Mike Mueller, Social Media.ist

Hyperlocal Video? MuellerMap it!

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:15:18 -0500

It’s simply a Google Map Mashup.
That means it takes data from one place and puts it on a Google Map.

Traditionally, that would be done via a MySQL database, hosted on a server, in which the coded map could call for it’s data. Once you have the Mashup Code written you’ll need to figure out where to host the database, who will administer it, who has the various levels of permissions, and who backs it all up. As new points come in they’ll have to be added by adding new data to the MySQL database.

Sound complicated? It is (for most people). That’s why I created MuellerMaps.

Mueller Map

View more documents from Mike Mueller.

Instead of a database it gathers it’s data from a simple 5 column spreadsheet.
Each row is a new point on the map.
Additionally since the data is a Google Doc, it is “Cloud Based” and can be easily accessed from anywhere!

The Map lives on your website and can be inserted anywhere an iframe allows.

You can embed video, a photo, or even a slide show on your tab.

The 2nd tab can be used for contact information and links to more info.

You could use your MuellerMap to

Illustrate your Listings
Show off your Neighborhood
Office Locations
Catalog a trip with video or photo slide shows

The questions isn’t “What can you do with a Mueller Map?”

it’s “What can’t you do with a MuellerMap?”

Check out how these people are Rocking their MuellerMap:

http://RERockstar.com

Wonder what San Antonio is like? Thinking about relocating? Matt Stigliano (RERockStar) is capturing North West San Antonio for you. The schools, the parks, The swimming pools, even the new construction and putting it all on a map!Matt was so happy with his map’s potential he wrote a featured post about it!

http://www.rerockstar.com/buyers/neighborhoods/

http://JulissaJumper.com

Julissa Jumper is using hers to showcase her listings. She starts the map at her office. It’s a work in progress, right now she’s putting in the placeholders for each listing.Julissa is tech smart. Each Mueller Map needs to have it’s own Google Map API key that corresponds to a website URL. Julissa is the one and only person who already had a Google Map API Key!
Not to be outdone, she even wrote a post about her MuellerMap. Thanks Julissa!

http://julissajumper.com/maps/

Want a MuellerMap of your own? Just a simple form will get you started
http://areweconnected.com/mueller-labs/

Customized Local Maps For Real Estate Websites – The How And Why Of Mueller Maps (activerain.com)

Coming to REBarCamp San Francisco?

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:01:17 -0500

Meet me at

The event that started the REBarCamp movement is back for it’s second year!

- When : August 4th, 2009
- Time : 9:00-5pm (registration starts 8:00am)
- Where : Trulia . 208 Utah St. SF, CA 94103
- How : Powered by you the users and our sponsors
- Why : To build connections. To better grow our businesses. To push boundaries. To be creative in an open and supportive forum.
- Sign up : RSVP here and bring your best.

Bonus: I couldn’t find a sidebar widget for the event so I made my own. Here’s the code:

Put that on your sidebar and it’ll look like this:

Meet me at

REBarCampLA (AreWeConnected.com)
REBarCamp Denver is NOW! (activerain.com)
Want to play the REBarCamp Game? (activerain.com)
ReBarCamp Chicago (movephilly.blogspot.com)
REBarCamp Attracts Headliners! Are You Coming? (activerain.com)

Facebook Profile, Group or Page?

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:55:45 -0500

Sorry for the Extra Length Post

Here is everything you need to know as a Professional about Facebook's Vanity URLs, Profiles, Groups, and Pages.

First a little info on Facebook. What started as a way for College Kids to stay connected has evolved into one of the fastest growing sites on the internet. It's not for Kids either.

Did you know...

30 million users update their statuses at least once each day (13 million did per month at the beginning of the year)
8 million users become fans of Pages each day (up from 2.5 million per day at the beginning of the year)
10 million videos are uploaded each month (up from 4 million)
900 million photos are uploaded to the site each month (up from 700 million)
1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week (up from 15 million per month)
35 million active groups exist on the site (up from 19 million)
2.5 million notes created each month
30 million users access Facebook each month through a mobile device

(source: Inside Facebook)

This is why Facebook has become very important. If your past, present and future clients are all there - shouldn't you be too? It's the "HOW" of your being there that's important to understand. Let's start with the fundamentals.

The Profile

Join Facebook and the first thing you do is create a Profile. This is you (personally).

People who connect to you become "FRIENDS" of you. A Friend of yours can also see who your other friends are. This also means that when your friends upload and tag pictures, videos, etc of you that picture is usually also shown to all your other Friends as well. That's great if it's the Church BBQ and all your friends are part of the same church. That's not so great if one of your friends from 20 years ago posts embarassing pictures of you. (Yes you can try to control who posts what and who sees what in the privacy settings but it's aa losing battle). When a potential client becomes your "friend" they are subjected to all your pictures, your friends pictures, and so on. We know professionally to stay away from Politics, Sex and Religion in our daily business but when we accept a potential client as a "friend" we've opened that door wide open!

Vanity URLs or Vanity Usernames

June 12th, 9 PM Pacific time, Facebook opened up the ability to create a Vanity Username for your profile. During that landrush Facebook reported 500,000 usernames in the first 15 minutes! Most people claimed their name. I went from

to You can see why. MikeMueller is a whole lot easier to remember than a string of numbers. If you did not get a Vanity URL for your profile yet you still can - just go to http://www.facebook.com/username. Here's one word of caution. You cannot change your username later. Think of it as a lower back tattoo. Chose wisely - your going to have it for a very long time.

Another thing to remember is that this is a Vanity URL for your PROFILE. (I'll explain more later)

Groups

This is going to be easy. You can setup a group in Facebook for anything you want but even Facebook is pondering the viability of groups. They are walled off from the rest of the community. What happens in a group, stays in the group. Google does not see groups. They are not indexed by search engines and have NO SEO value. Updates in groups stay in the group, they do not show on your members walls. Simply put, Groups are a dead end. Let's move on.

Pages

Facebook allows for custom creation of fabulous pages. They (Facebook) call them Fan Pages but really they are Business Pages. Instead of "Friends" your Page collects "Fans". Hey, I'm not a big Fan of the term either.

What can a Facebook Business Page do? Almost anything. The best analogy is that a Facebook Business Page is a website/blog within Facebook. One of the most important things about a Page is that it separates your Personal (family, friends, church, and old girlfriends from 20 years ago) from your Professional Persona of today. Fans of your page do not see the Church BBQ pictures. The only Politics, Sex and Religion they'll see is what you chose to share with them. You still can have personality (and should).

Yes you can get a Custom Vanity URL for your Page if you have 100 Fans. You do not need to have 100 fans to create a page.

Here’s 7 reasons why your business needs a FB page.

Pages allow a business to "Publish to the Stream" (this shows up on your fans homepage)
Pages allow a business to engage fans with Rich Media (video, pictures, events)
Pages let a business analyze how fans are interacting with the Insights Dashboard (FB has deep analytics)
Pages let a business increase SEO (pages show up in higher Google keyword searches)
Pages allow you to run highly targeted demographic ads to attract only those that are relevant to your business.
Pages allow you to arrange Tabs in the order you like (with the exception of the Wall and Info)
Pages allow you to force a particular tab to open first for new visitors. Example: You can have a tab that introduces your team, your area, or you.

Do I have a Page?

It's easy to tell. Pull up your URL. If under your picture (top left) it says "Edit Page" - then it's a PAGE!

Here's http://facebook.com/MikeMuellerConsulting

If under your picture you see"View Photos of Me" - that's a Profile!

That's almost everything you need to know about Pages.

There's just one more thing...

It's easy to create a Page on Facebook. It's easy to draw people to the page. What isn't easy is to keep them there. You need to have compelling content.

If your page has just the "Wall", "Info" and other stock tabs - your new found Fans will be out of there before the page loads! It's easy to automate new inflow of content. You can bring in blog posts, Tweets, Flickr, most anything and do so automatically.

As an example of what a Page can do - here's a few of he Custom Pages I've helped others with...

Remember, these pages are works in process, Check them out, become a fan and see how they are being used.

Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk

Jacksonville Real Estate

Jeremy Blanton Consulting

Maryland Suburban Homes

Monica and Kevin McNamara - Ocean City, Maryland Real Estate Sales

Mueller Maps

Northern Nevada Real Estate

Portland OR Real Estate

Portsmouth NH Real Estate

RE BlogWorld

Sacramento Real Estate

SchuylkillRealEstate

Ygnacio Valley Music

Want a Facebook Business Page?

Just go to http://AreWeConnected.com/facebook to start.

Confused about Facebook Pages?

