Realty World Northern California & Nevada

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Facebook turned six today and in Internet social media years that’s like turning 50. In honor of this momentous occasion I was trying to decide, do I want to “poke” Facebook, throw a snowball at them, vampire bite them, feed their Farmville crops or send unicorn heart hug?

I decided the best thing I could do was to give them this meager shout-out, post the link to Mashable’s much better story and share with as much of the world as I influence these simple ways not to not annoy people on Facebook, based on the Oatmeal’s hilarious comic about it (on my personal Facebook page) that I can’t add to a corporate blog or I risk annihilation:

• Constantly gaming on things like Farmville, vampire slayings, mafia wars, etc. and never really interacting with anyone outside of “watering their crops” or “biting” them. Annoying.
• Taking every quiz known to man and publishing the results. If you’re trying to find yourself and knowing your “Zombie love name” will help – that’s great, take the quiz, just don’t clog up my status updates with the result because I will never call you “Lord Gwazlag.”
• Stop being passive-aggressive. Leaving comments and status updates that say things like, “Some people need to stop talking like they know everything and learn to use the copier in the office properly and not drink the last Diet Coke and shower more frequently” is really just showing that you are either bitter and resentful, or lack the courage to confront those that bother you. Either deal with the issue face-to-face or let it go. (But seriously, don’t drink the last Diet Coke if it’s not yours.)
• Stop being a rash. If you surf Facebook all day, every day and comment on every post someone sends, it tells the rest of us (your coworkers included) that you aren’t paying attention to your real life (aka your JOB, kids, spouse, etc.) and that you might be a tad bit stalker-ish.
• Don’t just do business on here. These people are called “friends” – not your purchased marketing spam list where you can ask that they become a fan of you, your business, your businesses products, etc. ‘Nuff said.
• Go ahead, keep posting creepy pictures, creepy person. Don’t post pictures of your kids as your profile picture if you’re going to talk about how wasted you got last night, the person you hooked up with in Vegas or if your other pictures are of your spring break in Cancun… that’s weird. Also, stop throwing people under the bus by posting pictures of your friends, colleagues, or fellow party-goers in embarrassing or unprofessional shots. Everyone is entitled to a life outside of work, we just don’t need it splashed up on the Internet.

There you go Facebook – your birthday gift from me, to you. Happy 6th!

Social media is a great way for people to stay connected and share information. Whether that information is about your personal life or an article about the latest home prices in your area, it says something about you. And because it’s personal, it’s trusted. According to Nielsen, consumers trust recommendations from friends more than any other form of marketing, such as TV ads, emails or even editorial articles. It’s this trust that makes sharing the core of the social web.

Sharing tools, such as ShareThis have made it easier than ever for people to share content to their friends all over the web.  These tools don’t limit people to sharing via copy-and-paste, but allow them to spread information with just a few clicks. With sharing being so easy now, more people are doing it than ever before. According to a July ‘08 Forrester research study 95 percent of online US adults have received a share about a product or service in the previous month.

Making sharing easy is of great value to all types of sites, especially those owned by realtors. Not only does sharing get time-sensitive content in front of more eyes, but also the recipients of shares are more engaged than other users because they have a connection with both the information and the person who shared it with them.  Higher engaged users consume more pages on your site and are more likely to turn into qualified leads.

Start looking at your own social networking behavior. You’ll start to see sharing all around you. Facebook and LinkedIn even went as far as to change their status update button to read “Share”, implying that you aren’t simply posting what you are doing to a web page, but you are sharing it with your friends. That is a much more personal act.

The personal connection between people is what social media is built on. It’s just another way for humans to communicate with one another, and a way that’s now expected by your customers.  To understand how you can use ShareThis or other social media tools on your site, visit Sharethis.com.

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The press release announcing Karl Lee as the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors President for 2010 has been released today. We at Realty World NCA are proud to have Karl selected for such an honorable and respected position in the real estate and professional community.

Take a look at the press release here.

Image by y0mbo via Flickr

I had the pleasure of reading a great post by Chris Brogan recently on his blog regarding the number of points of contact he has in his technological worlds. His post addresses the need to sort out where we are actually using points of contact, not just from a business standpoint but what actually makes sense on a regular basis. I recommend reading the post and considering doing some sorting as well.

You can find the post here.

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After numerous years of rumors and speculation, Apple Inc. unveiled a new tablet computer called the iPad at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Price for the iPad starts at an unbelievably low price at $499 and up to $829 (for all of the options) and will be available in 60 days (90 days for a 3G model). I am VERY excited about this and cannot wait to get my hands on it firsthand.

