Real Estate Tech Tools on Active Rain

What's that tiny icon on my browser tab? - The favicon explained...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:02:55 -0500

If you've got a blog or a website you've probably asked yourself - What is that little icon in the browser tab that looks like a company logo? And how do I get one on my site?

It's called a Favicon and I'm going to attempt to take the mystery out of it right now. And by the way, I'm writing this because I noticed that we forgot to add one to our http://ticorsocialmedia.com microsite.

A favicon is one of those little touches that subconsciously makes an impression on readers when they're perusing the web. A site with a favicon is a bit more official and polished, right? Of course it is!

Google has one...

Twitter has one....

I should have one, too!

Here's the favicon revealed:

The favicon is an image (like a .gif or a .png file) that is named "favicon.ico". You can actually create a .gif and just rename it to "favicon.ico" and it will work great.

It is located in the "root" directory of your website. This is the same location as your home or 'index' page.

A favicon.ico file is traditionally sized at 16 x 16 pixels.

Because it's so tiny, it should be light and crisp and easily identifiable (in my humble opinion).

For those wanting more information, a quick google search that includes the word "favicon.ico" will turn up a ton of resources ranging from favicon generators to how to make one in photoshop, to why you can't use one if you have a free wordpress blog.

When I first got into the web design game, I was just relieved to figure out what the darn thing was called!

Enjoy!

Matt Sweet

Internet Marketing

Ticor Title

Negotiating a short sale is easier with an experienced guide - Bringing our short sale conversation online...

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:47:53 -0500

When it came time for us at Ticor to get the word out that we are well equipped to facilitate short sale transactions, we decided that creating a micro web site was going to be the 'destination point' for our short sale conversation online. We chose this for a few reasons:

We facilitate short sale transactions, but how does Google know that? People doing searches for short sale information are probably not thinking to themselves, "I should google ticor". Although we would like this, It's quite a long shot. They're more likely to be looking for resources on the short sale process or lender requirements, or short sale benefits. And as you can see from the links, we've provided useful information about those things on our site...

Secondly, from a basic search optimization perspective, having a micro site that is focused on one topic creates congruency between our domain name "ticorshortsale.com", our page names ('the short sale process', etc..), and our content. They all discuss various aspects of short sales. Our goal with this is of course to be recognized as a specific resource and local authority on the subject in the eyes of our clients, the public at large, and last but not least our favorite search engines.

Thirdly, when our sales reps are having conversations with clients about the ever changing market and the greater frequency of short sales, they now have an easy place to direct clients for more information. There's no hunting through our corporate hosted site for the info. If you find yourself on ticorshortsale.com there's no question as to what type of content you'll find.

On a technical note, we used wordpress as our platform and I'm very happy about it. More and more people are moving to the blog/site model these days and for good reason. It allowed us a rapid deployment and I think of it as the best of both worlds. The blog content is obiously intended to be fresh, specific and interactive and the 'static' site pages are perfect for content that we want to be persistent and easily found.

There you have it. Two years ago we would have printed out a thousand fliers and passed them out one by one and that would have been totally fine. Now we're printing less and facilitating a venue for education and conversation. I feel good about that!

cheers!

Matt Sweet

Ticor Title

Market Update - Tacoma, WA 98405 - Residential Transaction Study

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:21:33 -0500

For this RTS, we analyized the data on a total of 5741 single family dwellings in the 98405 Zip code in Tacoma, WA. Of these homes, you can see that the total number of sales has gone up from 18 sales in April to 28 Sales during the month of August. The average price per square foot has held steady around $110/square foot with a slight dip in July. The average sale price has also held around the $200,000 range with a dip in July as well. If you look at the average year built of the homes we studied, you'll notice that this neighborhood is 80 years old on average and likely has quite a few opportunities for "fixer homes". With pricing below the $200,000 mark, there is also plenty of opportunity for people purchasing their first home comfortably here.


Residential Transaction Study	9/1/2009
Project description: 98405 Single Family Residential

monthly market

Most recent transaction: 8/24/2009

Market (homes): 5741

month	year	sales	mrkt%	$/sqft	avg price	median
Aug	2009	28	0.5%	$110	$190,938	$197,500
Jul	2009	28	0.5%	$101	$157,714	$156,725
Jun	2009	32	0.6%	$107	$201,964	$200,470
May	2009	16	0.3%	$119	$180,269	$185,001
Apr	2009	18	0.3%	$111	$206,669	$211,000

property characteristics

1 story	3479	w/ bsmt	2,794	platted	4,122
1.5 story	1415	avg bsmt sqft	779	avg lot sqft¹	6,005
2 story	843	w/ garage		unplatted	1,619
3+ story	2	avg garage sqft		avg lot sqft²	6,357
avg % imprvd	54%	avg year built	1934	avg bldg sqft	1,678
avg # beds	3	avg # baths	1

	¹avg lot sqft of all platted properties	²avg lot sqft of all unplatted properties


	The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. © 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

It all started with a tweet - The social media life-cycle

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:13:00 -0500

As I spend time spreading the good news of Ticor Title and Escrow throughout Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Puyallup, and beyond, I still run into people who are looking for evidence that blogging can lead to relationships and business. This naturally has caused me to reflect on the many opportunities, relationships, and surprises that have popped up for me since I have been blogging and participating in various conversations online. Although I have had actual title orders come right out of the blue by way of my blog (I'll tell those stories later), one relationship (with Meri Walker - The virtual Meeting coach) in particular stands out as being a great model to illustrate what I consider to be the life cycle of social media. And it all started with a tweet...

