The main thing I took away from Eric’s talk was a remark he made about learning how people view your website. Eric suggested buying a little stack of $5 gift cards from a coffee shop, then politely asking a few customers there if they’d be willing to surf your website for a few minutes in exchange for a gift card. The point is to see how an actual person uses your site, what they find useful about it and what they completely overlook.

Reading your website stats can tell you a lot about how people find you and what they look at while they’re on your site, but sitting beside an actual person while they view your site for the first time can give you priceless information. Questions you may want to ask:

• Did you find the information you expected to see?
• Was the site easy to navigate?
• Did you like the site design?
• Would you know how to contact me if you had a question?

After a few borrowed minutes, give a quick thank you for their time, pass them a business card and let them get back to their coffee. Then take a look at your website with fresh eyes and think about how to make use of what you’ve learned.

Thank you for sharing this, Eric!

From all of us at Real Estate Shows to all of you, Happy Memorial Day!

The video above is embedded from Wordpress.com’s latest upgrade called VideoPress. For $59.95 per year, VideoPress allows you to upload video files directly to Wordpress.com. The video files appear directly in your Wordpress.com blogs and are able to be embedded on other blog platforms, as you see here.

How can you do it yourself?

To post your Real Estate Shows to Wordpress.com, first export them to video. You find this option in the “Publish” section of your account. Then download the zipped video file to your hard drive, unzip the file and upload to your Wordpress.com blog using VideoPress. As you can see, the quality of the video compression is excellent and the video was fully processed in less than two minutes.

We start with a Show of 5, 9 or 15 photos. These photos become the base for advertising your listing. Begin by adjusting focal points, selecting music and adding data. From here you can increase value by adding unlimited additional photos, property mapping, panoramas, print quality flyers and video conversion. If you put in the local school’s zip code, you’ll have local school information added, too.

We offer tracking reports so you can gauge the effectiveness of your marketing. (Clients love to receive these, too.) You can download your Show files and create CDs to give out. You can point to these CD files on your desktop to use in a PowerPoint listing presentation if you like.

Shows can be connected together if you’d like to spotlight the neighborhood or some special aspect of the home. We also have lots of ways to help people spread your Show around for you, such as social bookmarking tools. There’s a button to help buyers make an appointment with you to view the home.

Checking “Viewable in Other Shows” on your Manage page helps to build an inventory list of your Shows. Keep this list up to date and consider adding the URL of your Other Shows to your email signature.

If you prefer the look of an embedded Show on your website or blog we do offer that option as well. It brings more attention to the Show than a little link and it also keeps people from clicking away from your site. Use our listing widgets to display information on your current listings, community information and more.

The Flyers are a favorite feature of mine because they save so much time. You’ve already uploaded the pictures and written the property description, why start over again for a flyer? Just few clicks and you’re done, with a choice of many designs. They can be used online as a listing webpage or printed for use as traditional flyers.

We help you connect online to sites such as Realtor.com, your MLS, Trulia, Zillow, Facebook, Homes, Google base, Viewr, Vast, Geebo, Hotpads, Ebay, Craigslist and more!

We also offer a large selection of pre-made Instant Shows that you can customize or use as-is to keep in touch with your clients, family and friends, like an e-card that subtly advertises you as an agent. (They’re great in your blog or website, too!)

Video conversion is currently in beta testing. (Not available in trial accounts.) If you have an account with YouTube, we’ll upload directly to your account there, or you can download the video file and upload it to the video hosting site of your choice.

We also have a nice customer service staff who really want you to succeed and are always happy to discuss marketing ideas with you. I’ve thrown a lot of information at you and there is STILL more you can do with Real Estate Shows, so if you have questions or comments please feel free to ask here, email us at info@realestateshows.com or call us at 888.580.7627.

If you’d like to have this Show in your own Real Estate Shows account, just click Instant Shows on the Main Menu, then Import Show. Once it’s in your account, feel free to edit or personalize in any way you like.

Don’t forget your own Mom — she’d probably love a Show with pictures of you growing up, and Grandma might appreciate a Show of her little angels to share with all her friends!

If you don’t see the video above, click here.

This made me wonder about how to best show someone your expertise in real estate. And I’m cheap, I want to do it for free - so let’s use the blog or website you already have and start from there. (If you don’t already have an online presence, consider this your call to action.)

