I've been spending a lot of time thinking about social networks and social networking lately. Not so much the established sites people generally think of like ActiveRain, Linked In or Facebook.

More from a personal business or corporate perspective - like a social network as a delivery platform, or an intranet, or a private client area. Or all of these wrapped in one.

Specifically I've been testing the IGLOO Software platform - a white label corporate social network solution. And there are lots of others in this space too.

From a real estate perspective, I think there are many compelling opportunities in creating your own personal social network - to connect with potential clients, and more importantly, keep your current clients happy and engaged with your brand.

The term "Sphere of Influence" is often used on ActiveRain. Working with your sphere is a great way to help grow your business, and a sphere is nature's strongest structure. If your Sphere of Influence is your family, friends, clients and bussinesses you associate with, what does that sound like?

So replace the word Sphere with Social Network.

And imagine the possibilities of your sphere as a social network:

• every interaction with your sphere (social network) is an extension of your brand
• create networking opportunities for your sphere, within your sphere
• increase your sphere with the features and functionality inherent to social networks
• empower every client to be part of your sphere by providing a network
• provide a virtual wlecome wagon for clients relocating to your area
• efficient content delivery with subscriptions and feeds
• virtual, private office environment (online) for sharing material with clients
• collaborate with partners for shring documents in a secure work space
• stay top of mind with personal and exclusive content and special offers or deals

The barriers to entry for creating your own, personal (branded) social network are coming down pretty fast.

If the members of your sphere were also members of your own social network, that would be pretty cool. And good for business.

Today is Victoria Day in Canada, a national holiday honouring Queen Victoria's birthday, and our national connection to Britain and the Royal Monarchy. Queen Victoria was in charge of things in the UK from 1837 to 1901, and was the first sovereign - though more ceremonial - head of Canada too.

After spending some time on Wikipedia, I learned that the first Victoria Day was celebrated back in 1854, thirteen years before Canada was even a country. In my own province of Nova Scotia (which means New Scotland in Latin) we have many close ties to our British and Scottiish ancestors - we love our kilts and tartans - and who doesn't love a statutory holiday?

On the other side of the country in British Columbia - many would probably assume that Vancouver is the capital city. But in fact, it's Victoria. Another little known fact is that I was born in Victoria, and lived there for about two weeks. Military dad.

Victoria (the city, not the Queen) has some really nice Parliament Buildings - the Provincial Legislature is pictured below:

 Photo by Ryan Bushby - Creative Commons 2.5      

So have a great Victoria Day whatever country you're living in.

I recently started to do some work with a new real estate client, Marta Anderson of Del Mar Realty in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia.

Now that I'm fully addicted to ActiveRain, one of the first things I talked about with Marta is how great the AR community was for meeting like-minded real estate professionals, sharing her experiences and learning from others.

I warned her that she might become addicted too, but that it was a manageable problem when recognized, and could be easily justified as a business time expense because it would be helping her brokerage.

Marta was also interested in learning about new ways to connect with potential clients - and especially those from outside Nova Scotia. I mentioned some of the success stories I'd read about on ActiveRain, and how I'd met many new friends, colleagues and even some clients on the site - and probably 99% of them have been from outside our little corner of the East Coast of Canada.

So Marta was excited, and quickly accepted my invitation to join the site. Here's Marta's Profile, and her First Post on ActiveRain.

Over the next few months we'll be working together on her new web site, as well as some cool ways to highlight her community as a relocation destination and connect with clients from across Canada, the United States and even farther abroad.

And part of that will be accomplished with AR Localism - because I've seen it work for others on the site.

And if Marta finds she's losing time (and sleep) to ActiveRain... we'll, all due respect, I've got my own AR addiction to worry about.

So please join me in Welcoming New ActiveRainer Marta Anderson! (say Hi in her comments)

Have fun, Marta! You've been warned...

On May 9, 2005 - three years ago today - Seth Godin published a post on his blog called What Every Good Marketer Knows.

I didn't know who Seth Godin was at the time he wrote it. I might have recognized his face. Maybe not. It was only three years ago, but a lot has changed in that time. In May 2005 there was no Twitter, Facebook was The Facebook, and YouTube had been online less than three months - the founders were not Googlerich yet. Blogs were seven or eight years old, but did anyone beyond a few know what they were?

So a lot has changed. A lot more attention grabbers out there.

But through all the clutter, after reading probably thousands of blog posts, there's one that I return to time and again. And it was published three years ago today.

It's essential reading for anyone that is in the business of marketing, and marketing themselves. Which is basically everyone in the real estate profession.

