Nashville Business Journal
- Jenny Burns

Nashville-based Southern Land Co. has entered the world of corporate blogging in a different way.

The company has hired a reporter to write about the real estate market and housing trends on a separate Web site from its own. The site address is www.whatsforreal.com.

Corporate blogging and CEO blogs have grown as giants such as General Motors, Delta, Kodak and Google have all started their own blogs. About 11 percent of Fortune 500 companies are blogging, according to the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki.

Southern Land wanted to be different. Instead of posting traditional public relations content, the company decided to invent a forum aimed at giving builders, real estate agents and homebuyers a place to talk shop, ask questions and debate the market.

"Rather than write the content ourselves, we wanted to create an objective vehicle," says Jim Cheney, spokesman for Southern Land, who says he wants to take national stories datelined in Florida and California and ask if they are relevant in the Nashville market.

Southern Land hired former Williamson A.M. real estate reporter Marilee Spanjian, who is now a custom homebuilder. Spanjian builds about three to five homes a year through her company Tapestry Builders LLC, where she focuses on green elements, such as recycling construction waste and building space in homes for recycling.

Debbie Weil, author of "The Corporate Blogging Book," says she's seeing a trend of companies starting blogs where they create a sort of online news portal.

The Miller Co. started a similar blog by hiring reporter James Arndorfer to cover the beer industry. Arndorfer broke news in the industry, especially news from Miller's competitor Anheuser-Busch.

Southern Land's blog will act similarly in the blogsphere in that it appears separate from the company, but different in that its goal isn't to break news of its competitors.

Spanjian will write feature and trend stories, link to media reports on real estate and comment on those stories.

Spanjian's opinionated, but she says Southern Land hasn't given her any talking points.

"I don't think they want this to be some kind of propaganda machine, nor do I," Spanjian says. "This is a site where we can get people talking and look at the national stories. Let's look at subjects that maybe the media is not touching on -- and then get people talking. I did not want to write fluff."

To Weil, www.whatsforreal.com seems to lack a clearly stated purpose.

"I think you have to be absolutely clear on the blog about what the purpose is and whose behind it so that you don't confuse people and I find this quite confusing," she says. "They are mixing messages here."

Weil says the blog's sponsorship by Southern Land Co. should be more prominent with a clear purpose stated at the top of the Web page. In the "About Us" tab on the blog, a mission statement and Southern Land Co.'s involvement in the blog is described.

Weil counsels companies that want to start blogs.

"I've worked with companies who see how hard it is to devote staff to (a blog), so I say hire a reporter as long as you are very clear about what you're doing," she says.

Real estate-related blogs have been growing exponentially because it's an industry where consumers want information, says Blanche Evans, senior editor of Realty Times, based in Dallas.

"All over the Internet, there is Realtor blogs, city blogs, neighborhood blogs because there's all kinds of interest in learning more," she says.

Real estate agent Larry Brewer writes several Middle Tennessee real estate blogs. He says blogging takes a lot of time, but has been good for his business. He doesn't get many comments, but he does keep his customers informed, he says.



jburns@bizjournals.com | 615-846-4276