In the first part of this series, I told you how I came from the PC world to the Mac world.  In the second part I told you about the “gotchas” that are part of the process.  This week I want to tell you about why it’s all worth it.

Aside from the very obvious design factors that Apple brings to the table, why would I want to pay more for a computer from Apple than I would for one that runs Windows?  There are a number of answers to that question, but I’ll start with security.

You KNOW that you have to run anti-virus software on your PC don’t you?  And you know that you have to keep it updated daily, don’t you?  And you know that if you fail to do that basic preventative care that you WILL get an infection don’t you?

I don’t have to do that with the Mac.   I do run antivirus on the PC portion of my Mac, but I run the free program AntiVir.  I don’t need expensive AV products on that virtual PC because I ONLY use it for WinForms and MLS access.  Every thing else is done on the Mac side of the fence.  Some people say that it’s only a matter of time before virus writers learn how (or take enough interest in doing so) to write Mac specific viruses.  I don’t really agree with that thinking as I believe that the UNIX operating system that OSX is built on is inherently a safer system to run.

The Macs also have Time Machine built in.  Time Machine allows me to connect an external USB hard drive to my Mac and it will create a backup of my hard drive and then every time ANYTHING changes on my computer, it adds the change to the backup.  It keeps the backups in a format that allows me to find anything I want going back as far as the capacity of the drive will allow.  And it does so in the typical easy to figure out and use Mac interface.

Speaking of the Interface, it is truly easy to use.  Apple has a very complete and nice series of videos on it’s website that you can look at when you need to learn something new.  Most everything is intuitive and I haven’t been stymied for long when trying to figure out something new.

It comes with some pretty amazing software that handles my email, web browsing, contacts and calendar items.  Of course iTunes and the whole iPod (and iPhone) experience on a Mac is so much better than on the PC side of the world.

I purchased Microsoft Office for the Mac so I could get Entourage, which is the Apple equivalent of Outlook.  Guess what?  It’s better than Outlook!  I use it to connect with my company Exchange server.  All of my company email, contacts and calendar items seamlessly sync with Exchange.  The interface is easier to use than the one that Outlook provides.

I also purchased iWork 09 which gives me Pages, Numbers and Keynote, the Apple equivalent of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  Although Word and Excel are more powerful than Pages and Numbers, Keynote beats PowerPoint hands down in terms of what it can do and the ease of doing it.  I paid $129.00 for it and that allows me to install it on all three Macs.  Try that with MS Office for Windows.

I believe that the agent of the future is going to have to learn to communicate using video and audio in ways that we don’t use today.  Video and audio emails are so much easier to accomplish using the Mac than they were on my Windows PC.  The hardware and software on the Mac is designed to work with each other and it shows in the ease of use.  Said differently, it just works, every time.

Putting together multi-media presentations can be described as fun when done on a Mac as compared to doing the same thing on a PC.  I often work in Keynote, save the completed presentation as a movie, drop it into iMovie, create a soundtrack in GarageBand, take the sound track and drop it into iMovie with the Keynote file and create a movie with sound and graphics that can be uploaded to a video sharing site on the Internet or emailed to clients.  All done by dragging and dropping…

Finally, there is less clutter on my desk.  The iMac is fully self contained.  There is a power cord, an Internet cord, a keyboard cord and the cord to my external backup drive.  Everything else is built into the iMac.  No more separate display and big clunky box.

So, for all of those reasons, this is one PC guy who is now a Mac guy.  How about you?  What are you running?  Mac or PC?  And why?  Let’s hear from you.

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

True Confessions of a Windows user in a Mac World – Part Three

Last week I confessed that I am mostly a Mac guy these days and told you how that happened to me.  This week it’s only fair to tell you that the journey was not without issues, some of which are still with me.

The most obvious thing that I had to deal with was learning a new operating system.  Mac OSX is NOT Windows.  Things that I had grown used to in Windows either are done differently or not all in the Mac.  I am very dependent on the right mouse button in the Windows world.  In the Mac world it is not used that much, although it is supported.  The iMac came with the “Mighty Mouse” which can do both left and right clicks, although the right click feature is turned off by default.  Once you know the trick it’s easy to turn on, but I didn’t discover how until after I had purchased a standard two button USB mouse at the office supply store.  Oh well.

