In your efforts to promote your real estate services, do you attend HOA meetings, Chamber of Commerce meetings, and meetings of the Planning & Zoning Commission and the City Council?
I believe you should, for three good reasons:
- You’ll be seen by the community leaders.
- You’ll actually KNOW what’s going on in your community.
- You’ll be able to let your prospects know that you know by blogging about what you’ve learned.
Attendance at these meetings will add to your image as the local real estate expert. Participating with 
questions and comments will make you visible – so that others who care about the community will notice you and see you as a real estate professional who cares about the future of the community and who makes the effort to have the facts.
By now you know that blogging about local events is beneficial. Not only do people who are thinking of moving to your city find you and see you as a knowledgeable agent, potential listing clients will also see you.
Those folks who want to know but don’t want to know badly enough to go to the meetings themselves will find you when they’re searching for information.
Of course, depending upon what you say in those meetings, you could get additional recognition when the local news reporter quotes you as a “Voice of real estate.”
If you’re shy about speaking up in public meetings…
When I first started attending meetings as a real estate broker, making myself speak up was torture. My mouth would go dry and I knew I must be shaking hard enough for everyone to see. I’m sure my voice was shaking.
I did it anyway, because there were things going on that I really cared about. But I was terrified!
Then I learned a trick: Get there early and sit in the front row. When you do that, you focus on the few people sitting in the front of the room, conducting the meeting.
You feel like you are speaking just to them, and you don’t see all the other attendees who are looking at you as you speak.
The other good thing – the more you go and the more you speak up, the easier it gets.
Image courtesy of franky242 |freedigitalimages.net
