Do you ever tick boxes for things, despite them not sitting quite right with you? But because it is a common step and a universally acknowledged and sensible thing to do, you just run with something anyhow.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. It seems like today, more than ever before, people have less and less free time and more things demanding time and attention.
Having a Facebook business page was a box that we ticked for some time. We had a page, it had our credentials on it, contact information, you know the rest.
We know that it is deemed to be a crucial, essential presence for a business.
We know that Facebook is a powerhouse and owns many apps that we love and use, such as Instagram.
We know that Facebook folk may find out that we removed our neat, friendly little business from its community and give us a big digital thumbs down (read: limit our reach on other apps!).
We know that it can be a phenomenal online space and community for businesses, groups and people to communicate from all corners of the globe to drum up business and projects.
We know that one day we may have more reasons to have a page, than not to, and may start one up again. This decision is reversible.
Facebook can do AMAZING things for people and businesses, we get it. Perhaps just not for us…
We even tried Facebook’s advertising, with several targeted campaigns. But – it did jack for us in terms of reach and numbers.
And really, although this lovely business of ours is growing and we find ourselves just loving new opportunities and where they are taking us, we just weren’t feeling Facebook as being key. It just isn’t key to our growth or an enjoyable facet of our work, if we are being honest.
We often gain new clients in person, through word of mouth, or by random chances. Tanya does plenty of work for clients in far-off places, such as the U.S.A. and India. These clients didn’t pop up on our Facebook Page.
Instead, we felt as thought our page was impeding on our family and friend’s feeds.
When people put their feet up and scroll through their feed for some mental down time and a switch-off from the real world, we didn’t feel like they wanted to see our latest listings, or musings about life as a hired writer.
Our clients and industry colleagues didn’t really need to spend time on our page – we have plenty of other means of communication. So really, getting a ‘like’ from my Mum, as kind as it was, felt like an indication that we didn’t have the reach we wanted, or needed really.
As copywriters, we sell a service, not a product. What we were showcasing on our page, specifically our organic content, really wasn’t being seen by anyone and wasn’t going to change anyone’s lives. Seriously.
We love our work, we are good at what we do, but we weren’t being rewarded by our time on Facebook and it didn’t feel like it was an avenue worth continuing.
We live in a world where people are shuffling around the streets like zombies with their heads down, finding imaginary anime characters (another post in itself!). We daresay that people really don’t want to trawl through the business page of someone who isn’t offering them a service relevant to them, when they can be spending time doing things they enjoy in their free time.
Ciao for now, Facebook.
There are plenty of articles floating around that weigh up the pros and cons of businesses breaking up with Facebook. Some of them had some really resonating points, but there was no particular literature that cemented the decision for us.
It just felt like a box we had ticked, but that our heart wasn’t in.
So we made a business decision to say goodbye to it!
Because when you run a business yourself you make these decisions and wear the consequences or rewards yourself. And it feels damn good to be authentic to our own thoughts and experiences.
So, we work in advertising.
We are professional marketing content writers.
We do use Facebook, in terms of having personal pages. It can provide a really wonderful space to make loved ones on different continents not seem so far away and, of course, to share messages, ideals and raise awareness.
But –
You won’t find The Property Writers creeping into your feed on Facebook (for now, at least!).
So see you elsewhere, folks! (Some not so subtle links below.)
It doesn’t have to be an awkward conversation when you are asked what you do.
As copywriters, it’s safe to say that we’ve encountered that slightly puzzled look when we answer that question:
“What is it that you do?”
Which is completely fine, because we have been the ones who give that look, when occasionally encountering someone whose own profession is way over our own heads. But these conversations are fun to have.
I think the confusion is typically because the terms copywriter or copywriting can easily be mixed up with ‘copyright’.
To set the record straight; copyright is a form of intellectual property, so a way of publicly and legally safeguarding original creative works. Here is the wikipedia link for more clarification.
Copywriting – what we do – refers to the action itself of what our role is, but you just need to do a little switch-eroo with the wording. We write copy. And the ‘copy’ part refers to content. You’ll find the wikipedia link for copywriting here.
So… we write content!
Engaging words are SO important. (Image Copyright Gary Larson)
We tend to go on about how much we love what we do, because that’s the truth – we do love our job. We love how we each bring different strengths to our professional partnership and we love that we have a genuine 100%, authentic belief that what we do is valid, useful and value-adding for our clients.