The other “gotcha” is that most of our Multiple Listing Services need Internet Explorer 6 or 7 in order to have the availability of ActiveX controls.  That’s a fancy way of saying that the MLS relies on some additional software that will only run on Microsoft Windows.  Back in the day when the old school MLS software providers were developing MLS software, ActiveX seemed like the way to go.  Today they could also accomplish what they need to do by using cross platform methods like Java.  Will they do it?  I don’t know, so if you are on your local MLS committee start moving for the change.

Also, our friends at WinForms (ZipForms) require ActiveX controls so that their FormsViewer software will work.  CAR Directors take note!

Both of these would be deal killers for real estate agents wanting to use a Mac if it wasn’t for the ability of Macs to run Windows.

If you recall, last week I told you that I started my wife off with Parallels on her iMac.  This worked reasonably well, but she did have the occasional issue with something not working quite right and I was often called upon to solve some obscure problem.  So, when I got my MacBook Pro, I installed VMWare Fusion and when I got the iMac, I did the same.  I eventually took Parallels off and installed VMWare Fusion on her iMac as well.  Anybody want to buy my Parallels license?

So far, for both of us, VMWare has proven to be the more stable of the two products and is the one that I recommend.

Neither of these products is free however.  You will need to plan on spending another $79.99 for VMWare (Parallels is priced similarly).

You will also need a full copy of Windows XP. (Or Vista.  Both will work)  This can be as much as $300 depending on where you buy it.  Then you have to install VMWare and then install Windows.  Both processes can be daunting if you have never done them before.

Additionally, you could “clone” your existing XP or Vista machine using the free VMWare Converter software.  This process copies every bit of your existing machine and turns it into something that VMWare can open and run on the Mac.  It copies XP or Vista and every file, picture, program, shortcut and link as well as any problems that might exist on the PC.  Parallels has a similar program although I never did get it to work.

So, unless you are adept with computers, the setup might best be farmed out to a technician who is knowledgeable and proficient with both PCs and Macs.

Once it is all set up, you now have two computers in one machine.  The native Mac running OSX and the virtual PC running Windows XP or Vista courtesy of VMWare Fusion.

When you need to run WinForms or need access to the MLS, you have to start VMWare and then start the virtual machine.  Windows starts and you can then run all the Windows programs that you have installed.  No problem if you cloned your old PC.  If you didn’t do it that way, you’d have to install Office and any other Windows program you want.  The virtual PC can use the Mac’s Internet connection, printer, speakers, camera and almost any other USB connected device.  Pretty sweet!

In Part Three I’ll talk about some of the reasons why I believe the Mac is the way to go for real estate agents.

http://realtytechbytes.com/true-confessions-of-a-windows-user-in-a-mac-world-part-three/

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

True Confessions of a Windows user in a Mac World – Part Two

It’s true. I am now (mostly) a Mac. I have been a Windows guy since 1986 when I bought my first PC, an IBM XT Clone. It ran DOS 3.1 and had an amber monitor. I used that computer to catapult my fledgling real estate business into the top 10% of my office within my first 18 months in the real estate business.

And I never looked back. I went from PC to PC, always getting the latest and most powerful PC on the market. Except for my laptops, I always built my own PCs from components and in the process gained a really in depth knowledge of computers and how they worked. I knew about Macs but also “knew” that they weren’t meant for any serious business. I even rented time on a Mac Classic at the local print shop to learn how to do flyers on it. I was honestly baffled by the mouse and the user interface in general and never went back.

Along the way I obtained three increasingly complex certifications from Microsoft that further expanded my knowledge and cemented me to the Windows platform. Whenever any one new to our business would ask about the type of computer to buy, my answer was always the same, a Windows PC from a reputable manufacturer.

In the last few years though, a crack has been appearing in my Windows armor. It started when Apple announced that its operating system was going to be built upon UNIX. This meant that users of Macs would have better security and stability available to them as UNIX is the operating system used by many large businesses to run their operations. But, UNIX is not user friendly to say the least. The magic that Apple applied was to layer their wonderful user interface over the UNIX background and in so doing, brought UNIX to the masses. The user of a Mac has no idea that they are actually running UNIX. Apple did a superb job on bringing together an industrial strength operating system with an award winning graphical user interface.

