Just a quick post. Nah… make that more of a giant thank you!
The first ever Virtual REBarCamp was held yesterday and if you were one of the more than 2,000 people that attended there’s a few people you need to thank (so do I).
The Organizers
First off – the boys at Real Estate Tomato. Jim Cronin, Jason Benesch, Daniel Bates and Chris Hotz organized the event, secured the speakers, setup the technology. Once it started, these three were working feverishly behind the scenes to make sure each and every session went off as planned.
The Presenters
Then there were the session presenters. Unlike a typical REBarCamp, having a roundtable discussion was impossible. That said, most of the presenters provided solid content with little sales (yes, there were a few who went spammy). Remember, each and every one of these people took valuable time out of their day to provide valuable educational content for you.
Here’s a list of the presenters and the topics they covered.
Doug Devitre - YouTube For Real Estate Frances Flynn Thorsen - Social Media Risk Management (part 1) Brian Block - Broker’s View: Best Uses of Social Media in Your Brokerage Glenn Sanford - The Real Estate Office of the Future Scott Gray - Introductory SEO and Internet Marketing Strategies Joseph Ferrara - The Future of the Real Estate Brokerage Daniel Bates - Must-Have WordPress PlugIns for Your RE Blog Brad and Bobby Carroll - The Value of Adding Posterous.com to Your Online Tool Belt Beth Butler - Broker Blogging Strategies Teresa Boardman - Flickr.com - A REAL Social Network Kendra Todd - The 30-Min Branding Boot Camp: “The Brand Called You” Donna Stott - Why Coaching is Critical To Success Mark Burrell - Getting Started with WordPress for Real Estate. Ginger Wilcox and Hal Lublin - Secrets of Web Success for 2010 (their session will be rescheduled) Kathy Goughenour - 8-Step Formula for Writing Real Estate Blog Posts Evan Russell - Agent Daily Goal Tracker Frances Flynn Thorsen - Social Media Risk Management (part 2) Mark Madsen - Mortgage Blogging Success Tom Ferry - 3 Ways Top Producers Are Making Sales With Social Media Suzanne Roy - Top Tips For Free (But Highly Profitable) Advertising Online Scott Sambucci - Beat The Headlines, Be The Local Market Expert Stefan Swanepoel - Social Media Trends of 2010 Ross Hair - Converting Social Media Into More Real Estate Closings Mike Mueller - LinkedIn: The Red Headed Step Child of Social Media Matthew Fetick - Top 10 Time and Money Saving Tech Tips Michelle Carr-Crowe - It’s Raining Blogs; How To Be An ActiveRain Rainmaker Steve Rosenbaum - The Best Free (& Nearly Free) Online Tools For Your RE Business
The Attendees
As the Rockstars always say, it’s the crowd that makes the show a success. Almost 2,000 people registered for the event – add to it those that didn’t register but went to a live in office Meetup (71 Meetups Registered) and it’s safe to say this event made an impact on a few people. Kudos for you if you attended!
Giving Back
Speaking of making an impact – the event was free. The education was priceless. This event was dedicated to Kevin Warmath (3/20/65 – 1/31/09) and we are collecting donations for his surviving family. Take a moment right now and click on the link above. Read his story. Give anything you can. ReTweet this post, share it on Facebook, spread the message. Pay it Forward.
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
We would also like to encourage you to visit Twitter, Facebook and TomatoChat.com to join in the national conversation with your peers, on the day of the event. Consider these locations the ‘hallways’ of the event, where you can meet, discuss and learn from each other during the intermissions.
And finally, we want to give a shout out to all the brokers and office managers that organized the In Office Events for their agents. We have nearly 60 offices participating on Tuesday, with hundreds of agents sitting in on the full day of sessions. We are thrilled!
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
One of the first questions I get asked by an Agent who wants a Custom Facebook Business Page created is “Can you pull in my listings – here’s my IDX Feed”
The answer is No!
"Pretty Please?"
Still No.
Not because I don't want to. You see... Facebook does not like dynamic content in custom tabs and guess what your IDX feed is? Yup! “Dynamic”.
But wait there’s a workaround and a very pretty one at that. The folks over at RealBirdhave a slick application.