The life cycle can be broken down into four basic parts as follows:

Content attracts conversation
Conversation cultivates trust
Trust strengthens relationship
Relationship translates to business

Let me illustrate with a brief story if you will...

Content attracts conversation
Earlier this year I wrote a blog post about Vyew.com. It's a virtual meeting platform that we have been using for meetings and collaboration across our region at Ticor Title. I simply wrote about how we use it and why I liked it. After blogging I did the usual tweet that said "Just blogged about vyew.com web conferencing site. I'm a big fan. http://tinyurl.com/88uspd". No big deal, right? Except there happened to be a virtual meeting coach that saw my tweet, read the blog, and decided to ask me if I'd be willing to chat. I had no idea who she was but I was willing to have a quick chat with her to find out if this was legitimate or not.

Conversation cultivates trust
So I had a quick chat with Meri via Google Chat. I don't remember exactly what was said, but through our brief exchange, we established enough trust to progress to a phone conversation which in turn cultivated a bit more trust. From there we decided to collaborate in an interview online and feature the results on each other's blogs. That was just the start. And honestly, I wasn't sure if anything would actually come of it. We had merely agreed to a good idea.

Trust strengthens relationship
Over several conversations, I had the opportunity to discover more about Meri's business, history, philosophy, etc. And I also had the opportunity to share with her my experiences collaborating with René Fabre on social media projects, marketing, and research. I should have known it would happen when she asked if René would like to be a part of our interview. Duh! At that moment our conversation got much bigger. Our single interview became a series of four interviews over the span of a couple months covering topics ranging from our Lego Theory of internet marketing, to online profiles, to the Dandelion theory of social media and other colorful analogies.

Relationship translates to business
Just over a week ago René had the opportunity to be the key speaker at several real estate social media-related events across Oregon(a.k.a "Brother Love's Traveling Internet Marketing Salvation Show"). Meri was at one of the events (she lives in OR and to this point we had never met in person). And of course, René took the opportunity to introduce her as our favorite virtual meeting coach - an example of how a friendship and working relationship had grown from a simple tweet.

So we have not merely benefited by collaborating with Meri. She is part of our story. Our connection is evidence that our words are like seeds and our conversations are like gardens.

Enjoy!

Matt Sweet

Ticor Title

A Little Turkish Delight Along the Way - Blue Max Sausage Co. in Puyallup.

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:30:23 -0500

For the past six years, I've spent a lot of time driving all over Pierce County meeting with realtors and lenders to discuss the value that Ticor Title & Escrow brings to every real estate transaction. A lot of that driving has been to and from Puyallup where a lot of the action has been for us. So over the years I have developed a short list of favorite places to stop for lunch or a snack along my route.

There's one in particular that is one of a kind in Pierce County. It's the Blue Max Sausage company. They're located on Canyon Road between River Road and HWY 512.

In my eyes, they're the butcher with the most. I can't remember the first time I stopped in but I can always remember the last because it's usually pretty recent. Are you a fan of 'artisan' beef jerky? How about pepperoni sticks that are a foot long and full of spice and flavor? Have you ever seen a butcher with restaurant style Hawaiian short ribs? The list goes on and on from smoked pork chops to WSU cheese. If you're a fan of quality meats, this place is a wonderland. And if you've never had beef jerky from a butcher, you have no idea how good it can be. And to top it all off, the best thing about Blue Max Sausage is the service. The guys behind the counter are always friendly and willing to chat about their product, the weather, or whatever. It's got a nice hometown vibe.

So if you're in the mood for a hearty change of quisine or want to impress your buddies at the next barbeque, check them out! You won't be dissapointed.

Enjoy!
Matt Sweet
Ticor Title

Your Presence Online is Like a Garden

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:47:30 -0500

Recently, I was at a round table discussion group with a dozen or so realtors. And as we talked about what it means to bring our 'conversation' to the web, the inevitable happened. Someone chimed in with the question, "How much time do I have to spend on all this stuff?" He continued, "I don't have all day to play around online..." This question comes up quite often when someone is introduced to the idea of establishing their presence on the web. It seems overwhelming... It seems like it's a job for geeks... It's going to take over my life...

