In just a couple short weeks, the very first Virtual Real Estate BarCamp will be held on November 17th. I just signed up and so should you!
So what is a BarCamp anyways? According to Wikipedia – BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences (or unconferences) – open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.
Why should you attend? It’s VIRTUAL! So you have little excuse not to attend. You can attend right from the comfort of your own office, and can even invite a few of your colleagues. It’s a great opportunity to learn about and share great ideas about what’s new real estate marketing, real estate technology, social media and more. And all in a informal webinar sort of way.
And did I mention that it is free? That’s right, it wont’ cost you a thing!
Educating Real Estate Agents On How To Use Modern Technologies To Better Their Business Will Never Be The Same!
On November 17th, 2009 dozens of the most respected educators in the real estate industry converge to host the first of its kind, Virtual Real Estate BarCamp.
Virtual Real Estate BarCamp is a 1-Day Learning Extravaganza.
From 9am until 4pm PST, three concurrent webinar "rooms" will each host 9 different sessions, for a total of 27 different presentations.
There is something for everyone and everything for someone, and best of all, IT IS FREE and attendance is unlimited!
Attendance is projected to be at least 1000 agents, nationwide.
Do not miss out on being part of this ground-breaking event.
Session topics include:
Social Media Risk Management
Flickr for Real Estate
Developing Your Brand
Online Advertising Secrets
Facebook for Real Estate
WordPress Training
Daily Goal Tracking
Starting a Real Estate Blog
…and much more, with new sessions being added every day.
And if that wasn\’t cool enough, individuals from around the country are volunteering to host In-Real-Life MeetUps for after the event.
Learn all day, and then meet to have a beer with local participants. This is going to be a blast!
Social media is fast becoming a huge component to an agent’s online marketing strategy, and using Facebook is a major part of that strategy. If you STILL haven’t taken the Facebook plunge and started enjoying the additional reach and marketing opportunities, then it is time. Time to just suck it up and embrace the Facebook.
Facebook is not just another place for you to market, but a place to share and ENGAGE with your clients and prospects. It is another opportunity to become a trusted expert in your local market or among your friends and colleagues. Facebook claims to have 250 million active users, so think of how many of those users may be within your reach. What are you waiting for?
You better not be using lack of time as an excuse. Being active on Facebook doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. So if that is the excuse you are still using, drop it. With a few applications and tools you can automate much of your Facebook updates and such that it will really only take you a few minutes a day to communicate, comment and engage with your Facebook friends.
In case you didn’t know already here are a few things that you can be doing in Facebook to help increase your online presence:
Advertise your listings and use Postlets which can help you syndicate to Facebook as well as dozens of other places (DO NOT do nothing but promote your listings. Nothing is more annoying than a friend that does nothing but advertise)
Add an RSS feed from your blog. It will automatically update when you have a new blog post.
Connect your status updates with Twitter or Ping.fm. Make all your status updates in one place that will update Facebook automatically
Talk about the latest open house or how excited you are about your first time buyers new home find.
Converse directly with clients, friends and prospects and add a personality to the “brand”. Become someone they know and trust. (you don’t have to be all business all the time)
Create a Business page that can include all of your business happenings, blog postings, newsletter sign up, and so much more. Then invite everyone to become fans so you can easily broadcast your important info to them.
There is a lot you can be doing in Facebook and you are running out of excused to not be on there. So if you are still a stranger to Facebook, stop what you are doing right now (I really mean it!) and get started by doing the following:
From the Facebook Insider – www.thefacebookinsider.com – here is an awesome post that instructs you how to change some of your settings. No need to put ALL of your Facebook activities out there. And I’m sure you also want to declutter all the rubbish that can come in the live news feed. I don’t know about you, but I don’t necessarily care who became friends with who.
Today Facebook released their new homepage design and while it can be beneficial for those just wanting updates from close friends and family, it is not so friendly for those who have a large number of regularly updating friends.
One major beef that many are having already is the automatic posting onto your news feed of almost everything you do – that now ALSO appears in the news feed of all your friends.
I don’t know about you, but I really don’t need to know who became friends with who, and other people definitely do not need to know who I suddenly became friends with!
If you are want to stop these updates from posting to everyone’s news feed, follow these few simple steps:
Select the Privacy Settings link from your Settings Menu
Select The News Feed & Wall link
Uncheck each of the boxes that automatically post to your news feed, wall and your friends news feed.
You may have also noticed that you have “Live Feed” and “News Feed” links at the top of your homepage. The difference between the two at this point is all jumbled.
However, your Live Feed may be blocking much of want you actually WANT to see. Scroll down to the bottom of your Live Feed page and click on Edit Options:
NOTE: If you have never put a friend or application on HIDE, you will NOT see the Edit Options link at the bottom of your page. Simply pick someone, click on the HIDE button that will appear in the top right corner of their update, then unhide by clicking the “x” beside their name in the steps below.
