(This is Part 2 of my Realtors Series)

Since my last realtor post I’ve been on more real estate sites than I care to admit in hopes of helping some of my new realtor friends with their social media presence online.  I wanted to get a good idea of what the typical realtor has in terms of content because in your brand, your content is really, really important.  Your audience is online, on Facebook, sending pictures of homes they might buy, and judging you by your site and by your picture.   If you only have bad content out there, your online community (if you don’t have one now don’t worry, that’s why I’m doing this series) won’t have anything interesting to pass on about you.

Unfortunately, what’s out there runs the spectrum of really great to really frightening.  I wanted to post a few of the headshots that I found as a “DO NOT DO” but I figured that if I did, my luck would be that one of those people would have friends in the mob that could come take me out, would be related to someone that’s reading this, or at the very least secure my trip to hell. Let’s just say that there are plenty of realtors that think a headshot like an 80′s glamour shot is ok.

Something that we need to talk about if you’re doing any kind of personal branding for real estate (or anything else) online is the type of visuals that you are planning to use and how you need to display them.

Simplicity - This one is by far the most important and also the most frequently ignored by not only people brands but by huge consumer brands as well.  The image at the top is from Chad Rogers’ site and he’s a realtor in California. When you get to his site you kind of take a deep breath and enjoy this vacation-ish picture.  It’s literally welcoming you.  Not to his city, not to the state, not to browse his listings.  He’s welcoming you to the neighborhood.  This is good marketing.   His site doesn’t have a ton of stuff on it and it’s easy to navigate.

One thing you have to realize is that people online are clicking quickly.  They aren’t reading everything on your page and they are probably going to click on the thing that catches their eye first which means that all of the content you have on your page is basically competing against each other for 2 seconds of attention.  Look:

This site is too busy.  I actually think the information they have is pretty decent on this site there’s just way, way too much of it.  I know that in real estate you have a lot of information for people but it’s really important to pare that down as much as you can since people need to be able to tell right away what you’re about.  For example, when you get to a site like Chad’s you can tell by the images (he is not showing any houses in these images by the way) that he is all about luxury, views, and probably pampering.  He is showing this within 2 seconds of being on the site.   I can just imagine the web meeting that the above site had…. everyone had their idea of what had to be on the home page and no one was there to yell “SIMPLICITY IS REALLY IMPORTANT!” so they threw in everything.

What would you want your image to say in a few words?  “Approachable realtor with a great eye for deals”?  “Stylish realtor catering to first time home buyers”?     This is what needs to come across in a few seconds on your pages.

Black Backgrounds - I have to put in a few words about this.  Don’t use a black background on your site, your blog, your anything.  I only know this because I had it on my blog and I got grilled by 7 or so of my graphic design friends about how hard it is to read.  For those of you that like black backgrounds you can use dark gray.  It has the same effect but is easier on the eyes.

Your Headshot – I could do a whole post (and perhaps I will if there is interest and if there are any photographers out there that want to co-write this with me let me know) about how to take great photos for profile pictures but what a lot of realtors have is an outdated shot.  I think having a fresh, not too stuffy picture is basic.  I like this one:It’s one of my favorite realtors on Million Dollar Listing (I know I talk about it a lot but seriously their branding is pretty genius on Bravo).  This photo is casual but still professional.  I don’t think you HAVE to wear a suit or it HAS to be just of your head.

My next post in this series is going to be on how to use video to showcase your listings so if you have any questions on this topic put them here and I’ll make sure and include them.