Here is a link to the presentation I gave during the KAR Mid-Year Meetings in Wichita.  Feel free to download any of the slides. Enjoy!

http://bit.ly/KarenFranceKARMidyearPresentationcXRmuW

                                                                                                                                                       
       Folks ask me all of the time for help in getting started with Social Media.  Many of you have started blogging or started with Facebook or Twitter, but still don't quite know what to do with it all as it relates to using it to grow your real estate business.  While I have shared ideas in this blog and in my "Facebook and Twitter 101 Class", as well as my industry updates, I came across a publication  from Stefan Swanepoel that does a great job of breaking it down into manageable steps for you.  It is literally a 10 step program (not to be confused with a 12 Step program!) to get you up and running. It is only an 8 page document with lots of spaces on the pages, so even you folks who have a reading aversion will be able to read it.  The best news is that it is FREE--the best price,right?  

      Here is the link to the site where you can order it and then you will receive a link to the publication where you can view, print and even save it to your computer for reference later: 
http://www.retrends.com/10_day_action_plan.asp

   This article is an extract from his lengthier publication: Swanepoel Social Media Report 2010 that you might be interested in buying once you see the short version.  But either way, it is great information and we all need things made simple and step by step for us when we are learning new skills.  Enjoy!

How many phone calls do you make to other people's cell phones every day?  How many times do youget their voicemail so you have to leave a message?  Does it kill you waiting for the message to stop talking to you so you can leave a message? It does me, as any of you who know me know, I have a very short attention span! 
Here is a link to a great article from FastCompany magazine that explains how  to get right tohe beep on someone's cell phone message and not have to listen to all of the instructions: http://bit.ly/getrighttothebeep.

Here is an excerpt :

"You know the drill: You call someone, hear their voicemail greeting, and then you get this:

"Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system. At the tone, please record your message. To leave a call-back number, press five. When you've finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options."

That's 10 seconds of your life you can never get back, multiplied by every voicemail you leave. While most systems offer a key to skip these superfluous instructions, it's a different key depending on what service the person you've called uses. New York Times tech columnist David Pogue came up with a combination that covers all three major cell carriers in the US: One Star Pound.

The One key skips to the beep on Sprint and AT&T, the Star works on Verizon, and the Pound is for T-Mobile. Using the combination in that order--One Star Pound--will get you right to the beep on most cellphone voicemail systems.

You can even help your friends save a few seconds of their day. Make your voicemail greeting something like, "Hi it's Gina. Press 1 to skip right to the beep." (Remember, 1 for AT&T, * for Verizon, and # for T-Mobile.)

Leaving and retrieving voicemail the old-fashioned way is a waste of time. With voicemail transcripts and one star pound, you can reduce the amount of time you spend listening to robots and chit-chat."

Isn't that cool? I thought so! Enjoy!

     

      Have you taken a look at the RPR (REALTORS Property Resource) blog to see what the coolest business tool that NAR and maybe any vendor has ever brought you? If you haven't you need to.  Here is a link to the RPR blog where you can get all of the scoop and see what it's all about: http://blog.narrpr.com/  I watched a webinar this week where I was able to see a live demonstration of the site and all it has to offer.  I have been excited for what it means for REALTORS ever since I saw it launched at the NAR Convention in San Diego, but I got even more excited after the demo. 

      Here is a brief description, but you really need to go watch the videos on the blog.

The RPR will allow you to generate CMA's only not the plain old vanilla CMA's you have been doing--CMA's on steroids
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   In the last 3-4 months, one of the most frequent questions I get is, "Karen are electronic signatures legal in Kansas?"  I am not sure what is prompting everyone to have this on the radar screen, but I hope it is because NAR has announced it's great new REALTOR Benefit partnership with DocuSign. 

       In case you have not checked this out this member benefit, you should, and I highly recommend you start using electronic signature in your business in 2010.  It will make life easier for you and for everyone involved in your transactions--from buyers and sellers to lenders involved in your transaction--can you say, "FASTER CLOSINGS"?

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If you are marketing yourself and/or your listings on Facebook or Twitter or in your blogs, have you ever wondered when you should do it so that you will have the greatest chance of being read?

