Realty World Northern California & Nevada

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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.

ReBarCamp Silicon Valley attendee, Guy Berry, recently asked me a question that I’m sure is on the minds of many in the real estate profession, “Where should my emphasis be in social media? Do I do Facebook, blogging, Twitter, everything?!?!”

Just like one size truly doesn’t fit all, neither does one social media site/solution. While many will tell you that you “need” to be participating in certain sites, I’d like to propose a different idea – that you participate in the sites that you will really participate in not just participating in what you’re told.

I would also recommend, especially if you’re new to online communities, building a real foundation in one, maybe two, online communities before branching out into more. This will ensure that the people you do interact with online find you engaging, consistent and meaningful.

Here are a few ways to tell what forums may be good for you:

• Blogging: You actually like to write. You can (and will) post three or four blog posts per week (more on how easy this can be in a later blog post.) You have a reasonable grasp of grammar, punctuation and the English language (this really is important – people are weary of someone handling their money and contracts that consistently misspells words or uses bad punctuation.)
• Facebook: You like to be online. You are into posting pictures, events, and things about YOU. You like to comment and check out what’s going on in other people’s lives, and you won’t use it to sell them on first contact. (Your first response to your best friend announcing her pregnancy should not be a suggestion and listing posted to her Facebook wall that you know of a great place with an extra bedroom and backyard for she and her growing family. That can come later…) You want control over people that can be friends with you and how much they see.
• Twitter: You own a smartphone and aren’t afraid to use it. You like to be in touch and are out and about with real stuff to be in touch about. You have a camera phone and will post pictures via TwitPic or other posting service. You can be concise, pithy even, with the ability to engage people in one to two sentences. You don’t mind not having control over everyone that follows/friends you.
• LinkedIn: You are just in it for professional contacts. You like networking and groups that are business-oriented. You want to post an online resume to showcase credentials and organizational memberships.

Now these certainly aren’t the only tools in the social media arsenal, but they’re a good starting point.

Realty World NCA offers its agents free blog websites through WordPress, but if you’re not a Realty World NCA agent you can get a free blog through WordPress.org (more on the difference between the two in an upcoming post), Blogger (a tool from Google) or TypePad. Realty World NCA also offers Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn training to its members, but if you are looking for a good training session on any of these tools, take a look at a free social media tour that I’m doing around eight cities in Northern California or catch up with me on my Facebook page, Twitter or LinkedIn for more information.

Erin Robbins
Social Media & Marketing Director
erin.robbins@rwnc.net

Before there were tags, WordPress.com (and other blog hosing sites) only allowed categories to be used.

Categories allowed for a broad grouping of post topics, but when you wanted to describe a post in more specific terms, more categories were required. That lead to very long category lists inside the blog and very long lists in categories widgets making it harder to find what you needed a backlog of general categories stacked into posts.

Someone realized how silly this was and now have tags as well.

Tags are similar to categories, but instead of a list of words to choose from, you write them in a list (separated by commas) in the tags module of your post editing screen. They are free form words and allow you describe your post in more detail and help people narrow search results to get to relevant information faster.

For example, a post titled “Last Night At El Tapatio” might be filed under the “Dinner” category, but could have tags such as, “taco, margarita, salsa, Mariachi.” This will help people looking for information on where to get good tacos for dinner find something more specific than all of the dinner places in an area. Get it?

Since it may be a bit confusing upon first glance (especially to new bloggers),  here are some common questions and answers that may help you out:

Q: With regards to capital letters, is “Tag” the same as “tag?”
A: Yes. Capital letters do not change a tag. “Blogging” is the same as “blogging.”

Q: Is there a limit to the number of tags I can have?
A: No. You may associate as many tags with your posts as you like.

Q: Is there any advantage to using tags or categories, or both?
A: Tags will allow you to be more specific and narrow searches, so they are recommended. It cannot hurt to do both!

Q: Do I have to use tags?
A: The use of tags is entirely optional (although each post must be attached to at least one category) but they will help filter searches.

It is recommended you limit your number of categories to no more than 10. For real estate experts, good categories include “Buyers,” “Sellers,” “Community,” etc. Your tags can include identifiers that fall under these categories, like “first-time buyers,” “short sales,” or “schools.”

Categories and tags are both useful in helping your readers find posts of interest. You can think of categories as being utilitarian and tags as a more creative way of indexing your blog.

Ron Dillon
Director of Online Education
ron.dillon@rwnc.net