Patrick's Blog

RainCamp™ is Coming to New York City January 12th, 2010

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:47:02 -0600

Via Bob Stewart - ActiveRain (ActiveRain):

ActiveRain will be bringing our third RainCamp™ to the Big Apple on Tuesday, January 12th. We have teamed up with the folks at Inman to kick off Real Estate Connect New York City 2010.

Take advantage of the unique opportunity to not only attend RainCamp™ and learn how to implement proven internet marketing strategies, but also to attend Real Estate Connect where the leaders in real estate and real estate technology come together to map out the future of our industry. Get special group pricing through ActiveRain for a chance to attend both events, RainCamp™ and Real Estate Connect.

"What's RainCamp™ All About?"

Hyper Local Blogging: How focusing on things within your city can get you a better client than focusing on your city

Search Engine Optimization: What are the best practices to get your website (yep, your website can still rank well) to rank well in the search engines. And also what tools can you use to get better results out of your site(s).

Converting Leads into Closings: Ben Kinney, one of our speakers and a Mega producing agent with Keller Williams, will share with you the secrets of how his team converts their internet leads into closings. This presentation is worth the price of admission alone as Ben demonstrates the method his team uses to take full advantage of every lead they generate.

Facebook and Twitter: How can you leverage social networks to expand your sphere of influence. The business applications of these two particular networks are exploding at the same time it's a fine balancing act to mine them in a manner that doesn't alienate your followers. We'll help you understand the nuances.

Social Media Success Stories: We'll have agents from around the country explain how they are using their online presence to impact their bottom line. Does this stuff really work? Yes it does and you'll have access to people that are making it work for them.

30 Technologies You Don't Know about but Should: Our resident techno-geek Brad Andersohn will share with you 30 technologies that you can start using the next day that can help organize and bring efficiency to your online life.

"What's the Big Deal?"

Our first RainCamp™ in Seattle was an amazing success and the 250 people in attendance walked away with practical applications they could put to use the next day in their businesses. Knowing that the internet is here to stay and has a profound impact on how you conduct business, making sure that you have concrete means to take advantage of it's power is paramount to staying ahead of your competition. Raincamp™ is eight hours (we give you a lunch break if you want it) chalk full of education intended to help you take full advantage of the powers of the net. Your understanding of the different facets of internet lead generation, lead management, and lead conversion and how they fit into your business plan will ensure that you have a successful 2010 and beyond.

"Could Real Estate Connect Be As Cool?"

It sure is!! ActiveRain has been able to negotiate a fantastic group rate for our members for the Real Estate Connect Conference at the Marriot Marquis in Time Square as well. Real Estate Connect, for those of you that have never attended (since I don't have to tell those of you that have), is the source to keep you in tune with a rapidly evolving real estate industry. No one knows exactly what direction the market will take in 2010, but if there is one constant in this market, that constant is change. Real Estate Connect brings together over 1300 of your peers to help you assess that change and how it will affect your bottom line. The best and brightest minds in the industry make this annual trek to New York City and converge with one goal in mind, determining how to stay ahead of their competition.

Many ActiveRain members will be sharing as in years past.

Linda Davis (Carnac to her fans)
Spencer Rascoff (Zillow)
Matt Goyer (Redfin)
Paul Chaney (Bizzuka)
Mitch Ribak (the eHomes Realty Network)
Tom Ferry (Super Coach extrodinaire)

and a few more before it's all said and done.

The lineup of presenters and speakers is a cross section of the thought leaders from every facet of the real estate industry. Amazing people with amazing talent and ground breaking ideas. If you've never been to a real estate connect, I implore you to work it into your schedule. You will not be disappointed.

"Bob, Shut your mouth.....It can't get BETTER, can it?"

Yes, it can get better and it does. How many of you would love a custom video for your website, blog, or the signature line of your email, or for just about anywhere you can stick a video? We mean a HIGH quality video done by a professional videographer with TurnHere. The videos can focus on a Local neighborhood or community, you as a Realtor®, or even if you're not a Realtor® there is some cool stuff they can do for you too. The Inman team will be giving one of these videos (a $500 value) to the first 50 people that sign up for Real Estate Connect through ActiveRain.