Let’s talk about a testimonial page. It’s a simple thing, and if someone is thinking of hiring you as their agent, it will help them to hear from others how they felt after going through a transaction with you. You can tell people how awesome you are - but hearing it from other people really means something, doesn’t it?

So let’s build content that lets your past clients and listings speak for you. Hopefully after you sell a listing, you’re going back to the Manage page in your Real Estate Shows and clicking that little dropdown box that says “Move Show Into” Sold. (Bonus points, doing this also “unsends” any Flyers you may have distributed online so you’re not advertising a sold listing.) Go to your Real Estate Shows Manage page and click on the Sold tab. Click Get Widget at the top of the page, copy the code and use it on your testimonials page.

These Sold listings are telling the story of your real estate experience. If you sold listings before you found Real Estate Shows, consider creating Shows of those listings now so you don’t leave any of them out. Each one speaks of a satisfied client, a goal achieved.

Also remember you don’t have to have been the listing agent to include a home in your Sold category. Take your camera to the final walk through and make a Show. A shot of the exterior with their smiling faces is a great gift to them (make a CD of this Show and run it by to stay in touch) and it speaks volumes on a testimonials page. (And just so you know, your buyers will likely pull out that old CD when they think of selling their home, just to see how much they’ve changed it since they moved in. Seeing your name again at this point is HUGE. Make sure they have that CD!)

The next step is at the closing table. You’re beside your clients and they’re happy to be there. Pass them a sheet of paper and ask if they’d mind writing up a short testimonial for you to use on their website. Ask if it would be OK to use that picture of them smiling in front of their new home, or even to embed their personal Real Estate Show.

Or you may even want to consider making one Real Estate Show to illustrate your Sold listings. Use one exterior shot of each home, use the address as a photo title and embed the Show on your page. Be sure to add to it as you go along, upload new Solds as Additional Photos to stay current quickly.

There are a lot of ways to make the tools you’re already using work to show off your expertise, whether you’re selling real estate or drills. Using Real Estate Shows alongside feedback from your past clients can help a potential client feel comfortable initiating contact with you.

I read “Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow at the recommendation of Daniel Rothamel at Real Estate BarCamp Virginia. This is a work of science fiction, based in a time where death is obsolete and money no longer exists. In place of currency, your net worth is figured in “Whuffie” - and Whuffie is exactly why I’m recommending this as a business book. Oh, it’s a great read on it’s own, but if you’ve looked at “social media” from the outside and wondered what value anyone would see in sites such as Twitter or Facebook, the answer is Whuffie. Whuffie is just a measurement of your social worth, respect or esteem. If you provide something of value to others (in this case, educational links, breaking news, solutions to problems or just simple friendship), their good feelings towards you will increase your Whuffie points and you’ll have a higher net worth. We may not be keeping a numerical score, but Whuffie is out there. You can download this book, in many different formats, for free here.

World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott is about how to create a viral event using the power of social media. I bought the book not for it’s intent but because the book speaks very much to the way consumers view the market today. This book concentrates on advertising through means which cost little to no money, how to reach a large audience (surprisingly, sometimes by starting with very few people) and how not to alienate the very people you’re trying to reach. World Wide Rave suggests turning advertising around to solve your clients’ problems rather than preaching about what you can do. It’s about THEM. (Bonus points to the book because it features my friend Mike Lefebvre. Hi, Mike!)

What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis is kind of a survival handbook for businesses that might need to evolve to better fit in our Googled-up world. (Hint: as an independent contractor, it’s a good idea to know this stuff.) You’ll learn how customer service is the new marketing, how a group of fans on Facebook discussing your product is worth a thousand ads and that when you give over control of the direction of your business to the people you’re trying to service, you ALL win. Get out there and listen to the people you want to work with!

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky explains how groups form, work together and accomplish goals. When you first join a network such as Twitter, you may see what looks like the whole world streaming by and wonder how you’d ever keep up. If you stick with it, you realize that you can follow your friends, family, associates, random interesting people, celebrities and more, and you create a little group all your own. Here Comes Everybody explains how we keep groups to a manageable size for ourselves while still having the power of a much larger community. Members of groups tend to want to help each other, following an unwritten rule of “if I take care of you now, someone will take care of me later.” The easy formation of groups makes it possible to “fail faster” so you can get past it on with the stuff that works.