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:26:59 -0500

Confused about Facebook Pages?

Do I need a Page?

Do I already have a Page?

Do I need 1,000 Fans? Do I need 100 Fans?

Do my Friends count?

We'll be talking about them, answering questions, and giving hints on the radio show this morning. Call in or ask questions in the chat area!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jckc/2009/06/30/Social-Media-Tips-Tricks-and-Tools-for-SEO-and-More

Why every Agent needs a Facebook Page, NOW!

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:21:33 -0500

It won’t be anything like the land rush of the first Facebook URL frenzy but starting Sunday Night June 28th at 9:00 PM the gates are open for all.

Facebook was pretty smart in the way they released custom URLs. You see, most anyone can create a “Fan Page” for virtually any product, group or person. These Fan Pages usually have little or no fans. All it would take is for one quick kid with a finger on his mouse to steal away something like http://www.facebook.com/MountainDew

So Facebook slowed the release of Custom Page Names to those pages with 1,000 or more fans and to those created prior to May 31, 2009, That allowed all those real companies to get in and secure their Facebook Page Name.

Image by kittyz202 via Flickr

You and I didn’t have to worry about that, but we certainly do now. If you have a Facebook Business Page you’ll want to be in on the new land rush.

Why?

First of all, every business should have a Business page on Facebook. I’ll take that a step further and suggest every page should also be customized to best fit the business.

Here’s 4 reasons why your business needs a Facebook Business Page.

Pages allow a business to "Publish to the Stream" (this shows up on your fans homepage)
Pages allow a business to engage fans with Rich Media (video, pictures, events)
Pages let a business analyze how fans are interacting with the Insights Dashboard (Facebook has deep analytics)
Pages let a business increase SEO (pages show up in higher Google keyword searches)

So you sell Yugos in Yuba City ? There’s nothing stopping the Yugo dealer in Yreka from setting up http://www.facebook.com/YubaCityYugo and stealing your thunder. (Does a Yugo really have thunder?)

Chiropractic in Crockett? http://www.facebook.com/CrockettChiropractic would rock!

Dentist in Dublin? Only one person is going to get http://www.facebook.com/SMILE

Real Estate your game? First one to score http://www.facebook.com/RedwoodCityRealEstate wins!

Catching on?

That also brings me to the next important item. There’s nothing compelling about a standard Facebook Business Page. Why drive clients and customers to a standard page? Nothing at all.

Your Business Page MUST have compelling content that engages your visitors or they’ll leave just as fast as it took the page to load.

What can a Facebook Business Page do? It might be easier to say what can’t they do? Here’s 7 Facebook Business Pages that work.

Remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Facebook Vanity URLs are Available Now. Get Yours. (biztipsblog.com)
Follow me to Facebook (AreWeConnected.com)
Facebook Pages and Groups (AreWeConnected.com)
Like Facebook? (AreWeConnected.com)

Customized Local Maps For Real Estate Websites - The How And Why Of Mueller Maps

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:06:13 -0500

When Matt Stigliano (RERockStar) requested a MuellerMap I knew he would do a great job. Even though he was just starting into recording video, we talked about how he could incorporate a slideshow from RealEstateShows, Flickr or Picasa.

What I didn't realize was just how much he was going to "ROCK IT". I should have guessed. Afterall, what would you expect from a Real Rock Star who has performed infront of hundreds of thosands of fans.

I'm reblogging his post below because I would have a hard time writing anything better to explain the how and the why of a MuellerMap. Thanks for your kind words Matt. I am deeply humbled. I just made the tool. To put that in RockStar terms - I made the guitar, you took it onstage and ROCKED the audience!

Thank you!

Via Matt Stigliano (Exit Realty North-San Antonio):

image courtesy of GoogleMaps, Mueller Labs, and RErockstar.com

Introductions are in order.

First, let me introduce everyone that doesn't know him to Mike Mueller. Mike is (as he says) a "Social Media.ist" - he'd probably never claim to be an "expert" or "guru," but I would definitely vote for him as one of the top social media people who get it, love it, live it, learn it and teach it. Mike's been invaluable to me as I've been learning new things. Always one to comment on a new idea I have or tell me how I could improve something I've already done, Mike is always around to help you out. I think he may never sleep, which of course, means he's a vampire - but I haven't confirmed any of that yet, so let's keep that between you and me.

Some time ago, Mike introduced his Mueller Labs product called, Mueller Maps. The concept is simple, the results are powerful. By building a customizable map based off of Google's map, Mueller Maps allows you to place markers on the map which are links to more info. As you can see in the graphic above (a screenshot of the actual map at RErockstar.com), I have placed the blue markers in various places on the map. Clicking on any one of these will bring up a pop up that looks like this:

The How.

Inside these detail boxes you can insert just about anything you want. Mike and I opted for a "video" and "info" tab. Under each tab can be links, videos, photos - if you can dream it up, it can be put in there. Each piece of information is inserted using a simple Google Docs based spreadsheet, so once the map is built, editing and adding new map points is pretty simple. Once you get a bit of a template down, you don't need to do much more than cut and paste and then adjust a few pieces of information (the actual URL to your link, the video embed code, etc.).

I have made mine quite simple so far, in the video box is a link to a Flickr slideshow (I separate each community into a set and build a slide show out of that set), a link to "Learn More" and a link to "Homes for sale" in that neighborhood. The "Learn More" link goes to a blog post I wrote about the neighborhood and the "Homes for sale" link goes to my IDX-search on my website that takes them direct to a list of homes for sale in that community (see my previous article on "ARE-TEC IDX - How To Utilize Variables To Make Your Client's Experience Even Better" to see how easy this is with ARE-TEC). The info tab contains the same two links (I will be adding more in the future) with a still photo (also from Flickr), usually of the main entrance to the community.

The Why.

What makes these maps so genius outside of the fact that they look awesome and create an easy to use, visual presentation for your visitors, is that because you're trying to provide relevant links within those tabs, you wind up providing more content on local neighborhoods. I have written several well-viewed posts about neighborhoods now and I am seeing direct SEO benefits and home searches from it. By being forced to give a link in the each tab, I am forcing myself to write about what the consumer wants to hear. Local neighborhood info. In addition, because I'm using Flickr as the source for my photos, I am adding more photos to Flickr everyday (and Google loves Flickr). Most of my posts are right there alongside my Flickr sets for each neighborhood - in most cases giving me three results in a row in Google searches on any neighborhood (two for Flickr and one for the site - and if you visit the Flickr sets, you'll also get links back to my site - helps in building my site's authority).

With each additional post and map point, I am building serious community info on my blog and blogging more regularly. The more regular you blog, the more Google takes notice. Do you see where all this is going? I may not be #1, but you can't avoid my name (my last listing was given to me because when the seller performed different searches, they saw me everywhere - omnipresence is a good thing in real estate). The more you write about your local area, the more of an expert you become. The more of an expert you are, the more local buyers and sellers will take note.

The possibilities are endless.

While I've used mine to showcase neighborhoods, you can do anything with a Mueller Map. Schools, local hot spots, restaurants, your offices, your listings, local tourist attractions or a combination of all of these and more. It's all up to what you want to showcase and is only limited by your imagination. I have plans to eventually build a video archive of local places I like to visit - when I do, I'll build a completely different Mueller Map to showcase them. Think of the map as a visual representation of pages on your blogs - how can you map out your local content?

Of course, with all the work that goes into building one, you might expect to see a huge price tag attached to it. We're Realtors®, we get charged a fortune every corner we turn. The difference? Mike Mueller's not a guy looking to make a quick buck, he's actually someone who wants to see technology used as much as possible and will do what he can to make that happen. Guess how much one costs? Go ahead...guess. Nope, you're wrong - they're only $150. And Mike will work with you to get it to look the way you want and help get you started to entering your own new map points (once you learn it, it's easy).

Contact Mike Mueller today about building your own Mueller Map.

Check out my RErockstar.com Neighborhoods Mueller Map and see what you can do with one.

Still have questions? Contact Mike Mueller on Twitter.

There's something FISHY about Mary

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:01:40 -0500

Mary Steadman from San Jose, CA that is. According to her site, http://www.marylifeblog.com/ she fell on some hard times and lost her job. The good news is that she has since turned it all around.

In her own words…

My name is Mary Steadman. Married 3 years to Kevin. I lost my job as a boring account rep for a manufacturing company a few months back. But here is my story on how I make $5,000+ a month by just submitting small texts and ads online on Google.

Good for you Mary! That’s great income from just a couple of clicks.