And for some, a little bit of fear lurks behind this question. We are confronted with the unknown. We must recognize that we have our old habits. We are challenged to do something different in order to get different results. We begin to wonder what activities equate to productivity? And at the heart of the question for a businessperson is, "How is this going to tie to the deal?" That's a logical and reasonable question. I mean, if I'm going to put in some effort, I want to know what kind of results I can expect in return.

So what is my take on this question? First, I believe being present online and having an ongoing conversation has everything to do with community and thus 'the deal'. Secondly, I believe that like everything in life, we reap what we sow.

Like Rene Fabré so aptly puts it, "Conversations are markets... Conversations create community. Communities consist of people participating in conversations." We are in a relationship business. People prefer to do business with people that they know and trust, right? So the big question is how will people find you and trust you except through communities? With the majority of the people searching for real estate online, doesn't it make sense to be present and participating in communities and conversations about real estate there?

Another way to think of it is like this. Let's say there's a very seasoned, skilled, knowledgeable, and personable realtor named Pat that has been doing business successfully in the northwest for 20-years. Pat may be a stellar agent but how does the rest of the world know that? The 200 million people on Facebook would only know that if he's present and engaged in conversation there. Google searchers would only know that if Pat is part of a conversation anywhere else online. After all, Google can't read minds (at least there's no proof of it). Google needs to see strong evidence of who Pat is before it will reward him with a high rank. The evidence will be found when Pat becomes present and engaged online by contributing content that explicitly reflects who he is.

So, in response to the big question above ('how much time do I have to spend on this stuff'), finding the answer requires another question. How big and of what quality do you want your presence to be?

It's helpful to think of your internet presence as if it were your own garden. The content and conversations you have online are like seeds. Some of them will take root, grow and and bear fruit in the form of new relationships, trust, and business. Others will not take to the soil and will be forgotten. But either way, like a garden, your presence online won't necessarily bear fruit overnight. It is a direct reflection of what you have put into it. It takes careful planning, sowing, cultivating, early attempts at success (a.k.a. mistakes), and faith that something is going to grow from it. Because after all, we can prepare, plant, water, and cultivate, but how something happens to grow is a wonderful mystery. Is it not?

Enjoy,
Matt Sweet
Ticor Title

Moonless Monday - Cheers to the First Moon Landing!

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:10:34 -0500

Cheers to the brave explorers who inspired the world by achieving the impossible!

Enjoy,

Matt Sweet

Ticor Title

Market Update: Tacoma, WA 98406

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:49:40 -0500

For This Residential Transaction Study, we looked at a total of 6485 single family dwellings in the 98406 zip code and analyzed the sales trends over the last six months. A glance at the data shows that the number of transactions has increased dramatically and both the average and median prices per month have both generally increased.

The month of June shows the most activity with 32 sales, .5% market turnover, average sale price of $307,702, and a median price of $281, 925.

With forecasters expecting that first time home buyers making up the bulk of the home purchases in the next couple years, it's interesting to note that 36% of the population in this zip code is in their twenties and thirties.


Residential Transaction Study	7/14/2009
Project description: Tacoma, WA 98406

monthly market

Most recent transaction: 6/30/2009

Market (homes): 6485

month	year	sales	mrkt%	$/sqft	avg price	median
Jun	2009	32	0.5%	$137	$307,702	$281,925
May	2009	21	0.3%	$129	$266,167	$269,950
Apr	2009	19	0.3%	$127	$255,766	$245,000
Mar	2009	15	0.2%	$138	$250,270	$249,950
Feb	2009	6	0.1%	$140	$257,633	$232,500

property characteristics

1 story	4393	w/ bsmt	3,562	platted	6,222
1.5 story	1221	avg bsmt sqft	976	avg lot sqft¹	7,037
2 story	868	w/ garage		unplatted	263
3+ story	0	avg garage sqft		avg lot sqft²	11,076
avg % imprvd	53%	avg year built	1945	avg bldg sqft	2,120
avg # beds	3	avg # baths	2

	¹avg lot sqft of all platted properties	²avg lot sqft of all unplatted properties


	The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. © 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

Market Update: Puyallup, WA 98372

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:37:53 -0500

A quick glance at the stats below reveals what has been selling over the last six months in the Puyallup 98372 zip code. The statistical sample below includes 3000 single family residential homes within the 98372 zip code.

The average sales price has remained in the low $200,000 range with the exception of a spike in April. The prices here are well within the typical first-time home-buyer price range.

The estimated payment on a $225,000 home is $1682*.