If you have a Facebook Business Page and want something like this for yours – just contact me.
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
Ken Cook and I have been hosting Social Media Edge together now for almost a year, and we have a great time while still striving to provide solid, helpful information. Today, our guest was Jennifer Iannolo of http://foodphilosophy.com.
During today's episode, we discussed the following topics (and in the words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up):
Twitter tattoos
The first social-media generated cookbook
Ayn Rand
Why those who blog get more traffic than those who don't
Dead people on Facebook
At least one topic that I can't even mention here
Additionally, if you want to learn the difference between #sexonaplate and #foodporn, you won't want to miss this hilarious episode:
I have a feeling that this may end up being our highest-rated show to date, but we'll see. :) In order to listen to any of our previous episodes, visit our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/socialmediaedge.
Incidentally, if you would like your own custom Facebook business page, contact Mike Mueller, master of all things Facebook.
Thanks for listening!
If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me in these other communities?
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
Not a single day goes by that someone doesn’t ask the big question
WHY?
Make no mistake it’s a very valid question.
Here’s the 5 reasons I think every agent needs a Facebook Page:
“SEO” – a Facebook Page is indexed by all the major search engines as well as Facebook itself. Wait there’s more. If it’s indexed it’s also Page Ranked. Want more? Most every link on the Page has “Follow” attributes (as opposed to “No Follow”).
“Separation of Church and State” – a Facebook Page automatically provides a privacy layer between the Page (you) and the people who “Fan” your Page. This goes both ways. Provocative pictures your old college buddy just found, uploaded and tagged of you don’t get shared to your Fans. Conversely, your Fans have an understanding that by becoming a fan they won’t be divulging private information as well.
“The Landing Page” – you can set any one of your tabs to be the first one shown to NON Fans. That means you can create a Tab specifically designed for the new visitor. For a relocation agent that would be “Why it’s so great to live in Sunny Acres”. That Tab could be Photos, Videos, or even a custom built tab. Engage me on your neighborhood and guess who I’m going to call to show me a house?
“Voted OFF the Island” – It’s a little known fact but pushing your new listings out to your friends (via your personal profile) is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service as well as it’s Facebook Site Governance: Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. You can read more here. And I know what you are thinking… there’s many agents breaking that law on a daily basis and Facebook hasn’t yet voted them off the island (yet). True but there’s nothing stopping them from starting tomorrow. That’s happening right now on Flickr and Video sites like Vimeo.
“Say my Name” – Like a personal profile your Facebook Page can also have it’s own custom URL. In the world of Custom URLs there’s can only be one Facebook.com/SunnyAcres. While most people opt for their own name for their personal profile (i.e. I’m http://facebook.com/MikeMueller ) when it comes to a Fan Page it’s all about business, it’s all about branding. Secure a custom URL and your business card and other advertising could simply state “Find us online at Facebook.com/SunnyAcres” Now there’s real value on a couple of different levels!
So there’s 5 reasons I think every real estate agent needs to have their own Facebook (Fan) Business Page. Give me ten minutes and I could come up with 5 more reasons. I do have to add a couple more thoughts to the conversation…
Having a Page does not mean you can just automate the process and walk away. It’s not a “set it and forget it” concept.
Having a Page does not mean you can simply Broadcast. Having any exposure on any social media also requires a significant amount of listening as well. Some might say that is much more important than the broadcasting.
Having a page does not mean it’s business only. Quite the opposite. You can still have the same personality traits that make you a wonderful human being also come out in your Page.
Having a Page is one thing, having a page that engages others is another. Yes, I build Custom Facebook Business Pages but I have seen plenty non custom pages that do a great job engaging others.
Want a little video? Here’s Robert Scoble and Caitlin O’Farrell (she’s from Facebook)
Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
Educating Real Estate Agents On How To Use Modern Technologies To Better Their Business Will Never Be The Same!
On November 17th, 2009 dozens of the most respected educators in the real estate industry converge to host the first of its kind, Virtual Real Estate BarCamp.
Virtual Real Estate BarCamp is a 1-Day Learning Extravaganza. From 9am until 4pm PST, three concurrent webinar "rooms" will each host 9 different sessions, for a total of 27 different presentations. There is something for everyone and everything for someone, and best of all, IT IS FREE and attendance is unlimited!