Hey, I also looked up the Domain Owner , and it looks like you don’t actually own the site.

jose menendez ()
+1.2548512569
Fax: +1.2548512569
17425 Nw 77th Ct, Hialeah
Hialeah, FL 33015

Hold the phone! Looks like Mary moved! She’s now living in Spring Grove IL http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090605072004AAOInNO

I also found that great write up of you in The Chicago Gazette News except they have a horrible URL: http://nastyornice.com/ (especially for a big newspaper). I could go on and on.

Oh and by the way… do you know Kevin Hoeffer from San Jose, CA? He has http://www.kevinmakesdough.com/ and incredibly he has a very similar story!

My name is Kevin Hoeffer. Married 3 years to Audrey. I lost my job as a boring account rep for a manufacturing company a few months back. But here is my story on how I make $5,000+ a month by just submitting small texts and ads online on Google.

Looks like Jose owns that site as well.

All kidding aside, the moral of the story is that this is just another scam. Plain and simple. Hungry for more? Here’s a few thousand Google Scams . Heck, even Matt Cutts, straight from Google tells everyone he can about these scams every time he speaks!

Now should you find yourself blissfully married for around 3 years * and recently lose your job as a boring account rep for a manufacturing company, step back and think about this for a minute or two. Do I really have to say it out loud? If something sounds too good to be true – it is!

NOTE: In case you were curious, the small $1 they initially charge you is for a "welcome packet", then there is a monthly auto charge of $60 - 100 dollars. The system still doesn’t work, and you’ll be out $100 a month until you can cancel (if you can cancel). Still sound good?

* Today is the our 20th wedding anniversary! (thanks dear!)

Beware of Google Scams (blacknight.com)
Scam: Google Money System or Google Kit (seroundtable.com)
Google Talk: Gone Phishing (blippitt.com)
The Matt Cutts Guide to SEO (blippitt.com)

Is Google Voice ready to launch?

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:29:55 -0500

Here’s what we do know… Google has recently secured one million phone numbers!

Here’s what we don’t know… When they are going to launch.

What’s Google Voice?

To put it in Lord of the Rings terminology, if your cell phone is one ring (pun fully intended ) your home phone another, and your office yet another, then Google Voice would be the one hanging from Frodo’s neck. It’s The One Ring . Yeah that one!

Image via Wikipedia

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

But instead of the darkness, Google Voice brings the light and does so in a big way!

From Google’s Website:

One number for all your calls and SMS

Call screening - Announce and screen callers
Listen in - Listen before taking a call
Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
Place calls - Call US numbers for free
Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring

Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

More cool things you can do with Google Voice

Conference calling - Join people into a single call
Call record - Record calls and store them online
Call switch - Switch phones during a call
Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
Manage groups - Set preferences by group

Excited yet? You should be. Stay tuned, as soon as it opens up I’ll let you know. (Right after I secure my phone number).

What happens when Google voice starts charging - or you want to leave (with your number)? (geardiary.com)
Google Voice’s Secret Weapon: Number Portability (tomaltman.com)
Rumor has it that Google Voice is going international very soon. (thenextweb.com)

The Craigslist of Service

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:37:00 -0500

Image via Wikipedia

First Lady Michelle Obama is in San Francisco today calling on Americans to make this a "summer of service".

She’ll be giving the keynote address at a conference on volunteerism at the Moscone Center which is a kickoff of United We Serve, a national call to community service from President Barack Obama.

So how do you find volunteer opporunities in your area? Leave it the tech community and Craig Newmark (Craigslist)

From Craig’s Blog :

Hey, the deal with the United We Serve AllForGood.org thing is that we’re making it easy to find volunteer opportunities near you.

This is the "craigslist for service. "

Check out the right hand side, top, of this page. You’ll see a "gadget", just enter your zipcode or similar starting with the location link, and you’ll get it, no problem.

You can also click the search icon, the magnifying glass, to search more broadly.

AllforGood.org explains on their website that they are

made up of volunteering enthusiasts from places like Google, Craigslist Foundation, UCLA, YouTube, FanFeedr and Aha! Ink. As a contributor to the All for Good project, Google is hosting the All for Good website and products. Several Google engineers worked on All for Good as a 20-percent project (Google lets engineers spend a day a week on projects that interest them), collaborating with a broader team to build the product.

So now that you are inspired to go out and make a difference, you know where to start looking!

Re-defining ROI in the age of social media.

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:59:03 -0500

Matt has a new definition of ROI as it pertains to Social Media.

Recurring Online Interaction

I like it. That's the key to your actual Return on your Investment in social media.

Although Matt doesn't know this, it's a key part of the Social Media Engagement Plan I setup for my clients.

Hey, it's a great article! Read it twice (slowly)!

Via Matt Stigliano (Exit Realty North-San Antonio):

1910-1920 photo of the Investment Building in Washington, D.C. courtesy of NCinDC

What's the return on your investments?

After attending, the SABOR Town Hall Meeting and listening to Sean Wood and Rich Teplitsky of KGBTexas speak on the topic of social media, I've been doing a lot of thinking about some of the things I noticed while I was there as well as some of the snippets of conversation that my ears overheard from other people's small groups as they were gathering and getting ready to go. Some of the audience was there to get an idea of what social media was, some were there to get more out of it, some where there just to see what the craze is all about.

Return on investment (ROI), is the ratio of gain or loss on an investment relative to the money invested. In real estate, you often hear the term ROI being referred to around the hours and/or money we spend on any particular activity in order to generate business. In terms of social media, I have heard many people question what the ROI is on it. Whether it be blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or even ActiveRain itself, social media is all around us, but there has been some serious conflicts over the quantifying of the actual returns of using it based on the investment you put into it. There are plenty of success stories of transactions closed thanks to the many different forms of social media, but I think there's something else to look at.

Interaction.

As agents we spend much of our time looking to get in front of people. To talk to them, to share our experiences, to tell them what we do, and to hopefully make them our clients (or at least a great referral source). Agents are doing this all day long. The girl at the grocery store, the guy pumping gas, the small business owner that you know through BNI - no matter where we go, we're interacting and building relationships which we work to turn into business. Occasionally, the business falls in our lap - "You're a Realtor®? I have a house I need to sell, can you stop over tomorrow?" Other days, it takes a growth process of going from "that agent guy" to "my Realtor®." We hear the word cultivation a lot when referring to the people we meet. Cultivate the relationship, build the trust, get the business.

Social media is really no different. Strangers will talk to you, friends will tell others about you, and building a sphere of influence is the name of the game. As many people discuss over and over again, the trick is not to sell. I definitely believe this to be the case, but this is not the point of this post.

So what is the ROI on social media?

First off, most social media activities is free. So let's toss out the money part of the equation. Let's talk about time. Most people dabble in social media for a few minutes a day and get a little something out of it here and there. Others dive in head first and are the proud flag-bearers of the "new wave" of the web 2.0 world. I see why people get discouraged when the jump into social media. You jump in say "hello world" and no one answers back. Not at first at least. It is a slow growth process that requires a little more time than showing up at the latest mixer and handing out your business card.

The difference between the mixer and social media? The mixer ends at 8PM, social media never sleeps. When you start putting those conversations out into the cyber-world they last - in many cases for eternity. You might do something at 8AM, but someone may not interact with you on it until 10PM the next day. It allows for a conversation to last, to stick around, and to be discovered by others at any given time. Your conversation doesn't end when you get in your car and drive home.

Let's look at an example.

Let's talk Twitter for a few moments. Some of you love it, some of you hate it, and some don't get it. I try to get on Twitter quite a bit. I use it for a couple of different purposes as well. I have conversations with locals, agents, and friends all over the world, but I also use it as a news source, a feed reader of sorts, and a way to track stories I want to know more about. I've also used it to get direct access to information about specific posts I'd like to make (if your local news is on Twitter, make friends with them - best source for Localism posts ever). It serves me well, but I'd like to give a few specific examples:

Getting to know your neighbors - I have got to know quite a few of my local San Antonio neighbors. And in getting to know them, I have built friendships (and everyone remembers their friends a bit more than a stranger, right?). I have built a source of contacts from several different industries. Need a programmer who runs circles around my head? I know a few. Want nutrition and fitness advice and training? If my guy can't do it, no one can. Need PR/advertising? I got the guy for you. Need a roofer? Got him. Want to know what restaurant has the best beer in town (and some awesome food)? I can give your directions and tell you who to ask for when you get there. Much like many of us maintain some sort business to business directory, Twitter is just that for me. Expect I know these people and talk with them about normal everyday things too. They're my friends, not just names in a database.