Residential Transaction Study	7/13/2009
Project description: Puyallup, WA 98372

monthly market

Most recent transaction: 6/23/2009

Market (homes): 3000

month	year	sales	mrkt%	$/sqft	avg price	median
Jun	2009	6	0.2%	$138	$222,325	$228,500
May	2009	8	0.3%	$125	$222,781	$216,750
Apr	2009	7	0.2%	$156	$321,143	$340,000
Mar	2009	7	0.2%	$138	$243,129	$195,000
Feb	2009	3	0.1%	$161	$254,617	$244,950

property characteristics

1 story	1857	w/ bsmt	454	platted	2,060
1.5 story	208	avg bsmt sqft	1,087	avg lot sqft¹	11,731
2 story	931	w/ garage		unplatted	940
3+ story	1	avg garage sqft		avg lot sqft²	31,093
avg % imprvd	49%	avg year built	1968	avg bldg sqft	1,904
avg # beds	3	avg # baths	2

	¹avg lot sqft of all platted properties	²avg lot sqft of all unplatted properties


	The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. © 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

Payment calculation assumes a 5.75% 30-year fixed rate, $10,000 down payment, and other fees. Please consult a mortgage professional for an estimate based on your own financial and purchase information.

Quit Marketing to the Crowd That Already Left The Building

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:47:19 -0500

Thanks to Meri Walker for the kind introduction to our Third Conversation on Internet Marketing for searchers and explorers. Or should I say "thanks for the yelp!"

Matt

Via René Fabre Internet Marketing (Ticor Title Company):

Episode 3: Matt and Rene' talk to The Virtual Meeting Coach, Meri Walker...

excerpt...

In their jobs as the Pacific NW internet marketing team for Ticor Title, Matt Sweet and Rene Fabre, spend a big chunk of their time helping Realtors, bankers, and other folks in the real estate industry understand why the old models of advertising and business communication don’t work anymore… and why the new models do.

As Rene likes to say, young and old alike, people all over the world have become “searchers.” We go online daily now to self-educate and to find what we need.

So, the question is, how can people possibly choose to buy your products or services unless they can easily find your compelling presence online?

Matt jokingly called this third conversation, “I Get By With A Little Yelp From My Friends.”

Take a look and a listen as the three of us talk about ways to use online review sites like Yelp, Amazon and others to help people searching for things they want FIND YOU in the process of their searching...

Read the entire blog post here at: Quit marketing to the crowd that already left the building

More about Meri Walker

The Easiest Way to Share Your Blog With the World - (Your World, That Is)

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:43:07 -0500

What's the easiest way to share your blog with friends and communities? I think I may have found it. It's called 'ShareThis'. (Imagine that.)

What is it? It's a widget that you can add to your blog or website that enables users to share the content of that page with the rest of the world (their world on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc). When a user clicks on the "share this" link on your blog, they are presented with the option of posting a link to their social site of choice to share it with friends. Wow. If you give people a super easy way to share your content, I believe they will be more likely to do so. Wouldn't you agree?

Another way of looking at it is from the authors perspective. As the writer, producer, and promoter of my blog, I take every opportunity to share my content with the people in my networks. The "share this" link makes it easier for me as well. Once I write my blog, I can simply click the "share this" widget to let my friends know about the post. How convenient!

I'm sure there are a myriad of other widgets out there that do the same thing. However, my experience with sharethis.com is that it was so easy to set up, I have already forgotten how I did it (which is the case for most stuff I have set up - but that's another story).

To get the button for your site, sign up for a free account first then go here: http://sharethis.com/publishers/. From there, you'll basically choose what type of button you want and they'll give you a snippet of code that you can add to your site.

Enjoy!
Matt Sweet
Internet Marketing
Ticor Title

Market Update: Tacoma, WA 98404

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:41:55 -0500

The Residential Transaction Study below includes transaction statistics for 7943 single family dwellings within the 98404 zip code including transactions over the last six months to June 30, 2009.

A quick glance at the data reveals that the number of sales per month has gradually increased in the last six months, rising from 18 transactions in February to 36 in June. The average price per square foot however, has held steady while average sale price has fluctuated within the $140,000 - $180,000 range.


Residential Transaction Study	7/10/2009
Project description: Tacoma 98404

monthly market

Most recent transaction: 6/30/2009

Market (homes): 7943

month	year	sales	mrkt%	$/sqft	avg price	median
Jun	2009	36	0.5%	$116	$181,876	$177,125
May	2009	35	0.4%	$111	$159,149	$162,000
Apr	2009	29	0.4%	$118	$170,026	$167,500
Mar	2009	26	0.3%	$116	$149,539	$140,750
Feb	2009	18	0.2%	$116	$175,491	$167,475

property characteristics

1 story	6040	w/ bsmt	1,460	platted	6,180
1.5 story	826	avg bsmt sqft	775	avg lot sqft¹	7,351
2 story	1072	w/ garage		unplatted	1,763
3+ story	2	avg garage sqft		avg lot sqft²	18,573
avg % imprvd	53%	avg year built	1954	avg bldg sqft	1,448
avg # beds	3	avg # baths	1

	¹avg lot sqft of all platted properties	²avg lot sqft of all unplatted properties


	The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. © 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