(this is where the guy on the pharmaceutical commercial comes in and rattles on like an auctioneer so fast you can barely understand what he's saying. Luckily we are in print so they call this the 'fine print': Must register for Real Estate Connect before November 30th 2009 and must shoot the video before December 31st, 2009 in order to be eligible for the free custom video)

"This Must Cost One Million Dollars, Right?"

Yes, you are correct. However, since you are an ActiveRain member you are going to receive a $999,331 discount. In fact, when you sign up for Real Estate Connect, you will get access to RainCamp™ as part of your Registration for the Real Estate Connect Conference all for $669.00. This offer will be good until December 15th. (Of course, you'd be crazy to wait that long because you want to be one of the first 50 to jump on this deal so you get the free custom video from TurnHere.)

If you can't make it for the Real Estate Connect Conference and would like to join us for RainCamp™ only, you can register here for $109.00

Do you care what I'm doing and thinking? (I can not for the life of me imagine why) If you do, you can find me on some of these places........but remember, if you are offended by anything you see or hear, I didn't force you to follow me!!:

Continuous Social Media Education for Real Estate Professionals

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:39:40 -0600

Following up on our slideshow about Real Estate Coach 2.0, we're introducing new ways for agents to continually learn the best of social media marketing. We believe training and learning should be long term, practical and affordable.

We developed a Social Media Training Center product that we offer to Associations of Realtors for their members. One example is at Oklahoma City Metro Association. We're rolling out Training Centers with Boards nationwide, with California Association of Mortgage Brokers and several in the SF Bay Area slated for early December. We're fulfilling a void by providing an agenda-free product that REALTORS are now demanding, even in Oklahoma!

As many Active Rainers know, we've been doing webinar training on social media marketing for 2 1/2 years. We know Active Rainers are on the leading edge of social media marketing and we want to open up this training to all of you as well. We've created a Training Center for Active Rain members and have added a detailed module for learning about how to use Active Rain by organizing the tutorials of our friend Brad Andersohn.

We hope you subscribe to the Social Media Training Center for Active Rain members at http://domusu.com/activerain.

* One more idea: as a subscriber, you can offer the Social Media Training Platform free to your Board or Chamber of Commerce. We do all the work in presenting the product and setting it up... and there's a revenue model for you behind it.

An Update on Real Estate Coaching 2.0 > Headed into 2.5

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:09:00 -0600

One year and a half ago, we opened up our webinar training as a scalable way to train real estate professionals on social media marketing. Here is the slideshow we presented in May 2008:

Real Estate Coach 2.0

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

Very soon, we'll be unveiling the next iteration of how we're making real estate training powerful, continuously updated and affordable.

A Simple Community Engagement Strategy

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:22:32 -0600

Here are two simple ways to engage your community.

Building a Twitter-based community news resource in one hour has the same strategic mission of building a Breaking News city site. You gain instant recognition within your city by providing a community service and you become a local media hub. This is good will branding of yourself and an easy way to develop a farm of community contacts.

Build a dynamic local community news resource on Twitter in one hour

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

We invite you to offer our free social media training platform to your local chamber of commerce. In the span of only three months, Ines Garcia in Weston, Florida engaged her Weston Chamber of Commerce through Breaking Weston News, presented a social media seminar in September and was invited onto their Board.

The free social media training platform

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

Slideshow: Posterous is the new Twitter

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:58:14 -0500

Active Rain adopted the trend of reposting other people's content with its Reblog feature. Reposting, reblogging, retweeting, rebroadcasting - the function of distributing information and date relevant to your message is a function of media. Blogging purists may criticize this trend claiming it detracts from the voice of the blogger, but the reality is most people aren't bloggers but do like sharing information.

Posterous is a blogging game changer. It elegantly automates the function of reposting so that anybody can build a decent looking "blog" without writing one. It also automates syndication across the social media landscape so it gets instant recognition from your networks as well as from Google. Here's the slideshow:

How to create a blog without "writing" oneView more presentations from Pat Kitano.

Posterous facilitates becoming a media resource. We see templates and themes built for Posterous that will have the look and feel of the New York Times. We've been asserting over the past year that becoming the media is the next marketing paradigm. This is the slideshow we're presenting at the California Association of Realtors next Tuesday at 2:00:

Media is the New Marketing

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

140 | Twitter Conference LA Sept 22-23 | Discount Code

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:23:49 -0500

We're delighted that our Breaking News Network is one of the event sponsors of 140 | The Twitter Conference in Los Angeles on September 22-23. The Parnassus Group (we like this friendly group a lot) has lined up a Hollywood-inspired roster of speakers that should provide a lot of personality for a tech conference.

