I must admit, while I had been hearing about REbar Camps in Pasadena, San Francisco etc. I really had no idea what to expect when I arrived at 7:30am to help greet the attendees at the first Charlotte NC REbar Camp. Here is what I learned:
The Program:
At about 9:00am we assembled in the main room to plan the first half of our day. Organizer Chad Huck explained a few details and then asked for potential topics for our morning break-out groups. After everyone had had their chance to suggest a topic, the sheets of paper with the topic were posted and we all went around making a hash-mark on the topics we would be interested in attending. The results were tallied and the sessions and locations were determined by the number of votes. We had three breakout sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon. The leaders of each session were not predetermined and they encouraged group participation. The only problem I found I had was that there were several topics that were on at the same time that I wanted to sit in on so I had to give up a few.
Random things I learned in the sessions:
Data
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How to use our local housing market data on blogs and in marketing
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Include market reports in the listing brochure box in front of the home
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"I sold this home in _ weeks...ask me how!
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Dedicate a blog just for market statistics; one for each community we serve
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Email market reports to clients directly
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I'm a data geek! ( I won a t-shirt from Altos Research to prove it:)
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Google owns YouTube (Yes, I didn't know this!)
Videos:
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Wellcomemat.com is a favorite of many, Zipvo.com is another.
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Make "chapters" or break up video tours of a home so that the client doesn't have to sit through a long video just to see the garage or kitchen.
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Benefits of video: Help sell the property, Help promote the agent and SEO
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How to video tips: Don't walk through a home...use a stabilizer and tripod. Use a wide-angle lens adapter, use "Windows Movie Maker Software" and create two tracts, first video and then audio. Use a microphone to do audio narrations voice over. Use Soft Disolve to edit. Practice!
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Post EVERYWHERE...there are at least 12 sites including Yahoo, YouTube,Wellcomemat, Viddler, Tubemogul, Flickr groups (neighborhoods etc.), Flickr Pro
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3-step process: Edit video, write and make voiceover and add audio/music
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Qik.com: phone live video and embed on website
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Magutoo.com: Panorama shots
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Get music for background: Goggle "Royalty Free Music"....suggested piano based or guitar
Twitter:
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Helpful programs: Tweetgrid, Tweetdeck, Uber Twitter, Twilert, Tweetie
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Use one or more of these programs to organize your tweets into groups and keep this window open all day long so that you can watch for interesting conversations
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Who to follow?: Local businesses, people who are following these local businesses, local people, writers, topics of interest to you,
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Start a conversation, don't do hard sell as no one will follow you or care, just like blogging
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Great example: One agent goes to Starbucks the same time every day and tweets about his "Character of the Day".
Marketing/the customer:
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Jason Silverstein at the Charlotte Observer...@sleuth, observerinteractive.com
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Use unique URLs to track results of an ad
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Match your goals to the right audience
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Target people who are looking for change
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Zipcodes/demographics/behavior
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Facebook ad locations determined by demographics
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Google Profile
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ENGAGE PEOPLE when using social media. Join conversations, send personalized video birthday messages, send private video messages, don't just tell people what you are doing,
My 2 cents:
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When Wayne Sutton tweets, people listen!!!! (Renowned social media expert walked into our session and everyone went oooohhhhhh!)
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Jeff Turner likes to sit back and observe until a topic gets interesting and then he offers amazing insights into social media!
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Debe Maxwell is much taller in person...did I mention that I am only 5'2"?
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Chad Huck and his team worked their tails off to put this together.
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There are 10,000 members of the Charlotte MLS and about 200-300 people attended and of those, many were new to blogging and some were from as far away as Florida. Blogging 101 had the largest attendance of any class!
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REALTORS don't get up early...when we started at 9am the room was about half full...in a few hours it was packed!
Leigh Brown and Downtown Dan had plenty of energy early in the morning!
Susie Blackmon carried her huge camera around with her everywhere. I hope she shares some photos with us! It was great fun meeting her.
ActiveRain and Altos Research sent the big guns:) Jeff was very quiet but Mike shared a lot about "data".
It was a great day and I expect next year to be even bigger and better because I know Chad is already working on it!
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