I’m all registered to attend Inman News Global Connect next January.  Hopefully the market will provide for my expense report to get me there and some lodging for the week :)  I’ll eat granola bars if I have to.

For me, despite not being a REALTOR, I find these events (this will be my fourth Inman along with a NAR Expo) to be quite valuable.  Most vendors don’t understand that my day job gives me access to 4,000+ REALTORs, so they tend to ignore me.  This only makes the speakers more important.

I love getting to pick the brains of people who have been using technology tools for their marketing efforts in the real world.  Sure, they may not always know as much as I do from a technical level or even fully an implementation aspect, but they are the REALTORs out there actually doing it.  I am not a REALTOR, so this allows me to gain valuable insight to bring back to my local REALTORs to help improve the quality and effectiveness of their internet marketing efforts.

For those of you who are REALTORs and attend events like Inman Connect, NAR Expo or others, why do you go beyond the social aspect?  What are some tools or knowledge you have come away with that has helped your business?

I was underwater at the Oregon Coast Aquarium with my great late friend Tim Powell.  We were volunteer divers who were responsible for cleaning out the giant tanks where Keiko used to live.  Someone in the tube held a sign up against the acrylic telling us to get out of the water, which was extremely odd.  We spent the better part of the rest of our shift watching events unfold on TV.

The next time we went over, Tim had made us laminated American flags to strap to our tanks.  We got applause in the tube from patrons.  It made me feel proud of our country.

Where were you?

What are the benefits of Social Media / Networking?

• Price - Most of these applications are Free
• Ease of Use - Pretty much anyone can build a profile
• It’s Viral - Because they are generally easy to use and free these applications grow rather quickly
• It’s Organic - The more active you are with it the more it grows.

The big question is "Can Social Media/Networking help you in business?"

The answer to that question is determined by how you make use of it. If all you do is post drunken pictures of yourself in a kiddy pool of jello then you may not want to promote your business.  However, if you view it as an extension of your office space then this could be one of the best things you’ve ever done for your business.

Here are some things to think about:

• Are you present online - Just as most Agents make it a point to be present at the open houses the same is true here.  People do browse these sites.  They do look at the friend profiles of their friends (hint - have a picture).
• Customer Service - Back to the open house concept. Just as you would never ignore someone who came to your open house you do not want to ignore people who are active on your various profiles. (hint - set the notifications up so that you either get an email or a text message every time someone leaves a comment or posts a question)
• Relationships - These tools allow you to do three things:

1. Reconnect with people you may have lost touch with
2. Connect with people you are currently working with
3. Meet new people

• Branding - You define your brand in the way you want.

Here is a simple formula that explains it rather well

1. Relationships build your Reputation
2. A good reputation results in referrals
3. Referrals equals business

My advise is simple, get active with Social Media!

Okay, so now you are a believer.  But where do you start? There are so many sites which one should you pick first?  There are several options, First go to what you know.  When you think of Social Networking which site comes to mind first.  Second, ask your colleagues.  Which sites are they active on?  Third (this one is earth shattering so brace yourself), where are your clients?  Trust me, you do have clients that are active in Social Media and they would more than welcome your presence.

Now that you’ve signed up the next thing is to find friends and the easiest way is to make use of the "find a friend" feature that most of these sites have.  They will literally upload your current contact list and search their database for people with those names and email addresses. Yes, it is that simple.
Next, you need to be active but be careful.  Users of Social Media are there to connect and build relationships, not be sold to.  That’s where Subversive Marketing comes in.

Subversive Marketing

Obviously you want to sell your product or service.  At the same time you do not want to alienate your customer base. You do this by constantly reminding yourself that this is about building relationships.  So, comment on their pictures, drop little antidotes about your daily life (don’t have to be to personal), answer questions that they may ask the group and from time to time mention great deals you come across like a new listing, changes in the interest rates or a closing that you just had (when possible include links).  What happens when you do that is that you become visible on their profiles and out curiosity they click to find out what your are talking about.

Scott Bridwell has over 10 years experience in the Real Estate Industry.  His background includes sales and marketing for Title and Escrow Companies, he was the sales manager for a local builder and has four years as an Escrow Officer in both Washington and Oregon.

Currently he spends his time helping Real Estate Professionals with their online presence by coaching them on their social networking, and online reputation management.  He’s also a certified clock hour instructor for the state of Washington.

Want to know more?  Visit his blog www.scottbridwell.com.

Apparently, a local real estate blogger wrote an article talking about visiting a local body of water.  The body of water was misspelled repeatedly.  The accompanying photos had ALT tags and captions that made them appear as though the blogger was the photographer.  My informant sent me links to the original sources of the photos that showed the local real estate blogger was not, in fact, the photographer.

Again, I’m not sure about how 100% correct this is since things could have been changed, but my informant sent me the comment they submitted.  The comment that was very direct (I guess some could read it as confrontational, I didn’t), pointed out the misspellings and suggested the blogger be careful about appearing to claim rights to a photo.

