Mike Mueller, Social Media.ist

Just a quick post. Nah… make that more of a giant thank you!

The first ever Virtual REBarCamp was held yesterday and if you were one of the more than 2,000 people that attended there’s a few people you need to thank (so do I).

The Organizers

First off – the boys at Real Estate Tomato. Jim Cronin, Jason Benesch, Daniel Bates and Chris Hotz organized the event, secured the speakers, setup the technology. Once it started, these three were working feverishly behind the scenes to make sure each and every session went off as planned.

The Presenters

Then there were the session presenters. Unlike a typical REBarCamp, having a roundtable discussion was impossible. That said, most of the presenters provided solid content with little sales (yes, there were a few who went spammy). Remember, each and every one of these people took valuable time out of their day to provide valuable educational content for you.

Here’s a list of the presenters and the topics they covered.

Doug Devitre - YouTube For Real Estate
Frances Flynn Thorsen - Social Media Risk Management (part 1)
Brian Block - Broker’s View: Best Uses of Social Media in Your Brokerage
Glenn Sanford - The Real Estate Office of the Future
Scott Gray - Introductory SEO and Internet Marketing Strategies
Joseph Ferrara - The Future of the Real Estate Brokerage
Daniel Bates - Must-Have WordPress PlugIns for Your RE Blog
Brad and Bobby Carroll - The Value of Adding Posterous.com to Your Online Tool Belt
Beth Butler - Broker Blogging Strategies
Teresa Boardman - Flickr.com - A REAL Social Network
Kendra Todd - The 30-Min Branding Boot Camp: “The Brand Called You”
Donna Stott - Why Coaching is Critical To Success
Mark Burrell - Getting Started with WordPress for Real Estate.
Ginger Wilcox and Hal Lublin - Secrets of Web Success for 2010 (their session will be rescheduled)
Kathy Goughenour - 8-Step Formula for Writing Real Estate Blog Posts
Evan Russell - Agent Daily Goal Tracker
Frances Flynn Thorsen - Social Media Risk Management (part 2)
Mark Madsen - Mortgage Blogging Success
Tom Ferry - 3 Ways Top Producers Are Making Sales With Social Media
Suzanne Roy - Top Tips For Free (But Highly Profitable) Advertising Online
Scott Sambucci - Beat The Headlines, Be The Local Market Expert
Stefan Swanepoel - Social Media Trends of 2010
Ross Hair - Converting Social Media Into More Real Estate Closings
Mike Mueller - LinkedIn: The Red Headed Step Child of Social Media
Matthew Fetick - Top 10 Time and Money Saving Tech Tips
Michelle Carr-Crowe - It’s Raining Blogs; How To Be An ActiveRain Rainmaker
Steve Rosenbaum - The Best Free (& Nearly Free) Online Tools For Your RE Business

The Attendees

As the Rockstars always say, it’s the crowd that makes the show a success. Almost 2,000 people registered for the event – add to it those that didn’t register but went to a live in office Meetup (71 Meetups Registered) and it’s safe to say this event made an impact on a few people. Kudos for you if you attended!

Giving Back

Speaking of making an impact – the event was free. The education was priceless. This event was dedicated to Kevin Warmath (3/20/65 – 1/31/09) and we are collecting donations for his surviving family. Take a moment right now and click on the link above. Read his story. Give anything you can. ReTweet this post, share it on Facebook, spread the message. Pay it Forward.

That’s right! REBarCamp Virtual happens today.

I'll be leading a session at 1 PM - "LinkedIn, the Red Headed Step Child of Social Media"

From the blog:

Here are some links to the most important information on the site for the day of the event:

Event Info, Access Links, List of Presentations.

Free Registration.

Office MeetUps.

In-Real-Life MeetUps.

Warmath Children’s College Fund Charity.

Our Sponsors.

We would also like to encourage you to visit Twitter, Facebook and TomatoChat.com to join in the national conversation with your peers, on the day of the event. Consider these locations the ‘hallways’ of the event, where you can meet, discuss and learn from each other during the intermissions.

And finally, we want to give a shout out to all the brokers and office managers that organized the In Office Events for their agents. We have nearly 60 offices participating on Tuesday, with hundreds of agents sitting in on the full day of sessions. We are thrilled!