Becoming the "go to" for people - Although it's always difficult to tread the boundaries of what you can and can't say to someone who is not your client, you'll find you become a great referral source for information. I often get questions asked that I have written posts about or recently had a conversation online about. I can easily point someone in the right direction. If I haven't done it, I probably know someone who has spoken about it - so I become an informational referral source. And what does that do? It creates a sense of trust and value.

Knowledge. Plain and simple - I entered the real estate business on the down side. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I dove into blogs and conversations and learned as much as I could. I asked questions and got answers. Agents are much more eager to help a new agent than I ever dreamed. I have learned some great bits and pieces from people I think are the best and brightest.

Want to see your name in lights? - Ok, you may not get your name on the marquee at Madison Square Garden, but the internet does provide a certain level of fame. Think of some of the names in real estate you see everyday on the internet. The other great way to "get noticed" is by the press. As I've witnessed first hand, the press and our associations are out there and they're watching and reading. To tie two examples together, a guy I know only via Twitter once recommended me to the local news who had put out a tweet looking for agents for a piece they were putting together. I didn't get the spot, because they had already found someone, but a guy I've never met tried to get my name out there for me. Powerful, right?

Recurring Online Interaction.

That's my new way of viewing ROI. Everyday a conversation starts that I can be a part of or not. Everyday, snippets from a conversation I had a few days ago comes back to me and we pick it up from there. The interactions begins to build who you are, not just what you do. Last night I answered a tweet of someone I've spoken to here and there. It wasn't real estate related at all, but within a few tweets, she made a joke about me finding her a "cheap" home. Soon we were discussing the thought behind it. I have never said "hello, I'm a real estate agent" to her, but she knows and made the reference to it in our conversation. Will she buy a house with someday? I sure hope so, but in the meantime, I think she's funny, interesting, and a nice few moments of conversation once in awhile. What I know for a fact though, is that she knows what I do, enjoys talking to me, and would probably think of me for her real estate needs...because I am there all the time. In front of her, on her screen, and top of mind. I don't have to send her a fridge magnet once a month to remind her that I'm out here. She already knows it.

Starting your day with Alltop

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:54:07 -0500

Image via CrunchBase

Alltop is a site that collects All the Top ics from All the Top blogs* and puts them in easy categories. (now you can see where the name comes from). Haven’t heard of Alltop? Maybe you have heard of one of it’s founders, Guy Kawasaki . Find a category you like and Alltop has already gathered hundreds of the best posts from the best blogs on the web and put them on one single page for you. For each blog Alltop will deliver the most recent 5 post titles. Hover over the title and you’ll be able to read the first paragraph. A simple click on the title will deliver you to the full article.

What use is this to me?

Case in point. I’ve been looking for employment daily. I have a resume, I have a cover letter, I even have a video and a blog post. (hire Mike ). With the job market as it is, it hasn’t been easy to find a job. Looking for pointers I headed to my favorite search engine and started looking for tips. A couple hours later I walked away frustrated. I found very little. This morning had an idea. I headed over to Alltop, found the section called Careers . The page loaded almost instantly. I now was looking at 1,094 of the freshest posts from the best career blogs on the web.

I found some great gems in minutes (not hours) most all of which didn’t show up in my search engine experience.

30+ Sites to Find Work in 09
You Must Launch an Aggressive Job Search Campaign
Learn to Recognize Employment Scams (job boards are filled with them)
21 Things

Image by mike912mueller via Flickr

It’s not just posts that show up. I even found a podcast of a radio show where I downloaded the .mp3 file and can listen to it later. (Discover Great Jobs Stemming from the Economic Stimulus Package )

Working Better

I’m a big proponent of using technology to work better, faster, more efficiently. I should have know better and to just head straight to Alltop. I know Alltop isn’t going to get me a job but the information I find there might.

Bonus: If you want to assemble just the latest posts of the blogs you like you can create a custom page! As you come across new ones you can add them with a single click. You can even share your personal collection with others. Here’s mine: http://my.alltop.com/mikemueller

* Disclaimer: I am very proud for my blog to be included in Alltop. You can find it in one of the busiest sections, Social Media . (all the way at the bottom)

Alltop Launches Personalized Feed Reader That Can Hardly Be Personalized (techcrunch.com)
Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.com Becomes a Personalised RSS Reader (thenextweb.com)

How To Get People To Say Yes...Or, Wanna Buy My Dishwasher??

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:41:06 -0500

Sharing is Caring...

Here's an excellent post by Clint Miller and it's NOT about a dishwasher it's about Trigger Points.

Read it, learn it, use it.

Via Clint Miller (Real Estate Client Referrals LLC):

I have a confession to make. I hate to do dishes. And, I don’t mean that I just don’t like doing them…I freaking HATE to do dishes. And, up until about 3 months ago, I had no choice but to do them. By hand. In the sink.

Nothing caused more seething hatred within my very soul than scraping dried Sugar-Frosted Cocoa Bombs off of the bottom of a cereal bowl in scalding hot water and caustic grease-removing chemicals surrounded by mountains of plates and silverware and glasses all chortling at me secretly while I fry the outer layers of my skin off.

And, I don’t care how many dish soap commercials you see with those beautiful hand models that make this chore seemingly luxurious and enjoyable, it’s not. Period.

So…I did what any consumption-driven, hard working, model American citizen would do…I bought a dishwasher.

JOY!! Rapture!! This thing is awesome! It is a full-size roll-away style with a countertop and digital controls. Top of the line. I love it like a family member at this point. I’ve had it for 3 months now…and nothing I own gives me more enjoyment than this thing at this point. Then, a funny thing happened earlier this month.

I bought a house. Well, buying the house isn’t the funny part, actually. The funny part is that inside my new house is a dishwasher – built-in! I suddenly no longer need my fancy-shmancy dishwasher.

So, I decided to sell it. What is even more ironic, I sold it to the agent that I used to buy my house. It was a perfect fit…she wanted one, I had one. We both knew each other and obviously had worked together already and trusted one another. So, as any good sales person would do, I took full advantage of that and offered it to her before attempting to list it anywhere and attempt to sell it to anyone else.

Now, one could say that I took advantage of the fact that we knew one another and I had inside information about what she wanted. And, I used that information to get her to buy this dishwasher from me. And, if one were to say that…one would be exactly right.

See…it’s human nature to take advantage of whatever leverage is given to us in order to achieve a particular goal. I used what I knew to trip a trigger in her head to get her to buy that dishwasher from me.

We do it all the time. I’m guilty of it. And, if you are honest, so are you!

Whether you want to admit it or not, you are using something to your advantage to get someone to buy from you. You do it all the time. Sales people are the kings and queens of taking advantage of the things we call “buying signals” and applying leverage in whatever way we can in order to get a deal done. You way think that you don’t, but you do.

I am talking about the fact that we, as salespeople, take advantage of the emotional triggers that every single human uses when making a decision. There are seven of these triggers in total. And, regardless of whether or not you have been aware of this list in the past, you are keenly aware of how to use them to your advantage. These emotional triggers are the very things that everyone uses in order to make a decision. They include:

The Friendship Trigger – This trigger activates both trust and agreement through bonding on a social level. Essentially, this is the trigger that you apply directly to your sphere of influence. You use this on your friends, family, close acquantances, etc, that most sales people rely on as their base clientele. They can also include past clients that you speak with on a regular basis. The application of this trigger is specifically designed to leverage your friendship with them in the hopes that, when needed, they call upon you because you are friends. Social networking to build business fits into this category also.

The Authority Trigger – This trigger activates acceptance through expertise. A perfect example of this is agents that specialize in REO property or in high-end luxury property. That specific specialization makes them an "authority" and those that need this type of specialized help would instinctively choose them as a result. Another example of this is the multiple designations that an agent can get and list behind their name in an attempt to seemingly appear to have more authority or training than another agent by comparison. This trigger is specifically designed to cause someone to choose to work with you because you have the knowledge to be able to help them.

The Consistency Trigger – This trigger motivates potential customers by causing them to recognize consistency with your past actions and repeat contacts. In other words, this is your follow up skills hard at work. (As a smart person once said, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil.) You leverage this trigger every time you follow up with a lead or schedule appointments (and keep them!) with potential customers. You want your potential customers to recognize that you are consistent in your efforts to earn their business and you will be there when they decide to move forward based on your previous attempts to earn their business.

The Reciprocity Trigger – In short, you give, you receive. This trigger is based on the idea that you use the services and businesses that your clients own or work at and they will do the same for you. For example, if you use the services of a mechanic locally, when he needs help with buying a home, he contacts you. This is also the “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” trigger, if you will. If you have a client that needs a roofer, you know who you will recommend because they are good at what they do…AND you know that person will recommend people that they hear about to you when they need your service or expertise.