Attendance is projected to be at least 1000 agents, nationwide. Do not miss out on being part of this ground-breaking event.
Session topics include:
Social Media Risk Management
Flickr for Real Estate
Developing Your Brand
Online Advertising Secrets
Facebook for Real Estate
WordPress Training
Daily Goal Tracking
Starting a Real Estate Blog
...and much more, with new sessions being added every day.
My session is entitled "LinkedIn - The Red Headed StepChild of Social Media" Since we only have 30 minutes and so much ground to cover I've narrowed it down to just these 3
3 things to change now to maximize your profile
Testimonials. How to get them.
Farming on LinkedIn
This session is set for 1 PM Pacific Time
And if that wasn\'t cool enough, individuals from around the country are volunteering to host In-Real-Life MeetUps for after the event. Learn all day, and then meet to have a beer with local participants. This is going to be a blast!
We hope to see you there!
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
When I used to teach English to college kids, one of the things I did each course was show the movie, Rudy, the story of a kinda small kid who ate, lived and slept Notre Dame football. All he wanted, with all his heart and soul, was to play for the "Fighting Irish."
Unfortunately, Rudy was not big enough to play ball--especially on this revered team. Also, his grades were not good enough for him to come anywhere near admission into Notre Dame. If you happen to be one of those very rare folks who have never seen the flick, here's a video clip.
I am fortunate enough to get to interview the "real" Rudy on my show tomorrow. Yes, the guy that the true story was based on. Rudy walks the walk. Even though many years have passed since that noted 27 seconds on the football field, his life was, is and will always be an example of absolute faith and perseverance. Rudy did not give up when he was told that something was impossible. And really, if you saw the movie you know he was told "no way" a million times. Even his own family couldn't believe it was at all possible that Rudy could even be a bench warmer for their beloved state team, The fighting Irish.
Now let's compare and contrast that with your real estate business (there I go, sounding like an English professor again!).
Sure, the recession and the economy have got some of us down. In fact, Thanks to Active Rain and twitter, I have Realtor friends all across the country and more than a few of them have told me that they've had to pick up part time jobs.
So What?
Rudy had to sleep in the cleaning room and eat what he could find...but those things were SMALL in comparison to the ultimate realization of his dream. So you have to pick up a job at Starbucks a few hours a day. So what? As long as you have a place to sleep at night and enough food to survive, you CAN still sell houses or lend money. Sure, times are tough for some of us, but it's only those of us who take our eyes off the ultimate prize that tend to falter in our actions and effectiveness.
As long as you hold close that dream....selling so many houses you can't see straight, making the difference in so many lives of people you can help, taking good care of your family and making enough money to give to the charities and causes of your choice...as long as THAT is what you focus on, then you will ultimately succeed. And, the "stuff" you have to do in the meantime, whether it's taking on another "real" job, cutting out coupons, scaling back on Christmas or knocking on doors and doing a little cold calling...is all worth it.
In reality, if you post everyday, attend local social networking events and partake in the social media outlets that work for you, you probably won't have to cold call or get another job, but even if you do, so what. As the saying goes, "This too shall pass."
Just think of Rudy.
"You're 5 foot nothin', 100 and nothin', and you have nearly a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football team in the land for 2 years. And you're getting a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don't have to prove nothin' to nobody but yourself." --Fortune (as played by Charles S. Dutton) in "Rudy."
Show time: Wednesday October 28th, 10 AM PST time (California) at www.InLoveWithSacto.com You can catch the podcast later if you miss the show.
Thanks! Tamara
Visit my blog at www.InLoveWithSacto.tv, Listen to my radio show at www.InLoveWithSacto.com
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
Every week or two, I get a handful of requests regarding the archives for our BlogTalkRadio show, Social Media Edge. Sometimes these requests are via email, and other times I get quick notes on Twitter or Facebook asking about a particular show that we had before.
In an effort to make it easier to find all of our shows in one place, I had written a post about this a few months ago. Since then, I got too busy to keep that post updated properly, so I would like to publicly thank Mike Mueller, who is a regular part of our show, for keeping the archives up to date.
