What are the highest leverage activities that are best for ensuring that you have a good life?

(Found this question on Quora… Do you use Quora?…Check it out!)

This is a followup to What’s the single most valuable lesson you’ve learned in your professional life?

Focus on high-leverage activities.  Leverage is defined as the amount of output or impact produced per unit of time spent.

http://www.quora.com/Life-Advice/What-are-the-highest-leverage-activities-that-are-best-for-ensuring-that-you-have-a-good-life#ans1883606 

5: MINDFULNESS/CONVERSATION. 

I define conversation as the meaningful clashing of ideas and perspectives. You don’t need to be talking to someone else- you could explore your own mind, or the natural world, and that would be a form of conversation- anything that leads to insight and understanding. Mindfulness. 

Exercise can be a kind of conversation you have with your body- if you’re not listening, you could get injured. 

Reading is, ideally, a conversation with other human minds, past and present.

Your relationships grow the most in moments where you are paying the most attention to one another.

Passive, thoughtless routines will not do in this pursuit. Pay attention. Give a damn. Care. Listen. You can differentiate all great experiences and mediocre ones by assessing the mindfulness/thoughtfulness present in a process.

Steve Jobs was a mindful, thoughtful guy with regards to his work. Buddha was a mindful, thoughtful guy. So was Jesus. All good artists, all great anything- be mindful, pay attention, have a great conversation- with yourself, with each other, with the world. Devote yourself to learning and understanding new points of view, so that you better understand your own. 

Pay attention and be engaged for a great life.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The credit score you get isn’t always the same score a lender looks at when deciding whether to give you a mortgage, credit card or auto loan. In fact, the lender could be looking at one of 49 different scores issued by credit scoring company FICO in order to determine how risky you are, according to a new infographic created by John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com and a former manager at FICO.

While you receive only one type of FICO score, lenders can choose from a variety of scores based on the kind of loan you’re applying for. So if you want an auto loan, the lender can look up your FICO auto score. Apply for a credit card and there’s a specific FICO bankcard score lenders can use, said Ulzheimer. There’s also a FICO mortgage score, an installment loan score and a personal finance score that specifically focuses on your history of using financing companies — for example, if you’ve signed up for store-branded credit cards. Then there’s the generic FICO score, which is the most widely used score and is calculated based on your history with all forms of credit.
Get your free credit score at CreditSesame.com

Take a few minutes to become familiar with these, and you will greatly enhance your presence on Facebook!

1. Schedule your posts

2. Set up push notifications to your phone via the Facebook pages app

3. Reposition photos

4. Adjust the title and/or description of a link

5. Quickly view how effective each post is

With consistent sharing of high quality content (stories, links, photos, education, etc.) you increase “top of mind” and “word of mouth” which leads to the highest form of “connecting and communicating” which is “face to face” meetings.

In general, people prefer to do business with people they find credible, knowledgeable, trustworthy and most of all, interesting! Someone they see as similar or “of like mind” and therefore a natural affinity.

The best way to humanize your business is then to regularly share your insights, experience, and interests through your social media profile or blog.  Transparency and genuineness will then allow your accomplishments and skills provide that added dimension to increase “inbound marketing” as people seek you out.

Many in the Financial Services Industries including Finance and Lending have been successful connecting with other referral partners through platforms such as Facebook, Linedin and Twitter when they have demonstrated their competency in helping clients solve problems and meet their financial goals and objectives.

The key to this is to be aware of the many compliance and regulatory issues involved with electronic marketing and stay clear or the rules violations that could be violated in cyberspace, and become a permanent record.

With that understanding, then social media marketing platforms and networks can be navigated simply and easily to connect and communicate with current and future customers, prospects, and business referal partners.

Everyday we have dozens of conversations in person, and on the phone which can be offered as “status updates” about what we are working on. As a rule of thumb, generally it’s good to protect the identity of the prospect or customer you are mentioning as a “status update”. However, using a simple formula of “entertain, educate, and empower” you will reach many more people who read, comment, like and share your status updates when you “entertain or tell a story, educate by explaining the product or solution you provide, then empower, by offering a call to action.

These simple steps then put your image, brand and message in front of hundreds or even thousands of potentinal prospects, customers and referral partners!

This makes perfect sense and the ideal way to leverage “visual marketing” for the Real Estate Professional to showcase your most valuable assets…your listings!