We enjoyed the first 140 in Mountain View last May, but thought the crowd was too social-media-centric. I noted that in a room of 300, only two of us represented real estate. We want to see all kinds of industry and small business participating at 140. Twitter and Twitter-based applications offer practical solutions to business development, and it's usually the people in business - real estate, publishing, retail, entertainment, hospitality, advertising to name a few - who figure this out.

As event sponsors, we're offering a discount code for registration at 140: type in 140LAPK.

Introducing the Social Media Marketing Curriculum for Brokerages

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:14:04 -0500

Outsourcing the Social Media Marketing Curriculum

Brokerages now require social media marketing training to be relevant to the needs of their agents. However, it takes too much time and resources to hire somebody to compose social marketing tutorials, to constantly maintain ever-changing information, and to make them relevant specifically to the real estate agent.

Over the last three years, Domus Consulting Group has trained thousands of real estate agents on how to use social media effectively with our renowned series of Social Media Marketing webinar workshops (links to testimonials and awards here) that are running continuously every week. Kevin Boer has religiously chronicled the workshops into a portfolio of user-friendly tutorials. We offer this portfolio to your agents at a nominal cost, co-branded to your company... see the slideshow.

What's Inside

Domus Social Media Marketing Curriculum

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

For more details

Contact us for a demo and a peek at the tutorials. An example of a tutorial we created for Chambers of Commerce can be downloaded at Local Business Owner's Guide to Twitter. We provide a very affordable solution that works in tandem with your training and marketing managers and frees them up to focus on building your team with the most updated and best-of-breed social media strategies.

Finally! Is the media industry seeing the connection between hyperlocal and real estate?

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:56:45 -0500

In his updates from the CUNY New Business Models for News forum in Aspen, Jeff Jarvis discusses how a Salt Lake City newspaper acquired a real estate agency in order to sell houses as an alternative commercial venture.

Also here at Aspen, I was amazed and impressed to hear newspaper owner Dean Singleton tell some of us that his Salt Lake City paper has bought a realty agency and will list homes for a flat fee of a few thousand. Yes, the paper undercuts other agencies’ listings businesss. But, hey, the agencies have pretty much abandoned newspapers and newspapers still have readers and the ability to market homes in print and online. In Salt Lake’s case, the paper will send buyers – rather than sellers – to agencies that advertise. When I worked in the newspaper industry way back at the start of the consumer web, I tried to convince papers to just this: to get into the real estate business to get homes into the listings and to get access to listings data. I thought I was going to be killed. But I believe that this was an inevitability. Singleton’s move is the ecommerce strategy we presented in our models made substantial and real. We talked with the Telegraph’s Edward Roussel about their sales of wine, hangers, and hats. Selling homes is certainly bigger ticket. It monetizes the relationship papers have with readers in a new and smart way.

With the Breaking News Media Network, real estate brokerages and agents are using the same strategy, only opposite that of the media companies. They are building Breaking News city sites like Chico Breaking News in order to develop their community media presence as a branding vehicle. Note that the real estate participants in the Breaking News Network adhere to the idea that the sites are community services, so with a few exceptions, it's almost impossible to see that a real estate brokerage or agent is behind them. Yet, their presence is always there because they are communicating with the community through the site. This is the new wave of marketing that real estate is beginning to adopt to attract the community for business rather than spam them to death with drip marketing techniques. (tx h/t Tom Royce)

Breaking News Network awarded Most Innovative Media 2009 at Inman Connect

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:28:52 -0500

The Breaking News Network was awarded Most Innovative Media 2009 by Inman News last Friday.

Everybody has been asking us - why is the Breaking News Network innovative?