A funny thing happened after I read What Would Google Do?. I tweeted that I’d just finished WWGD and loved it - what should I read next? My answer came from Jeff Jarvis himself, suggesting I read Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. As you’ve just read, I took his advice and I’m glad I did. If you’d like to follow all four of these authors on Twitter, please do:@doctorow, @dmscott, @jeffjarvis and @cshirky.

And if you’d like to suggest what I should read next and why, please do!

Drew Fristoe lives and works in historic Fredericksburg, VA and wanted online buyers to really connect with a special property. After creating a main Show, he might have included more photos under the Additional Photos section of the Real Estate Show. Instead, he wanted potential buyers to realize this home is a cut above, so he created and connected new Shows for The Gardens, Unique Features and even Scenes From the Wall Paper in the Living Room. (The Unique Features Show is full of the kind of details that would help me to fall in love with a home, and also makes a great reminder for someone who has already viewed the home.)

I can only imagine that his sellers are THRILLED with the extra care that Drew has given their home. When buyers find this Show, they’re going to know this is not just another listing. A buyer that is particularly attracted to this home is going to thrilled to have so many views inside and out — instant gratification like that is why we put so much information online for buyers in the first place!

In case you’re wondering, you can use these connected Shows in your MLS. If you add the MLS compliant version of the main Show, all of the connecting Shows will automatically be in the same format.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful listing with us, Drew!

Thank you, Tavia!

If you’re thinking of trying this yourself, why not test it on the new Instant Show about the spring time change? Your clients might appreciate the reminder!

The way Real Estate BarCamps developed is very similar to the way they work: someone had a great idea and ran with it, others added their expertise and it became something really special. The inspiration for Real Estate BarCamp came from the tech barcamps and “unconferences” in the bay area where Andy Kaufman lives. Andy thought it would work well for real estate and decided to try one the day before Inman Connect San Francisco 2008. When he announced it on Daniel Rothamel’s Zebra talk radio show, Todd Carpenter immediately called with an offer to build a Real Estate BarCamp website. The rest of RE.net fell in love with the idea and here we are — Real Estate BarCamp has even become popular enough not to need the draw of a conference to draw attendees. In fact, I’ll be driving six hours myself to attend REBCVA and I can’t wait!

BarCamps are fast paced, fun and extremely educational. (And strangely enough, they don’t take place in bars, although you can usually find a few attendees who would be glad to help you find one afterward.) You’ll learn about the newest tools and fresh ways to make use of what you’ve already got. You’ll find a great mix of Real Estate Rock Stars and those just starting out, and the ideas from all blend and create something new we wouldn’t have had otherwise. It’s an amazing thing to take part in a BarCamp!

All this and they’re FREE to attend! I hope there’s one near you and that you’ll give it a try. Here’s a list of some upcoming BarCamps, please click for more details:

• Fredericksburg, VA March 3
• Los Angeles, CA April 2
• Portland, OR April 23
• Phoenix, AZ April 23
• Denver, CO May 22
• San Francisco, CA August 4

Each of these BarCamps will have a free Real Estate Shows subscription up for grabs! (It’s worth attending just for all you’ll learn, but a chance to win a year of free RES isn’t bad either.) If you win you’ll be given my contact information and I’ll personally help you set up your account and get you started.

Go, learn, have a great time and tell me all about it, OK?

So, after you’ve got your digital cameras out there roaming around, it’s time for another round of “how can I get local readers invested in my blog?” Let’s apply what we just learned: People like to see themselves in your blog. Said another way: People like your blog if they see themselves there.

I saw this idea this morning and it was an instant hit with me - the Human Calendar. Go peek and think about a page like that full of your locals. I absolutely love the idea of using photos to provide information that could have been in ordinary text, but I’m wondering if a calendar is the way to go. I think it might be better to translate this idea for use with something you’ve already found value in, something you’re already posting regularly.

If I look back at my own blog statistics, I can see that one of my reoccurring big draws are the high school football schedules. I’m in a small town and high school football is a big deal here. We have only four high schools in my whole county - what if my football schedules this year were made up of photos of local football players holding up cards spelling out who’s playing who, where and when?

Take a look at the tags you use frequently and consider how a picture might make that information come to life a little more. Even statistical information that you share on a regular basis might be jazzed up a little with some smiling local faces — and it gives people another reason to check back in if they might see themselves or someone they know.