Keeping up with all your social media outlets gets easier with NutshellMail. This is a must have service for anyone who has become a professional technology juggler. How it works is NutshellMail allows you to consolidate all your social media accounts into one mail message.  A summary of all your social media alerts will be sent directly to your main email account, where you can then interactively manage it all without having to deal with checking all your other accounts.

NutshellMail supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, Gmail and many more. It is a great tool to keep connected and build on all your media sites.  The best part is that you can schedule it to be sent on your own schedule. So let’s say you prefer to do all your blogging, chatting and facebooking in the morning, then you can set it up so that all those messages don’t bombard you during the day, and a nice neat message alerts you in the morning. Better yet, you can receive summaries of email messages from your lesser-used accounts.

Among the other features is the ability to tweet, reply, retweet and DM from your email inbox.  In a nutshell you have an electronic organizer for your social media outlets. Now you can move to more important things like getting that home off the market.

]]> http://epoweredagents.com/2010/05/16/nutshellmail-get-yourself-organized/feed/ 0 http://epoweredagents.com/2010/03/27/geo-fencing-technology-enhances-real-estate-marketing/ http://epoweredagents.com/2010/03/27/geo-fencing-technology-enhances-real-estate-marketing/#comments Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:56:36 +0000 randirapp http://epoweredagents.com/?p=782

Technology has brought us some pretty amazing things. Yet, for the real estate industry it has proven to be indispensable in marketing campaigns. Brace yourselves for a new wave of marketing tools designed to bring the homes directly to the buyer.

Imagine yourself driving down your favorite neighborhood. You begin to think this place is great, I wonder if there are any homes for sale, and suddenly your phone goes off.  You automatically have alerts on homes for sale in the area. As easy as turning on your phone, valuable real estate information has been complied for you specifically with the neighborhood you are in.  How is this possible? With “location-based” applications of course.

Thanks to the good people at Placecast, who have created an application called ShopAlerts, real estate marketing has reach a whole new level. This is how it works: Once the application is started on your mobile the gps technology in the phone will determine your location. Then the application will compile data from the set area and automatically send it to your mobile phone. Originally this application was intended for stores. So if a client regularly shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue, any time they would pass by the store, deals, new products and special promotions would automatically be sent to them.

This technology called “geo-fencing” can easily be translated into real estate marketing; defined areas of any location known as “fields” are set to trigger alerts to the mobile phone, therefore making the marketing campaigns personalized to a specific client.

Talk about instant gratification. Realtors will be able to set up entire marketing campaigns directly from their phones and computers, plus have it automatically sent to industry insiders. That is some pretty powerful marketing if you ask me.

For more information on location-based technology check out www.transparentre.com and www.realestatemarketingblog.org.

Click here to view the embedded video.

ActiveRain currently has a membership of over 160,000 RE Industry members averaging 200 new members daily.  There are more than 1.3 million articles posted, with an average of 10,000 new posts monthly.  Two million+ visitors traffic the ActiveRain network each month, over 80% are consumers.  Only Rainmaker upgraded accounts receive Google traffic to their blogs and posts.  ActiveRain Members blog posts receive more than 500 views on average.  Activerain provides a wide of variety of tools, services, and solutions to the Real Estate community and to the consumer.

So you think this might be a good resource for your business?

• Think about building your realtor base nationwide
• AR is a cost effective way of starting a blog
• Access to Localism  you can sponsor your community ( if it is available )

Here is the link to an ebook that will guide you through ActiveRain

One way to set up a blog is on a site such as Trulia. Trulia is similar to other MLS aggregators that put together the property listings for the public ot search. You can start your blog once you set up your account on Trulia. Here is a short video on seting up your blog.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trulia has other features like trulia voices where consumers can  ask questions about real estate and realtors who have signed up for trulia voices can answer these questions. Just another  way to make contact with the consumer !

These days its very easy to start your own blog. There are many platforms like Wordpress or  Blogger, where you can go in pick a template & start designing your own blog. Or you can hire a company that will design your blog using one of those platforms. It’s all a matter of time & money!

I think the simpler the blog the better, what really counts is the information you share. The information you share is called your content .

Here are some tips on developing content for your blog

1. First ask yourself who is your audience, are they buyers & sellers of real estate or another sector of the market?  You will be writing for them so you will need to put yourself in their place and figure out what is important to them.
2. Read other blogs in your industry & see what others are blogging about.
3. Your writing does not have to be perfect it should be as if you were having a conversation.
4. Write about your property listings or someone elses!
5. Write about events in your community

Offer help, be consistent, add value. This is what you do anyway. Now you are doing it online for the world to see !