Residential Real Estate Transaction Study - Gig Harbor, WA 98329

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:48:01 -0500


Residential Transaction Study	6/15/2009
Project description: 98329.SDF

monthly market

Most recent transaction: 5/29/2009

Market (homes): 2970

month	year	sales	mrkt%	$/sqft	avg price	median
Jun	2009
May	2009	10	0.3%	$131	$187,829	$202,050
Apr	2009	9	0.3%	$145	$283,217	$252,000
Mar	2009	5	0.2%	$129	$220,886	$229,000
Feb	2009	3	0.1%	$134	$197,578	$197,735
Jan	2009	4	0.1%	$308	$417,966	$325,000

property characteristics

1 story	2111	w/ bsmt	533	platted	1,340
1.5 story	167	avg bsmt sqft	1,153	avg lot sqft¹	21,812
2 story	686	w/ garage		unplatted	1,630
3+ story	0	avg garage sqft		avg lot sqft²	118,481
avg % imprvd	54%	avg year built	1984	avg bldg sqft	1,901
avg # beds	3	avg # baths	2

	¹avg lot sqft of all platted properties	²avg lot sqft of all unplatted properties


	The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. © 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

Residential Real Estate Transaction Study - Fircrest WA 98466

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:55:47 -0500


Residential Transaction Study	6/15/2009
Project description: Fircrest, WA 98466

monthly market

Most recent transaction: 6/2/2009

Market (homes): 2039

month	year	sales	mrkt%	$/sqft	avg price	median
Jun	2009	2	0.1%	$138	$314,700	$314,700
May	2009	6	0.3%	$95	$285,750	$283,500
Apr	2009	2	0.1%	$134	$269,975	$269,975
Mar	2009	4	0.2%	$141	$234,553	$228,250
Feb	2009	2	0.1%	$132	$249,950	$249,950
Jan	2009	4	0.2%	$135	$359,250	$337,500

property characteristics

1 story	1478	w/ bsmt	978	platted	1,997
1.5 story	179	avg bsmt sqft	1,132	avg lot sqft¹	8,788
2 story	375	w/ garage		unplatted	42
3+ story	7	avg garage sqft		avg lot sqft²	48,372
avg % imprvd	50%	avg year built	1964	avg bldg sqft	2,283
avg # beds	3	avg # baths	2

	¹avg lot sqft of all platted properties	²avg lot sqft of all unplatted properties


	The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. © 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

Back to the Future (I mean Juicer) - Google's Time Machine

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:14:10 -0500

Speaking of Google juice... Now that we're all on twitter and enjoying a glimmer of 'real time' web, Google is talking more about "recency".

What does this mean? Intuitively, most of us probably want the freshest results when we search for something. But what if we want to search for something that is not very recent? What if we want to search for content from five years ago or in December of '08 or within the last 24 hours? Google now offers the ability to slice and dice your search results based on a timeline. This is pretty useful if you want to search for something and compare what the results are based on a specific time frame.

For example, if you're working on asociating your business with specific keywords or a specific search term (i.e. virtual meeting coach, or Renton WA Real Estate), you will be able to see what results appear based on specific windows in time. Thus, you can have a sort of measuring stick for your presence online over time.

The interesting side note on this is that the ability to search based on the last 24 hours means that Google is moving towards "real-time web indexing" which is pretty amazing considering that they have over 1 Trillion pages indexed. (gasp... that's a lot!)

Google put out a brief and informative video on their new features. Check out the Google Search Options Video for more info on how to use it, etc...

Enjoy!
Matt Sweet
Internet Marketing - PacNW
Ticor Title

Add content to your blog via cell phone!

Fri, 15 May 2009 17:52:35 -0500

At Ticor Title in the Northwest, we've been talking with our community about "bringing the conversation to the web" every day for some time now. And every day new free stuff shows up as vehicles for the conversation. Well, Tumblr has taken this quite literally with it's new "call in audio" feature!

Basically, Tumblr's new call in audio thing allows you to automatically post a voice note to your Tumblr site. I tried it out today and it worked perfectly. This would be a great feature for a real estate agent to use for promoting a listing or getting a live audio testimonial from satisfied customers. I suppose you could get as creative as you like with it. (Tumblr is a super simple and free way to blog - here's an explanation of tumblr).

The cool thing with the call in audio feature is that once it's set up, it's as easy as dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail. Tumblr takes care of recording the audio and posting it to your tumblr blog. That's easy! And easy is good.

Here's how to set it up.

Log into your tumblr account
Click on the Goodies link
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and find where it says "call in audio"
Then put in the phone number that you will call in from and hit save.
It was easy enough that I could maintain my philosophy of not reading directions to set it up.

To use it all you have to do is call 1-866-584-6757 and start recording.

I tried it today. Check it out here. Tumblr "call in audio" recording. The echo that you may notice is because my office has a big echo. It's not a reflection of tumblr's recording quality.

Enjoy!
Matt Sweet
Ticor Title - IT Marketing / Technology Integration

When they Google your name - how://will_they_find_you?