Breaking News sites like Breaking San Francisco News aggregate the best Twitter feeds in a city. They filter the Twitter experience for the local consumer so they're not seeing the noise. These sites are powerful viral marketing vehicles - Twitter feeds @BreakingSFNews, @BreakingLANews and @BreakingNYCNews all have grown organically to over 2,200-2,500 followers in less than 3 months
The Breaking News Network's grass roots application design makes it a unique media model. We give the template away to media/publishing companies and real estate brokerages and agents, who then build a Breaking News site in 3-5 hours. And they OWN the sites; it's on the Wordpress platform so it's easily accessible to non-programmers and customizable to the market. Once up, that real estate brokerage/agent or media company provides a community service and instantly becomes the hub of their Twitter community in their city.
In three months, the Breaking News Network already covers over 100 cities. As the Breaking News Network expands to cover every city in America (as well as overseas), the network begins to look like the Craigslist for Twitter feeds. We plan to overlay new business models across this network.

We're continuing to develop Breaking News sites and offer the opportunity to Active Rain members for your city. We're allocating only one per city, so if you're interested, please contact me on Active Rain. We select those who understand the power of virally connecting to their community for developing their business.

Mike Mueller's video with me talking about the Breaking News Network at Inman Connect August 7.

Lead Broadcaster - a practical use of social media

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:03:51 -0500

We at Domus Consulting Group have been working to develop new systems that leverage the social media to practical use.

Generally, we see real estate professionals who adopt social media marketing as being more in tune with their customer base than those who aren't participating in online conversations. Being on Twitter is not an indication of being a good real estate agent (says Rob Hahn), but it does become more obvious who knows their stuff by surveying any agents' online content on their blogs and networking accounts.

We're working with Neighbor City.com to develop social media channels that connect good real estate agents (as evidenced by their social media presence) with qualified Neighbor City prospects. The first one is called @leadbroadcaster; it's an opt-in application for real estate professionals. We'll also be testing the application for loan prequalification as well. Please check out the slideshow and let us know what you think.

Lead Broadcaster

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

Practical Social Media - setting up business and personal accounts

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:48:36 -0500

The social media is in full bloom now that every real estate agent seems to own a Facebook account. After a few months experience being "social" on the social media, most real estate agents eventually wonder how the social activity translates into new business. Business in practice demands efficient messaging that brings in clients. Chatting on Facebook seems too indirect an approach for many agents.

We're now seeing a palpable shift towards using the social media as an advertising platform solely used for branding and messaging. The key idea behind this movement is to set up two types of social networking accounts - one personal and one strictly business on Twitter and Facebook. The personal account, based on your name, is used for personal branding, as you've been doing up to now.

For real estate, the business account is used strictly for discussing real estate - market trends, breaking news in the neighborhood, etc. Chats and other personal broadcasts should be limited so the content remains relevant to the opt-in subscriber / "friend". These Twitter feeds also become positioned as a proxy blog themselves and can be re-broadcast on other sites. For example, on the Breaking News sites like http://breakingsfnews.com/real-estate, we add those undiluted Twitter feeds within the Real Estate section.

@CindeeLean provides good examples on how to use multiple Twitter accounts for business:

(Personal) (Business)

(Business) (New business)

Related article: Using social media as a business, not a social tool

The Breaking News Webinars

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:50:55 -0500

We invite you to join our latest webinar series: Marketing Your Business Using Social Media and Breaking News.

This is what we offer you:

Vast Library of Domus' Social Media Marketing Tutorials Accessible Online 24-by-7

We’ve been doing webinars on social media marketing continuously for over two years, and have made our educational process efficient by providing a library of tutorials that enrollees can access 24-7:

A series of basic tutorials introducing how to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media applications.
A series of advanced tutorials on how to build Breaking News for your city.
A series of advanced tutorials on how to market Breaking News and implement revenue generating business models.
Over 36 hours of our best recorded webinars detailing our social media marketing system and Breaking News
A series of 90 tutorials detailing on how to blog effectively

Domus Live Webinar series

All new enrollees and past clients who have gone through our complete 101 series have free access to live webinars held every Friday between 9:00-9:45 PDT / 12:00-12:45 EDT between June 19 - October 1. These webinars will not be basic training; we’ll be discussing the latest developments in social media, real estate marketing and our Breaking News Network. They will be recorded.

Breaking News City Sites (we're an Inman News Innovator 2009 Nominee!)

Our Breaking News City sites instantly position you as the hub of your community. Even better, we have built several revenue generating business models with Breaking News City sites that are simple to implement and provide recurring income. You are the owner of your City site and participate as part of the larger Breaking News Network. Here is the list of Breaking News city sites developed by our network since May 1:

All enrollees will have the opportunity to build one Breaking News city site if the city is available. This is the final call for any real estate professional interested in developing a Breaking News City site.

