What it Takes to Become a Local Media Company- Ep 28

You've probably heard for years that you need to “become a local media company that happens to sell real estate.” Gary Vee has been saying it for a couple years now, and to be honest, his message is what got me on board the media company train. It's why I launched Search Salt Lake and Salt Lake Insider. But what the hell does being a media company even mean? What does that look like? What SPECIFICALLY do you need to do to become a local media company that sells real estate? I am going to share with you specific ideas I have used that have worked for me to become the local expert in my area.

When I first launched Search Salt Lake I did not know what I was doing.  I did not really understand content marketing but I knew I liked it.  I did an entire episode explaining content marketing and what it means back in Episode 8, How Content Marketing Changed My Life.  Go back and listen to this episode to dive in deeper and understand more about content marketing.  Here is the deal, real estate content is not sexy and it's certainly not sharable.  It's probably not going to go viral either.  After learning this I knew I had to start thinking about what people wanted to know more about.  I needed to become the local expert or local media company and start creating content that would actually interest people and get there attention.  I needed to write stuff about the community.  Things that were all loosely related to real estate but very much locally related.

One day as I was driving by a construction site I noticed a sign that read Top Golf coming soon.  I had never heard of Top Golf and it peeked my interest, so I went home and googled it.  After learning about this exciting new business coming to Salt Lake I knew people would want to know this was coming to our town.  I decided to write this article for my Search Salt Lake website.  There were not too many words in my article but a ton of pictures.  I created an attractive Facebook post with an attention-getting photo.  I published the article on Search Salt Lake and it started getting shared like crazy on Facebook.  Around 5,000+ Facebook shares into it I receive an email from Top Golf's corporate office.  They explained, they had noticed the article I had written and wanted to invite me and a guest to media night before they open to the public.  When we arrived they rolled out the red carpet for us.  Free drinks, food and golf.  This was all because I wrote an article about their business.  It was then when I saw the power of non-real estate related content.  Guys, think of yourself as the local newspaper.  Thinks about what interests the community, not real estate.   Gary Vaynerchuk has been talking about this for years.  Be the local media company that happens to sell real estate.  I did an entire episode Why Agents Should STOP Posting About Real Estate.  This has been THE #1 most listened to episode of the Massive Agent Podcast.

After seeing the power in the shares that's what really did it to me.  I was sold on the power of content marketing.  This is obviously what people wanted and by doing so Search Salt Lake started to get shared and the brand became noticed.  I started getting a crapload of traffic to my site.  My SEO and domain authority started to increase as well.  By doing this it has now helped me when I go on listing appointments.  The seller has actually already been to my site.  Here is a tip for you as well.  Everyone who saw my Top Golf article even though they did not share it I still retargeted them with a Facebook pixel.  Because I had the Facebook pixel installed I could then run a specific ad to these people.  Sharing video with them and leading them back to my website to learn more about me and develop trust in me and my brand.