Here’s where this becomes a Choose Your Own Adventure as a blogger, do you:

1. Take offense, fix it and delete the comment
2. Take offense, cool down, fix it, approve the comment and publicly thank the person for helping

Now, I guess we can all deal with this in different ways.

Here at RETechCoach, please feel free to offer suggestions.  We all make mistakes and we would rather learn from them and have you keep coming back thinking we’re reasonable people.

UPDATE: We were told by our informant to check out the latest post from the blogger in question and it appears as though it was all a simple mistake anybody could have made.  Kudos to the blogger for accepting constructive criticism and making things right in the world!

Now I’m going to plagiarize Benn over at Agent Genius since the words aren’t coming to me right now:

Goldstein’s Rosenbergs Rafael Sacks Funeral Homes
310 Second Street Pike
South Hampton, PA 18966

We’re asking that we all respect Bill’s wishes and spend this time with our own loved ones during this short pause.

Anyone that wishes to join this cause publicly on their own blog is encouraged to do so.

Send donations in lieu of flowers to the American Cancer Society, and please feel free to leave your comments to the Lublin family here as this is our electronic card to them.

If you would like to mail the Lublin Family a card, or other wishes, you can email Jay Thompson for information.

I just wanted to clarify

What I do

A Life Change

I am currently at a point in my life where I need to keep my stress level as low as possible and tech support is not conducive to my health.  If you want to discuss taking your real estate marketing to the next level through technology, you know where to reach me.

Additional Clarification

A couple of people didn’t understand.  Let me put it this way: if I recommend a product, service, marketing tactic, technology tool, piece of hardware or web site to you, I will help you out with it.  If I tell you to avoid a Treo or MySpace like the plague and then you come asking for help with a Treo or MySpace, sorry, you’re on your own.

“RE Bar Camp is short for Real Estate BarCamp.  The concept of a BarCamp is to have a bunch of tech nerds and like-minded people getting together in a bar to discuss topics of interest.  No, it has nothing to do with rebar or Burning Man (rebar is a favorite tent/dome stake out on the playa).

Thanks to the likes of Andy Kaufman and Brad Coy (and many others), the REBarCamp looks to be an incredible event.  Inman completely supports it, so there’s been a lot of mutual publicity.  Since it hasn’t happened, these aren’t reviews, simply predictions.

REBarCamp will be more of the people who are actually DOING.  DOING blogs, DOING Twitter, DOING online social networking, DOING video…you get my drift.  I am looking very forward to this because I tend to think of myself as a DOER also, so getting to pick the brains of the pro’s around the country (and world) who are also DOING sounds like a great opportunity to me.

Inman Bloggers Connect is Wednesday and I have very high hopes (and expectations) for this one as well.  I attended the last Bloggers Connect in New York and it was great, but definitely geared towards the people who are looking to get into blogging, not the people who are DOING.  The panelists are all well-respected DOERS, but it felt like they were trying to talk people into trying it out.  From what I understand, this Bloggers Connect event is supposed to be something of a “intermediate” session.  My impression is you should know what a blog is and how powerful they can be, now it’s really time to learn how to start DOING.  I think it’s going to be great.

The full Inman conference is Thursday and Friday.  The general sessions so far have always left my mind reeling at the great information and incredible insight shared.  So those will be great, but get to the conference hall early for a seat so you’re not stuck standing around the walls (although having people standing is a great marketing gimmick).

As for the break-out sessions, I only have one expectation/complaint in looking at the online program: I want to attend too many and they overlap each other.  This has happened at the previous Inman conferences and it’s so frustrating (even more so than not having time to eat lunch!).  They will be great, if not a little “sponsored”.  Many of the sessions are sponsored by a vendor and I’d say of the other conferences I’ve been to, about 10% have been very sales-oriented.  So definitely not bad and I look to learn a lot.

Between sessions, I’ll be busting me arse to check out a few key vendors I have questions for, so if you have any requests, let me know.

I will be live-twitting a bit and trying to do a recap each night here, on Agent Genius (probably not so much since so many other contributors will be attending/speaking) and on PortlandRealEstateNetwork.

Then there’s the terrible after parties hosted by the likes of Zillow, Trulia and ActiveRain…egads!  To all my coworkers who think I’m on vacation: you’re wrong, I’m going to be working longer days and walking more during this week than all of you!

It’s the sacrifice I’m willing to make for all of you as Portland’s foremost real estate technology coach

Okay, that’s only half true.  I’m also the editor-in-chief of a multi-author blog covering all aspects of Portland Real Estate.  You were thinking I had too much time on my hands, well so was I.  So now I’ll be writing over there (as well as here and Agent Genius) about real estate technology and generational marketing.  I’ll also be recruiting additional writers (slowly) and making sure the site runs smoothly (from a purely non-technical standpoint).  I’m excited and hope you’ll come check out the site soon.

I was interviewed recently on Real Estate Radio USA.  I have been absolutely swamped with life and my day job, so I apologize to those of you I have been neglecting around here.  Feel free to listen to the interview below, and I’ll be back very soon with some fresh new real estate marketing and technology coaching tips!