The crack widened further when Apple announced that it was going to change the hardware that they used to build their products to the same hardware used in PCs. That meant that the Microprocessor was going to be of the Intel line instead of the Motorola Power PC line. This was huge, in my book, as it meant that it would now be possible to run Windows on a Mac. Up until this point if you wanted to run Windows programs on a Mac, you could do so, but at an enormous penalty in terms of speed, as the software had to “translate” the software into to something that the PowerPC processor used in Macs could understand, and then translate the output back into the Intel based Windows software. This caused these programs to run extremely slowly.

The final split occurred for me when I learned that it was possible to run both Windows and Mac operating systems and all of their programs side by side on a Mac by using virtualization software. Virtualization software by Parallels or VMWare creates a “virtual PC” on the Mac’s hard drive. A virtual PC exists only in software and is invoked by merely clicking on an icon on the Mac. The virtual PC can co-exist with the Mac allowing you to switch between Mac or PC with the click of the Mouse, or it can take over entirely. It can also be put to sleep where it waits to be called to life. When it’s not in use it claims no resources and when it is brought back to life it does so immediately without the painfully slow Windows boot up process.

The Mac can be “taught” that certain things should always be run on the Mac side or should always be run in Windows. If you click on something that should only be run in Windows, the virtual PC starts and the appropriate Windows program runs! It’s like having two computers in one. How cool is that?

So, I began my move to the Mac. I started by buying my wife a 24” iMac in October of 2007. I installed Parallels on it for her and then installed Windows XP Professional (although XP Home would have worked as well for her).

Then in January of 2008 I bought a 17” MacBook Pro for my self and installed VMWare Fusion in it as well as Windows XP Pro. Finally, when my home desktop computer began to show signs of obsolescence I replaced it in April of 2009 with a 24” iMac. I installed VMWare Fusion and Windows XP Pro on it. In fact, I used the software from VMWare to install an exact copy of my old Windows PC on the Mac. Wow! Who knew that you could do that?

So, my move is nearly complete. I still have a Vista machine in my office and my tablet and convertible laptops are XP machines. I just bought my wife a new Asus EeePC 1000HE Netbook, as Apple has not entered the tablet or netbook markets.

So, what is the experience like? That will be the topic of next week’s post! Stay tuned.

http://realtytechbytes.com/true-confessions-of-a-windows-user-in-a-mac-world-part-two/

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

True Confessions of a Windows user in a Mac World – Part One

You have probably heard about the Amazon Kindle, the new device that allows you to instantly download a “book” and read it on a lightweight device that looks like a small pad of paper.

If you have never heard of it, pop on over to Amazon and search for Kindle. Although I’ll bet you find a link as soon as you arrive there.

The idea is that you can download any of the over 200, 000 books that have been prepared for viewing on the Kindle. The catch? Each book is $9.99. This is a little more than some paperbacks, and a little less than others. And like any book purchase, it’s yours after you have bought it.

The downside to all of this is that you have to shell out well over $300.00 to buy the Kindle. The upside is that if you are going on a trip, you only have to take the Kindle and its charger, not the pile of books that you would normally take.

Go to Amazon to learn more, as this is not a review of the Kindle. Rather, it is an expose of a way that I just learned about that will save you hundreds of dollars if you are a reader.

Who knew that the National Association of Realtors® has a free lending library of ebooks, audiobooks, and videos? I certainly didn’t.

Here is how it works. You go to http://ebooks.realtor.org to begin. From that page you can learn about the process of selecting, downloading and reading books. Since it is a library service, you don’t buy the books, you get them free. Like any library, you can only have the books for a definite period of time. Once the time is up, the books “expire” and can no longer be read. That solves the problem of getting books at the library and then having to return them. In order to “borrow” a book, NAR wants you to have your NRDS number handy so they know that you are a member.

Many of the books that I have already purchased for the long flights between here and London and back home again were available for download on Realtor.org.
If I had only known!

As it turns out, your local library probably has a similar system in place for checking out books. To get those books, you just need a library card from your library. To learn more about the process of using your local library (and NAR’s library) go to this website walk through of the process: http://www.overdrive.com/products/dlr/tour/default.asp

So, if you add up the cost of a Kindle, and $9.99 a book times however many books you read in a year, you can save a pile of money.

