I married a business professor. Yep, she has a PhD in marketing and teaches business to young minds at our local university. Usually our worlds don’t intersect, but when I recently complained that after 35 years, my clients were either dead, on their last ranch, or had given the ranch to the kids, she said I needed to update my style, expand my rolodex (yes, I still have one), and join the rush to social media. Who, me?
I joined Facebook, which was fun, with lots of time wasters and LinkedIn, which was not so much fun, mostly business. Spent serious moola upgrading my website to make it “mobile friendly”. Made a lot of “friends”, such as they are, and the site received some hits, but not many. It seemed like I was collecting bored cowboys, not ranch clients. My best results came when I included my faithful dog, Ruby, who, although beautiful, smart, and photogenic, again does not attract my demographic.
Thinking I needed some younger input, I presented my story to one of the Professor’s classes. The students, none of whom looked older than 7, suggested Instagram, which I use but still don’t understand, Pinterest, which doesn’t fit my demographic, and writing a blog. Eureka! Writing about what I know best, ranch real estate and South Texas wildlife.
As I have always enjoyed writing and actually wear two hats, ranch broker and wildlife biologist, I have a wealth of stories from both fields. Writing a blog was easy as I already have a stack of articles written over the years which lend themselves to a blog. I also have a book, “Finding, Buying, and Developing a Ranch in South Texas” which is an easy read that I can publish in chapters on the blog.
The results thus far have been good as well as educational. I can follow the statistics of the blog and see who is clicking past the first page, who is reading more than one article, and who has downloaded my book which I made available for free in the e-version. Feedback is interesting, to say the least, as some people enjoy the articles, some dislike hunting, and some simply like to rant. At any rate, it is getting the information out to people I would never had reached any other way and hopefully it will result in some new clients eager to buy the King Ranch.
For those not quite ready for the King Ranch, I invite you to check out the blog. Lots of information, some humor, and perhaps insight into why Ruby is my best marketing tool!