The list of 30 insights and observations and things good marketers know - will have you nodding. I printed and highlighted the first time I read it.

Here's my favorite ten:

• Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
  
  
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
  
  
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
  
  
• One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.
  
  
• Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
  
  
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
  
  
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you're viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
  
  
• You're not in charge. And your prospects don't care about you.
  
  
• Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
  
  
• Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.

Bonus #11

• Marketing is not an emergency. It's a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn't end until you're done.

 
Hey Seth, thanks for that great list.

Read the original post Seth Godin published three years ago today.

May 1st is May Day in some countries, and it's known as International Worker's Day in others.

But in the vast depths of cyberspace - May 1st is now RSS Awareness Day!

This isn't your typical Hallmark Holiday and you probably can't get a greeting card to mark the occasion at your local drug store. But you can get some blog badges and banners. I guess these are the new digital awareness ribbons.

RSS Awareness Day is an initiative of Daily Blog Tips, and blog I've recently discovered. The content on DBT looked pretty useful, so I subscribed to their RSS feed. Now I won't have to go back to their blog, and I'll get their feed (most recent posts) delivered directly to my reader. It's way easier than going back to check for new content, and that's the whole point.

Subscribing to RSS Feeds has changed my web reading habits, and I can now read more, faster.

The main Feed Reader I use is the one built right into Internet Explorer. When I'm on a blog I like, or find myself constantly returning to, or constantly being referred to... I hit the orange RSS box (top right area IE) and save the feed into one of my selected categories. Done.

Next time they have fresh content, their blog name in my Feeds panel will be bold.

And that's just from the Subscribing perspective. Flip the coin and Feeds are the most efficient way for you to distribute content and information to your clients, prospective clients and readers. They've asked for you to supply them with info. Give them what they want!

To find out exactly what RSS stands for, and other technical definitions, visit the RSS Awareness Day site, watch the Common Craft video "RSS in Plain English"(recently featured on AR!) or do some further reading on Wikipedia about Web Feeds and Really Simple Syndication(RSS).

Spread the Word with badges and banners, and have a great RSS Awareness Day! May is going to be huge! I can feel it.

--------------------------------------------

Congratulations to ActiveRain and all its Members for reaching this impressive milestone.

From the very first post on ActiveRain - Blast the Bubble - back on June 25, 2006, to passing the 25,000 Members mark on April 12, 2007... 'Rainers have known something special was going on around here from the beginning.

Soon it was 50,000 Members... then 59,997... and then on March 3rd, 2008, AR surpassed 75,000 Members!

Now we're mid way through the 80's. I'm predicting 100,000 by July 1st. I'd love to be proven wrong.

Here's to The Community - Join me in raising a glass of Rain!

--------------------------------------------

Google has had a busy month - do they ever not? When they're not serving up a gazillion web search queries, they're doing cool things with their other products and services. Here's a round up of notable Google news from the last few weeks, compiled from the too many Google blogs I subscribe too.

Google AdWords Agency Blog: Google product info at your fingertips - April 8th
Here's a great reference guide to Google Products - this handy PDF is accurately described as a "one-stop shop for brief descriptions and benefits of relevant Google products". Includes links and advertising applicability for products and services like Google Earth and Maps, Gmail, Picasa, YouTube, and Google Groups and Docs.

Google Analytics Blog: Graduation Day for Website Optimizer and Urchin Software! - April 18th
The Google Website Optimizer is now a standalone Google product (formerly an AdWords feature). What's a Google Website Optimizer? It's a "free website testing and optimization tool"...which " allows you to increase the value of your existing websites and traffic without spending a cent." Not bad. Check it out at www.google.com/websiteoptimizer and get the latest news on the Optimizer Blog

Google Lat Long Blog: Dynamic data in Google Earth - April 18th
Google Earth is now at version 4.3, and the latest release allows for some cool new viewing features like switching from Day to Night, and adding Clouds and Weather. Business applications? It's a stretch, but with the Pro version you could record a movie of the sun rising and setting over your town or community. If you've got nice 3-D mountain terrain in the background, it's pretty cool. Google Earth / Download Earth 4.3

Official Gmail Blog: 9 reasons to archive - April 18th
Archiving your Gmail (or email in any program for that matter) can lead to better organization, time saved, and better overall communication. Need some specific reasons why you should archive? This blog post gives you nine, including #2 "Becuase You Can: clean inbox = clean mind." I agree Gmail blog.