One other thing, I looked at over 20 pages of titles at Realtor.org. Only 1 book was checked out and unavailable to me (Of course it was the “one” I wanted!). That tells me that this service is vastly underutilized and the chances of you finding and borrowing the book that you want are excellent.

See you at the “library”!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Who needs a Kindle? Read ebooks for free!

You can also fax files to the drop, call it’s private phone number and leave a voicemail message that can be listened to by anyone accessing the drop, or even hold a conference call using the drop’s built in conference calling feature. A recently added feature allows you to conduct webinars through the drop.

The drops are anonymous, meaning that you do not have to provide a name or email address to create one, although you may wish to do so to ensure that the folks at drop.io can assist you if you forget the name you gave your drop. (This means that there is no need to log in to the drop to view it) The only way to find your drop without their assistance is by remembering the name you gave it…the drops are not indexed by any search engine! You can password protect the drop and ensure that casual passersby cannot access the drop.

The major complaint that I have heard from people is that they can’t understand how to use drop.io, so I have created a video to take you through it step by step. Take 15 minutes and follow along. I think that you’ll be amazed at what it can do for you and all for free to boot!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

The best free file storage (and sharing) tool you have never heard of

If that was your answer, you are not alone. Most of the people that I talk with NEVER back up their data. I guess that if you don’t have anything that you would hate to lose that would be ok. But, almost everyone has something on their computer that would cost a lot of time, money or heart ache to replace if it was to be lost forever.

You might say to me that you have been ok up until now with your “I don’t back up my computer” strategy, but I am here to tell you that you are living on borrowed time. Ask ANY computer technician if you are at risk and they all will tell you that it’s not IF you will wish you had a backup, it’s just a matter of WHEN. You see, all computer hard drives will eventually fail. Many computers will contract a virus that could delete or corrupt data, some computers will get stolen or lost and some will be lost to fire, flood or earthquake. (To say nothing of the times that you accidentally delete something that you wish you hadn’t!)

I’ll admit that backing up a computer is no where near as much fun as playing a rousing game of solitaire with the computer, or reading or sending email. But, it’s got to be done. The purpose of this post is to expose you to several different ways to get the job done with a minimum of aggravation and cost.

To start with, if you have a Mac Running OS 10.4 or later all you need to do is buy an external USB Hard Drive equal in size to your computer’s hard drive and plug it in. The built in “Time Machine Software” runs in the background and creates backups on the fly. Every time something on the Mac’s Hard drive changes, Time Machine stores a copy. If you choose to activate the MobileMe account for $99.00, then Apple will give you 10 gigabytes of online storage (along with some other other goodies) which will allow you to sync items like calendar, contacts email and more from your Mac to the online storage giving you some redundancy.

If you are in the Windows world, you can do much the same, just not as easily. You can purchase a USB external hard drive equal in size to your computer’s hard drive and use the included backup software that comes with most of them to schedule backups.

This will work well, but still leaves you exposed to theft of the backup drive and your computer as well as fire, flood or earthquake loss.

The solution to this is sign up for an online backup service such as http://ww.Mozy.com or http://www.carbonite.com. Both offer free and paid services. You download a small piece of software to your computer, install it, run it and it will ask you what you want to backup and how often you want to backup. At that point it’s on autopilot. If you have a lot of data, you will outgrow the free allotment and will have to purchase a paid program that can be as little as $4.95 a month for MozyHome (No commercial or business use allowed) or pay $3.50 a month and .50 per Gigabyte for the MozyHomePro. Carbonite is similarly priced but does not have a free option beyond a trial period. Both services use very strong encryption to make sure that your data is safe while being backed up over the Internet as well as while they store it. Both services offer robust, yet easy to use Restoration of data should you need it.

One more way of backing up data, that is free is Windows Live Mesh Beta (https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx). This service gives you 5 gigabytes of free storage and allows you to sync multiple computers with the storage (phones and Macs too). Of course if you don’t have multiple computers this won’t work for you! But, if you do, and if your storage needs are under 5 GB, this might be the best solution of all, as not only will it keep the two computers in sync, you can also grant access to your files to another party, like your assistant, if needs be.

As you can see, with a minimal (or no) cash outlay, and a little bit of your time, you can “buy” yourself some peace of mind and security. If you are not sure that you can handle doing this on your own, hire a tech to set it up for you. It will be money well spent.