The total price for the Social Media Marketing 201 and Breaking News course is $299. Register here. Also register for our introductory session free this Wednesday at 10:30am PDT / 1:30pm EDT at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/350300010

Ten Steps to Create an Enthusiastic Community Network around YOU

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:49:26 -0500

Breaking News City sites are Twitter-based hyperlocal sites that broadcast real time news and events to the community:

Here are ten steps to create an enthusiastic community network with a Breaking News City site:

By launching a Breaking News City site, you are providing a service to your community.
First, find the best local Twitterers in your city (this takes about 2 hours, and is kind of fun).
When you add a Twitter feed to Breaking News, you are helping that Twitterer get more exposure. They thank you for adding them. Add 50 feeds, gain 50 new friends.
You develop working relationships with the media because you're adding their Twitter feeds. The media follow you because your Breaking News site is, well, a media property.
Local merchants will appreciate, even love having a forum to tweet their daily deals. They will instantly become a part of your network.
Introduce Breaking News as a free advertising / marketing medium to the Chamber of Commerce, and request their participation.
Participate or even start a Tweetup in your city to meet f2f all the Twitterers participating in Breaking News
Offer barter opportunities with Breaking News. Want a hotel to sponsor a Tweetup? Ask them and acknowledge their generosity with a sponsorship badge on Breaking News.
Once you've developed new friends on Twitter, invite them to network on Facebook or LinkedIn and solidify your network.
Consumers will be attracted to Breaking News like a local newspaper, and will see you as a hub for their community.

We've created a simple tutorial to get a Breaking News City site up and running, and I'll be going through this in a special webinar this Thursday at 9:00am PDT. Register through this link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/219107691.

Update: by requests, we added another webinar on Tuesday May 12 9:00am PDT https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/883503707.

Related article: (Slideshow) How to get a Breaking News City site up and running in your city

See our Breaking News City sites:

See variations on Breaking News sites:

How to get a Breaking News City site up and running in your city

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:59:02 -0500

The Best Way to Become the Hub of your Community using Twitter

View more presentations from Pat Kitano.

Breaking News City sites are developed by real estate brokers and agents who understand the importance of online community networking. By providing the community with a way to communicate together, you become the hub of this activity while you build your local network.

We're registering for our next Social Media Marketing workshops starting Friday, May 8 at 10:30pdt / 1:30edt. During these sessions, we help build Breaking News City sites for our clients. Register at http://DomusConsultingGroup.com/101h.

Breaking News City Sites:

(50 more cities are in development working together with our real estate client base)

Building a Hyperlocal Community via Twitter

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:42:00 -0500

BreakingSFNews.com, BreakingLANews.com and BreakingNYCNews.com broadcast what is happening in each city in real time through a survey of local Twitter feeds and contributions from Twitterers who add tweets to the scrolling news feed using a specific #hashtag system.

Providing a Service to your Community by Leveraging your Local Twitter Network

The Breaking News sites are hyperlocal hubs that are easily developed for any community; one example is OCBreakingNews.com. We have developed a four step marketing strategy:

1) Build a Breaking News site using our template.
2) Find and follow your local Twitter community using local Twitter directories including http://localtweeps.com, http://chirpcity.com, http://twitterlocal.net, http://citytweets.net. May 1 is #LocalDay when Tweeters will publish their zip codes, such as #94118. You can use the search.twitter.com application to find your local Twitter network.
3) Invite local Tweeters to check out your Breaking News site and use hashtags to participate.
4) Organize a Tweetup or join an existing one to meet the community. Invite your local chamber of commerce.

Interest?

Join us for a free webinar next Wednesday, April 22 at 10:30pdt/1:30edt and we’ll explain the methodology to get a Breaking News city site up and running. Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/526096234.

More details at Media Transparent: "Instant Time Hyperlocal News"

Social Network Referral System

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:02:21 -0600

We took advice from you and will demonstrate how we combine our Social Media Marketing System with the development of your Referral Network. We're offering a free three week webinar session to get you and your inner circle onto what we're calling the Social Network Referral System. We're particularly interested in working with brokerages to get your agents on board with the social media in a cost efficient (free) way. Please check the slideshow and comment. Thanks!