Make note of the line “Live Feed automatically determines which friends to include based on who Facebook thinks you want to hear from most.” I am a little unsure as to how Facebook thinks they know me and my friends and family so well, but….
Also, if you have more than 250 friends and family, you will see that Facebook either selectively, or randomly (we are not sure which yet), cuts them off at 250. You will want to change this number to accommodate your friends total, as shown below. We recommend putting it up to 5000.
Following the above steps will help reduce the amount of mumbo jumbo appearing everywhere. I am sure Facebook felt the split feed was a step in the right direction of reducing clutter for some, but it may have slightly backfired on them at this point…
UPDATE: Some people seem to be experiencing a problem seeing the correct Edit Options pop up when they are trying to change the number of friends shown on their Live Feed. We have found a solution, albeit a goofy one, but it works.
If you do not see the correct pop up as shown above, follow these steps:
1. Make sure you are on the Live Feed tab.
2. If the pop up is only a list of friends, close it.
3. Switch to News Feed.
4. Click the Edit Options link at the bottom of the News Feed, then close it.
5. Switch back to Live Feed
6. Now when you click the Edit Options link again, it should be the correct window.
UPDATE #2
We would appreciate everyone sharing this page with their Facebook friends to help spread the solution around. Thanks guys!!
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To see how to edit your Group, Fan and Application Privacy: Facebook: How To Edit Your Application Privacy
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Lately I have been exploring the uses of video for my own business as well as how to best help my agent clients use real estate video for their own business. While doing this, I ran across Coldwell Banker’s very cool YouTube channel, Coldwell Banker On LocationSM. It launched in May of this year, and though my own area doesn’t have as much activity, I am quite impressed with the look of it and it’s potential.
On the consumer end, I think the page itself is very cool with an interactive map a the top with your selected location, and all videos uploaded from Coldwell Banker agents from the selected radius. This includes listing videos, agent promotional videos, etc.
For Coldwell Banker and their agents, I think this channel and its setup is incredibly smart. This benefits their agents by allowing them to upload their own videos of their listings, personal promotion, or community videos, and it helps increase the agent’s exposure. It is also great for Coldwell Banker to help increase their brand exposure and possibly making it the go-to channel on YouTube for real estate.
Social media has become an increasingly valuable real estate marketing tool, and with their presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and more, Coldwell Banker seems to be a step ahead of most of the other big brokers right now. I have a few of their lucky agents as clients, and as their Real Estate Virtual Assistant I am eager to help them utilize these awesome tools their broker has provided them.
If you are not a Coldwell Banker agent, that’s not a problem. You can still have a kick butt YouTube channel on your own. Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can not only help with your video marketing strategy, but help you develop and implement your overall social network marketing strategy as well.
Kate Wheeler says "Step Up Or Step Aside", and SHE IS RIGHT! If you are an agent that is not getting active in Active Rain (and Localism), what are you waiting for?
Kate’s post is a great example on why you should be on there. It is a great platform writing to your target market and making yourself a trusted authority in your local world. Not to mention it’s an awesome place to network and learn from you real estate peers.
If you are still unsure what to do with Active Rain, or how to get set up, contact a Real Estate Virtual Assistant to help!
I found a cool tool today, called Posterous. And if it worked right, you are viewing this not only on my Posterous page, but on my blog as well. Posterous is a simple and very cool tool that you can easily post anything with email. Share thoughts, photos, videos, blog postings, etc right from your email.
One great way to use it is to make blog posts anywhere you are from your mobile phone. For example, take a photo of your newest listing from your phone, make a quick write up, and email from your phone to post@posterous.com, and boom, it’s posted. And even better, set up your Posterous account with Autopost and you can updated your Facebook, Twitter, or your blogs (as I have done). So it’s one-stop instant posting.
There’s many other cool ways to use Posterous, so I recommend you run over and check them out.
Gotta love all the many of ways you can post your content to anyone, anywhere, any time. Thanks for letting me have a little fun here testing today. J
Long time, no see! I truly have a great reason for my small blogging hiatus here. Which brings me to my post today. Not only am I a Virtual Assistant, I use Virtual Assistants as well.
Obviously, I have been known to promote the value of using Virtual Assistants to help agents and other businesses streamline their admin overload, and marketing tasks. I AM a Virtual Assistant after all, so of course I want encourage all to engage with those in my industry (and most of all, use ME as their VA).
Well not only do I talk the talk, but I walk the walk as well. In the beginning of May, my family was blessed with the arrival of our beautiful baby boy. It was necessary for me to take a maternity leave so I could figure out being a first-time mom and get to know my son. But I did not want to abandon my clients and leave them in the dust for the couple months I was taking off. So I did what any savvy business owner would do and used my Virtual Assistant team to handle the reigns of my business while I was away. My awesome VA team members, Sandra Sims and LoriAnne Rehrig, took over for me and covered all my client business so I could take that time off. My business was able to run without me! If it wasn’t for them, I surely wouldn’t have been able take that time, or my clients would have been very upset if I just dropped the ball on them for a couple months.
