Should You Publish a Real Estate Blog?

Connecting with Clients... According to tech guru Walt Mossberg, 16 million Americans have already published blogs (Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2005). Blog is shorthand for "web log," usually written about a person's life and interests.

So you'll find blogs written by lawyers (Real Lawyers Have Blogs) and marketing gurus (Seth Godin's Blog), as well as far out blogs on subjects like butterfly gardening and Ultimate Frisbee (in Louisville!).

But what about our industry? Is anybody publishing a commercial real estate blog? I couldn't find one. Why not?

However, I did find one company publishing its latest deals via an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication, which is similar to a blog). Check out the Gibson Company, which provides tenant representation services in Newport Beach, CA.

On Gibson's home page, click "Deals" in the horizontal navigation bar at the top of the page. See the XML buttons at the bottom of the resulting page? This means that you can "subscribe" to new information posted to this page (just like you can "subscribe" to a blog). So you'll be notified every time Gibson announces a new deal. Questions? Contact Tom Gibson.

Now imagine having all the latest news about your company -- transactions, new hires, new research reports -- posted as an RSS feed AND having your best clients subscribing. You'll really be tied together. Sound like a plan?

Note... The Wall Street Journal has published two great articles on blogs and RSS feeds by Mossberg: Taking the Mystery Out of Blog Creation (June 15, 2005) and A Guide to Using RSS (May 5, 2005).

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-- Peter Pike