Dashboard download
June 12, 2009By Teresa A. McLamb
Motorists riding alongside Jessica Riffle are prone to stare as the young woman rides along happily talking to the windshield. The hundreds of people who regularly visit her video blog are in on the secret.
Since January, she’s created and uploaded at least two video blogs per week on topics relevant to the real estate market. Each blog is shot as she rides around town, speaking
into a web cam mounted on her dashboard.
“The things I talk about are truly things that are happening in my real estate career. It is very real video blog. I don’t make up topics or stories,” she said.
A Coldwell Banker Sea Coast broker for the past four years, Riffle uses the forum to answer questions from clients and to address ideas and issues she believes are important. “It is solid proof that there is so much more to it than a sign in a yard,” she said.
The video blog is the latest in a series of technology platforms Riffle uses.
She has a web site, and a Facebook presence. She’s on Linkedin and has ventured into Twitter, but admits to not using it very much.
Each piece of her marketing package, from postcards to magazine ads to the various social media sites, point to her video blog. She wants clients and potential clients to have a relationship with her through the blog – which she uploads to YouTube free of charge.
It must be working. Riffle said she gets questions and comments daily from people seeking real estate advice or just commenting that they’ve seen her on YouTube or elsewhere.
She averages about 1,300 visitors per month with the highest month thus far at 1,900 visits.
“I love people, and I love what I do, so I am happy to interact with everyone,” she said.
Because there are other brokers with video blogs, Riffle wanted to distinguish herself. That led to the animated banter from the car and the very regular updates.
“It doesn’t feel like I am instructing or teaching. I wanted to do something that would feel like whoever was watching it was spending time with me during my day, and we were chatting about a real estate topic.”
Because she spends so much time in her car, that seemed the most natural place for the video to be produced, she said.
