The Side Note

In preparation for today’s post, I began researching whether or not blogs are right for every business. I went online to find information about who blogs are and are not right for, and I came away a bit surprised. I was hard pressed to find sources who believe that blogs aren’t right for certain businesses. Even those who weighed the pros and cons of blogs ended up recommending them nonetheless.
This knowledge led me to switch gears and look into those who were blogging well and how it was benefiting their business. That’s when I ran across the story “A Small Business Marketing Success Story: Teresa Boardman, Real Estate Agent” by Matt McGee of Search Engine Land.

Teresa is a real estate agent and broker in St. Paul, Minnesota. She’s had such success building her business through Internet marketing that she’s been featured in major dailies, such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe. Teresa has also received several industry awards for her blog, St. Paul Real Estate Blog, which get’s 3,000 to 5,000 visits per week (as of June 2008 when the story ran). Teresa has been blogging since November 2005, and says that 80 percent of her business comes from the Internet.

So what is Teresa doing well? She says she’s strategic in her marketing efforts and only blogs about real estate and St. Paul—no personal stuff allowed. That said, she does interject her personality, which helps make the blog more personable and inviting. Teresa also dedicates about an hour a day as well as Sunday afternoons to writing blog posts, and she makes photography a priority, as people interested in real estate or the area want to see photos. Along with her blog, Teresa is utilizing Twitter, Facebook and Flicker as marketing tools.

Clearly taking on a blog and doing it well can be time consuming, but the benefits it could render may outweigh any negatives. Take a tip from Teresa, if you’re going to blog, do it whole-heartedly and think of it as an integral part of your marketing efforts.

—Beth Hardy