It's depressing how Real Estate agents and professionals around here (New England) know so little about the importance of social media. It was obvious today after we went door to door promoting our class on Twitter & Facebook to offices, owner brokers, and managers that something is clearly missing. I went to over 15 offices in the Andover, North Andover, MA area speaking to agents, giving hand outs, and even sent out over 500 e-mails to Realtors.

One office which has over 70 agents said to me "they have a good handle on their social media sites". What does that mean? I know for a FACT not one of them are using Twitter and the ones that are on Facebook are clearly not using it how it should be used. Just because you have a username and profile doesn't mean you're using social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ActiveRain, Zipvo, Flickr)!

The small minority that are, I congratulate you! Good work, I'm sure it is paying off! The days of putting an ad in the newspapers, magazines, direct mail, billboards, park benches, buses, and radio are GONE! Does your local paper have to go out of business for you to realize that? Over 85% of search starts on-line, doesn't that mean anything?

Is it only about CE Credits? (we know that answer is YES) So, what is wrong with that picture? What does CBR,CIPS,CRB,CRS,e-Pro,GRI,PMN,RECS,SRES mean to someone searching for Real Estate on-line anyways?

More details available at ZIPVO.com

More details available at ZIPVO.com.

RE BarCamp is coming to Boston

RE Bar Camp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service.

It enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets.

These tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.

Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends.

RE BarCamp is a One-Day event where passionate real estate industry experts come together to share their knowledge on a peer to peer basis. Sessions evolve based on whatever topic one wants to share and whoever wants to learn.

Upcoming Barcamps

April 2 - Los Angeles | April 23 - Portland | April 23 - Phoenix | May 22 - Denver | Date TBA - Boston

Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley's class on social media presented by ZIPVO / James Shiner and Greg Afarian. 1st session is about Facebook.

Learn how to create an account on Facbook, add friends, send messages, update your status, upload pictures / video, add a link, join groups, creating pages, and lots more. 

Let me know if you have any questions, Thanks Greg

A few months ago my PC died and I bought a MacBook. Not only is the Mac going to improve your productivity but, it will make life a lot easier.

Getting over the learning curve isn't too bad, like anything else it takes a few weeks to get use to but, once you do you'll never look back.

Please feel free to ask any questions or comments you may have. If your business depends on your computer then, you have to ask yourself an important question. "Am I serious about my business NOT to invest in something that will help me"?

This is a brief video showing why the Mac is such a great computer.

Anyone thinking of buying a new computer should seriously consider buying a Mac.

More details available at ZIPVO.com.

Choosing your weapons to go to battle / war can be an important decision whether you survive or not.  The same compariosn can be made with the weapons you have while on the streets and in the trenches trying to generate business.

Tools and equipment are not a luxury when it comes to showing customers your serious about what your going to do to help them get their offer accepted / house sold.

To beat your competitors these ideas must be taken seriously other wise you'll just be a casualty of war.

More details available at ZIPVO.com.

There was once a popular saying in this country in the mid 60's "As GM Goes, So Does the Nation". Well, that saying is no longer valid and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what turns the economy today. The current housing and credit crisis has "crippled" the global economy. It is no surprise to me that this incredible amount of greed and excess has all but destroyed any economic growth for the foreseeable future.

With that said, today the Senate proposed a $789 BILLION stimulus (spending) package that was very disappointing. The housing industry / new homeowners were not taken into consideration with this package.

"Home buyers who hoped for a $15,000 tax credit to buy a new home, as promised by the Senate, will be disappointed. A proposed $35 billion credit to support home sales was jettisoned in favor of a more modest $2 billion to $3 billion provision. The proposal would eliminate the repayment requirement in an existing tax credit for first-time home buyers, and raise the credit to $8,000 from $7,500. Congressional aides cautioned Wednesday that the credit's size was still subject to negotiation." - WSJ.com  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123436825805373367.html

What a joke! Is it me, or do all of these politicians (ALL of them) not understand that the housing market controls everything today? Buying a home affects a number of people. Whether it's the REALTOR®, bank, painter, plumber, construction company, Home Depot, Sears, Best Buy, etc, it all begins and ends with the housing industry.

Today was a great example that politicians are indeed out of touch with reality. I was actually starting to believe that if they pasted a tax credit for a new home and perhaps created this other bill to offer lower interest rates on 30 year fixed mortgages that this could be the "silver bullet" that lead us out of this painful problem we have. Creating temporary jobs for infrastructure issues and giving money to failing companies is not going to create the type of meaningful jobs that our country is in dire need of. It's like fighting a fire with a garden hose.

The way out of this mess is to create jobs by lowering taxes on business and individuals and to cut excess spending. Innovation and productivity is what creates low unemployment and low inflation. We are a country of innovators & entrepreneurs, the GREATEST country in the world! The industrial revolution is over, but innovation is alive and strong which continues in the United States. Our Government needs to realize that you can't tax or spend your way into prosperity. The way out is to allow businesses to help out by creating jobs.

Bring back the pride of home ownership, "The American Dream" that has been tarnished. Without this, we are clearly heading in the wrong direction. That's why I believe "As the Housing Market Goes, So Does the Economy"!

Going down to Carolyn Chodat's office today, Classic Properties, in Medway, MA, speaking about video and social media.

@ZipvoGreg talks alittle more about embracing social media and a post by @Ines wrote for AgentGenius.com about the "F" word (fear).

http://agentgenius.com/?p=9933

Interview with Patrick Harding a Realtor in Andover about a success story with using social media and Facebook.

Enjoy, Greg

(Image Thanks to Bernice Ross)

Embracing social media is a must in today's Real Estate Market. These free and effective tools will help you be found in search and improve your productivity. There are many effective and free tools like activerain.com  www.twitter.com Facebook.com ZIPVO.com and other sites will help a Real Estate professional in building their social media presence.

Since 85% of all intitial search starts online any REALTOR® that doesn't embrace this technology will see that traditional print media is out, and this new media is in. The Internet and social media revolution is here to stay. Embracing this technology is a must and Agents that don't change will be left behind.

More details available at ZIPVO.com.