The Contrast Trigger – This trigger is the one that is used any time you do a side-by-side comparison of options to show that one is more attractive than the other. Any time that you list the pros and cons of given options, you are leveraging this trigger.

The Reason Why Trigger – This trigger is specifically used to invoke emotional reasons to make decisions. Buying is an emotional thing. So, we keep coming up with emotional reasons to say yes. This trigger is based on ‘thinking with your heart’ and not your head. When your clients see things inside a home you are showing that ‘they just love’, this trigger has been tripped. Instictivly, you will remember that and remind them of that, if needed, at a later date in order to leverage this memory to assist in a decision.

The Hope Trigger – This trigger is specifically designed to instill positive expectations to help persuade one side of an argument. In other words, this is the application of positivity. In order to effectively leverage this trigger, you have to get your client to “see the bright side”, as it were.

Whether you know it or not, you are using one of these to your advantage to get someone to buy from you. Chances are, you are using more than one of them at any given time with any one of your potential or current clients. In fact, in some instances, you have probably used all of them in order to get a deal done.

If you would like more information on Real Estate Client Referrals, please contact Clint at 800-977-7058. Or, hit me up on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TheRealClint.

Also, for more information on these seven triggers, you can check out www.seventriggers.com.

Will you ever need your OLD Facebook Profile again?

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:34:32 -0500

YES!

The initial Facebook land rush is now behind us. More than 500,000 vanity usernames were registered within the first 15 minutes. Additionally more than 3 million people registered their Facebook usernames in the first 12 hours after the land rush began. Wow! Did you get yours? http://facebook.com/username

Now it’s time to start watching the ripple effect. When a Social Media Giant like Facebook changes the rules there’s going to be ripples. When my profile goes from this

to something more like this

In terms of URL structure, that’s a substantial change.

Think of all the sites out there that asked for your LinkedIn , Twitter or Facebook account information. When you were originally asked you gave them what was correct at the time (the string of numbers).

Does that mean I have to go find all those sites and change my info?

No. Because Facebook has done what is called a 301 redirect on your old profile. That means if I try to use your old profile ID, Facebook will recognize it and send me seamlessly to your new profile URL. That’s a good thing!

However, if you are signing up for a new service, chances are they are going to ask you for your old numerical profile ID. Chances are you don’t have a clue where to start looking.

For the time being, you can find your old number by simply hovering over your name, or a picture of you. You’ll need to have your “status bar” enabled under “view” settings in Firefox. As you hover you’ll magically see your old ID in the status bar!

I can’t tell you how long this will work before Facebook changes it. For now, until the new websites finish scrambling to adjust for the Old vs. the New profile information you need to be aware of this Ripple Effect and how to *manage it.

(* at least for now)

On Your Mark … Facebook Users Ready for Land Rush (abcnews.go.com)
Facebook to offer vanity URLs (theregister.co.uk)
Facebook Begins Rolling Out Free Profile Usernames For Vanity URLs (allfacebook.com)
Follow me to Facebook (AreWeConnected.com)
Drive Traffic to your Facebook Fan Page (AreWeConnected.com)

Do you really need a vanity Facebook URL?

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:41:34 -0500

The hype is out there. The buzz is building. My alarm clock is set.

Very soon you’ll be able to change your existing Facebook profile URL from something that looks like this:

To something that looks like this:

Is this really important? Yes and no. It depends on what you do with Facebook. If you are a simple Facebook user, maybe reconnecting with your College Sorority Sisters from 20 years ago it’s probably not a pressing issue. You did know the fastest growing demographic on Facebook was Women over the age of 50 – right?

However if you use the immense power of Facebook for marketing in any way this is a very important change. Personal branding is everything. You don’t have an email that looks like 7fhsg4@gmail.com do you? Your twitter address is recognizable as well. You probably have a personalized plate. Why shouldn’t your Facebook profile say something about you?

To secure your own Custom Facebook Profile, all you have to do is go to this page: http://www.facebook.com/username/ on or after Friday, June 12th, at 9:01pm (Pacific)

From Facebook :

Facebook usernames will be available in basic text forms, and you can only choose a single username for your profile and for each of the Pages that you administer. Your username must be at least five characters in length and only include alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9), or a period or full stop ("."). While usernames are currently available only for Romanized text, we’re looking at how we might support non-Romanized characters in the future.

One word of caution. Choose wisely. The name you pick will be yours forever! While it may be possible to register http://facebook.com/DanceDanceRevolutionNinja Do you really want to? Forever?

BTW: If you want a Custom Facebook Business (Fan) Page Name you’ll need to already have 1,000 fans or have to wait a bit.

From Facebook :

Your Facebook Page must meet two requirements: it must have been live on Facebook prior to the May 31, 2009 cut-off date and have had a minimum 1,000 fans at that time.
This limitation is temporary. All Pages created after May 31, 2009 or that had less than 1,000 fans on that day will be eligible to claim usernames on Sunday, June 28, 2009.

Facebook Vanity URLs Go Live on Friday Night (marketingvox.com)
Facebook Usernames (buzzfeed.com)
Facebook Begins Rolling Out Free Profile Usernames For Vanity URLs (allfacebook.com)
Facebook Business Page Design (AreWeConnected.com)
Retaggr / Facebook Part 2 (AreWeConnected.com)
Drive Traffic to your Facebook Fan Page (AreWeConnected.com)

How To Get Some Easy Bonus Points on ActiveRain - Local Video Contest Announcement

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:04:42 -0500

Hyperlocal Video?

Enter this contest!

Via Jason Crouch, Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate (512-796-7653) (Austin Texas Homes, LLC):

I think this video covers almost all of the bases (give it a few seconds to load fully):

Here are some recent local videos that I made which may inspire an idea for your entry:

Stone Hill Town Center - VIDEO UPDATE

Mighty Fine Burgers - Austin, Texas (Video Journal)

Trip to Round Rock Donuts! (Video Journal)

Finally, here are a few additional details:

I am excited to announce that the judges will be Richard Weisser, Debe Maxwell, Carolyn Tann-Starr, Lesley Lambert, and me.

As Jeremy Blanton mentioned in his comment below: "If you don't own a video camera, You can also use your digital camera. Most of them come with a video feature built in them. Usually the quality is pretty good!"

Make sure you post a link to your entry in the comments HERE. You might also want to email the link to me to ensure that you have a backup - my email address is jason@austintexashomes.com.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to call, email, or post them below. Once again, the deadline is JUNE 23rd.

Thanks for reading/watching, and good luck in the contest!

Going Blind with Search Engines

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:34:52 -0500

Image by betancourt via Flickr

Helped by an always changing background image, Bing is visually beautiful. The recent launch of Bing and the subsequent media blast has Bing pushed to the front of our daily conversations. Radio, TV, internet, and banner ads; it’s all about generating the Buzz. Bing has Buzz. Before Bing was released a full 90% of my Search Engine traffic came from Google. I did happen to notice one Bing result prior to it’s release. Is Bing going to be a real player? Only time will tell.

Bing is touting itself as a Decision Engine, a site that cuts the crap and only delivers the relevant sites for your search terms. Does it?

Don’t wine about it

Back in my days of heavy wine tasting (sommelier training) when it came time to evaluate a wine there were many things that flooded your senses. In tasting a beautiful Bordeaux blend there’s the grapes (5) themselves, the color, the tannins, the bouquet, the fruit, the acid, and so on. All vital attributes to the quality of what was contained in my glass.

But there were other aspects that might sway my perceived decision. The bottle itself, the beautiful label, the foil and even the printing on the cork could serve to better embed a feeling of quality. Was that a false quality? Certainly sometimes it was, other times it wasn’t. The answer?

Go Blind!

A blind tasting meant sitting down to a table with just two things. The glass and the wine in the glass. Tasting the wine deprived of the marketing component meant you were judging the wine on it’s own merits.

Image by Vincent Ma via Flickr

We’ve established the marketing for Bing has been wonderful. The question is,

“How can you blind test a search engine?”

Easy!

Michael Kordahi, (@delic8genius ) created a simple search site that delivers the unbranded results from Google, Yahoo and Bing. You can find it at http://blindsearch.fejus.com Search for “Mike Mueller ” and you’ll find 3 very different results. Click on the Vote button and the three search engines will be revealed. For each search the columns are switched. Having a little fun, I searched for “Decision Engine” and “Why Bing?” just to see how skewed I could make it.

Go try Bing. It’s certainly beautiful. But before you decide that it’s the “Decision Engine” for you, try a blind taste test on your favorite search terms. Try entering your "keywords" and let me know what you think.