Google Webmaster Central Blog:
Always lots of great reading on Webmaster Central - here's three posts that are interesting, and useful:

April 14th - Webmaster tips for creating accessible, crawlable sites
April 16th - Best practices when moving your site
April 23rd - Where in the world is your site

The Official Google Blog: What makes a design "Googley"? - April 23
Read this post - but here's the 10 things that make for a Googley design - and really, I think Good Design:

1. Focus on people-their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people's trust.
10. Add a human touch.

I love #1, #3 and #10.

If this is what Google wants, I say give it. On your web site, on your blog, the photos you take and share, the maps you create, the videos you produce. Everything is worth of good design.

And don't forget to submit your web site URL to Google, and then ping Google Blog Search when you've got a new post to index.

Which reminds me...

--------------------------------------------

It's been just over a year since Google released the My Maps feature within Google Maps that allows users to easily customize, brand and take their own user-created maps to a new level and publish them on the web.

At the time, I wrote a few posts on the topic - Creating Google Listing Maps: Part One & the follow-up post Part Two.

In the past year Google has added some new features, like the ability to collaborate with multiple users, export your maps to Google Earth (cool & efficient), and to add and incorporate other data like Picasa and Panarimo photos, The Weather Network info, or Places of Interest. Searching - or creating maps - by the Places of Interest is pretty cool because you can check off five different "layers" - or search parameters and have the map pull up local schools, places of worship, hospitals, coffee shops, etc. Creating custom local maps is easier than ever!

But the the most amazing update they've made since launching is the ability to Reorder the items on your map. This was a key feature to release because it allows users to easily update their maps and present information that they find is most important at the top, and in the exact order they want.

For a listings map, you can reorder by price as new listings come in, move Sold listings to the bottom for awhile, then delete. Or you may want to present the info arranged by community. You have the options, and with the ability to rearrange the order, you can show what you want in your preferred order with a few drags and drops of your mouse.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of Google making maps extremely easy to create and customize, I wanted to make my own My Map of ActiveRain Friends - to highlight the friends, associates and subscribers I've met through ActiveRain and give some link love to their AR blogs.

Here's it is:

Thanks to the ActiveRain Community for making the site such a great place to hang out, learn, make friends and do business.

And if you need the help of a real estate professional, consider one of the fine people above!

--------------------------------------------

In my last post Who Spilled the Paint?  - I highlighted some of the new custom blogs on ActiveRain. The site has become rather colorful lately, and I'm not talking salty language.

All this fun is due to Brad Carroll and his AR Custom Blog Builder.

The AR community has been busy using this new tool, and fresh blog designs are coming out fast and furious! I have a feeling this is going to become one of the most popular tools/features on the site once word spreads.

Here's the second round up of new designs:

The blogs featured above were customized by:

Kevin Tomlinson & Veena Grover
Leslie Prest & Steven Odierno
Dorene Shirley & Doug Garner
Kris Wales & Brad Andersohn
Jonathan Washburn & Jeff Turner
Maureen Henry & Gina Landis
Cindy Bryant & Alan Kirkpatrick


Special mention to Julie Neerings - she got a new background, and made my old screen shot obsolete. These customizers work fast!

Special Thanks to Brad Carroll for sharing this knowledge with the community, and then taking it to the next level by making the process automatic so everyone can have fun.

I've been spending all my time checking out all the new designs, so I guess it's time to get going on my new header image.

Got a new design on your blog? Post it in the comments.

HOT UPDATE! Get on the list while can!

--------------------------------------------------------

Change was in the air this weekend around the ActiveRain playground, and it had nothing to do with the hamsters going on strike.

If you subscribe to Brad Carroll, you may have done a double-take when you went to his blog this weekend. Or at least checked the URL to make sure you hadn't left ActiveRain. Brad found a way to give his blog a totally unique look, made some modifications, and then shared it with the community.

Fast forward a day from discovery, and Brad had turned this process automatic - check out The Active Rain Custom Blog Generator

The ActiveRain community moves fast, and the look and feel of the site and member blogs is changing before our eyes. Here are some of the early adopters:

What do you think of these new developments? Will you be changing the color scheme of your AR personal space?

From the comments so far, this seems to be a popular idea. What's your take?

UPDATE - Here's links to all the blogs featured above:

Brad Carroll - The Original... & Missy Caulk
Doug Newby & Nicole Nicolay
Bobby Carroll & Leesa Finley
Marti Garaughty & Lane Bailey
Kim Carpenter & Susan Milner
Julie Neerings & Don Rider
Teri Ellis & Cyndee Haydon

UPDATE 2 - See more custom designs in Who Spilled the Paint Too?

--------------------------------------------------------