I had the opportunity to present classes at the IBA (Independent Broker's Association) Educational Conference and Trade Show a few days ago. It was one of the rare, perfectly sunny days in Seattle: the sky was blue, the water sparkled, and it was almost 70 degrees.  It might have been difficult to be in class all day, except the classes were held on one of the Argosy Cruise Ships. It was so much fun! There was a large crowd. They had the opportunity to hear my friend, Larry Christesen teach: Core Curriculum and the New Transition class or me teach: Generate New Leads Now- Painless Prospecting and RE.NET: Social Networks Bring You Business.

One of the reasons I wanted to blog about this particular event, besides the fact that is was so well done, was that there were quite a few  tech-savvy agents in my classes. They shared some web sites and tools that they are using to generate business:

Cevado.com - The representatives from Cervado were at the trade show providing a demo of their product. I checked them out after several agents and Doug Davis (Broker-Hallmark Realty) raved about their website. Cervado is  a web site that has a direct feed from the MLS and provides lead generation, web design and hosting, SEO, and IDX MLS searches. Many good websites have most of these features. Their competitive edge, in my opinion, was that they provide an automated Video syndication service that includes YouTube videos with social media integration to Facebook and Twitter. It was extremely impressive AND automated!

Onlywire.com -We were discussing tools to help you syndicate your content . One of the agents mentioned that she uses Onlywire because it is so simple and efficient. According their website: Onlywire syndicates your content to millions of readers with one button. Onlywire syndicates your content and articles to all of the top social networking sites.

Bringtheblog.com - a company that writes blogs for you. According to their website: Bring the Blog reduces the blogging time burden by writing meaningful, easy-to-read content and publishing it directly to your WordPress and/or Blogger blog every business day. The agent mentioned that this was a very good way for her to start, and she stays consistent.

Foursquare.com -a site that lets people know where you are. The agent went to FourSquare and updated his friends that he was in my class.  According to the FourSquare Wiki: Foursquare is a web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded for "checking in" at venues. Users can choose to have their Twitter and/or their Facebook accounts updated when they check in. In version 1.3 of their iPhone application, Foursquare enabled push-notification of friend updates, which they call "Pings."

Tweetdeck.com -According to their website: Tweetdeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what's happening and connecting you to your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and more. Cary Porter (Owner/Broker) of the Cascade Team mentioned that Tweetdeck is an excellent way to reverse prospect. You use it to find people who are discussing an interest in buying or selling real estate in a given location and send them a tweet.

Thanks for a great day and thanks for so generously sharing with your peers what's working for you!