Bing: Microsoft Launching New Rival to Google? (mashable.com)
Microsoft unveils new Bing search engine (mycompuquest.blogspot.com)
Microsoft’s Bing Logo Leaked By Way Of Favicon? (techcrunch.com)
Microsoft’s New Try At Search Is Live (blogoscoped.com)

Connection Affection

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:17:51 -0500

Glad to see Tamara is back!

Aren't you?

Via Tamara "The Real Estate Therapist" Dorris (Davis & Davis and Top Producing Techniques):

Four months ago, in February, I got sick. Really sick. Like the kind of sick you can't work for months and you have to lay in bed a lot and your family seems really worried you're going to die. I lost 30 pounds and wasn't sure I was going to survive, but guess what? I did!

I know some people don't see the value of social media; I know when I was laying in bed, the idea of chatting on twitter was the last thing on my mind. However, what was on my mind were the caring friends I've made through AR and twitter who tracked me down to find out why I was MIA (missing in action). People like George Tallabus, Mike Mueller, Diane Guercio and Lesley Lambert. These social media friends of mine knew something must be wrong and wanted to make sure I was okay. I wasn't checking in or returning calls or emails much, but just hearing a voice mail or reading an email from these distant friends worried and wishing me well made such a big impact on me when I was feeling so poorly.

Mike Mueller's tagline is "Are We Connected," and if you think about it, that says a lot about human nature and how it plays into social media. We can chat about a listing appointment on twitter, post a local market update on Active rain, or write on someone's wall in FaceBook, and, at first blush, these seem like simple, non-emotional networking activities. However, I can say from my own experience that indeed, when connection occurs, affection results.

Social media is like having a pen pal--or a bunch of pen pals--that you resonate with, care about, laugh with, and enjoy developing a kind of mutual supportive relationship with. I used to harass my kids about playing on MySpace too much, and now they laugh at me as I log onto FaceBook. There is an affection connection that can't be denied.

Now that I'm well on my way to recovery, I realize how important having a connection with the outside world really is. But not any connection. I believe that we are drawn to people who we "click" with for a reason. Call it the law of attraction, or say that birds of a feather flock together...whatever it is, it's real and alive in social media land. There are those certain people whose posts you like to read, whose twitter message makes you smile, and whose FaceBook entries leave you laughing outloud. There is that urge to reply, connect, affect.

I coudn't begin to list the numerous folks in my social media circle over the past week who have welcomed me back, wished me well, and wondered where in the heck I'd been. These are people who, over tweets, posts and nudges, have become my friends. People who I've connected with.

And when we do connect with those like-minded, like-hearted souls, something happens. Something clicks and friends are made. And based on my own experiences and those experiences shared by others, these aren't fair weather friends; they are the real deal. The ones who you cheer on when they announce they just wrote an offer, say a special prayer for when they say they lost their job, or support when they seem to need a boost. And you know what? They'd do the same for you in a heartbeat. So yes, I'd say we are indeed connected.

Thanks for reading!

Tamara

Following thousands, listening to 100

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:41:52 -0500

Time and time again I see these "Get a 1,000 followers overnight " schemes. You’ll notice I didn’t call them Scams. That’s because they are real and yes you can add massively to your follower list and do so in an automated way.

Is that a good thing? That depends on who. Talk to the marketing/spam machine guy who looks at Twitter as a giant billboard for what they’re selling and I’m guessing they’ll say that’s a very good thing. Why can’t they add 10,000 followers overnight? Why can’t they just add them all?

Then there’s the other side of the coin. The many people who look at Twitter in a different way. They are not interested in follower numbers. As a matter of fact they struggle to keep their following in the hundreds not the thousands. Why?

Rain Clouds

I’ve written about this before. (http://areweconnected.com/2008/12/ive-only-got-two-ears/ ) Think of each follower as a tiny rain cloud. Each rain cloud adds it’s own trickle to your Twitter Stream (the combined tweets of all those you follow). Add enough tiny rain clouds and your stream turns into a swift moving current. To them Twitter is a great place to build real relationships by having real 2-way conversations with them. Too fast a stream and they lose the ability to catch those conversations that are most important to them.

Personally I have a foot in both camps. I don’t subscribe to the arbitrary following of mass people but I do want to reach out, meet and start a conversation with as many people as possible. I’ll follow most anyone who follows me first as long as they abide by my Twitter Follow Policy . Currently I’m hovering around 4,000 follows (I trimmed almost 700 in deadwood the other day). Can I possibly hope to have real conversations with 4,000 people? Not a chance.

Slowing Down the Stream

Like the mass following people that have automated their twitter marketing machine we too can use technology to achieve our goals. It’s really very simple. I’ve created in both Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck a special column that I’ve called my “Slow Stream”. It’s a Group or UserList of 100 of my closest twitter friends. These are the people I want to make sure I catch. Think of it as a slowly moving eddie off the side of a Class VI Rapids. People come and go in my slow stream. I’ll put people on who have engaged with me in the past, or ReTweeted something numerous times, or even some of those that are icons (like many of those in the top row of my header).

Now that you’ve got the idea, here’s how to slow down your stream using the Seesmic Desktop:

The New Seesmic Desktop (AreWeConnected.com)
What is Follow Friday? (AreWeConnected.com)
2 things that don’t make a Social Media Guru (AreWeConnected.com)
How to find people to follow (AreWeConnected.com)

Build A Better Vlog Group - Come Join Us!

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:06:23 -0500

Matt is on to something

Via Matt Stigliano (Exit Realty North-San Antonio):

Links:

Jason Crouch - "How to Insert YouTube Videos into your ActiveRain Posts - Attention Newbies!"

Seesmic - www.seesmic.com

Mike Mueller - www.areweconnected.com and ActiveRain (he got me into video and has lots of great tips)

About the Build A Better Vlog Group:

I just wanted to reiterate - the idea of this group is not to create a dumping ground for your local interest video or listing video. This is for "face to face" communication and to share ideas and tips on vlogging. I will remove posts if deemed off-topic. I hope that everyone will record short videos for their posts and make this a sort of experimental playground and feedback spot for your vlogging ideas and concepts. If the post is about the topic, but does not contain video, the post will be weighed on a case by case basis.

I am also hoping to push the ActiveRain creative folks to somehow include an option to video comment. Perhaps if they see us generating enough interest it will get put into place (my guess is they've already considered it or are working on it - they're usually pretty forward thinking).

Please reblog in order to spread the word and get this group moving!

Humans Suck!

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:15:25 -0500

Image by mike912mueller via Flickr

I watched in complete horror just minutes ago as a woman (not a teenager) rolled her window halfway down and shoved what looked like a entire fast food meal worth of trash out her window.
This was in stopped traffic.

I immediately honked, she looked, and I pointed to the trash indicating to her that what she did was NOT ok. For the next couple of minutes she pretended to not see me. She turned right at the next light and disappeared.

Humans Suck!

OK, maybe not all humans suck (although she certainly does).

I know there is good out there and I want to showcase one instance I came upon recently.

Meet Ken Yeung

Ken is a blogger , photographer , tech geek and of course a Twit . Like so many others Ken has latched on to the #FollowFriday phenominon. If you are not sure what Follow Friday means read "What is Follow Friday ". Ken liked the idea behind the hashtag but wanted a little more. Not just throwing out a name and saying "Follow Them!" , Ken started using his blog posts as FollowFriday suggestions. Ken is using entire paragraphs to tell his readers why they should connect with a person.

Here’s just a couple of examples:

Daniel Brusilovsky

Daniel Brusilovsky

Although we’ve met briefly (and I mean briefly), I’ve got to admire Daniel . This guy is only 16 years old and he’s done WAY more than anyone else I know. Shall I list why he’s someone that everyone should know? He’s the CEO/founder of Teens In Tech , he’s smart in the ways of the world and has a pretty uncanny sense for strategy, renowned speaker, creator of the podcast Apple Universe , a intern Product Marketing Manager and Evangelist at Qik , and lastly a consultant to at least one pretty cool company (i.e. creators of Tweetie ). Daniel seems to know a whole lot about the technology and web 2.0 scene and I, for one, am definitely

and

Sukhjit Ghag , Morgan Brown & Derek Overbey

If you’ve been to South by Southwest, you’re hopefully familiar with this triple threat. These three are the founders of “100 Interviews “. Their goal was to go to SXSW and meet & record 100 people and ask them about why they’re in Austin, what they do, and how social media has been an influence in their daily lives. But beyond “100 Interviews”, they are an impressive bunch.

