Engage Your Readers
Most of us live where we live because we love it (although some do because of circumstance). Rick and I love Miami and celebrate it almost every day. It makes such a difference to love what you do and share that passion with others…..I guess that’s why I like blogging so much.
If you look around real estate blogs, you will find that a lot of hyper-local blogs have a fun feature where they let their guard down, we have Miamism Fridays and actually encourage our readers to send in “Miamisms”. Our blog is not a year old yet, but can tell you that people stop us to tell us that they look forward to reading our Friday posts.
I would love to hear what others are doing that is “out of the box” to encourage interaction and to have a little fun in your blog? I can tell you that the trick to these fun posts is consistency!
Here are some great examples:
- April Groves does Turn Around Tuesdays
- Athol Kay does Pimp my Listing Photo (amongst other things)
- Our own Lani Anglin does Bubble Gum Interviews (which I am sad because I have never been interviewed <snif snif>)
- Jay Thompson does Site of the Week
- Agent Genius has Thursdays WTF (which is a bit random and not consistent……WTF?)
- Teresa Boardman has Friday Fun
**please add links to your blogs when you share so that we can go take a peek**
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This article published on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 am | Contact the editor
Topics: Friday
About this Columnist (Full Profile)
Ines is all Miami, all the time. A Miami Beach Realtor® with Majestic properties, Ines authors Miamism.com, PrimeMiamiBeach.com, and MiamismPix.com and is always on communication’s leading edge. She goes out of her way to engage and be engaged, often using Mojitos to keep the mood light and give everything she does a Miami flavor. You can find her goofing off or instigating trouble at Twitter, Flickr, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Email Ines Hegedus-Garcia
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- Real Estate Roundup - Week 21 | eCommission Blog:
[...] Engage Your Readers by Ines at Agent Genius [...]
- Phoenix Real Estate | Phoenix Homes for Sale | All Phoenix Real Estate Blog » Friday Afternoon Theme Music - May 23:
[...] This one’s for my friend Ines in Miami, who today on Agent Genius asked what some of us do for fun on our blogs on Fridays. [...]
Benn Rosales
Conal Campbell
Elijah May
Lani Rosales
Tara Steele
Marti Trewe
Charlene Jimenez
Ines – Your post made me feel better –
Lani never interviewed me either, and you and Rick and way better looking and have that whole Wind in the hair Miami thing going – All I have are soft pretzels, cheesesteaks and the Philadelphia Eagles
We are launching a “What’s Cooking” feature. Gets us out speaking to local restaurants, interviewing them, letting them spread the word and a free meal to boot! Cross promotion is righteous!
Ans as Ines knows..we have some unreal restaurants to talk about down here.
Ines, Bill- your day will come and you’ll be sorry you ever brought it up, the interviews have ruined many a career
Barry- I LOVE that! We’ve had great success on our hyperlocal blogs with featuring events especially at music venues and restaurants, let us know how it goes!
Bill – Philly Cheesesteaks RULE!! I would do a “where’s the cheesesteak” bit on your blog and photoshop an inconspicuous sandwich in known Philly places…..that would be a lot of fun.
Barry – that really sounds like a great idea – I do restaurant reviews on Miamism (just did one yesterday for Burrito Grill) and it’s usually restaurants where owners are involved and welcome the consumer. Some of them, in return, place a “miamism.com” window cling somewhere on their window fronts. Good Luck with that……and yes we have awesome restaurants.
Lani – I’m sure I will regret this
…..or NOT!
Sometimes Friday gets here and I am like ahh wtf?! What happened to Thursday?!
Clearly you’re not one of my 3 loyal readers else you’d have known about the Friday afternoon theme music.
This one’s for you, Ines …
http://www.allphoenixrealestate.com/05232008/friday-afternoon-theme-music-may-23/
While many of us let our hair on our blogs a bit more than we probably should, I think it’s a great idea to create a regular weekly feature to attract more readership and participation. Local interaction, Baby!
Benn – I know what you mean, but put it in your schedule for God’s sake!! you can have a Thursday Theme without a Thursday Post! or delegate it my friend…..there are plenty of us here.
Now Jonathan….THAT’s what I call a fun post!! I do have you in my feed reader, now I just have to get there.
Rich – you know all about local interaction……your crab says it all!
I still haven’t come up with something as clever as “Miamism” or “Turn-Around Tuesdays” or…you get the idea.
I probably need to find something that brands itself around “Bueno.” Any ideas?