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Data disaster blues and how to avoid them

Instead of typing 500 words, I thought I’d just do a short (8 minutes) video on it for you. This way I can show you a few of the features that I really like.

I hope that you like it!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Evernote, your online and offline brain

If you are in the market for a new computer you may want to give some serious consideration to the newest generation of computers, the netbook.

What is a netbook? Although there are some differences of opinion, a netbook is generally considered to be a notebook style computer that has a screen size from 8” to 10” (diagonal measure), weighs less than 3 pounds, has 1 GB of RAM, either a solid state drive or a traditional hard drive, and has WiFi, webcam and microphone built in. They generally run with an Intel Atom processor which is much less powerful than what you find in mainstream laptops or desk top machines.

In non technical terms, this means that you can have a lightweight, small computer that is perfect for email, web browsing, MLS access (Windows versions only), Skype video calls, Instant Messaging, watching online videos and light computing tasks. In other words, a perfect machine for the real estate agent on the go!

When you factor in the cost, generally less than $500.00, you come up with something that will be hard to beat!

Some of the downsides are that the machines are not powerful enough to do any video rendering, photoshopping and anything that requires lots of RAM and powerful processors. The small screens and smaller keyboards can be a problem for the visually impaired or the expert touch typist. For a hunt and peck guy like me the keyboard isn’t a problem.

This is a rapidly changing market, but currently the brand leaders are MSI, Asus, HP and Dell. Here are some links to product reviews so that you can compare the different models for yourself, ZDNet Reviews and PCWorld Reviews

But for our purposes I would recommend the following specifications:

• Intel Atom Processor
• 1 GB RAM (If you can get 2 GB, go for it!)
• 160 GB Hard Drive
• Microsoft Windows XP Home or Vista Home
• 10” Screen
• WiFi
• WebCam
• Built-in Microphone

You won’t want to run Microsoft Office on these machines, but Google Docs or OpenOffice offer Microsoft Office compatible free applications that will handle all of your normal word processing needs. And if you get a machine with Microsoft XP or Vista installed you’ll have no trouble accessing the MLS. (Many of these machine also have Linux as an operating system option).

Check out netbooks before buying a new laptop…you could save hundreds (or thousands) of dollars.

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Your next Laptop is a NetBook

So when this happened to me today, I went on a search for a way to bypass the “phone tree” and here is what I found. ContactHelp is a web site that allows you to search their database to find a way to defeat the phone tree and speak directly with a human being by pressing a few keys.

I spent a few minutes on their site, found what I was looking for, made the call, pressed some buttons and was soon speaking with a real person!  We were able to resolve my issue and I was on my way to enjoy the day.

They have divided up the database in to a number of different categories to make using the sire easier.

As you can see, they have categories for Automotive, Financial Services, Government, Health and Medicine, Internet, Media, Phone Companies, Shipping, Shopping and travel.

The categories are broad, but if you can’t decode where to look for a particular company, you can just enter the name of the company in the search box near the top of the home page, and if they are in the database, you’ll get whisked away to the instructions on how to deal with them

I spent some time looking for some obscure companies and was surprised that they had all but two of the ones I looked for.

If you happen to know a number that they don’t have, you are invited to add it to the database.  You are also invited to update the database should you discover their information to be out of date.

Here is a sample to show you what info they have available.  Ever try to cancel an AOL account?  Here’s how to reach a person to plead your case.

I don’t mean to pick on AOL, but I recall several frustrating hours trying to help someone cancel an AOL account that could have been better spent, and would have if we had been able to get to a live person sooner rather than later.

The instructions are clear.  Just dial the number they give you, press the buttons in the order given and you will reach a live person.  They also provide email addresses and hours of operation.  You are also given an opportunity to correct any info or add any that you might have.

As we used to say in the sixties…Power to the people!

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

Power to the People!

I started my real estate career in Santa Rosa at the end of June in 1986 with Merrill Lynch Realty’s Waterfall Towers office.  I had completed the 3 week new agent training program offered by Merrill Lynch and had even completed all of the courses required to obtain a Broker’s license, although I only held a Salespersons license.

All of that training lead me to believe that I was prepared to do what it took to become successful in the business. But, I was totally mistaken.  I was prepared to actually do the business, but only if I had some business to do.

