Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Think Local When You Blog!

Fully Cusotmizable Vinyl Car Skins--No Paint!

Lessons from Local Motors—Part 3—Think Local!

Luxury real estate marketing professionals often ask us what they should blog about. And, we answer: Think Local! Look for stories of local heroes and find an angle that no one else is covering. For example, if you specialize in eco-luxury, look for stories about companies and people who are making news on this front. Local Motors is such a story.

In fact, the Local Motors story, in our opinion, holds the keys to the future of capitalism, enlightened capitalism. It offers us hope that economics, society and the environment can achieve a balancing act where everyone wins. It also makes us proud to be Americans because the story is unfolding right here.

In Part 2 of this series we mentioned that Local Motors offers the unique ownership experience of actually building your own car in a local “micro-factory”, in just two weekends, under the supervision of a Designated Builder Trainer. When you assemble the parts you will find out, firsthand, the degree to which the actual components of the car are eco-friendly. Here are a few examples:

• The motor used in the Rally Fighter, Local Motors’ first model, is a BMW M57 clean diesel engine. It offers a fun experience with very low fuel consumption, achieving 36mpg on the highway, or 30mpg in an off-road setting. The motor relies on extremely high fuel-injection and combustion pressures to burn fuel more completely--dramatically reducing both soot and nitrogen-oxide emissions.
• The body of the car is made of a composite material that can actually be recycled. There is no corrosive steel used that winds up on a junk heap. In fact, a separate composite material is used for the nose cone and the rear fender that is stronger than steel.
• This car has zero layers of paint! A vinyl car skin is used that can be fully customized by the customer. It lasts for years and is easy on the environment because the color ink is sprayed close to the surface and thus significantly reduces harmful chemicals in the air.

Ecology is much more than just the natural environment; it extends to the community that was built online to design the cars and to engage customers in the process. As such Local Motors is also a stellar social media story. By March 2009 there were 2,400 active contributors to the site, uploading drawings, commenting on each others' work, and voting on designs. Jay Rogers, CEO of Local Motors, says that number has since climbed considerably. Social media channels on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter add millions more people to the Local Motors community.

There are so many wonderful stories right in your marketplace. You just need to present your story in your own voice, which is what a personal brand is all about. If you can show your followers that there are exciting and interesting stories right “in their own backyards” you will indeed become what we call “follow-worthy”, and people will spread the word about you.

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