VIRTUAL RE BARCAMP BASICS

• Event Date: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
• Event Location: Online Webinars
• Schedule: 9AM - 4PM PST
• Registration: Online
• Twitter Hashtag: #VREBC
• Presenters: I want to Host a Session
• Cost: Free! Free! Free!
• We Need Volunteers for IRL MeetUps
• Sponsorship: I want to be a Sponsor
• You Can Help Us: Promote!
• IRL MeetUp Locations:

One of the first questions I get asked by an Agent who wants a Custom Facebook Business Page created is “Can you pull in my listings – here’s my IDX Feed”

The answer is No!

"Pretty Please?"

Still No.

Not because I don't want to. You see... Facebook does not like dynamic content in custom tabs and guess what your IDX feed is? Yup! “Dynamic”.

But wait there’s a workaround and a very pretty one at that. The folks over at RealBird have a slick application.

How slick? Check this out:

Play with it LIVE on Debbi Di Maggio, Piedmont Real Estate

If you have a Facebook Business Page and want something like this for yours – just contact me.

It was a great show and I'm not sure if I got more of a kick out of Jason's discomfort with the Sex on a Plate or my broadcasting pantless.  

Either way it was one of my favorites!

One of the items he missed was all the talk about Truffles.  And as I mentioned in the show, YES, I shave my truffles!

It’s no secret I’m a fan of the Facebook (Fan) Business Page.  I also have a few real estate clients.  Hence it’s no surprise that I have built quite a few Custom Facebook Business Pages for real estate agents.  Here’s a few:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemueller/sets/72157622207611298/detail/

Not a single day goes by that someone doesn’t ask the big question

WHY?

Make no mistake it’s a very valid question. 

Here’s the 5 reasons I think every agent needs a Facebook Page:

 “SEO” – a Facebook Page is indexed by all the major search engines as well as Facebook itself.  Wait there’s more.  If it’s indexed it’s also Page Ranked.  Want more?  Most every link on the Page has “Follow” attributes (as opposed to “No Follow”).

 “Separation of Church and State” – a Facebook Page automatically provides a privacy layer between the Page (you) and the people who “Fan” your Page.  This goes both ways.  Provocative pictures your old college buddy just found, uploaded and tagged of you don’t get shared to your Fans. Conversely, your Fans have an understanding that by becoming a fan they won’t be divulging private information as well.

 “The Landing Page” – you can set any one of your tabs to be the first one shown to NON Fans.  That means you can create a Tab specifically designed for the new visitor.  For a relocation agent that would be “Why it’s so great to live in Sunny Acres”.  That Tab could be Photos, Videos, or even a custom built tab.  Engage me on your neighborhood and guess who I’m going to call to show me a house?

 “Voted OFF the Island” – It’s a little known fact but pushing your new listings out to your friends (via your personal profile) is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service as well as it’s Facebook Site Governance: Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.  You can read more here.  And I know what you are thinking… there’s many agents breaking that law on a daily basis and Facebook hasn’t yet voted them off the island (yet).  True but there’s nothing stopping them from starting tomorrow.  That’s happening right now on Flickr and Video sites like Vimeo.

 “Say my Name” – Like a personal profile your Facebook Page can also have it’s own custom URL.  In the world of Custom URLs there’s can only be one Facebook.com/SunnyAcres.  While most people opt for their own name for their personal profile (i.e. I’m http://facebook.com/MikeMueller ) when it comes to a Fan Page it’s all about business, it’s all about branding.  Secure a custom URL and your business card and other advertising could simply state  “Find us online at Facebook.com/SunnyAcres” Now there’s real value on a couple of different levels!

So there’s 5 reasons I think every real estate agent needs to have their own Facebook (Fan) Business Page.  Give me ten minutes and I could come up with 5 more reasons.  I do have to add a couple more thoughts to the conversation…

• Having a Page does not mean you can just automate the process and walk away.  It’s not a “set it and forget it” concept.
• Having a Page does not mean you can simply Broadcast.  Having any exposure on any social media also requires a significant amount of listening as well.  Some might say that is much more important than the broadcasting.
• Having a page does not mean it’s business only.  Quite the opposite.  You can still have the same personality traits that make you a wonderful human being also come out in your Page.
• Having a Page is one thing, having a page that engages others is another.  Yes, I build Custom Facebook Business Pages but I have seen plenty non custom pages that do a great job engaging others.

Want to start you Facebook Business Page?  Start by logging in to facebook as usual, then go to http://facebook.com/pages/manage

Want a little video?  Here’s Robert Scoble and Caitlin O’Farrell (she’s from Facebook)

 

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!