The "Got Milk" branding has always stuck with me. As David and I build our business around helping people learn how to effectively use ActiveRain and blogging to increase their business in real estate, I have chosen a great brand for us. "Got Coffee" and "Got Blogs" will be a fun and happy things to brand with. I don't know about you but I depend on both to sustain life.

Having seen the dynamics of what Social Media can do for your business on a personal level...well it makes you a believer. I personally get all my business from my marketing presence on the WEB. I don't receive any leads from my broker. This is not completely a factual statement. We have an awesome WEB lead generation system at Real Living Real Estate Professionals. I get good leads from it. I return everyone of the notices I get. So far, I rarely have the opportunity to talk directly to the client much less effectively establish a relationship.

We learned the hard way about WEB leads years ago with Zip Realty. I had all leads that would come to Alameda, CA. We got thousands each month. Being developers, David build me a parsing tool to help identify viable leads. We built some formulaic intelligence in the tool that helped us eliminate certain pattern matching criteria. After, you deal with data and get familiar with the nature of the data set, you can begin to understand an emergent set of patterns that spell "good possibility" and "don't bother" categories. We perfected it and became aware that the overall nature of WEB leads is all about hiding from personal contact and hiding their identify.

So, in conclusion I've never been very excited about WEB lead from that point on. I always respond and I always offer my services but few connect.

Blogging is so different from that experience. The experience is a warm and refreshing exchange. The client based on your work as a Blogger calls you up and ask you to help them or to work with them. They feel that they already know you and that based on the content that you have shared, want to work with you.

ActiveRain is the cornerstone of my business. I have built the foundation around AR. I personally feel that because of the ability to learn here and to stay abreast of the technologies that can help us service our clients along with the ability to keep up with the trending news of our Industry, you have a golden opportunity here in the RAIN. How could one ask for anything better. If I had a Genie in a bottle and could wish for three wishes they would be:

• That there would always be an ActiveRain Forum that helps me so tremendously with my individual and business development as a Realtor.
• That I will continue to a learning individual.
• That I will always be open to change and learning.

So make sure that you are prepared for the future and always remember to ask: Got Coffee and Got Business? You can leave the coffee off. No big deal. But don't leave the ActiveRain part off. You definitely need AR to build for the future, your business and to help your clients.

Next....Wordpress Blogs and how they shake hands with ActiveRain!