As our development team enters the final stages of the Localism rebuild we will be spending more time talking about how to achieve success through hyper-local blogging and web 2.0 consumer centric conversations. I believe that the new Locailsm site will be revolutionary for the real estate industry and over the coming weeks I look forward to revealing the specific components of the site that will make it a game changer.

In the meantime, leading up to the launch, we have begun the process of manually reviewing every Localism post authored on ActiveRain in the last six months. I noticed some similarities amongst the best posts and wanted to share my findings with you.

1. Write about some place local:  The smaller the region the better.  A community post is generally more valuable than a city post, and a city post is better than a county post.

2. Provide original and interesting content: Actually say something.  Don't just link off to other web pages.

3. Post lots of pictures: There is nothing that captures the spirit of a place better than a picture. Except... Video.

4. Take a video: Videos of communities will be all the rage starting in 2009.

5. Do not post a bunch of self serving marketing material on the bottom of your post: If a home buyer or seller finds your information interesting they will figure out how to contact you.  Also, our editors highly downgrade posts with built in - self serving marketing messages.

6. Write about current events happening in your community: Opening Day for Boating, Seattle's Pioneer Square Art Walk

7. Write about people in your community: Saline Chief of Police

8. Write about local businesses: Everyone loves to get the inside tip from the "locals" about the hot places to try. This is your chance to be that local.  Bubble's Boutique in Laguna Beach, New Rita's Restaurant

9. Write about tourist attractions and points of interest: They are called "attractions" and "interest" for a reason.  People are attracted to them and will be attracted to the posts you write about them.

10. Don't write about yourself or simply recite what you did: People want to see your personality shine through, but they are on Localism primarily to learn about a new place. Once you prove to them that you are a good source of information then they will become interested in learning more about you personally. No one cares about these posts: "I joined the Bellevue Washington Chamber of Commerce". "Last weekend I river rafted in the Wenatchee river"  Instead write this post: "Upcoming Dover New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce Events" and "Hood River is Hot" Unless you are providing good pictures and an interesting read to go along with it, no one is interested.

Bonus:

We are creating a site to attract the consumer and hopeful draw their participation.  Post sparingly about real estate.  When you do write about it, write about new home developments, and subdivisions. Barclay Park Condos

This is blogging baby; not research paper or novel time. Blog readers skim hundreds of posts looking for the ones that promise to give them what they want. Use the following secrets to let them know that yours is the post they should be reading! 

1. Use the Title to tell the reader up front what they are going gain by reading your blog post.

2. Use the first line of the post to tell them again what they are going to gain by reading your post.

3. Use a captivating picture that somehow associates with your post. Ideally it gives the reader some indication to what information they are going to gain by reading your post.

4. Use as little few words as possible. Be concise.

5. Link to other blog posts that provide support to your post.

Now that I have officially renamed my ActiveRain blog to something that more matches my state of being, I can start blogging more in line with the way God made me.

I have 9 windows open on my 30" display, I don't have the time - I mean attention span - to write out lengthy well thought out posts.

For about a week or so, I have been experimenting with a service called tumblr.com and I have found the tumblr style of blogging to be much more natural for me.   So I have decided to give that style a go here on my AR blog.  My posts will rarely even qualify as a post as they will not likely meet the 50 word limit; good thing I don't blog for points!

If you wanna see what my first weeks experiment looked like on my tumbl blog, check out linkblog.jonwashburn.com.

Oh and check out the conversation about Continuous Partial Attention