Charlotte Property Management Weekly: Controlling the Public’s Thoughts About You The Michael Bloomberg Way

“I am the best Realtor in town! Why can’t anyone figure it out?” (frustrated Charlotte Realtor)

Michael Bloomberg, the current Mayor of New York City, came to fame as the founder of Bloomberg, LP. His company builds and maintains data terminals for members of the financial community who need access to real-time financial data. He built this from nothing to a $10B+ company in around 20 years. He is obviously an astute and extremely successful businessman who knows a thing or two about serving up data, both to his customers and to the press. Let me explain.

Bloomberg knew that favorable media coverage was extremely important to the growth of his business. So, he had to figure out a way to make sure that all (or at least most) of the news stories about Bloomberg, LP were positive. Short of threatening reporters, it was tough to see how he could coerce them into writing what he wanted (aka good stuff). It seemed like a crapshoot; any reporter could write anything they wanted and it could be influenced by nothing to do with his company. For example, the reporter could have had a breakfast that didn’t sit well or his ex-wife could have had the maiden name of “Bloomberg” which would result in a negative article. How could he increase his odds for positive coverage?

Well, he hired a staff whose sole job was to work with the media. Doesn’t every company do this? Yes, but he took it a step farther. When reporters called, his staff asked them what they were writing about, who they wanted to talk to, and what angle they were looking to take. When the reporters showed up at Bloomberg LP’s headquarters, a packet of information was waiting on them regarding the subject they were looking to cover (all pro-Bloomberg LP, of course!).

In this information packet, and what set Bloomberg apart, was an article (already written!) on the topic they were planning to write about. His staff would say something to the effect of, “We know that reporters are busy and have a tough job with all these deadlines and such. So, we thought we’d make it easier for you. Feel free to use as much of the provided article as you like; there is no need to reference our work. It’s yours to do with as you please- use the article in its entirety, if you’d like! We won’t tell anyone.” And as the story goes, most of the reporters used parts of the article in their stories and, sure enough, some of the reporters published the full article verbatim.

“Ummm… I’m not a billionaire and can’t afford to hire a staff of writers. Great article, though!” Thanks, but the point of the story is two-fold:

1. You can largely control the information about you in the public domain. Just write positive things about yourself and have the search engines index it!
2. You can make it easy for people to find positive information about you; simply provide it to every customer you meet! This can be on your business card, e-mail signature, or company brochures.

When people Google your name or your real estate company’s name, what comes up? What does your Linked-In profile look like? What are you “tweeting” out regularly? How are customers figuring out how “good” you really are?

Don’t make people do the work of drawing a conclusion about what type of agent you are. Give them the conclusion you want them to have about you (in an easy format). It worked well for billionaire and Mayor, Mike Bloomberg! Will you let it work well for you?

Brett Furniss is the President & Owner of BDF Realty, “Charlotte’s Most Innovative Property Management & Investment Company” (www.BDFRealty.com and www.RentToSell.com). You can follow his Twitter thoughts on the Charlotte real estate market by clicking on http://twitter.com/bdfrealty. He is the author of the FREE E-Manual entitled “How to Rent-To-Sell Your Own Home” (http://www.renttosell.com/RTS-Book.html) which details how to get the most potential buyers to your home in this challenging real estate market.