But there are many other simple techniques as this article explains that can help you build an audience, increase engagement, and help you positon yourself, your company and your brand “top of mind” when someone thinks of “buying, listing or selling” a property! 

Read more at this link…here are a few key points to consider…

http://bhgrealestateblog.com/2012/02/20/20-insanely-easy-ways-to-use-pinterest-in-your-business/

Pinterest Marketing for Real Estate

1. Tell a story about your city - This is a great way to use pictures you’ve taken around your city and highlight some of your favorite locations. Give buyers relocating into the area a good look at what certain neighborhoods or communities in your city look like.
2. Home Styles & Architecture - Architecture and style are so different from one state to the next. Whether the homes in your area are New England colonial, Spanish Revival or Cape Cod, providing pictures will allow buyers to connect with the look and feel of your city.
3. Historic Locations – Historic locations such as buildings, churches and monuments are a fun way for anyone new to your area to better understand the history.  What “insider” details can you share that offer unique insight into your towns past?
4. Local Business Spotlight – Create a board that shares your favorite vendors such as local supermarkets, gas stations, hairdressers, pet store, auto repair, plumbers, electricians and more!
5. Top Things to Do in Your Area – Spotlight fun things to do or attractions to see within your area. Choose the top sites exclusive to your neck of the woods.
6. First Time Homebuyer Tips Pin your blog posts or links back to pages on your website.  What questions do first time homebuyers have?  Answer those on your blog and you have ongoing content for this Pinterest board!
7. Tips to Prepare Your Home For Sale - If you are selling a home, what do you need to know?  Help prospects make an informed decision by answering questions about prepping their home for sale, how the appraisal process works, specifics about the community and how to correctly price their home.
8. Curb Appeal – Curb appeal means different things to different people.  Pin colorful landscapes, cascading waterfalls and lush gardens to display the various looks within your area.
9. Staging Tips –  Pin pictures of stunning before and afters that encourage re-pinning (think of retweets on Twitter) and paint a vivid picture of what a sellers home should look like to offer maximum appeal to buyers.
10. Mortgage process – The stages of the mortgage process can leave anyone swimming in a sea of questions.   Offer answers to FAQ about the loan application process, what to avoid and how to make an informed decision.
11. Guide to your city – Create a guide by pinning your favorite parks, museums, neighborhood restaurants and nightlife .  This can be anything you deem awesome enough that someone new to the area would want to visit.
12. Pet friendly locations – As a dog lover and someone who frequently travels with my two little guys, I am always on the lookout for pet friendly places to hang out.  Pin restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, bars, dog parks and any other pet friendly location in your community.  Believe me, they will love you for it!
13. Decorating on a dime – Everyone is looking to save wherever they can these days.  Offer home decorating “do it yourself” tips that are easy and affordable.  You can also pin shops within your area that sell unique but inexpensive home décor.
14. Home improvement ideas – From a complete kitchen makeover to DIY; pin home improvement projects that inspire and advise!
15. Gardening tips –  For new homeowners, learning basic gardening skills is important to the care and upkeep of their home.  Provide tips on how to cultivate a stunning garden and landscape.
16. How to make a move with children - If you look at moving as an exciting adventure full of fun and new possibilities, your children will be more apt to get on board.  Help clients moving into your area go through this change minus the drama by offering the how-to’s of a smooth move.
17. Cool coffee shops in your area – As a self diagnosed coffee addict, I am always on the lookout for local coffee shops with a cool, funky vibe.  I love anything with big, comfy chairs and a quiet atmosphere. Where do you enjoy spending your time?  You can bet your clients will too!
18. Moving day tips –  When you’re making a move, you can use all of the tips you can find.  From checklists to supplies, planning a move is a huge undertaking.  Pin tips on how to find free boxes, how to best pack breakables and how to budget for all moving expenses.
19. Things to do for free within your city – What sites can newcomers enjoy for free in your city?  Whether it’s a museum or a beautiful garden in the heart of the city, pin colorful pictures of your favorite locations.
20. Pictures of annual activities – Pin pictures of popular annual events such as fundraisers, school events and town hall meetings that someone new to the area might be interested in attending.

AnnounceMyMove LLC, a provider of social marketing tools to real estate agents, is partnering with a customer satisfaction surveying and reputation marketing service, ReachFactor, to allow agents to display a ReachFactor Badge in announcements that they build for their clients.

