Mike Mueller, Social Media.ist

Here’s one for the Loan Originators…

Quick…

Which of the following Social Media Networks do you think you would most likely find a not too technical, 47 yr old Real Estate Agent? You know, that long time Agent who is never in the office, works from home, sends out seasonal recipe cards, and is closing one deal every other month?

The one without a real website (or blog)?  Yeah, that one!

Would it be…

• MySpace?
• Facebook?
• Twitter?
• LinkedIn?

You’re right! You did say LinkedIn right? (ok, maybe the title gave it away)

That “Old School Agent ” signed up for LinkedIn three years ago.
At the time, they had no idea what social media was - they still don’t.
They probably signed up and forgot about it. They haven’t logged in in years and they’ll have to reset their password to get back in…
But if you find them and ask to connect to them, the LinkedIn system will send them a message letting them know.

Do we really want to make meaningful connections with someone like that? One of the 80% doing 20% of the business?

I say, “Why not?”

It’s simple to do, it’s not time consuming, and it’s free.  Oh and one more thought, nobody else is reaching out to them, NOBODY !

I like competing against nobody.

Ready to start searching?  Here’s three easy ways to find them.

1. Type their name in the search box.  That’s all.  Yeah, that was a gimmee.

2. Let LinkedIn search your address book for matching emails and names.  Give LinkedIn access to your online address book (as in Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail) or upload a comma separated value file from your ACT, Outlook, or other database.

3. Find them using the Advanced Search Function .  Just set the following two parameters.

• Location: Located in or near (your zip code)
• Industry: Real Estate

That little search found 3,036 local real estate agents!

Out of that 3,036 I’ll guess that very few are actually using social media, very few are in the office, and very few are being contacted by anyone (you or your competition).

Yet these agents are closing deals, not heavy hitter kind of numbers, but deals none the less.  And guess what?  By making the effort to genuinely connect with them they’ll be sending you their deals. Does that make sense?

Want to sweeten the pot? You can now show them how to tap into LinkedIn to find new business.

Go to LinkedIn and start making meaningful connections today!

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Image via Wikipedia

You probably didn’t notice but Twitter added a name search recently.

That means I can search by first name, last name, or complete name.  It used to be you could only search by username.  That would be fine if you were looking for me, @MikeMueller, but not so fine if you were searching for someone like Daniel Rothamel who goes by @RealEstateZebra.

It seems that it ranks the results based on the number of Followers. That may be fine for certain instances but I’d also like to be able to sort by updates, or other attributes.

My search for other Mueller’s turned up almost 200 .

* and No, I didn’t find Robert Mueller on Twitter (yet)

If your name is "Smith" you’ll find almost 4,000 of your kin!

BTW: You’ve always been able to search for a particular username.

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December 26th is Boxing Day !  At least in Canada and other parts of the UK .

Think you know what that means?

Let’s set the record straight

Boxing Day is NOT…

• The day to throw out all the boxes from yesterday
• The day to challenge your neighbor
• The day to swap the “Tighty Whiteys ” for something with a little more room
• The day to get the best after Xmas deals in stores

No, and it may be surprising to some…

The real reason for Boxing Day is the tradition of giving gifts to the less fortunate members of society.

Really.  Go ahead and look it up...

While I may throw a few boxes in the recycle bin,

and I may slap the dweeb next door just a little extra hard on the back,
and I may go with my new Joe Thornton Autographed Boxers ,
and I may head out to see if I can score on the tripod I’ve had my eye on tomorrow,
I’ll also be thinking about what I might be able to do to help others in my town.

That's the real meaning of Boxing Day!

Will you join me?

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Got an extra $5?  How about $10?

Could you skip that next Caramel Latte?

If you did you could make a world of difference - really!

Have you really gotten ZERO out of your ActiveRain experience?

I didn't think so.

Go make a donation.... 

If you just re-entered the world of video - Welcome Back!

For many readers the following is going to be a little too basic.  But for some people, this just may save a relationship.

Let's just say your new flip camera arrived today...

Great!  And you just captured a 5 minute clip of little Susie’s 3rd grade play!  Uncle John back in Cripple Creek would love to see this.  Maybe you even learned how to edit the video.  Good for you!  I can understand how you might think video delivery options might not seem so important right now.  You’re wrong!

If you are new to video, and you like your friends, family or clients, this might be an important concept to understand before you send it to Uncle John.  Why?  Video files are large files, very large files.   By trying to send a video via email you can virtually lock up the receiver’s email system.  That won’t make Uncle John very happy, if it was a client you were trying to send the video to, you can bet they’ll be even less happy.

Video Delivery

Let’s start with important terms to understand.

1. Attached

Attached means the entire video file has been attached to the email.  Remember these files can be enormous.  A simple 5 minute video attached to an email will be in the hundreds of Megabytes or even Gigabytes!  Here’s a simple rule we can all live by:  Never attach a video to an email. Never!