The Social Network Referral System

View more presentations from Pat Kitano. (tags: domus socialnetworking)

Registration: http://domusconsultinggroup.com/register

How to Make Twitter and Facebook Relevant to your Business

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:38:07 -0600

Social networking is exciting on Active Rain because the community is vibrant with conversation, intimacy and networking. Many Active Rainers join Facebook and Twitter, end up conversing with the same Active Rainers, and wonder "how can I make Facebook relevant to my business development and community networking?".

Simply put, the key is to get your local community of friends and associates to join your networks. You want to get them on Twitter and Facebook but you don't have time to teach them how to use these social media tools to best effect (you may not know yourself ;)

We offer the solution. You may have heard about our ongoing series of Social Media Marketing Webinars previously from Jeff Dowler or Brad Andersohn. We're starting our sixth series next week, and we'll show you how to make the social media relevant and actionable for building your local network, and create a ubiquitous online presence (all without necessarily blogging, btw).

When you register for our Social Media Marketing course through Active Rain, we offer you the opportunity to invite as many of your friends and contacts as you want (locally or nationally) to attend our Social Media Marketing webinar for one month free (a $99 value).

Your contacts must be outside the real estate industry - local politicians, business leaders, small business owners, chambers of commerce members, former and prospective clients - anybody who can benefit from social media marketing for their local business. In four weekly sessions, we will demonstrate step-by-step how to use Twitter and Facebook, and show all of you how to build a massive community network together. This webinar, focused to small business owners, will be separate from the webinar you as a real estate professional will be attending.

We are limiting this opportunity to invite your friends free only to our first 50 registrants. We're offering the 3-month course for $49/month to Active Rain members (half price from $99) and you can attend any or all 12 sessions we offer per month (including the webinar for small business owners if you want) for one low tuition fee. We start next week:

Two time slots for Real Estate:

Mondays from 10:30am to 11:30am PST, starting February 16, through May 16 - weekly
Tuesdays from 9:00am to 10:00am PST, starting February 17, through May 17 - weekly

One time slot for Small Business

Tuesdays from 8:00am to 9:00am PST, starting February 24, through May 24 - weekly (after the first free month, your friends can opt to continue the 3-month course at $49/month)

So check our testimonials, register today and get all your friends on board with you on the social media train! We will explain how your friends can register for their webinar (starting one week later) at our first sessions. Your friends will thank you for the opportunity; the gift of business education is far more valuable than a Starbucks coffee card.

UPDATE: Network Generation is the Next Lead Generation. I'm discussing how building your community social network will draw in your consumer traffic and leads.

10 Steps for Attracting Twitterers You Want to Connect With

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:01:13 -0600

For the most part, real estate professionals don't know exactly how to network within social media applications like Twitter and Facebook. They join and end up saying "What I am doing here?" The answer: "Meet your community".

Twitter makes it easy to meet people you want to meet:

FIND YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY TWITTERERS - Go to Twitterlocal.net and follow Twitterers in your area. Follow those who are influential in your community: business leaders, councilmen, chambers of commerce, employees of big companies in your area.
ACKNOWLEDGE - If you follow somebody on Twitter you would like to develop a relationship with, retweet their good tweets and/or add commentary to them. They will notice.
COMMUNICATE - Once your retweets get their attention, start participating in their conversations.
SHARE INTIMACY - Be on the lookout for matching interests. Sharing arcane references puts you in a special “club”. I like to share the secret that I know jazz and salsa music, and basketball to those who can appreciate it.
MAKE BUSINESS CONTACT - Once you develop a Twitter rapport, make a simple proposition that is not real estate related. Tweet with a request for 5 minutes over the phone for introductions. The proposition is best an idea that you’d like feedback on, or a question that your new contact can answer… not a blunt “Are you looking for a house?"
PREPARE RELATIONSHIP - When you ask for the 5 minutes, also send/tweet a link to your LinkedIn profile to the contact to show you mean business. LinkedIn works like a resume, and your contact may intuit the reason for your show of interest.
DON’T BE PUSHY - Do not create obligations at the beginning of a relationship (a standard social rule) - no asking for retweets, follows, money for causes, or introductions to others. Let your contacts offer them.
BUILD BY ADDING VALUE - Continue offering streams of ideas and links to appropriate, interesting articles to your new contacts. Build the relationship!
STAY SOCIAL - The nice thing about Twitter is that interactions only take minutes, phone calls and emails take more thought and time.
REALLY MEET! - Be sure to meet face-to-face when a conference, Tweet-Up or other neighborhood opportunity exists.