Sukhjit Ghag is a person I’ve only met briefly but we have some similar friends and twitter colleagues in common. But I am just amazed at her dedication, knowledge, and experties in video production. She really has it down in terms of how to effectively use social media (or is it new media) and video. You can often chat with her on Tokbox or see her productions on Vimeo , 12 Seconds , Zannel , and any other web platform. You want to talk about video and new media strategy, shoot her a message on Seesmic . You’ll be impressed at the reply you get.

Derek Overbey is a man around town. He works for a firm involved in real estate and the web and operates as the “Senior Director of Social Media” or something like that. We had the pleasure of chatting more in depth during my “100 Interviews” sketch at SXSW and I’ve noticed over the weeks since then, he pretty much knows everyone in the community. You can find him at TechKaraoke events up and down the California coast from San Francisco to Silicon Valley to even Los Angeles. He truly gets what’s going on in the web industry and is passionate about the adoption to his job. He’s always eager to help out and you’ll be grateful that you met him.

I first heard about Morgan Brown during the Mashable Monthly meetup in October in San Francisco. We met briefly and chatted but kept in touch ever since. Earlier this year, he launched an amazing new product called Resume Donkey to help those unemployed or seeking new advancements. But during his 9-5 shift, he’s also in charge of marketing for a company called TurnHere which produces Internet videos. You want to talk video? It’s all Morgan.

Yes, writing up a paragraph or two takes considerably more time than a Tweet with a hashtag but I hope you wll agree with me that it adds so much more to the conversation. Ken Yeung, you indeed help restore my faith in humanity. Thank you!

BTW: if you are not following Ken - you should.

Twitter: @kyeung808

Blog: TheLetterTwo.com

How do you follow that many people? (AreWeConnected.com)
Build a little Whuffie (AreWeConnected.com)

Hire Mike (925) 639-1078

Can't Listen Live During Our Show? Here are the archives for Social Media Edge (JCKC Radio)

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:08:56 -0500

I am honored to have a small part in each weeks show.

Here's Jason's compilation of each week so far.

Thank you to Jason Crouch and Ken Cook for letting me play!

Via Jason Crouch, Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate (512-796-7653) (Austin Texas Homes, LLC):

Each week, I have a handful of online friends who ask if our weekly radio show "Social Media Edge" (formerly Twitter Tuesday) is recorded, so that they can listen anytime. The essence of Web 2.0 is being able to access information on your own terms, right?

Yes!

In an effort to make it easier to find and check out all of our previous episodes, this post will serve as the definitive spot to locate any past shows, going back to our original shows in early December 2008. I will do my best to keep it updated each week from this point forward.

If you haven't heard our program at all, this would be a good opportunity to pick one that looks interesting to you. :)

Without further ado, here is the entire list to date:

December 2008

That was the first month that I hesitantly dipped my feet into the radio pool, as it were. Listening back to those early attempts, I was struck by how serious I sound. The first couple of shows were 30 minutes, but we later expanded to a full hour.

Jason Crouch and Ken Cook Twitter Tuesday! (30 minutes) - December 9th

Jason Crouch and Ken Cook Twitter Tuesday! (30 minutes) - December 16th

Twitter Tuesday Christmas Show (30 minutes) - December 23rd - includes a visit from a very hungover Santa Claus!

Twitter Tuesday New Year's Resolution Special ONE HOUR! - December 30th - our first one hour show

January 2009

Twitter Tuesday - Guests TS Elliott & Chicke Fitzgerald - January 6th - This was our first show with guests.

Twitter Tuesday - Guests Julie Roads, Walter Charnoff and Erika Napoletano - January 13th

Twitter Tuesday - Guests Brian Carter and Ed Bisquera - January 20th

Twitter Tuesday - Guest Tamara Dorris - January 27th - We shifted to one guest instead of two at that point.

February 2009

Twitter Tuesday Guest Rick Abbott @theDigitalLife - February 3rd

Twitter Tuesday - Guest @BillCrosby Social Media Evangelist - February 10th

Twitter Tuesday - Guest @MikeMueller Vid/LinkedIn - February 17th - This was our first show with Mike Mueller, who has now become a regular part of the show as our roving tech reporter.

@shelisrael (Naked Conversations) - February 24th - Shel Israel is the co-author of "Naked Conversations", which is considered to be one of the seminal books on the topic of business blogging.

March 2009

Twitter Tuesday - Guest @CathyBrowne - March 3rd

Humanizing Business Through Social Media - March 10th - Guest was Erin Hurry, founder of Girls with Goals

Very Special Guest Steve McGranahan - "World's Strongest Redneck"! - March 17th - yes, you read the title correctly

Twitter Tuesday - Guest James Shiner @TweeplePages - March 24th - James is also the founder of Zipvo, which is a terrific real estate video platform

Twitter Tuesday Radio Brad Nix, Matt Fagioli REtechSouth - March 31st

April 2009

Twitter Tuesday w/ Jason Crouch & Ken Cook (JCKC Radio) - April 7th - Guest was Andrew Stone, developer of Twittelator and many other iPhone applications

Twitter Tuesday Radio - Guest Guy Hagen, Founder of Twinfluence - April 14th

Twitter Tuesday Radio - Now "Social Media Edge" - April 21st - After 3.5 months with guests, we decided to take a break for awhile.

Bloggers Sued for Product Endorsement? - April 28th

May 2009

Social Media Edge - Blogging Policies? Friend Feed - May 5th

Hyperlocal and the 2 Pound Doughnut - We All Win - May 12th

More Hyperlocal and Five Tips for Success - May 19th

Amazing Tips Tools and Tricks for Social Media - May 26th

June 2009

Social Media Edge - Tips, Tricks, Tweets and More - June 2nd - Jeremy Blanton also joined us for a new regular feature about blogging/ActiveRain.

If you want to join us live, we broadcast every Tuesday at noon Eastern (11am Central, 10am Mountain time, 9am Pacific) right here: http://blogtalkradio.com/jckc

Here are a couple of testimonials from some familiar faces here on ActiveRain:

"I have followed just about everything Jason has done since I got involved in blogging for the first time roughly 2 years ago. When I heard that he had teamed up with Ken Cook for a "talk radio" show about social media, I knew I had to tune in to it.

After the first episode, I decided I had to be involved. Since that time, my company has been a sponsor of the show providing them with working capital to allow them to give away promotional items to its listeners. I am an avid fan of the show...almost rabid. (In fact, I have not missed a single episode.) The guests are some of the most knowledgeable in the industry and the information I have gained by listening to this show has helped me on just about every facet of my social media usage.

If you are in any way involved in some form of social media, you are missing the boat by missing this show!!"

- Clint Miller, Real Estate Client Referrals

"Ken Cook and Jason Crouch's #jckc Social Media Edge is a regular part of my week. I like to join Ken, Jason and their guests to hear real life applications for social media and get training and tips. As co-founder of TwitterQueens, Inc. I think that they have great information and a wonderful grasp on the applications of social media."

- Lesley Lambert, Founder of TwitterQueens

I hope you can join us this week!

Thanks!

a Tale of Two Videos

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:03:19 -0500

This is not yet another WordCamp post - really!

I wanted to illustrate two very different video approaches I came across, both covering the same conference.

I would like you to watch them both and then I want to ask you a couple of questions.

Don’t cheat…

Video 1:

Video 2:

Done watching both? Good. Now answer a couple of questions.

Answer each as honestly as you can. I do not know either of these people personally. There are no wrong answers.

Which video did you watch all the way to the end?
Why? Did you find yourself looking at the time for each one? (honestly?)
Did you notice the sound in each one?
Did you notice the branding for each one?
Which was more compelling / entertaining to you?
What was the best thing you liked from each?
What did you like the least?
How would you make each one better?
What can you take from this and apply to your own video style?

WordCamp SF 2009 - The Takeaways

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:21:31 -0500

After letting the information digest for a solid day, I thought I would revisit my notes, video, and thoughts of the day and put down in writing what I felt were the biggest and most important ideas session by session.

Tim Ferriss - Scalable Blogging, Author of “The 4-hour Workweek ”

Tim is a thinker, a constant tester, he likes to analyze what works and what doesn’t work. He uses CrazyEgg on his blog . Best traffic days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He posts 1 to 2 times a week. Biggest hint was to change the label for “Categories” to “Topics”, results in much greater stickyness.

Favorite WP Plugin: Redirection

Uses Slinkset.com , Evernote.com and Google Keyword Tool . Ignores SEO for first draft. Follow Tim on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tferriss

I had a chance to talk to Tim and asked him to say hi to my friend John Harper. Tim is always one of the nicest guys you’ll meet.