And there was the problem.  I had only lived in Santa Rosa a few years and had no network of friends, past business associates, family or school associates to draw upon for business.  Consequently, I didn’t see my first commission check until 6 months had gone by.

The reason for that length of time is that I had to create a network of people that I could ask for business and it had to be large enough to actually be a source of business.  In those days, as it is now, the larger the network that a real estate agent can draw upon, the greater the chances of creating business.

I used a combination of open houses, door knocking, direct mail (just listed and eventually just sold postcards), and FSBO and Expired Listings to build my network.  Frankly, I didn’t enjoy any of those methods and always longed for a method that would allow me to reach many more people in a shorter period of time.  Advertising in the local paper and real estate magazines promised this, but the return on the investment never really justified that as an option for me.

Once I had settled into a method of growing my network that was repeatable, sustainable and delivered results, my business took off and as they say, the rest was history.

Fast forward 22, almost 23 years, and we find that nothing really has changed in that we still need to have a large network of people to draw upon to have enough transactions to complete.  The difference is that today we have the method that I longed for of reaching a large number of people in a short period of time.  It’s called  Social Media, Social Networking or Web 2.0.  Regardless of what you call it, the basic premise of it is people talking to people without the friction of actually being face to face at the same point in time or space to do so.

If I could have designed the perfect real estate tool to advance my business, this would have been it  Today’s social tools allow the real estate agent to connect with people and to further connect with the people that they know.  Today I can put some useful information out on a blog or a Facebook page and have it seen by countless numbers of people often instantaneously, and know that it will be there for people to see going far forward into the future. I can do it for pennies, not dollars.  And it takes minutes, not the hours that it used to take to distribute flyers around town.

Even though consumers can get property and sales information online, they still need your help to make their way through the transaction. Both CAR and NAR have published the results of surveys that they have done last year that report on the activities done by both buyers and sellers as they navigate through the process of buying and selling a home.   It’s a universally accepted fact that both buyers and sellers use the Internet in some fashion during the process.  We KNOW that we need to be found in the online space.  And because of that we have web sites.  What we don’t yet grasp is that we need to engage the consumers online.  We need to give them reasons to come back and spend time with our online presence.  Sadly, most visits to real estate agent’s online presences are only one time events.

The new social media tools give us the opportunity to engage the consumer who is already online, while they are online.  We can engage them through our blogs or our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts.  We can engage them with information about the things that are important to any one wanting to live in our areas, but that are hard to find online.

And, the tools allow us to reach a much wider audience than we could in the past.  To prove that, have you ever forwarded an email to others you know because you felt that they could use or enjoy the content?  Of course you have.  Now, have you ever received a post card in the mail, taken it down to Kinkos made copies and then mailed it out to your friends?  Of course not.  But one comment on your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter account has the potential to circle the globe as people either forward it or the link to the content.  It can go “viral” as they say.

So, why don’t we just get involved with social media?  I hear these reasons frequently, maybe even from you!  “There are too many tools to choose from.  How do I know where to start?” or “I don’t get this stuff.  I am too old.”

This is typical of generational communications gaps.  There will always be new tools coming on to the market and there will always be gaps in the way that generations communicate.  At issue today is the fact that the younger generations are already using these tools and have the expectation that the real estate professional that they work with will also use them.  If you don’t use them you become invisible to the person who is looking for their service providers via social media.  Its also fact that all generations are adopting these tools, perhaps even your clients.

And then I hear “I am not a techie.”  When I hear this I think that the person saying it is missing the point.  Social media is NOT technology.  It is relationships between people.  And this is where we excel.  We create and nurture relationships.  These tools were developed for the express purpose of helping people create and nurture relationships.

You didn’t have to understand the internal combustion engine (or hybrid engines today) to drive a car.  But, you did have to learn how to drive one.  You don’t have to understand the technology behind social media, but you do need to learn how to use it.

It’s not about the technology anymore.  It’s about you and me and the consumers.  Talking with each other.  Getting real with each other.

Is everything that is said on social media useful or even relevant?  Of course not.  Is every thing that we say or do in the course of a day useful or relevant to business?  Of course not.

But, every thing said by you on social media increases your exposure and through that exposure you get increased opportunities to meet new people and do more business.

Are you in or are you out?

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 - All rights reserved - http://RealtyTechBytes.com

It’s Social Media, not Technology Media