Here is a link to an Active Rain blog post by Rebecca Levinson that gives you great information on where and when to post in order to get the best results, based on statistical research by people in the know: http://bit.ly/whentodosocialmedia

Here are a few insights:

1. Tweet on Wednesdays and Thursday.
2. Post on your blog Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
3. Send email flyers on Mondays and Tuesdays but never on Saturdays
4. Talk to your Facebook fans on Tuesdays
5. Linked in readers apparently are on the site from 8 am to noon, rarely at night.

Have you ever wanted to be able to put a map of your listings on your website? How about a map of your open houses?  Here is a link to a great blog posted on Active Rain by Pamela Candejas of Lake Havasu City, AZ about using Google Maps tools on your website or blog: http://bit.ly/howtousegooglemapsonyourwebsiteorblog

 She gives step by step directions for:

1. How to map one location
2. How to create a map for multiple locations
3. How to put a widget on your website or blog for clients to get directions to your office, your listing or your open house. 

The first important step is to set up a Google account.  Most of you know that I am a raving fan of Google right now because of all of the free and easy tools they have.  If you haven't set up Google account yet, you are missing lots of great stuff! So read this blog post and go start "Googling"!

Buried deep in the Facebook terms of service, that you agreed to when you joined Facebook (FB) you  agreed that :

1. You will not send or otherwise post unauthorized commercial communications to users (such as spam).

Now, we all figure that we don't put spam on FB, we just post info on our walls for our "friends" to see.  But, a recent post on an Active Rain blog points out that, in the event that you befriend someone who looks at a post about one of your listings and says, "hey I don't want to see commercials, I didn't ask for that", they might report you to FB and FB has the right to terminate your FB account.  So...how to use FB and all of its social networking benefits if you want to market your listings?  Create a "Fan" page and invite folks to be your "fan"  like folks at the New York Times and other commercial entities do in order to use the benefits of FB without getting into trouble.  Here is a link to FB that tells you how to set up a Fan page and use it. http://bit.ly/createafacebookfanpage+  Once you have your Fan page up and running remove anything from your personal FB page containing commecial marketing, and then post the announcement that you have created a Fan page and invite them to become a fan if they would like information about your real estate biz.  Enjoy!

Does your website work on mobile phones? If someone uses their iPhone or Blackberry or Palm or other smart-phone does the website fit on their screen? Can they search for listings and get search results with pictures and text that don't run all over each-other? If not then those consumers will leave your website and find one that does---your competitor's website perhaps?

Here is a blog post from Marc Davison of 1000 Watt Consulting that gives you an insight into where the eyeballs are...they are on the consumers' smartphones!:

Mobile mojo and online real estate advertising

Posted: 13 Aug 2009 01:07 PM PDTCheck these two bits from the blog world today:Techcrunchquotesa Citigroup analyst assessing the mobile space as follows:Advertisers are seeing 10X increase in click-thrus via Mobile devices. Mobile Search activity is ramping fast this Smartphone Summer, and ad dollars are following.10x. This is a number I keep hearing from small app developers and advertisers playing on the mobile platform. The small screen ads blow away their larger counterparts. So good for them, but what about big media players in our space that have built products, audiences and ad offerings around the “big screen?” Will they suffer a “death by a thousand apps?”

Second, Greg Sterling over at Local Mobile Searchcites a survey from mobile ad network AdMobthat indicates 70% of iPhone users download four or more apps on a monthly basis. 10% of users download sixteen or more each month. Sure, some go unused; many are free. But the level of activity on a platform so young is telling.

The moral of the story: If you are shopping for website providers, be sure to check and see if they have a mobile application for the website product.  If you have been happy with tyh

You take pictures of your listings and post them on the MLS and probably on your website as well.  But there are lots of other ways to use your pictures to market your properties as as to position yourself as an expert in your community.  In this blog post by Kevin & Monica Ray from Missoula, Montana there are lots of ways to user and re-use those pictures: http://bit.ly/pictureworthathousandwords. 

Here is a short list of ideas:
1.your listings blog
2.YouTube
3. a regional blog (like one where you talk about the city/town you live in as opposed to just marketing your listings.)
4. share them on Flickr
5. post your pictures of local businesses & restaurants on Yelp.com
6. Twitter about them.

Read the article for how these all work. Are you using your photos like this or maybe you have other ways to use them?  If so, it would be great if you are willing to share and let everyone here know.

Thanks!