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:16:09 -0500

When I was in high school, I wanted to be the next Jimi Hendrix. I was in a band, I spent all my money on a really good guitar, and my big brother Greg was already on a record label. I had a unique name that would make for a good rock star image (so I thought). Then it happened. There was another Matthew Sweet out there and he had a big hit on the radio. I was annoyed. My name was now taken. I would have to go by another name if I were to become big....

Fast forward fifteen years to the web 2.0 world--- I'm not a big rock star (I still play guitar and sing, however) but I can have a big footprint on the web. And one of my specific goals recently was to be able to Google my name and have my website come up number one in the results. Well this week it happened! If you google "matt sweet" my website comes in at number one. I beat the other Matthew Sweet at the Google game (for today).

How did I do it?

Honestly, I don't know what is in Google's black box. But here's what I believe worked in my favor:

I registered a domain name with my name in it - matthewdsweet.com. For this site I used a free tumblr page that I could hook up to my blogs and twitter.
I put new content on the site regularly and when appropriate, I will put a link to it in my facebook status or twitter.
I link to my matthewdsweet.com site via my retaggr card, which is all over the place.
I put my site URL in every social media profile that it makes sense to put it in.
I use my name in the web address for my profile on sites like issuu.com. http://issuu.com/mattsweet or Lunch.com http://www.lunch.com/mattsweet

Potential clients may Google your name. How will they find you?

Thanks to Brad Andersohn's "Google me" business card post for inspiring me to write this.

Matt Sweet
Ticor Title

p.s. My Grandma Sweet called me up one day when I was in high school and told me how proud she was of me. She had bought my album. It was the other Matthew Sweet... LOL

How to add your Retaggr signature to Outlook

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:12:05 -0500

More and more of us at Ticor Title & Escrow in the Seattle area are using Retaggr cards. And one of the most common questions I am asked is how to add a retaggr signature to Outlook. That's what we'll be talking about today. Here's a previous blog post regarding Retaggr

But first, why would you want to add your retaggr card to Outlook? Because, if you're like me and send out 20-50 emails every day, twenty days a month, you have a tremendous opportunity to politely remind your email recipients of your brand, your contact info, and your online presence. Maybe they don't already know you are a member of ActiveRain. LinkedIn, Facebook, etc... This is an opportunity for them to get the full story of your online presence and 'conversation' so to speak.

Here's what my retaggr email signature looks like (you can click on it to get to my stuff):

Here's how to add the Retaggr signature to Outlook:

Assumptions:

I'm assuming that you have a retaggr card already set up (if not, here's where to sign up)
I'm assuming that you have Outlook 2003
I'm assuming that you are comfortable with copying and pasting

Here's a link to a video of the steps listed below: Add Retaggr to Outlook 2003 (this will jump out to our corporate site because the video is large - But trust me it's helpful)

Step 1. Log in to your retaggr.com account

Step 2. Find on the top menu where it says "Profile Tools". Hover over that and choose the option for "Email Signature"

Step 3. Look to the right where you'll see a preview of your email signature.(see picture below) Step 4. Drag your mouse over the signature to highlight the whole thing.

Step 5. Right click the highlighted area and choose "copy"

Step 6. Go to Outlook and choose "Tools > Options > Mail format" (see image below)

Step 7. Click the "signatures" button

Step 8. In the window that pops up, hit the "new" button to create a new signature

Step 9. Enter a name for your new signature and hit "next"

Step 10. Right-click in the window that pops up and choose "paste" to paste your retaggr signature in the window.

Step 11. Hit 'Finish' then OK.

Step 12. Choose your new signature for new emails, replies, and forwards (see picture) - Then hit "OK".

That's it! If you try it out, send me a test email at sweetmd@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

Matt Sweet

Ticor Title Northwest

What free technologies boost your business today? - Follow the free!

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:05:14 -0500

I'm not exactly sure where I heard it first, but somebody said, "If you want to know where the future is, follow the free". As I think about it, we've been following the free for a while now...

At Ticor, we provide title insurance and escrow services. That's what we do. But how we communicate with our clients and with each other continues to evolve more and more rapidly every day. A few years ago here in the Northwest we created the Dashboard, a killer system that facilitates a very structured and consistent means of communication with our clients. That was a fresh solution for our industry at the time. Now it's the norm. Now it's simply expected that we would provide the status of a transaction online. Where is the Ticor Dashboard, you ask? It's online. It's in the 'cloud'. And it's free.

A few years ago, at the dawn of the new millennium, we used the phone and email (and sometimes pen and paper) to correspond with each other. Five years ago we got blackberries to go along with our cell phones so we could use email on the road. That was cutting edge at the time. Now look at the recent explosion of ways in which we communicate. We're on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Yammer, LinkedIn, and Active Rain. I use these venues as much or more than I do email. And for most of us, this all just popped up in the last year. And where are all these communication platforms? They're online. They're in the 'cloud'. And they're free.