Matt Cutts – Straight from Google

Matt is head of the Anti Spam Department of Google and all around Google Ambassador and good guy. Matts presentation was entitled simply, “How to do better in Google” Right off the bat he mentioned Video!

Google will crawl the higher PR pages deeper and more often. Matt explained the idea behind PageRank (I learned that the Page in PageRank stood for Larry Page). “PR is determined by the number of people that link to you and how important they are.”

“You want to be both Relevant and Reputable” .
Also recommended the Google Keyword Tool to identify better keywords to use naturally within your post.
Do not use a permalink structure like http://AreWeConnected.com/?p=123 instead use one in which you can use keywords.
Categories should be Keywords as well.

Blog: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
Twitter: @mattcutts

Here’s his presentation: http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ddvhbrqf_126gc346qdh

Want to foil most all hacking attempts? Slide 48 is all you need!

If you weren’t paying attention you might have missed this nugget:

Matt Mullenweg – State of the Word

Matt, if you don’t know, is the person we can all thank for having WordPress. He’s that pink square up in my header image. He is a charming speaker with so much to cover in such a short time.

Mentioned Alex King of CrowdFavorite / WPHelpCenter.com
P2 (think twitter on a blog). See: http://ma.tt/2009/05/how-p2-changed-automattic/
BuddyPress (Multi User Blog w/ a social networking aspect)
WP version 2.8 is coming ( no release date)
WordPress.tv is here!
Merging WP MU with WP.org
Blackberry App is coming
Widgets and Themes will be streamlined in the future

Blog: http://ma.tt/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/photomatt

Tara Hunt – Author of “The Whuffie Factor ”

I’ve written about Whuffie before. Tara first explained what is meant by Whuffie and then generally went down her 5 items detailed in her book on building Whuffie. In case you haven’t read her book here’s a quick bullet point list.

Turn the Bullhorn Around (listen)
Become a part of the community you serve.
Create amazing customer experiences (Automagicness)
Embrace the Chaos
Find your higher purpose

Blog: http://www.horsepigcow.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MissRogue

Phillip Greenspun - ummmmmmm

MIT, big thinker of lofty subjects, and the strangest presentation I have ever seen. Best thing I can do here is to recommend you go read http://geekporngirl.com/2009/05/31/does-the-internet-make-us-smaller-report-from-wordcamp-sf/ to maybe understand a little of what happened. Somewhere, lost in the middle of it all was a really excellent thought on relational database and search relevancy.

Chris Pirillo – Community

I have known Chris since the TechTV days. His presentation was passionate yet seemed unrehearsed and almost seemed like a collection of thoughts assembled from other projects and compiled as he was going.

He did have one great line that I saw tweeted and ReTweeted. “A blog is just a tool. And if you think that a blog is a community than you too are a tool!"

Blog: http://chris.pirillo.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrispirillo

Cali Lewis – GeekBrief.TV

Always energetic, she has the perfect personality for TV. Cali offered up 7 rules for building an audience.

Establish and know your Core Value.
Start compelling conversations.
Be an Asset (add value).
Make Friends not Fans.
Reward participation thru giveaways and appreciation.
Take a break. Give the audience a chance to miss you.
Always be updating / always improving.

Blog: http://www.geekbrief.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/calilewis

All in all this by far was the best event I have been to for the money. I caught up with some old friends and met some new ones. If a WordCamp comes to your area – and even if it doesn’t, you owe it to yourself to be there!

Thanks Ma.tt for everything you do!

Learn the 3 Levels of Whuffie

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:23:57 -0500

Whuffie is the term used to describe Social Media Capital.

From Wikipedia:

Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation -based currency of Cory Doctorow ’s science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom .

Image by LexnGer via Flickr

The term has since seen some adoption as a synonym for Social capital , including its use in the title of the Tara Hunt book The Whuffie Factor.

It’s a simple concept. Do something for someone else and you get a little Whuffie. Later on, should you need a little favor in return, you can call in that Whuffie personally or if you believe in the grander scheme of things – the Universe will provide that for you.

You can call it Whuffie, Karma, Brownie Points, Kudos, or just being good. Some people are natural born Whuffie Givers , others have to be reminded from time to time and still others that are “Lifetime Members of the Whuffie Takers of Society ”. We all know prime examples of each.

Whuffie building happens quietly with little or no fanfare. There is no scoreboard, no points paying system. It’s honest hard work. Today is the start of the weekend and a prime time for you to go out and build a little Whuffie. What can you do to build Whuffie? Here’s a couple of ideas…

First Level Whuffie Building:

Comment on a blog. People love to know they are being read.
Social Bookmark. Digg their post, StumbleUpon , Technorati etc.
“Like” something on Facebook . Then take it one more step and comment on their status update.
ReTweet a self promoting item of someone (theirs not yours). 5% to 10% of a tweetstream might / should be self promoting – this helps them tremendously.
Follow Fridays – if you are not familiar read What is Follow Friday?

Second Level Whuffie Building:

After leaving that comment on their blog head on over to Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin and share that link with your friends.
Introduce two people on Twitter that you think should know each other.
Like a particular product? Write a post about it detailing what it is that you like and why you recommend others buy it. This should go without saying but, No Hidden Agendas! <= Major Negative Whuffies!
Find a cause and promote it. Promote the poop out of it. Blog it, Digg it, Facebook it, Tweet it and ReTweet it.

Third Level Whuffie Building:

Create a Google Search / Alert or Twitter keyword search looking for something that you are an expert on. Then reach out and help those people you find, sharing your expertise. For the tech minded that might be help with a snippet of code or designing a widget.
Create something of value for someone else and then give it to them. Whatever your passion, there’s something you do that is better than others. I was in Downtown San Francisco the other day and noticed a homeless person with broken eyeglasses. How hard would it be if I was an optician to say, “Here, let me fix those for you .” So often we forget that something small and insignificant for us might be major and life changing for others.

I hope that gives you a better understanding of Whuffie and encourages you to go build a little Whuffie. On a personal level I owe HUGE amounts of Whuffie to every single one of these people who have recommended me .

Warning: Blatant Self Promotion Area

Want a quick easy Whuffie? Use the Tweet This! button (below). Want to earn a HUGE Wuffie? Introduce me to the right person who will hire me! http://areweconnected.com/2009/04/director-of-social-media/

Now that you know all there is to know about Whuffie it’s time to go out and make some of your own!

Tube Mogul 2.0

Mike Mueller (Tech and Social Media Consultant) — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:02:44 -0500

I’ve long been a fan of TubeMogul.com Upload a video once to TubeMogul and they will publish it on multiple sites. How many? Over 20 different video hosting sites.

That’s a real time saver!

But that’s just half of what TubeMogul does. Delivering analytics is the other half.

We learn from our mistakes.

If you are producing hyperlocal video wouldn’t you want to know if you are doing it right? Are people watching the entire video? When are they clicking out and more importantly was it something you said or did? Something that you can fix or be better at next time? To me, that’s the reason behind analytics. Yet amazingly most people seem to upload and forget.

They just launched a new version.

What’s different?

What’s truly revolutionary about this launch is that rich tracking from our own InPlay technology will now be available not only to sites that host their own video, but also from many of the Web’s top video sites.

What does that mean? Within seconds, users (i.e. you) can view cross-site data on audience engagement, referral sites/search terms, audience geography and much more.

The best part? It’s available for free to almost all of our non-commercial users.

Here’s what that means…

Here’s a little press on the subject:

Now before you start blasting out your next hyperlocal video go read this excellent article on the Dakno site: 10 Awesome Real Estate Video Tips

YouTube’s Rivals To Offer Better Video Analytics (financegeek.com)
TubeMogul to Serve Up Free Video Stats (mashable.com)
WellcomeMat pulls the matt from under Slideshows (AreWeConnected.com)

Mike Mueller, Social Media.ist

Hyperlocal Video? MuellerMap it!

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I think this video covers almost all of the bases (give it a few seconds to load fully):

Here are some recent local videos that I made which may inspire an idea for your entry:

Finally, here are a few additional details:

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Go Blind!

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Can't Listen Live During Our Show? Here are the archives for Social Media Edge (JCKC Radio)

Yes!

December 2008

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

If you want to join us live, we broadcast every Tuesday at noon Eastern (11am Central, 10am Mountain time, 9am Pacific) right here: http://blogtalkradio.com/jckc

a Tale of Two Videos

WordCamp SF 2009 - The Takeaways

Learn the 3 Levels of Whuffie

First Level Whuffie Building:

Second Level Whuffie Building:

Third Level Whuffie Building:

Warning: Blatant Self Promotion Area

Tube Mogul 2.0

We learn from our mistakes.

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