There’s so much to say about the iPad. I’ll first start with the highlights on the iPad specs and at the end go into how to use the iPad.

iPad Specifications:

• 1/2″ thick
• 1.5 pounds
• 9.7″ screen
• 10 hour battery life (up to a month of standby time)
• Accelerometer & compass
• Bluetooth
• 1GHz Apple A4 chip
• 16GB – 64GB flash storage
• Speakerphone & microphone

Internet on the go is available at additional pricing through AT&T on the 3G network. There are two price plans. First is a 250MB per month plan at $14.99 per month. For some users 250MB per month may suffice. For more “power users” an unlimited plan will be available at $29.99 per month. Both do not have any contract and can be canceled at any time.

Two accessories were announced which are very exciting! The first is a keyboard dock/charger. You slide the iPad onto the keyboard dock so you can use a full size keyboard and charge the iPad at the same time. The second accessory is a cover for the iPad which doubles as a slightly tilted stand for desk use.

The interface for the iPad is very similar to the iPhone. The iPad utilizes full capacity multi-touch, enabling you to interact with the screen without the use of a pen or mouse using your fingers directly to the surface of screen. The keyboard is onscreen (like the iPhone) and takes up the bottom half of the landscape mode. It is large enough to use two hands like you would on a regular keyboard, but slightly smaller.

The iPad comes with a wide array of applications standard. Additionally, ALL apps from the App Store work as well!

Some of the default apps include:

• Email
• Web
• Photos
• Calendar
• Address Book
• Google Maps
• Music
• iBook (Brand new application)
• iWork – Keynote, Pages, Numbers ($9.99 each)

iBook is a new application that allows for the discovery, purchase, and download e-books. It is much like the Amazon Kindle but on steroids.

Following are some more images of the Apple iPad

Image via gdgt.com

Image via gdgt.com

Image via gdgt.com

Image via gdgt.com

Image via gdgt.com

Image via gdgt.com

Image via gdgt.com

Image via gdgt.com

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I’m new at this real estate thing. I have lived my life in technology, an industry that has a community that knows many of its influential members and keeps an eye on them. The real estate community is large as well and made up of lots of people who know about specific areas, which means it can be daunting to try to track and talk to key players.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try though. I suggest getting to know and getting active in local committees, groups and associations. Forget about the politics of the organization, as that often distracts members or perspective members, and focus on the larger mission. Why wouldn’t you want to get to know the people that are making decisions that affect your job, stay on top of the latest and greatest, and voice your opinion when you don’t like something?

There are a lot of changes happening, getting involved is good for you, good for business and good for the entire industry. Looking for a list of places to get started – try checking with your broker or franchise – if they don’t know, start asking why not.

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Today is my birthday, a day when I typically spend some mental energy reflecting on where I’ve come and where I think society has headed. Today I was frustrated. Has anyone else heard that schools are considering cutting spelling and learning multiplication and division from the curriculum? I thought about what I’d do with a society of people that couldn’t jot a coherent note without spell check software or a group of people that couldn’t understand how to leave a tip or see if they’re getting ripped off without a calculator in their pocket and I was disgusted.

I was reminded of times back when I was younger and my parents would ask me to do something that I didn’t know how to do and I’d struggle with it for 15 seconds (which of course I explained was “forever”) and then I’d ask for help. By help I meant, “Can’t you just do it for me since you already know how?” Thankfully, my parents believed that even if it took me twice as long and was frustrating as heck, I was going to learn how to do the basics on my own.

This is how I feel about Facebook, blogging, social media and real estate in general. It’s my job to teach, to keep people informed, to propose new ideas and to provide tools to make your job possible, competitive or easier… maybe all three. It is not my job to be a Realtor. Sometimes, part of my job is helping agents and brokers figure out how to use tools themselves so that they can continue to use the tools more effectively in the future and hopefully teach those around them how to do it as well. This will raise the quality of all in the real estate profession, fostering a community of well-informed, helpful individuals – not a few people who have the answers and dole them out for a fee or at their leisure.

I ask that people keep this in mind before and when calling with a question or issue – if my response is, “Did you try to solve the problem yourself first?” or to help you help yourself – it’s because I care about creating a long-term lesson instead of a short-term solution.

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It’s often said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. I tend to disagree when it comes to real estate. Regurgitation shows a distinct lack of originality and initiative to find out what people in your location, neighborhood, market outlook want and need. Copying the competition means your competition doesn’t have competition, they have a watered down version of the their own brand and consumers know it. Copying your competition means you’re not willing to think outside of the box or too afraid to act on the outside of the box thinking you may have.

If you’re going to copy someone – copy thinkers from other industries who have implemented great process, innovation and communications tools. Copy their spirit of change, willingness to be wrong and the way they embrace the shifts the market throws at them.