Domus Consulting Group is starting its next Social Media Marketing webinar workshops the week of February 16. Learning to connect through Twitter is only one of the dozens of tips and techniques we teach to make social media an effective and fun way to boost your business by a quantum leap. Ask any of the 300+ Active Rain agents who have attended our courses over the past 5 months.

Managing all those Social Networks while Retaining Community

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:54:17 -0600

I think I'm in the extreme minority about the concept of consistently following or friending strangers in the social networks. It seems most people don't like the idea of embracing strangers until relationships are established. I've always thought it better to accept the invitation of a stranger to connect and then figure out what the connection is instead of blanket rejecting the relationship request (unless of course the request is unsavory).

I've found out it's pretty controversial to state I'll simply follow/friend a stranger if they follow me. Critics are saying only spammers and self promoters (I have one comment invoking the word "Realtor") do this. They say a large following makes it impossible for conversation. In theory, it's true. But frankly, I'm developing more quality relationships from Twitter and Facebook despite having a large following because new opportunities come in from my new networks daily. And of course, many of the ideas and relationships are coming from strangers, who then become acquaintances.

For real estate professionals building a community network, it seems natural to follow strangers who may be interested in watching or getting more information about you. After all, you never know whether there is a professional relationship in the future.

I discuss this at Media Transparent. Any thoughts about this?

Entrepreneurial Real Estate Marketing

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:14:33 -0600

Through our Social Media Marketing Workshops, we've been working with real estate professionals systematically to build their online presence without necessarily blogging. The objective is to leverage the social media tools - blogs, Twitter, Delicious, Friendfeed, Feedfuze - to continuously "broadcast" expertise in their local housing markets, and capture consumer eyeballs who need this real time data to pull the trigger on their transaction.

The next marketing step is to build the websites and social networks that generate traffic to augment online presence. We're pointing to Homescopes as a template for the next generation of independently and cooperatively run breaking news hyperlocal real estate sites.

"Together with Domus Consulting Group, we developed one of the first independent blog networks for hyperlocal real estate information, Homescopes, and launched it in 2007. We're now positioning Homescopes to be the leading breaking news source for the Northern California housing markets, and expect that consumers will be compelled to follow our collective news feeds before they pull the trigger. The best part about the Homescopes experience is the auto-pilot factor; development was easy and once launched, we ignored it and let it distribute our content for us."

"We're now expanding Homescopes to 100 agents, and believe it will become a valuable lead generating online asset in its own right. Anybody can develop a "Homescopes" for their market and reap the benefits of owning your own online marketing resource. This really is the new wave to become a successful real estate agent."

Marian S. Bennett, Realtor

ColdwellBanker

http://www.mariansbennett.com/

(650) 712-2460

We're now working with agents who have been attending our workshops to develop new "Homescopes" in cities across America. The cost and risk are minimal, all it takes is agent networking for a common goal. Brokerages and organizations like the regional CRS chapters have also responded because after all, they are already established Realtor groups.

To help brokerages and groups of agents build these new web properties, we unveiled our new workshop series starting January 16 - Social Media Marketing 301 - the MBA Course. The curriculum and testimonials are here.

Homescopes - Agents Pushing Breaking News of the Local Bay Area Housing Market

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:03:17 -0600

The housing market is at a critical juncture now that the Fed/Treasury is pushing mortgage rates down to as low as 4.50% for the 30 year fixed. Consumers active in the housing market need real time, updated information to analyze the market, just as they would making other investment and stock trading decisions.

Homescopes, one of the first blog networks aggregating the blogs of individual agents in Northern California, is the first to launch a news feed providing real time local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area housing market. The news feed widget, developed by Portalfuze, automatically delivers breaking news from a variety of sources: Homescopes' bloggers, related real estate news mainstream media sources and soon, new listings from IDX feeds and foreclosure databases. In addition, Homescopes' agents will add their real time interpretations on the market via micro-blogging services like Twitter and Friendfeed, and bookmarking services like Delicious, Diigo and Dwellicious.