Rich – letting your hair down isn’t all bad, as long as it’s not done to excess. Helps the readers see a more intimate side of the writer which in turn can help them build that connection.
Hi Ricardo, since you are in mortgages and rely on Realtors to give you business – you could identify a “good guy award” to someone around the country – or people within the industry.
“Bueno’s agent pick” or Bueno con Ricardo. If your readers are more local, think of something silly or fun in your town – Bueno AWARD! Buenos Dias. You could also keep it general and switch it up a bit (the award may go to a local cop or pizza guy or even a meter maid)…..OK……I think I’ll stop now.
Jonathan – I’m with you there!
Ines, last time I checked Thursday is still on my calendar! =]
Actually I cursed that I had not thought of “Miamism!” when I saw it on your site Ines. It’s effortlessly good every time.
Ines: Muchisimas gracias! Talking it out with someone usually gets the creative juices goin’…
Very funny Benn!! very funny….
Athol – how about “connecticutisms”???
Ricardo, I’m sure I can keep going
I am really going to have to think about this. I have not felt real fun lately. Can anyone give me some ideas on fun things for my sight?
Chris – with hyperlocal blogs it’s not easy to get advice – but I can tell you I love your flower shots. It could be as easy as Summerlin’s Friday Flowers (it doesn’t have to be on Fridays either – pick and day and stick to it) – ask readers to share their flower shots and maybe a story to go with them.
You could even share one of the photos from your photo blog with your main blog once a week. Look what Athol does with the bad MLS pictures…..people from everywhere send him stuff.
orale pues…don’t let me stop you
Love the spontaneity of Miamism Fridays! Your post prompted me to get started with Saturday Stories.
Ines that is a great idea and Friday’s Flowers would be perfect. Thank you. I will start next Fri.
Ines, what a great idea! I’ll need to put my thinking hat on and create something similar.
Great idea, I guess I am kind of doing it with my dogs- I am a Foster Mom for Basset hounds and bloodhounds and have posted a couple of times about that- so I think I can come up with Hound Day or something along those lines and share stories and pictures of my new hounds and the funny things they do- I really need a great video camera
Ines… I’ve thought of “Connecticutisms”, but it’s a horrible mouthful, plus I don’t think I can pull off your peppy sense of fun about it. Mine would be dark stuff like “Snow: We lived here our whole lives and we still can’t drive in it” and pictures of crashed cars. Or “Construction on I-84… since 1982″.
Maybe Connecticutitis…
BUENO is in DA Haus! –
Chris – sometimes it takes a little brainstorming to get those juices flowing, let me know what you come up with.
Jamie- that’s an amazing idea – and if you can engage other “foster parents” to share their stories, imagine the power!
Athol – HA HA!! you are right about the mouth full, connecticutitis is hilarious (sounds like a horrible infection), although I don’t think you need any more theme days on your blog – every time I stop by I have fun and your sense of humor and personality shines through.
Kathy, I skipped you purposely – what a great start and I am so happy that this post inspired you. Your link was broken, but here it is – Saturday Stories
Ines – You are so creative you’re infectious. I love your ideas.
Thanks Vicki!!
Ah! Once upon a time I had an off-topic day, but I haven’t done it lately … I may have to pick it back up! (And I agree with Vicki. Ines is one ofhte most creative people I have ever known-but-not-met-in-person…)
Ines this is what I decided to do if it works I spent the day researching people on flickr who take pics of Summerlin. Instead of just flowers I think Summerlin Saturday and have people submit their favorite Summerlin pic. hoping that just by contacting those people it will start the ball rolling. If worse comes to worse I could always take an ad out in our hometown paper. Hoping that word of mouth will start it rolling and be enough to keep it going. What do you all think?
Mariana – I did go into your blog remembering you did something funny and couldn’t find it…..so go do it! (and thanks for the creativity part…….I need an OUT!!)
Chris – I think that’s a beautiful idea. There’s a local non-re blog that actually includes flickr pictures of miami without having to contact them. So it would be easy to supplement those days people don’t send you stuff.
Thanks for the link. My Friday fun post has helped me get listings. Who knew?
Teresa, that’s what I’m talking about – and let me not get started on your Churches either. I think you have inspired many of us into coming up with different ideas and to not be afraid of being ourselves in our blogs……and……most importantly…….consistency!
I can’t see the Bentley in the picture! Must mean miamism Fridays and being an architect are working for you.
Barry, no….it means you just have to take my word for it about the Bentley
Fuhgettaboutit..your word is taken!