Neighborhood blogging gets more interesting

Mashable reports today that outside.in, the hyper-local news and event website, has made its Story Maps application free for all.

What is it?

Story Maps plots your blog posts on a map, as opposed to the standard vertical/chronological display that slowly pushes your posts into oblivion.

Why is it important to brokers and agents?

Think about it: If you’re a good real estate blogger you blog a lot about places — homes, neighborhoods, schools, streets. Story Maps lets you display that content in a way that maximizes its value. Your posts are tied to place, not date.

For those brokers and agents who are serious about blogging, and have the chops to pull it off, this is exciting stuff.

There are other ways to do this, but Story Maps is the most elegant I’ve seen. Here’s what it looks like:

Placemap_widget4

Brian Boero