Dianna Kokoszka is the president of MAPS Coaching for Keller Williams Realty. I was at a BOLD training and came across this statement from Dianna.

• When you want it means you lack. The brain hears you want & helps keep you in the wanting.
• Want = lack
• When you want money the brain says give them what they ask for-They ask for wanting money so keep them wanting money.
• Want control – never get it.
• Wanting control means you are lacking control & you’ll always lack.
• We cannot stand up & sit down at the same time
• You cannot want & have at the same time. 
• Release the want & you’ll receive it.

We must change the way we speak to ourselves in order to change our circumstances. This is the start of changing our limiting beliefs.

Here are things I hear from some agents regarding technology & social media.

• I don’t have time
• I don’t know how
• I don’t know what to say
• I like the old way better

What I have to say

• Take the time to open your mind
• Learn how
• This is marketing
• If you don’t incorporate technology you will become extinct

If you are not convinced watch this video for starters

I have been using Google Voice, formerly Grand Central for quite some time. I got a number when it was still Grand Central. I am sure you would agree that in the Real Estate business your phone is your everything! Customers have your number, your office has your number, vendors have your number, its on your cards and website. As realtors, you need to be accessible & responsive by email & phone.

Well, Google Voice makes that very easy. You need be invited to join & then you can choose practically any area code you want, from local or faraway destinations. You set it to ring your work phone, your cell phone & your home phone or whichever numbers you want to ring. You then can screen your calls, listen in and then decide to pick up or send directly to voice mail. Google Voice also transcribes the voice mail into text and it emails it to you !

SMS and Miscellaneous features

When people SMS your Google Voice number, the message will go directly to one or more (however many you have set up) mobile phones. You can respond to those SMSs directly from the phone, and that response will appear to come from your Google Voice number. You can also send and receive SMSs right from the Google Voice Web interface, so that you don’t have to take out your phone every time you want to text your friend to ask why he’s late picking you up—assuming you’re in front of a computer already, that is. Google Voice lets you archive your SMS logs too so that you can reach them anytime from the website.

Stay tuned for more information on how to use Google Voice in my future posts.

My Google Voice # is 954-892-6199.

Give me a call!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Real Estate tech Conference 2009

This year focused a great deal on Social Media & Video, but more than that there was a constant reminder that we must be “for” the consumer, that we must be a facilitator not a salesperson. What a concept to be “for” the consumer I wondered how we ever could be anything but on their side, then I recalled my experience as a consumer before I got my license,  then again getting into the real estate business. My experience  of real estate agents was less than stellar.

As a consumer my agent was only interested in how much the property was that I would be purchasing. Even after I purchased an expensive property to live in from her and then wanted to buy a property for my son.The agent just dropped the ball. Of course I did not become her client for life after that !

As an agent I found most other agents to be  cut throat, one agent against the other , no sharing or helping each other. I often wondered what  I doing in this business! I came from a previous career where the basic tenet was start where the client is , which can be totally transferred to the real estate business. Do more listening and more importantly HEARING!

I have always been for the customer be it my agents as their broker or the buyers and sellers I assisted. Very different  from many in the business.

 So as I sat there in Inman this year I realized how far we have come …the professionals were actually sharing with each other and with the consumers and talking about transparency, being open and building rapport with each other and the public . In my world there has never been any other way. If you wait long enough anything is possible!

All I can say is thank-you Inman, Web 2.0 & Real Estate 2.0 for leading the way and transforming this industry. It makes me proud to say I am in the real estate business.

The first two tips will provide you with what a repeat buyer wants most from their real estate agent.
The agent expectations by the repeat buyer are to:
Help find the right house to purchase -53% of buyers want this from their agent.
Help with price negotiations – 13% of buyers want this from their agent.
Help with paperwork – 8% of buyers want this from their agent.
Based on the above, here are some questions for you to consider.

Do you listen closely to your buyer’s wants and needs?

Are you up to date with the inventory of available homes in your marketplace?

Do you have negotiating strategies and skills to support buyer wants and needs?

Do you clearly understand purchase contracts?

Do you want to increase your competency in the areas that buyers want you to be skilled?
Please give me a call today and let me coach you to increase your buyer skills!