That is one of the wonderful things about partnering with a Virtual Assistant in your business. You can take a vacation, sabbatical, or family leave, and you can be comfortable that your business continue to run without you in the hands of your Virtual Assistant (or multiple VAs). Your lead follow-up can be handled like clockwork by your VA as well as your listing updates, marketing activities, etc. None of it has to stop because you’re not there!
Now that I’m fully back, I am roaring to go and excited to be adding new services and activities to offer busy real estate agents. And with the backing of my VA team, my return has been seamless. Again, I couldn’t have done it without Sandy or LoriAnne. Thanks ladies! I truly have a fabulous team!
Real estate websites have become one of the mainstays of a Realtor’s marketing plan. And one of the first things one needs when starting a new real estate website is a great domain name. A common thing that I notice is that many agents decide to choose their own name as their domain name. But what I don’t think many agents realize, is that choosing their own name as a domain, is a big mistake. Picking your own name as a domain is easy, but is it right? From one of my favorite real estate marketing books, Real Estate Rainmaker Guide to Online Marketing, author Dan Gooder Richard mentions as one of the "New Rules" – Your brand should never be your name. Let’s think about the big picture here. When building an internet presence or an overall marketing presence, you are building a brand. Building your brand can take a significant amount of time an money to promote and make successful. Well after a time running a successful real estate business, someday you may wish to retire. Can you see where I am going here yet? Essentially you want a brand that is attractive and "saleable" to potential buyers that may want to take on your business once you decide to retire. And if your brand is something that can be easily transferred to a new buyer, that obviously makes it worth a lot more money. Well if you are using your name as your brand, or as your domain name, how easily transferable or attractive would it be should you decide to sell the business you worked so hard on? I don’t believe many agents haven’t give this much thought when developing thier websites. How attractive would a brand that was by some other person’s name be to you? So how should you go about choosing a great domain name for your site? Take the ego out of it. Your real estate site is not about all about you but about the consumer. Think about the areas you serve and the consumers you want to reach and what they may be interested in. Think of a geographical area or specific property type that you specialize in. Have you already chosen your own name as your domain name? Don’t fret! Landing pages can be your answer! Without having to completely change to a new site or completely change the domain over to something new, you can still use great targeted domain names while still keeping the main website. You can buy several domains like (and these are just for the sake of example) YourTownHomeBuying.com, YourTownCodos.com to target certain property types or market segments, and take them to landing pages that correspond to that item. Same with domains that target certain geographical areas and landing pages in your site to go with. Good luck and happy naming!
Ever get fed up chasing down showing agents by phone trying to get showing feedback for your listings? Playing phone tag, or dealing with a fellow agent who is annoyed with the fact you called to bother them is never fun. (Been there, done that.) Then some of the online feedback systems can cost too much but offer just too little.
Well a client of mind found a free online showing feedback solution solution recently, we tried it out, and it is working great. So today I wanted to share this great tool to help you get your showing feedback results in an easy and automatic fashion. And best of all is that it’s FREE! The program is www.ShowingFeedback.com, and my agent client and I had recently stumbled upon it when looking for cost effective online showing feedback solutions.
ShowingFeedback.com allows you to track the feedback on your listings by creating and sending short surveys to agents that show your listings, and then give access to your sellers to review the reports and comments that have been left by the agents.
To use is, you simply enter your listings and seller’s information into the system, and when there is a new showing, add the showing agent’s information and a showing feedback survey is sent. The feedback survey will be sent automatically up to 3 times until the showing agent responds. When they do respond, they you AND your seller will receive email notification of the showing feedback that was just left. It is that simple.
So far in using it the past few weeks we have seen about a 90% response rate from the showing agents and we are very impressed. And of course, the sellers really appreciate getting direct email notification of their showing activity and feedback.
And did I mention that this was free? So go give it a try, you have nothing to lose!
Shorten your shower Every minute you cut from your shower is roughly 5 gallons of water. The less time your shower takes, the lower your impact on the environment.
In just a couple short weeks, the very first Virtual Real Estate BarCamp will be held on November 17th. I just signed up and so should you!
Social media is fast becoming a huge component to an agent’s online marketing strategy, and using Facebook is a major part of that strategy. If you STILL haven’t taken the Facebook plunge and started enjoying the additional reach and marketing opportunities, then it is time. Time to just suck it up and embrace the Facebook.
Real estate websites have become one of the mainstays of a Realtor’s marketing plan. And one of the first things one needs when starting a new real estate website is a great domain name. A common thing that I notice is that many agents decide to choose their own name as their domain name. But what I don’t think many agents realize, is that choosing their own name as a domain, is a big mistake. Picking your own name as a domain is easy, but is it right? From one of my favorite real estate marketing books, 
Ever get fed up chasing down showing agents by phone trying to get showing feedback for your listings? Playing phone tag, or dealing with a fellow agent who is annoyed with the fact you called to bother them is never fun. (Been there, done that.) Then some of the online feedback systems can cost too much but offer just too little.