A year ago when we planned a project, we would schedule a meeting around a table in a conference room in some central location, get our notepads out, and brainstorm ways of taking the next hill. We still do that. But now we have the option of free web conferencing via Vyew.com, working on shared documents online via Google Docs, and hashing out ideas on a mind map at mindmeister.com. It's so much more efficient. We could potentially be at other ends of the globe and still get our work done together. And where are all these collaborative tools? They're online. They're in the 'cloud'. And yes. they're free.

How about you? Do you find that you're integrating more and more free technology into your work life these days? If so, please chime in. I'd like to hear what it is.

Matt Sweet
Ticor Title

For more background on the concept of "follow the free" check out this excerpt from Kevin Kelly's book, "New Rules For The New Economy"

One more reason to love Gig Harbor, WA

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:42:32 -0500

I live Just outside of Gig Harbor perched on a hill above the Burley Lagoon in Wauna/Purdy and I love it. I love the smell of the fresh salt water air. I love being able to look out my window to see if the tide is in or out. I love the sea-level drive along the Purdy Spit in the morning that exclaims the weather conditions, whatever they may be that day...

And as of this last weekend, I love one more thing about Purdy - The guy on the corner selling fresh seafood. I've seen him there for a while now but never stopped to look until last Saturday. I'm not sure why, but something compelled me to check it out. I'm glad I did because now I feel like I have the inside scoop on fresh seafood. I "know a guy" as they would say. And his name is Steve.

Steve happily told me what he had on hand. And when he got to the part about live Puget Sound dungeness crab, I was sold. We walked over to the big tanks and picked out a feisty two and a half pounder. "I've never cooked a live crab before", I confessed. Not a problem. He told me what to do. I trusted him and did it. It tasted awesome.

So why am I writing about this? It's because I appreciate the local guy. I appreciate the hard work that he has put in to succeed as a small business person in these times. I appreciate the niche that he has found. And most of all I appreciate his quality product and the great service that he provides that adds a little extra sparkle to the Gig Harbor lifestyle.

Here's the scoop:

Wink's Seafood
253-225-3730
Located Just north of the Bridgeway Market at the Purdy Spit

Think Globally, Tweet Locally - Finding a local audience on twitter

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:57:14 -0500

Tweetness in Tacoma
Let's pretend for a moment that I'm a well established Real Estate agent in Tacoma, WA. I have three listings under $350k and I have a twitter account. How would I leverage twitter to attract web traffic to my listings?

Here's how I would do it.

Appearance
First I would make sure that my twitter account reflects my brand in word and deed. I would add my ubiquitous profile photo (the same one that I use for my retaggr card, fast company profile, etc...), and a crisp background image. And most importantly, I would be sure to add a link to my main website and add a good bio to my profile. Piece of cake. For photos that need cropping or touching up, I'd use picnick.com. For really cool stock photos, I would check out istockphoto.com.

Think global, Tweet Local
If I wanted to engage with an audience of local tweeple in Tacoma, I would use the twitter search feature to find people who have tweeted about Tacoma. Here's an example of a search for tweets that include the word "Tacoma". How cool is that? Now that I know who is talking about my town of choice, I can check them out and decide if I want to follow them. Chances are, they will follow me back if I am tweeting about meaningful, interesting, and engaging things. And once we're following each other, there's an even greater opportunity to engage in a conversation about our common interest.

If you're looking for more ways to find locals, try using the twitter search for unique points of interest - i.e. parks, local churches, unique local restaurants, you get the idea...

The Tasty Tweet
Now that I have a local audience that I'm engaging with, I can take the opportunity to salt my tweets tastefully with information that relates to my listings. Maybe I have a blog with information about the amenities or restaurants in the North end of Tacoma (near one of my listings). I could tweet a link to that. Maybe there's a price reduction on one of my listings. Maybe there's an open house coming up. Or, maybe I've taken some interesting video footage of the neighborhood near my listing... If it's interesting, engaging, or useful for my audience, I'll put a link to it in my tweets.

Just like sowing and reaping, if you put good stuff out to the right audience on twitter, you'll see opportunity grow!

Enjoy!

Matt Sweet
Ticor IT Marketing

My pet "Liger" named Tumblr - the tumblog demystified

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:55:52 -0600

I have a new favorite toy online and it's called Tumblr. Why is it my favorite? Because it's free, flexible, easy, I can put whatever content I want on it, and it connects to my twitter account.

If you're wondering what tumblr is, here's a quick primer: Tumblr from my perspective nicely bridges the gap between a full-on blog and twitter because it is well suited for quick, multi-media posts. Actually, it's a lot like a blog but with Twitter-like qualities. Or it's like twitter but in 3D. It's a "Liger" of sorts.

Here's my tumblr site so you can see what I mean - Matt Sweet.

