People aren’t necessarily searching for, for example, “property management san francisco.” If what they need to know is how to evict someone, they’re more likely to type that into a search engine and your blog on how to evict a tenant will show up, because it’s full of references to the problem they’re having. This gets you exposure.
Remember that you are not blogging to look pretty, you are blogging to get business. Don’t worry about making it perfect – just get your blogs out there working for you. If you have any questions about this subject or any of our services, please contact us at Fourandhalf.