It’s also demanding, often performed in a high-pressure environment and each day brings variety, as well as obstacles. But we take all of that in our stride.
Another question we are often asked is:
“How do I become a copywriter?”
The answer to this isn’t very straightforward, which is also encouraging for those who seek to get started in copywriting. That’s because there is no pre-requisite for commencing a copywriting role, at least not if you work for yourself.
It’s okay to have a fictitious mentor, right? Image Copyright Weiner Brothers/AMC Studios.
There are so very many areas in which copywriters are required, including medical and technical copywriting and specific, strategic SEO copywriting/consulting.
Essentially, copywriters can be “hired guns” on a permanent or freelance basis, or work on retainer or salary for companies across literally hundreds of industries.
As a copywriter, you can create a business or company, based on your own strengths or interests. This would allow you to provide a specific, unique service that caters to appropriate clients, who have a use for your service. Where there is a demand and value in what you do, there is work.
We have several university degrees between us, but neither of us went to university to study copywriting.
Our work today is the result of wonderful, sometimes random opportunities, that set us on a path in which we sculpted our work to suit the real estate industry.
We would however recommend that as a writer or prospective copywriter, you engage in and join a combination of communities and support networks. So, for example, you could join your local writer’s centre and (if you’re in Australia), the Australian Writer’s Guild.
And then, the information, opportunities and support you receive from these can be complimented further by joining your local Business Network, which in our case is Business S.A.
The combination of having access to information both as a creative writer and a business owner should set you on a course of (relatively) smooth sailing as you charter the waters of content writing.
And please hit us up for advice, any time you please!
This post is not sponsored or endorsed by affiliating membership bodies, it is simply based on our own experience and preferences for running a copywriting business in Australia.
In November 2015, Google released an update on how its search engine algorithms work. Clocking in at a huge 160 pages in PDF form, I feel pretty safe in betting that you haven’t read it, and you’re not going to.
But if you want your agency to come up in web results, this is a document you need to understand, because Google has drastically changed the way it ranks searches. Long gone are the days where you could put up a website with the words ‘real estate’ in the title and hope for the best – these days, it’s all about expert advice and original, content-heavy content. That’s not discounting the other factors, of course – Backlinko enumerates a huge 200 factors taken into account to determine Google rankings, which you can read here if you’re so inclined.
You’re not? That’s fine. Luckily for all of us, we here at The Property Writers love this kind of stuff. So here’s a summary:
Clear, concise writing is favoured over duplicate, ‘scraped’ or badly written content. The stuff that’s generated through high volume content mills by writers working well below minimum wage tends to be careless and come across as lazy. The writers themselves aren’t lazy, of course – they’re writing as fast as they can just to buy groceries. But that means they don’t have time to stop and revise their copy, much less to research their content and interview experts. Which brings us to our next point.
E-A-T. That’s the new acronym for the pages Google looks for to rank as high quality. It stands for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. Complex topics such as finance, health and legal requires expert opinion. Relevantly for real estate agents, advice pages that “may affect a person’s finances or well being”, a category that ranges from financial advice to home remodeling and parenting, should also be written by an expert. The writer should be an authority on the topic, providing content that is useful and can be trusted for accuracy.
That means that agents who are using content management strategies to establish themselves as trusted authorities in the field need to make sure that their content is authoritative and correct. A real estate agent is an expert in the property field, and can give advice on a range of topics from preparing your home for sale to renovating for profit. But if you don’t want to write it yourself, you need a professional copywriter who can use your authority to present crisp, authoritative prose that Google will rank highly.
Here’s another acronym: YMYL. Your Money/Your Life. That refers to pages where bad advice can cost people dearly, and includes e-commerce, detailed health advice and financial how-tos. If your content includes advice on how to finance a home purchase, for example, Google is likely to put your page under extra scrutiny to make sure that it contained qualified expert advice.
If any of this sounds daunting, don’t worry. The algorithm changes are excellent news, because they represent another step towards favouring real experts offering real quality services. And that’s what you are, after all. You don’t have to compete with the hacks and the content mills: just make sure your content is written by someone who can do justice to your knowledge of the industry, and you’ll find your business goes straight to the top of the page.
