Custom Builders’ Blogging Tips
- “Keep the blog on a personal level.”—Brad Beeson (B.B.), director of marketing, Bethesda Bungalows.
- “It’s a commitment. Plan on investing more time than you think, because it’s real work to generate 500 to 800 words in a week.”—Tedd Benson (T.B.), president, Bensonwood Homes.
- Keep it short.—Mark Johnson (M.J.), president, Mark Johnson Custom Homes.
- “Know why you’re doing it. If it has a purpose, then it will justify the commitment it takes to maintain it.”—Jamie Wolf (J.W.), owner, Wolfworks Designers & Builders.
- “You always want to represent yourself and your company in the best light. Put your best foot forward.”—Darren Andreoli (D.A.), co-owner, Bluewater Home Builders.
- Keep the language simple.—B.B.
- “Don’t put a lot of links into your blog to drive people off your site.”—M.J.
- Try to keep the blog fresh.—B.B.
- “If you think you might want to blog, but you’re worried you don’t have enough to write about—don’t worry about that. There’s much more happening around you every day that your readers might be interested in than you think.”—T.B.
- “Try to keep your troubles out of your blog.”—B.B.
- “You’ve got to enjoy writing. That’s a skillset.”—D.A.
If you don’t have the time to run a good blog or the writing chops to present your ideas coherently, try the mini-blogging capabilities of Twitter instead.—D.A.
Helpful Blogging and Social Media Resources
There are many platforms available for creating and hosting a company blog, offering various levels of service and functionality, and many of them are free. Blogger.com, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Joomla.com, and TypePad.com are just a few of the blogging tools available.
Getting started can be relatively easy, and all of the free blogging platforms offer helpful tutorials to guide you through the more technical aspects of the process.
Blogging and social media experts abound online, and it’s well worth a few hours of browsing through helpful sites for some perspective and tips. Here are a few to get you started:
SocialMediaB2B.com blogger Jeffrey L. Cohen posted a fantastic blog entry about the many options for setting up a corporate blog, discussing the various pros and cons of hosting a blog directly on your company’s site or on a separate site.
ProBlogger.net also offers numerous tips on how to create, manage, and leverage business blogs for marketing purposes.
Mollie Elkman, vice president of Group Two Real Estate Marketing, runs an informative blog about using all types of social media to connect with clients, cultivate prospects, and build brand identity on our sister magazine BUILDER’s website. She also developed the first social media marketing program for builders—You.Twit.Face.—that discusses how builders can use the various social media to market their companies.