Homescopes' news feed works because ten agents are automatically distributing their news updates and blog content through the site. Homescopes is expanding across Northern California and adding new agents. It's a perfect avenue for distributing your content (but you do need to know the Social Broadcasting System) Contact Marian Bennett (650) 712-2460 / mb (at) MarianSBennett.com / Twitter for details.

The New Brokerage Website that's not based on a Brokerage

Homescopes is the first of many regional/local real estate newsfeed social networks under development. Our company, Domus Consulting Group, is developing these networks through our web conferenced Social Media Marketing Workshops. We're starting our next series on Friday, December 5 @ 10:30 running over 12 weeks. Jeff Dowler, Jason Crouch and our participants have written about our Workshops. If you're interested in starting or participating in a real estate newsfeed network, please register for our Workshops or contact me.

The New Brokerage Website that is based on an Actual Brokerage

We're also working with a number of brokerages nationwide to implement the newsfeed System (it's free, really!), and coaching their agents on how to use the System through our Workshops above. Agents like the System because it doesn't require blogging and gets real time online traffic. Here are some past articles that describe the Social Broadcasting System:

Real estate brokerage sites and broadcast media
The social media system
How micro-blogging will affect blogging
The new broadcasting real estate website (slideshow)
The new broadcasting brokerage website (text version)
Creating the conversational web (slideshow)
The Social Broadcasting System ( a kind of white paper)

Update: Fidelity Investments has added news feeds to serve their customer base. More about breaking news websites at sister site Media Transparent.

Web 2.0 and Social Media at NAR 2008 / Orlando

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:43:33 -0500

Think of what Matt and Reggie are doing as public videoconferencing... make sure to attend Diamond Dwellings' NAR event!

Via Matt Fagioli:

Earlier today, I had a fun "video call" with Reggie from My Tech Opinion. (he's also now working at Cyberhomes as their social media guru). We were talking about NAR coming up next week in Orlando.

Diamond Dwellings is hosting a panel discussion at 11am Saturday on Web 2.0 and social media. Our session is inside the expo - so you don't have to get a full session pass to attend. All you need is your expo pass.

We're really excited to be hosting such an awesome group of talented RE.net speakers. All the details are at DiamondDwellings.com

Here's my call with Reggie.

Explaining the Senate Bailout Hearings in Pictures

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:08:22 -0500

The Investment Banker

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson

The Politician

Senator Dick Shelby, former Chairman Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

The Economist

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke

The Social Media System

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:01:55 -0500

We’ve just updated our Domus Consulting Group site to clarify one of our initiatives we introduced at BlogWorld:

Domus Consulting Group is the leader in the development of a new social media platform we simply call the “Social Media System“. This system enables companies, organizations and groups to create powerful effective social networks WITHOUT REQUIRING THEIR PARTICIPANTS TO BLOG. Using various popular applications like Twitter and Friendfeed, and bookmarking tools like del.icio.us, our Social Media System facilitates real time news wires. We developed the System because blogging can be challenging, but participating in the various social media is easy and fun.

For example, the System can be easily incorporated into a typical real estate brokerage site. Real estate agents broadcast market news through Twitter and other micro-blogging applications. The effect is that of a local news wire reporting updated Twitter feeds by a corps of agents. One agent may Twitter “this San Francisco 3BR condo just went for $200k over asking… in this market? Click here - http://tinyurllink.com“. Readers will click and subscribe to real time news offered by that agent because it keeps them up to date on the markets they are interested in. More importantly, the Twittering agent develops a following and builds a lead network that will benefit from his/her insights into the market. You can see more details of the System at our slide presentation Website 2.0 - Creating the Conversational Web.

How Social Media can Correct Mass Media's Misaligned Messages

Patrick Kitano (Domus Consulting Group) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:48:31 -0500

On Media Transparent today, I discuss how Mass Media can twist messages based on their soundbite nature - picking a few quotes out of extensive interviews to deliver impact to their target audience. Case in point - Jeff Corbett's interview last week on CNBC about the mortgage industry, and how he can use the social media to reinterpret his position in the aftermath.

Link: How Social Media Corrects Mass Media's Misaligned Messages