Gone are the days of all real estate agents being the same, a faceless mass of people who don’t know or care about what consumers want. Here are the days of Realtors as individuals, distinguishing themselves in their community as valued members of a productive, people-focused group.

This is where things NEED to be headed. This is what people want, the people that pay your commissions. I know, because I’m one of them.

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When we’re freshmen, we know we’re new. We’re cautious, optimistic and aware of our lowly status on the totem pole. Then something magical happens as we transition into sophomores – we develop arrogance. Greek for “wise fool” – the term sophomore describes the feeling that we can take on the world, know everything there is to learn and deserve the riches and spoils we toiled for the year prior. It also describes the foolishness of this notion, and by the time we are seniors, we realize it too.

This accurately describes much of the social media world and those learning to use it. We started using social media recently, we learned a few things, made some headway and now we think we’re king of the castle.

Beware that king of the castle feeling though – we’re just sophomores! We don’t know what we don’t know. We idolize the popular kids who may lead us astray, we think our teachers don’t know anything or aren’t teaching us what we really want to be taught, and we poke fun at the freshmen to make ourselves feel better.

This will pass, we’ll mature into people who recognize the ill-advised assumptions we’d previously made and laugh at our mistakes or cringe at our foolishness. We’ll emerge stronger and with a greater respect for the teachers that stayed the course while we scoffed at their suggestions.

Just something to keep in mind as we journey into this new territory of social media. Be nice to the freshmen, remember your teachers are here to help you and don’t worry about being popular – be a good person.

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I’ve always believed that the business world is a lot like dating and relationships. That has its good points and bad but there are a lot of things both of these world could learn from one another. The biggest one that both need to learn is loyalty.

In relationships, when we first start dating we’re wooed by the opposite sex with their best attire, wittiest remarks and engaging conversations. They spend money on us, bring us flowers and go out of their way to make us happy. Within a year’s time, people have settled into who they really are, sometimes this works out well because we grow closer based on shared foibles, and appreciate the person’s little eccentricities. Other times we wonder when Dr. Jekyll switched with Mr. Hyde and feel fooled by someone’s initial act.

This happens in business all the time. We’re lured away from existing services or to new gadgets with slick advertising, marketing gimmicks and giveaways. We’re told that the first six months of service are only $19.99, that we’ll pay no money down, etc.

I’m stumped.

Instead of rewarding the customers that stick around for longer than marketing gimmicks and short term offers, we give the best stuff to the people most likely to leave! Why not give people fair upfront pricing and guarantee them that as they remain loyal you guarantee their price will never increase or that they will receive increased services or perks for loyalty? Surprisingly, the hospitality industry is one of the few to catch onto this the right way. If you use a brand that has a rewards program you can earn free stays, upgrades, food, spa services, etc. The longer you’re a member the higher your status typically.

So, what’s this have to do with real estate and social media? I know Realtors can’t offer people free houses for loyal service, but there should be some real incentives for loyalty and referrals.

In order to make that a worthwhile proposition, you have to actually get a lot of referrals and repeat business and make some money from it! So, here are some thoughts on how you can create loyalty:

• Be yourself from the get-go. If you’re putting on an act when you first meet someone or in your social media outlets, people will feel you’ve been dishonest when they get to know you better and find you to be something other than what you started as.
• Provide great service the first time and every time. People remember who gave them knowledgeable and friendly service.
• Be honest about pricing, how you’re paid, what’s fair and ways they can save money. People don’t mind paying for things as much if they know what they’re paying for and why.
• Remember the little things. If someone tells you about their dogs, kids, hobbies, or travels it’s because they want to share it with you. Write it down on their business card or customer file and be sure to ask about it next time you’re in touch. If someone with a pet purchases a home from you, be sure to include a little something for Fido and Mittens in the home when they move in.
• Use social media to keep in touch with ease. Friend them on Facebook, connect with them on LinkedIn, find a way to stay in touch and make a calendar reminder to touch base at least once a month to see how they’re doing.
• Be a loyal person. Don’t just expect loyalty, be loyal to your favorite organizations, businesses and service providers. Recommend them when someone is looking for services and maintain good relationships.

Reward loyalty and be loyal to your customers and favorite companies and vendors as well – it’s just good business.

A few companies that I’ve had positive loyalty interactions with – in case you’re looking!

• Nordstrom
• Volkswagen
• Hilton Hotels
• Target
• Silk Nail Salon in San Francisco
• Kimpton Hotels – also pet friendly!
• Kildaire Animal Hospital in North Carolina (bulldog specialist on board!)