RainCamp: More Social, Less Media

 

Registration now open for RainCamp: More Social, Less Media

When: April 19th 9:00am to 12:30pm Pacific Time (12:00pm to 3:30 Eastern Time)
Where: Online, join us from your office, couch or even your bed
How much: Free (thanks to our sponsors)
What: Learning to use Social Media tools to increase your business
Who: A great lineup of speakers, check them out below

Social media is a buzz word for 2012. It was a buzz word in 2011. But how does it actually impact your business? How do you use social media to create more value for your existing clients and to potentially create new connections for your business? What Pinterest, the new emerging star in the social media sky? Do you really need to be concered with Google+?

We'll take a look at these questions and give you some solid answers and applications of how to use social media in your business to impact your bottom line. Let's figure out how to capitalize on the social part of social media and stop thinking about it as another media opportunity to cram our marketing down someone's throat (not that there's not a place for that approach in your marketing tool bag......different strokes for different folks)

We are excited to have these guys joining us:

 

Scott Stratten, president of Un-Marketing

Becoming a Trusted Expert using Social Media

Are you familiar with Scott? He was recently named one of the five most influential social media personalities by Forbes.com and he's created viral videos for some of his clients that have been viewed over 60 million times. His twitter ramblings go out to over 119,000 people every day. If you're not familiar with Scott, take ten minutes to check out his blog, his twitter feed, or even some videos of him presenting his thoughts on Social Media. This guy gets it. He understands how companies and small businesses can utilize social media to make real connections for their business.

As his bio states: "He is an expert in Viral, Social, and Authentic Marketing which he calls Un-Marketing. It’s all about positioning yourself as a trusted expert in front of your target market, so when they have the need, they choose you." (Did he write that stuff about himself? Or have someone else write it? I always wonder when I see someone's bio......I'll have to ask him during RainCamp.) I'm super excited that he will be joining us to talk about some things real estate agents can do to to position yourself as a trusted expert in front of your target market.

**Warning: You may spend more than 10 minutes if you take the time to check those links

(All the awesomeness in his bio, combined with $5, will get him a cup of coffee anywhere in the world. I stole that from his bio page. But your ability to absorb some of the things that he's learned over the years will be way more valuable than your morning caffeine intake. And it's a webinar, so you can watch from home and get your coffee for cheaper than $5.)

 

Ben Kinney, REALTOR® with Keller Williams in Bellingham WA

Between 8 and 13 Practical Applications of Social Media to Increase Your Leads

If you're not familiar with Ben, he is a mega producing agent  whose team did over 530 transactions in 2011. He's also the founder of IMSD, the Internet Marketing Specialist Designation, a program where he shares his entire business, the same things he's doing that lead to his team having over 530 transactions last year. The reason I love having Ben at RainCamps is because he is a practioner who is using the advice he is going to share with you to generate more leads for his business. Ben and I have been kicking a title for his presentation back and forth and it's going to be somewhere between 8 and 13 ways to use Social Media to generate leads.

If he's feeling particularly generous, it could be more than 13........and those of you that have followed Ben know that he's more than willing to share good ideas that are working in his business. He'll even share them with his competitors because it forces him to come up with more and better ideas.

We want you to walk away from RainCamp with actionable items that you can start to work on right away. No one is better at sharing actionable items that lead to more business than Ben is. He shares his ideas all the time on the success principles group (you have to ask to join the group once you land there in the top right) that he created on Facebook that now has over 3800 members sharing, getting and giving advice.

 

Chris Smith, Chief Evangelist for Inman News

Pinterest - Because Pretty Pictures and Real Estate Go Hand in Hand

Of course you're familiar with Chris. He's was the brain behind the wildly popular TechSavvyAgent.com blog before coming over to lead the Inman Next Community for Inman News. In some ways, he's probably a competitor to ActiveRain, but we don't care. We want to bring you great minds to help you navigate the social media landscape and he's S.M.A.R.T! Smart. A thought leader in every sense of the word for using social media in real estate. He's also passionate about helping real estate agents understand and use some of the technologies that are emerging at break neck speeds. Every day, it seems, there is another app, website, social media tool or something that you hear you should use in your business. The latest one is Pinterest.

You've surely heard of Pinterest. It's hard to have missed it the last few months as it exploded on the social media scene as a way for people to collect and share images from around the web that they enjoy. But as with all the shiny new objects we encounter, we have to figure out if these things have practical applications for our business.

Chris will be taking drilling down and focusing on how Pinterest can be more than just a collection of great images. How can you utilize this rapidly emerging medium to market your business? How can you make sure you're not just another dolt out there collecting friends for an as of yet undecided purpose? Chris will have you pinning for the right reasons in no time.

 

And me, Bob Stewart, Chief Evangelist for ActiveRain

I'll Let You Decide, Facebook Fan Pages or Google+

I'll be the first to admit that Google+ is something I ignored when it launched. I knew it was there, but I wasn't diving in until I knew it was going to be around for a while. But Google has been doing some interesting stuff with Google+ and it's integration with their search algorithm. Can you really afford to ignore Google+ any longer if there's a chance it could impact the search results of the people you're connected with? I don't think it's an option anymore and we're going to talk about why, as well as what can you do to make sure you're keeping the 800lb. Google beast happy as you navigate the social media highway.

(I use that picture of me and my wife because she makes me look so much better than I actually do.......)

.............or we won't talk about that at all. Maybe we'll talk about Facebook fan pages and some of the best ways that agents are connecting with people that live in their market. I'm sure many of you have a fan page for your business, but have you created any fan pages that are actually worth following and that serve a need for anyone in your community? We'd all love to think that our business is worth people following......but most of the time, it's not. Very few people of your Facebook friends care you sold a house last week, or that you have a new listing, or really about much of anything as it relates directly to you (sorry to burst your bubble, although your buddies may like to know you sold a house this week so they can collect on that bet you lost). So are there other avenues you can take that are worth connecting with? I think there are, and there are some agents out there doing a great job of connecting with their fans to bring them value, and allowing them the chance to use social media to market

Would you rather learn about Google+ or Facebook Fan Pages? You tell us what I'm going to present at RainCamp.......

 

 

A special thank you to all of our sponsors that allow us to bring this to you for free!