Home : Blogs : Suzi Gravenstuk, REALTOR®, Independent Broker : THE MS Gulf Coast Welcomes You!

WOW! Pay Attention:-)|Active Rain Discovery

A Simply Suzi Public Note (No Photos, no links, no referrals, no, no, no--just a message worth reading:-) IMHO)

If you don't know everything about Active Rain and using Localism to your advantage--this could blow your mind.

A few blogs back some of us were discussing how we meet the public using Localism photos to break the ice.

When getting permission to include folks in a shot, I offer to email them a photo and let them know where they find these special photos online (and so they can tell their friends and family). So I had been saying, "Go to Localism.com, then click on Harrison County, then click on whatever town we are in (usually Long Beach, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, or Biloxi).

Its human nature to start tuning people out after the first go to. I tried writing it down; that was a pain in the rump. As usual with some perplexing issues, I shelved trying to make it better and just kept doing what I was doing because it worked, in a cumbersome warped kind of way.

Then one day as I was Googling myself, I discovered that Localism has a specific link to our photos. My link is http://localism.com/agent-photos/7169 . Well that discovery helped tremendously. It was a true, AHA-moment.

My extreme pleasure soon turned to a slight frown however because I realized it would still take a bit of writing and discussion. I offered to send links by email, la,la, on and on. Then I thought of using Tiny URL.

This is what my tiny url looks like: http://tinyurl.com/2n4s7t . Gee, what an improvement...

Well, I have a few extra URLS stashed away in my secret place, so I thought I would try forwarding an easy url.

So now, my AR friends and associates, I take a bow. My localism photos can be found by simply giving:

http://mgcrealty.info/ as the web address. I am simply very happy about how this turned out. END.

Sidebar: I am excited to be making headway with plans for a GREAT 2008.

Here is some of my new URL real estate that I plan to put to work: (not active yet)

ActionAffiliates.com

AssociateAction.com

RealtyPaths.com

Connect2Sellers.com

Connect2Buyers.com

I moved from Premium Point2Agent to Free, and I am replacing it with a full website that I will have a blast with and that will be productive in numerous ways.

I added a couple of other business moves to the list, including the Secret and associated things. I feel like I just woke up!

This Blog is dedicated to my new Active Rain friend, Joseph Ellman

Because he asks a LOT of questions, and has visited my blogs when they were at 0 comment status. (I tend to have more than my share of those:-)

Greet Your Greatest Year Ever!

What does REsearch and REal Estate have in common? :-)

Posted by Suzi Gravenstuk, REALTOR®, Independent Broker on 01/01/2008 06:08 PM

Comments (27)

localism, urls, mississippi gulf coast, long beach, pass christian, photos

Originally posted at: THE MS Gulf Coast Welcomes You!: WOW! Pay Attention:-)|Active Rain Discovery

27 Comments on WOW! Pay Attention:-)|Active Rain Discovery

JAN

2008

Very interesting idea! Do those photos also include ones you also used for Localism articles, or are they just the ones posted directly to Localism only? Thanks for posting about your discovery!

Howdy Suzi

Thank you for this interesting idea you came up with Suzi. You made a very good discovery to let all of us know about.

Have a good one

Dale

Hey, Deborah. These are individually posted localism photos. Do you do community photos for localism? The really cool thing about this (you should experiment and click on all 3 links I supplied)--is that when you give community folk a link to photos, IF they go there to see photos and click on the photo they are also connected to your Active Rain/Localism Profile.

(I re-read your question. The localism link is to individually submitted photos. Sometimes I also use a photo I have submitted individually, in a blog as well. However the localism agent photo link is not to blogs directly. Did I answer your question this time:-)?

Suzi, I actually read through your entire post. I knew about tiny url, but hadn't really thought about using it much - especially for AR but I will now. Thanks for the great idea...........Happy New Year Suzi!

Took me a few reads to figure out tiny url is a service. I googled it and found it. Quite interesting to say the least. Thanks. I don't have any pictures up yet on localism but need to start.

Dale, Thanks for stopping by and you are welcome.

Teri and Denise, I guess it was a rather long post. Sometimes I can't think of a more effective way to make a point. The reason I am answering you both together is because -- you both took up with "Tiny URL" which was a passing and minute point. However, Tiny is like a pet and a little problem solver all tied up in one.

This blog makes more sense if you are really into individually submitted localism photos and using localism to help break the ice in the community. However, if I have inspired you to get more serious about localism photos, I have done a good thing:-) . Now you know that when you have a localism agent photo url, how you will be able to promote it in a simpler more user friendly way.

