Naples News

About four times a week, Chris Griffith logs into her WordPress blog, uploads pictures and writes about life in Bonita Springs.

As a real estate agent with Downing-Frye Realty, Griffith said more than 90 percent of her clients find her through her LifeInBonitaSprings.com blog, which she’s kept up for about four years.

“It works for me 24 hours a day,” Griffith said. “Instead of cold-calling people and looking for customers, they come to me.”

Many Lee County business owners are jumping on the social media bandwagon to see what it can do for their business. About 25 celebrated international social media day Wednesday in San Carlos Park at FirePit City Grill.

Professionals can use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to foster dialogue, create relationships and draw new customers, said Samantha Scott, an attendee and owner of Pushing the Envelope, a marketing and communications company based in Bonita Springs.

“Social media is all about engagement and creating relationships in a new and passionate way,”Scott said.

Social media is a useful tool because it connects businesses to the community and keeps them on consumers’ minds, she said.

It’s also trackable – you can measure how many times your ads were clicked on or links were followed by consumers and see what was successful.

In the past month, Scott has 12 more Facebook fans, now totaling 231, and an average of 30 page visits a day. She also participates in two to four chats a week on Twitter and has 1,083 followers.

Efforts on social media platforms have led to new business opportunities, but it’s not something that’s had immediate results, Scott said.

“Eventually they’re going to see your expertise through things that you’re sharing with them,” Scott said.

Griffith’s Living in Bonita blog has 40 followers and many e-mail subscribers, some of whom found her blog researching Southwest Florida online.

Although the blog does include real estate posts, Griffith also writes about the city, beaches and nature. The site has photos showing potential buyers that no oil has washed up on Bonita beaches.

Web presence is vital as potential consumers are going to the Web first to find and research companies, said Newt Barrett founder of Content Marketing Strategies based in Naples.

Business owners and professionals using the Web to market their products need to focus on the potential customer rather than the business itself.

“A lot of businesses think of it in the old TV advertisement way where you just blast out messages indiscriminately,” he said.

Barrett said consumers today are interested in a two-way dialogue, where they can feel as though businesses understand them.

Dean Piccirillo, a senior financial adviser with HBK Score Financial in Fort Myers, has created a blog about pension and retirement plans in an easy way everyday people can understand.

His blog and social media networking have gotten national recognition.

“I’ve kind of raised my profile, if you will, within my profession on a national basis, which has been kind of interesting and something that was unexpected.”