2. Embedded

This means the video has been uploaded from our hard drive to a web based host system (example: YouTube).  The web based system then gives us an html code that we can insert in a blog post or html email. 

The resulting email will NOT have the video attached.  It will have the first frame of the video attached.  This method adds less than 1kb to the size of the email (that’s very small).  That first frame is a place holder for the video. The large video file will remain on the host (YouTube) until the viewer pushes the play button.

Watch the Video

Once the play button is pushed, the Host will start streaming bits and bytes of the file to the viewers computer allowing them to watch the video.  One of the downsides to embedded is that if the viewer’s security settings may not allow 3rd party images.  That means the play button will never show.  Another downside is that this only works if the viewer is allowing html emails. 

3. Streaming

Video that is hosted on a site and played in a browser or email is “Streamed”.  This is done by converting the video file to .flv and then streaming sent to the viewer as the viewer’s system needs it.  This allows the initial delivery to be quite small.  While an email “sent” falls under PUSH technology, the streamed video is requested by the viewer and hence it is PULL technology.

4. Linked Video

Delivery of the email is important.  If the email doesn’t make it to the inbox, the video will never be seen.  We can never know for certain what settings the viewer might have (3rd party images, html vs. text email).  Additionally, many spam filters will incorrectly identify an embedded video as spam and send the email to a spam folder.  This is why many chose to include a link to the URL instead or in addition to the embedded video.  I’ve done that above with “Watch the Video”.  No matter what the viewers settings, the link will be able to be viewed, clicked, and the hosted video will be seen. 

Sounds simple right?

It is.  Just remember the one single underlying rule to video and emails and we’ll all get along just fine.

Never attach a video to an email. Never!

That isn’t too much to ask for is it?

Luckily there’s an organization that is working to provide people in need just that

http://www.onewarmcoat.org

Money might be tight, but we all have perfectly good, Warm Coats just sitting in our closets right now that we’re never going to wear again anyway.

CALL TO ACTION...

In an effort to help, I’ll put a Santa Hat on your profile picture in exchange for your promise to help promote One Warm Coat

Simple enough?

• You can blog about it
• You can twitter it
• Add a pic to Facebook
• How about Flickr?
• and maybe even organize a coat drive in your area?

Anything you like.  Just help spread the good word.

Yeah, I'm slowly building a tree  : )

One Warm Coat started out in 1992 as a Thanksgiving Weekend coat drive in San Francisco.  Last year more than 2,000 coat drives were held across the country throughout the year.  Each coat drive has the same intent — to collect coats that will be GIVEN to those in need.

Thousands of people play a part in One Warm Coat.  Those who clean their closet to donate coats; those who organize a coat drive in their community; and the volunteers and staff at social service agencies who distribute the coats.

• One Warm Coat is a simple, easy way to help those in need within local communities.
• One Warm Coat provides tools and resources to help volunteers in the collection of clean, reusable coats for donation to individuals.
• One Warm Coat strives to develop and nurture volunteerism in all of us. 

Our dream is that One Warm Coat becomes a part of the American lifestyle. When a coat is no longer needed, people will think of One Warm Coat. They will make their donation knowing that children, women and men in need will receive a gift of a warm coat.

And Facebook and other Social Media sites to start the conversation with new potential clients. 

The local news even found him and featured him!

He shared the story on his post

News Ain’t Just Broken On TV Any More

Good Job @NRVLiving !

Does it really work?

He says:  "It really does! I know my colleagues think I’m just playing around on the computer, but when people write in - in 140 characters or less, mind you - and and ask you to list their home, why would you NOT make social media an important part of your business plan? We’re not avoiding other ways of reaching customers that work, it’s just another way of reaching them. Go where they are …

One of the things I find so amazing about social media is that the possibilities are seemingly endless; I mean, I’m starting a new business with a friend that I met on Twitter! Who would’ve guessed? I find that incredibly creative and energizing."

Google Friend Connect

Image via Wikipedia

Want to be a Crash Test Dummy ?

I’m beta testing Google’s Friend Connect .

It’s not here - it's on my outside blog,  

AreWeConnected.com

I’d like to have you join the network, and then play around and let me know what you think?

Here’s the video from Google:

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Her real name was Doris Dungey, and up till yesterday I had never seen her or knew her real name but she was one of my favorite daily reads.  She wrote under the name of Tanta for Calculated Risk .

I’m using the past tense as she lost her battle with Cancer yesterday.

From the NY Times article :

The blogger Tanta, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse, died Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio.

Tanta, who wrote for Calculated Risk, a finance and economics blog, was a pseudonym for Doris Dungey, 47, who until recently had lived in Upper Marlboro, Md. The cause of death was ovarian cancer, her sister, Cathy Stickelmaier, said.
…
Tanta used her extensive knowledge of the loan industry to comment, castigate and above all instruct. Her fans ranged from the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who cited her in his blog, to analysts at the Federal Reserve, who cited her in a paper on “Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit.”

Tanta - You touched my life, you will be missed!

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