The campaign to clean up those profile messages

Now that we have launched the new version of CBHearthside.com, the public once again has the ability to search for agents by name or by office. (The photo is a screenshot of the Lahaska office, picked at random).

Obviously this is very helpful to the public and is already increasing our web site traffic. Unlike old sites, however, when the user pulls up an agent, there is a paragraph of information written right next to the photo - sort of an "about me" they can quickly read before moving on.

Well, if you search your office you will undoubtedly find just what I am finding - that everyone still has the same message! Needless to say the consumers aren't going to find that very helpful at all. More importantly, it is not sending the message you want to send to your customers that you pay attention to the internet!

I am launching a campaign to update profile messages before Labor Day. Each of your administrative assistants received an email today with detailed instructions on how to change both the profile paragraph AND the welcome message at the top of your microsite (if you haven't seen a microsite yet, click here for a sample). Right now, only people with administrative access can change the pages (hopefully down the road we will develop a tool so you can change them yourself) so if you WANT to update your page (why wouldn't you) just send an email to your admin with new text.

Please keep in mind a few things when changing your profile message or your welcome on the microsite. First, they are meant to be short. Don't exceed the size currently on the screens (about 40 words for the microsite, about 85 words for the profile). Second, be sure to put them in the proper tense - I recommend the microsite be in the first person (meaning you speak as yourself and use the "I" instead of "he or she") and that the profile message be in the third person (meaning you speak as if you were talking about yourself and use "he/she" instead of "I")

Also - if you see that your profile or microsite doesn't have a photo, that should be corrected too. Send the photo to your admin who will see that it gets filed correctly and sent to me for posting.