Here's what makes Tumblr fun to use. First off, I was able to sign up and have a tumblelog up in about two minutes without reading any instructions or help files. An easy signup is a must for me. Secondly, I can choose my own "skin" or style sheet for my tumblr page. There are stock styles that are very easy to pick through. However, unlike twitter, Tumblr allows the more adroit user to choose a "custom HTML theme". This is a killer feature but one that should be wielded with care as it can be very powerful. Here's what I did. I did a search for tumblr themes and found one that I liked. In a few minutes, I was able to copy the html code for the theme and paste it right into my tumblr site. Very cool. From there, I can edit the style and appearance of the page to suit my fancy (via CSS edits in the code that I copied and pasted). So I added a custom background and a description tag for the header part of my page. No problem. But wait, it gets better...

Tumblr allows you to use Google Analytics to track the traffic on your site. And they make that easy too. Just paste your analytics code in the "Description" field where you update your tumblr settings. Here's a link to a previous post regarding how we used Analytics to improve our corporate site. My final tweak included adding a Disqus feedback form to the site. This was a little tricky, but the instructions that Disqus provides are understandable and easy to follow (Yes, I read the instructions but there were only 3 or four steps). What does the feedback form do? It enables users to make comments about the posts that I put on the site, making tumblr a bit more interactive and blog-like.

The cherry on top with tumblr is that it ties in to my twitter account. What does this mean? It means that when I post something new to my tumblr page, it will send out a tweet to my twitter friends by default. This tweet will indicate what type of post it is (photo, audio, video, text, or quote), and include a link back to my tumblr site. Very cool! What a great and easy way to drive traffic to my site.

I almost forgot. there's one more cherry on top. Tumblr let's you use your own domain name if you like. Now that's useful stuff! Imagine using tumblr as a site for a high end Real Estate listing. Imagine using it for a micro-local neighborhood blog. Imagine sharing your art with the world.

Enjoy!
Matt Sweet
Ticor Title
IT Marketing

Traffic drives Twitter content for the WSDOT!

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:31:05 -0600

I discovered a new nugget of value on Twitter today and wanted to share. The WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) is using twitter to tweet out traffic and transportation info for our state. This is awesome! I feel proud of my state for leveraging twitter because it's so efficient and immediate for quick bits of information such as traffic news and alerts.

What if the state tried to build a system from scratch that sent out traffic info to 2500+ people's cell phones or PDAs? It's likely that it would be cumbersome, take years to develop, and cost gobs of money to promote. Instead, they simply tweet the latest info for all those who have ears to hear it via twitter. Way to go Evergreen State for leveraging this existing and free technology!

Check out the WSDOT Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/wsdot

If you're wondering what the heck twitter is, here's a fun (and brief) little video by Commoncraft that should clear things up for you.

Gasoline and Housing stats - the wild ride of 2008

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:08:03 -0600

2008 was a wild and scary ride for most of us. And most of us spent a lot of time thinking and talking about the housing market and the burdensome cost of transportation. Now that we're done with our presidential election and one month into the new year, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back specifically at the stats for Gasoline and Housing for the beautiful city of Tacoma, WA.

Draw whatever conclusions you will from the data. I personally think the data raises more questions than answers. Is there a coorelation between these two graphs? Will lower gas prices boost confidence? Was the election a major influence on both?

For Gas info, I went to www.gasbuddy.com and created my own chart for Tacoma.

As for housing information for Tacoma, WA, I checked out Cyberhomes.com to find out what the overall trend was for prices and volume:

The Google Made Me Do It! - Why we updated our home page.

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:16:26 -0600

When the time came for us to rethink and revamp the home page for the Ticor Title & Escrow Northwest website, we brushed up on our minimalist aesthetic sensibilities and went straight to Google analyitics. Why? We've been tracking the pageviews on our site for many moons now via Google analytics and there are more little nuggets of info in there about our users' preferences and behavior than you can shake a stick at. This made it really easy to determine what to keep on the home page and what to toss out.

What did we specifically look at? Well Google has a nice overlay feature that shows you your site with an overlay of where people click (and how many times they click). In our case, we noticed that people clicked on our link to the Ticor Dashboard quite a bit. On the contrary, the overlay also showed us that there were several icons taking up space on the left that weren't getting the clicks that we had originally thoght they might. So, they're gone now. No need to waste space with them. And no need to bother our users with them if they don't click them anyways.

Another simple yet great analytics metric we looked at when revising our page was the top content section (the pages that specifically get viewed the most). We took those top pages and put direct links to them in the upper left hand corner of the page. When you think about it, there's no sense in making it hard for our clients to get to where they're going or distracting them in the process. They're on our site for a purpose and we just made it easier for them. Let's face it. We're a title and escrow company. Our clients are not on our site to kill time. They need to place orders, request customer service, find research tools and marketing solutions, and move on. Is the new look a winner? Time (and google analytics) will tell!

How do you get google analytics? find out here

Enjoy!
Matt Sweet
IT Marketing
Ticor Title