The discovery that we can forward a custom url to our localism url just really simplified the way I explain to folks what I will be doing with the photos I take, why I take them, and where they can find them.

http://localism.com/agent-photos/7169 equals http://mgcrealty.info

thanks for the tiny information. came by to visit to make sure we were down for wishing you the best of new years.

cheers

Instead of forwarding a domain name~ you should mask it as well! Have a great 2008!!!

I have heard of this - but forgot. This can be quite helpful. Thank you for sharing and Happy New Year.

Gary and Richard, I am happy you dropped by. I can tell this is going to be the best of new year. I paid a lot of "dues" in 2007. I am ready to reap and roar. I have this vision that we are all going to be blessed far beyond anything we could imagine and that our blessings will spill over onto everyone we touch whether in front of us or in cyber space. We have an aura of being blessed and blessing. Do you see it?

Chris, I did do that but forgot to mention it. Thanks! Do you have an other tips to add?

James, you are going to be blessed. Get ready to receive.

Suzi, Great information. I can see how this will help increase hit and I will try it myself. Thanks for the blog.

Is there a way to get our localism photo url without doing a google search? I have never seen my localism photos on google. Can we get that info from AR?

Jimmy, my pleasure to bless you:-)

Sherry, I think one of the reasons I was so excited when I discovered the localism agent photo url by accident was because I did not know it existed until I saw it on Google and clicked on it. Then, taDA, I was off and running. This was important to me because somehow, I began incorporating localism photos as an excuse to meet more people while they are having fun . When I explain the "slice of life" concept, its like everyone wants to cooperate.

Now, other than my regular business cards I plan to have some inexpensive "fun" cards to hand out when I'm "doing" Localism.

JAN

2008

Suzi,

I know about all of the features........haha. We like to keep some of them secrets until you really start digging. It makes it exciting to keep finding little variations of things you didn't realize existed........

Of course, you can always call me and give me the shake down.........I'm not tough enough to handle a good shake down, I'll generally spill the beans :)

Suzi - Interesting information. Thank you for sharing it. I'm going to look into it more and try to incorporate it into my business, too.

Happy New Year!

I don't get it. But here's a tip about your localism pictures.... use longer titles, be more descriptive.

Bob, Well,I did email you about a week ago asking for a localism logo that we could use for community photo days, I asked for logo polo shirts, visors, caps, and Frisbees--what did I get?? You must have been so busy reading your targeted resumes that you didn't have time to whip this things up for me. As far as the Agent Photo url--I didn't even know I had an agent number. That's pretty darn sneaky--I bet we are all numbers now. By the way, how long have the Localism Agent URLS been in existence? Is anyone else using them in such a fashion? So, can we have a time frame for the logo gear? I asked for AR gear last year about this time. Maybe we can get Localism gear a little sooner? Spring? By the way, How long is Localism Going to be in Beta? Is Beta just another term for continual development, or as I say in my profile "continually under construction"?

Meg, way to go! Did you mean the url, or starting to use Localism as a valid reason for mixing and mingling with the public? We do have a mission, you know. The really rewarding result is if you have a "beat", folks start to recognize you (in case you are not well known yet) -- and unless its isolated to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, they will talk to you, give you more information than you need :-). They often ask me for a card if I don't offer one. I suggest choosing a time you will not be rushed. I have not overtly received business from doing this, but it has been fun and rewarding in other respects.

Georgina, now, that's interesting. For some reason I did not visualize anyone actually reading the photo blurb. You are right, I have not put a lot of effort in that section. I will do better. Localism allows considerably more space now for Photo copy than they did in the early Beta stage. Were there any particular photos you think I should edit right away? Ironically, in blogs I have heard I write too much--in comments such as, I read the wholllle blog:-) .

Suzi - What a nice surprise...an excellent blog post dedicated to me!! Thank you and thank you for another great and informative post that I enjoyed reading and learning from!!

You are most welcome! I have been researching some other than AR/Localism ideas we can discuss later at your blog. I am excited.

JAN

2008

Suzi - There are many cool tools here on active|rain, Thanks for pointing me in the direction of yet another reason to love this place and the people behind it

JAN

2008

Kathy, My pleasure and nice to hear from you.

JAN

2008

Hi Suzi! I do hope that Localism is going to continue to evolve. I have found myself at the top of the search engines with my Localism blogs. All I have to do anymore is post it and the next day it's there. There is a wealth of SEO to be "gotten". Your posts are informative and fun. Thank you for that! Deb

JAN

2008

Suzi,

I was up early, found this post, and went right over to godaddy.com to sign up for MikeInTucson.info; thanks! I appreciate the information you share with us'ns.

Mike in Tucson

JAN

2008

Debra and Mike, Nice to hear from you both. I have been busy working on my "attraction" quotient. Good move for you Mike. I am hooked on Go Daddy. Are you taking advantage of the "freebies" they include with URL purchase?

REgards! May you all recieve the "attraction" you desire.