Real Estate Blogging Content Strategies was the topic that lit up the Twitter stream in last night’s #ReTechChat on Twitter, hosted by Drew Meyers (the editor of this blog). It’s the first one I attended, so although it went by fast, it was full of interesting conversations and sub-conversations, perfect for lurking note-takers like myself. As a beginner I used TweetChat to keep up, which also added in the needed hashtag to my tweets.

Many web tools and WordPress plug-ins were shared, so I’ve listed them at the end. If I’ve left any out please feel free to mention.

Off we go. First question:

Where do you find most of your blog content?

Tools for ideas and inspiration: Use your Google FeedReader, Twitter, LinkedIn groups, real estate related publications, set Google alerts, Yahoo Answers, other similar niche blogs, as well as curating hyper-local community events, news, happenings from various sources.

One point Drew brought up is that Twitter lists are an under-utilized tool for gathering hyper-local topics and conversations. This is a great way to keep an eye out for local conversations, larger controversial topics, and get ideas from your biggest influencers.

This quickly led the discussion to blogging platforms. WordPress.org is the main preferred platform, while it became obvious that some still seem to prefer Active Rain for SEO purposes, and some implement Posterous as well. (Darin Persinger suggests that when choosing between AR or WordPress think hard about your objective; are you seeking social approval through a real estate network, or reaching the most readers that will convert to leads?)

The best take-away from this conversation with @Ribeezie, @DrewMeyers @Gahlord and others is that your focus should be on getting visitors to your website, to a platform that you own and manage, even if someone else builds it for you. Calls to action on your site should be strong and speak directly to the clients you want to attract. Be UNIQUE, use your voice..it is the best tool you have.

What types of content DRIVES conversation?

Chris Smith from @TechSavvyAgent jumped in with great advice; topics that are controversial, educational, or include breaking news are great ways to get some traction. Other topics might be:

• Top 5 or 10 Lists of Things to Avoid
• How To’s
• Highlighting interesting homes on the market in your community
• The topics that you are an expert on
• Light-hearted humor and creativity

(An interesting sub-conversation came out of that: is “dropping names” in content a good way to drive conversation? @Gahlord suggests commenting on blogs is a better way to gain social traffic with your blog, instead of broadcasting, if that is an objective you have.)

“Raw traffic doesn’t matter. Convertable and converting traffic does. This is why commenting works”

Next question: How many times a week do you publish content?

I was really surprised to see that most in the chat publish content 4-5 times per week on average, but vary the posts between video, photos and written content.

Good Headlines matter:

• Adopt headlines like a newspaper
• Write 2 headlines- A/B test to see which headline gains more traffic
• Be Clear, Simple and Relevant
• Questions make good headlines

Take-away: Be consistent! Whether once a week or more being consistent is what keeps readers reading.

As Drew mentioned the full transcript of the chat can be downloaded here
and…If you would like to vote on next week’s topic go here

Special thanks to all who participated!  I would name you all but I’m sure I would leave someone out.

Tools mentioned:

Evernote (for organizing web content, bookmarks, images, video)
SnagIt (screen shots, screen capture)
Camtasia
Compendium (content marketing services)
Premise (for WP landing pages)
Unbounce (for A/B testing)
Visual Web Optimizer (A/B testing)
Google Web Optimizer

WordPress Plug-ins:

Editorial Calendar plug-in
Google XML Site Maps Plug-in
Ultimate GA (Google Analytics)
WordPress GEO Mash-up