ReachFactor sends customer satisfaction surveys to past clients of participating agents and brokers. The company says consumers respond to these surveys about 70 percent of the time, providing “a mountain of real-time feedback” that can be automatically marketed through ReachFactor’s integration with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and a growing roster of marketing channels.

Improve online visibility
and reputation

ReachFactor is marketing technology for real estate agents to help improve their marketing productivity. ReachFactor helps agents collect and promote bona fide agent reviews (testimonials) and an agent’s listings to search engines and social media to increase the number of inbound leads per month.

Comments or remarks are the highest form of engagement on social media but they can also help you get to the next level of exposure if your status update (+) comments or remarks are being “shared” by others!

This is what Facebook “Edgerank” is all about (algorithm for the newsfeed) which determines the “top stories”.  

Do you want to become “remarkable” and therefore remain at the top of the newsfeed?  Then try being provocative, controversial, even polarizing to see just how “remarkable” you are!  Find out what works for you, and if it fails, as they say, you learn what does NOT WORK.  

Share your unique point of view but with a positive slant and benefit for your target audience. Do you have unique insight into a particular problem? Can you offer a solution that is unconventional? That is an example of how to become “remarkable” using Social Media Marketing and Status Updates!  Try IT!

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 3, 2012.

Inman News®

Flickr/meedanphotos

 

It’s an iPad world. More than 75 percent of the 110 real estate professionals who participated in a survey by marketing technology firm Imprev selected “iPad presentation” as the marketing tool they would most like to have.

“Drip” e-marketing campaigns placed a distant second at 35 percent, followed by websites at 29 percent, and blogs at 28 percent.

“Real estate agents are shouting that they want their iPad apps,” said Renwick Congdon, CEO of Imprev, the marketing technology firm that conducted the survey.

About 52 percent of respondents reported smartphones as their favorite hardware, followed by iPads/tablets at 26 percent, laptops at 16 percent, and desktop computers at 5 percent.

Fifty-one percent of survey respondents selected email as the most effective current marketing tool, followed by Agent website at 50 percent, virtual tours at 42 percent, printed postcards at 36 percent, and Facebook at 32 percent.

Ten years ago, according to survey respondents, the most effective marketing tools were all print-based, including newspaper display ads, postcards, fliers, newspaper classified ads and magazine display ads.

This is the phrase one might want to remember when thinking about facebook’s personal pages.  It can be a powerful marketing tool, OR simply a place to just be yourself with benefits!

Think of it this way- at home, you feel your most comfortable and you can be exactly who you are. I teach my students that facebook is the place where you can learn an awful lot about the people you care to really know through interaction, updates, and engagement. It’s also the place where you can “share” so much about your own life and the things that interest you.

The reason you want to care about facebook and all that it has to offer is simple:

The average facebook user has 130 friends (you do the math). If most of the people you connect with on facebook are your friends, or individuals you’ve known at one time or another, and you take the time to foster those through some kind of interaction with them, than chances are that they will be able to more readily refer you to their friends or use you when they need your services.   The more you interact and “share” your views, observations, humor, and accomplishments the more your friends will keep you in mind for future business ( this does not mean facebook littering- so careful how many times you post)   If you are up on what’s happening in the lives of those you are connected with- you too will be able to refer them to solutions or introduce them to people (including yourself) when you detect that they might have a need for a service you have or a resource you can direct them to. 

Facebook is not the place to “sell” your services, so, whatever you do- avoid making it a place where you try to insert yourself as a service provider. If you try to use it as a sales platform- people will basically un-friend you. No one wants to be “sold” to, and in fact are using the platform as a more authentic way of connecting to businesses and business people as REAL people.   

If you went home and you could not kick your shoes off and feel comfortable you likely would not enjoy it as a place to spend time… likewise, if someone was not behaving properly you’d want to go to your own room and shut the door or put on your headphones. 

The best way to get to know facebook is to observe how someone you know and respect and who seems to be “popular” is using it.

Our next post will discuss the reason you might want to set up a facebook business page and how it’s different from personal pages. While we are at it, please “Like” our Mindfull facebook page so that you can follow our posts and so that we can help you be more mindful about how you use social media in your every day life and in business.  Please feel free to comment or share your thoughts anytime!

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