You can pretty much see where Mike took over, since the summary notes dramatically improved over my own. :)
So, if you have any interest in hearing a previous show, with our phenomenal guests, head over to the Facebook URL above to find some great info from authors like Shel Israel, Paul Chaney, and Tara Hunt, or social media specialists like Sarah Evans, Reggie and Nicole Nicolay ("Nik Nik"), Connie Reece, Jay Baer and Mike Chapman. Once, we even had the World's Strongest Redneck. We liked having the Twitterqueens founders so much as guests, we gave them their own one-hour show on the network!
Mike is now hosting "The M Files" and Diane Guercio, Maya Paveza, and Lesley Lambert now host TQ Radio - both shows air on Monday at the same URL as Social Media Edge: http://blogtalkradio.com/jckc
We hope to continue expanding the network, and I like the sense of community that we've managed to foster. Join us sometime!
Here's this week's episode, to whet your appetite a little:
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
And the funny thing is, as much as I love these rolley polley real life cartoon characters, I can’t go see them at the zoo. Don’t know what it is but the Zoo just creeps me out. (sorry to all the Zoo Keepers)
I have a plan though. I’m going to go see them (IRL) in real life. Call it a “bucket list” if you like, but I will someday hop on my bike, and ride to Alaska (no joke). The trip is almost 8,000 miles there and back. No polished highways, it’s camping and dirt roads. Bring what gas you need because gas stations are few and far between.
So when http://www.blogactionday.org announced the topic this year was going to be Climate Change I knew exactly what my focus was on.
POLAR BEARS
You may have read in the news that in a very short period of time the Polar Bear’s natural habitat may be down to nil. You may also have read that the whole global warming thing is a hoax.
I am 98.73 percent sure that global warming is a sham. This last weekend I froze my butt off. Is it just me or is the middle of October too early for this …
The trip has become more popular, he says, because “the polar bear has become the poster mammal for globalwarming.” As a result, the animals have had to …
“We have climate change, global warming,” he adds. “People are wondering what these bears are going to do.” Polar bears have historically used the barrier …
And the only polar bears dying because of man are the ones who try to eat men.” Members of the Staten Island Tea Party are inviting both skeptics and …
Everything else in the movie was part of the circle of life, but the plight of thosepolar bears seems to be the fault of humans. There are those that claim …
Polar bears are thriving. Solar and wind energy is a bust, providing barely 1% of all electricity used daily nationwide. The truth is that pesticides …
Here’s the Thing:
Believe in the theory of Global Warming or not, is there really any harm in making an effort to reduce greenhouse gases, switching to greener cars, and driving the technology for alternative energy sources?
Besides, if I get on my bike and ride 3,570 miles one way just to see a bunch of barren rocks I’m going to be more than a little upset.
I might even be as mad as a…
Hey, did I mention I love Penguins too?
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller. Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him). Did you know? He's for hire! He builds Blogs, Graphic Images and Widgets and Facebook Pages and besides… He knows lots of really cool stuff.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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“SEO” – a Facebook Page is indexed by all the major search engines as well as Facebook itself. Wait there’s more. If it’s indexed it’s also Page Ranked. Want more? Most every link on the Page has “Follow” attributes (as opposed to “No Follow”).
“Separation of Church and State” – a Facebook Page automatically provides a privacy layer between the Page (you) and the people who “Fan” your Page. This goes both ways. Provocative pictures your old college buddy just found, uploaded and tagged of you don’t get shared to your Fans. Conversely, your Fans have an understanding that by becoming a fan they won’t be divulging private information as well.
“The Landing Page” – you can set any one of your tabs to be the first one shown to NON Fans. That means you can create a Tab specifically designed for the new visitor. For a relocation agent that would be “Why it’s so great to live in Sunny Acres”. That Tab could be Photos, Videos, or even a 
“Voted OFF the Island” – It’s a little known fact but pushing your new listings out to your friends (via your personal profile) is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service as well as it’s Facebook Site Governance: Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. You can read more 
“Say my Name” – Like a personal profile your Facebook Page can also have it’s own custom URL. In the world of Custom URLs there’s can only be one Facebook.com/SunnyAcres. While most people opt for their own name for their personal profile (i.e. I’m 
Oct 20th - Special Guest Mike Chapman
