Buzz means nothing without honey

So we have a new social baby. Little Buzz was born this week, making his way into a crowded loud world of online social interaction.

I am one of the dinosaurs who can remember people being petrified to engage in any online interaction. The forums were considered geeky and exclusive at best; sordid and possibly dangerous at worst. Whole TV shows were based on the predatory nature of many people trying to engage others online. Social interaction online has changed to the point where people are, I would guess, about as honest with others online as they are face-to-face.

Here are a few links if you need some help learning how to use Google Buzz: this is about Google buzz on mobile and this is the bare-bones nuts and bolts of Buzz. If you need to find out about twitter, there are thousands of articles to help you.

I am not as interested in telling you how these work- that is covered elsewhere, and experience is the best teacher, anyway. I am also not assessing these apps from a social point of view- I can handle that addiction on my own. I want to tame them for business and make that time use productive. Things like SocialTalk and HootSuite can help organize your social media family.

But the question is: will I take the time to learn how to use Buzz? Will I push myself to start from scratch rebuilding a community on a different platform when I have more than 1000 friends on Facebook and more than 4 times that many on twitter?

Do we need to go wider? I noticed a couple of things that attracted some attention amongst my online friends this week. They both had to do with taking circles of friendship and deepening the ties. One was a Facebook group started by Rob Hahn, in which I am Queen of Boston and Abbess, Sisterhood of the Twitterati (a nod to my involvement with the TwitterQueens). The group, RE.NET, has made a place for people to socialize who are already friends- formed initially online and enriched at Real Estate events. Rob has been a perfect host, making people comfortable to share and- if the truth be told- miss each other. I check in a few times a day, and that is something that I don’t do with almost any other interface.

Something else that I think is going to really take off is similar but more business oriented. I have been seeing the hashtag #rett on twitter with no real explanation. Trying to figure out what was going on with context clues led me to guess that people were coming together to discuss the business of real estate- not as competitors, but as confederates. I also saw the new RETT page on Facebook. The “About” reads:

“What if a bunch of real estate types (agents, lenders, title) sat around in an open space, working, chatting and collaborating? #rett”

Buzz, you are cute, and I may end up attached to you, but right now I am staying up nights with your sibs twitter and blip. I know you all serve different purposes, and that’s valid. But isn’t the purpose- the real, underlying purpose of all of this- to connect and offer something of value, whether that something is friendship or service?

I am at the point where I want to go deeper, not wider.

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Oh, Happy Bday, Facebook!

I get email notification when some of the blogs I read are updated. I know the smartest practice would be to set them up in a reader, but I am in the habit of constantly checking my email. Habit works as a friend, in this case anyway.

Today a nice post by ViperChill popped into my email box. Head on over and read it- you won’t hurt my feelings. The reason I have posted it here is because with social media you can only keep up with certain trends personally, if you are doing anything else at the same time, such as hoping to keep the house clean, or earning a living. I think it is less that there is a Social Media Revolution and more a Social Media Evolution because just when you think you have it-  something else happens, paradigms shift, the fabric of the Universe tears and voila! you are doing it incorrectly.

I am not even sure if Paradigms shift any more, but it’s fun to say.

So read Glen’s post, head over to your blog (or ask your virtual assistant to) and update your All_In_One and HeadSpace settings. That’s where I will be.

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I've got a secret

“Within the first six months, these [doctors] wrote six million prescriptions for more than fifty million of these happy blue pills, ” noted Alex Wipperfurth in Brand Hijack. Of  course, the happy blue pill that he was referring to was Viagra, which came out in 1998.

Shouldn’t this country be happier?

I had lunch with an agent from another office the other day. We had a nice time talking, and the sandwiches at the Longhorn were good. She said something that I thought was interesting, something I had thought about often myself. She asked if we all shouldn’t help each other out (she was referring to real estate agents) regardless of office affiliation.

Suppose your office has a recipe for success- a “secret sauce,” I guess. Should you share that with others? Will that make the entire industry stronger, or make your own (and your office’s) position weaker?

Suppose your office had a recipe for the Viagra that would counteract a flat market.

This is what I think. I think that we all need to help one another- those of us that are left. I think that my friend Maya, by teaching social media to the members of her Delaware board, will not be affecting her market share. I think when @RealtyMan presented about Facebook at REBarCamp Boston that he wasn’t giving anyone the skill sets to take him down.

So, like everyone else in RE.net, I will share my general knowledge. Specific application of that knowledge set has been promised to Towne & Country- that is the promise that I have made to the company in regards to the Central MA area. But do I think you need a blog? YES! Where can you get one? You can set up a free one on WordPress.com or blogger, or you can get one of your very own using the WordPress platform (godaddy has an easy set-up).

Should you buy into every social media or new media thing that comes along? Gerry and I are kind of spread out everywhere but that is because we have to for Towne & Country. In fact, Gerry does a lot of beta testing for real estate platforms, helping to evaluate them for the developers. As an agent, though, I think you want get involved in a few things that you can really dig deeply into and extend your personality. And I am cheap as all get out- if it is going to cost me something, I don’t do it. The cost to me is time: sweat-equity, if you prefer.

Bottom line: I want you all to succeed. I want the exceptional agents to stay in the business- you may end up sitting across the table from me as a cobroke, or in the same position with one of  the Towne & Country team, or actually being a member of our team someday. Who knows?

And the agent I spoke with the other day is dead on- we all have to have each others’ backs. That makes the industry better for the consumer, and customer service is what it is all about.

Want to have lunch and bat ideas around? I promise not to mention Viagra. diane@realtyman.com

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This was reprinted with permission of the author Lesley Lambert- one of the best bloggers I know of.

As I did my normal perusal of Facebook today I noticed something very odd. Many of my friends had a color as their status update. Just a color…nothing else. My page was rife with: green, white: plain white, beige, black, leopard and even a champagne.
I thought it was strange, but it was a limited group at first, so I brushed it off. Fast forward a few hours and when I look at Facebook all I see is colors and I now have some Facebook messages inviting me to join. The messages said something like this: “Some fun is going on…. just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. And send this on to ONLY women no men …. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the women have a color in their status…”
WHY DIDN’T ANYONE POST PINK?
Now, the really amusing thing was that many of the color updates that I was viewing were posted by men. So much for keeping them in the dark (and good for you for being secure enough to come out with your bra wearing habits boys!).
Let me say straightaway that I am a HUGE supporter of breast cancer awareness. I had my first mammogram at age 30 because of a family history that includes both my mother and her sister. My aunt passed when she was 38 from breast cancer. I actually put my $ where my mouth is…..btw.

That being said…I am not really clear how this update business will help fuel Breast Cancer awareness. I went ahead and posted this as my Facebook status: “I am a huge supporter of breast cancer awareness, but I don’t think anyone really cares what color my bra is….or that telling you will make anyone more aware. If you are interested, just use your imagination: I am sure that will be more exciting than the reality.”

The responses came in and were plentiful. Many people were confused about what was going on and were thankful that I put it out there so they got some answers. My response to them is: Why are you too chicken to ASK? I went on Twitter and said WTF is going on with Facebook statuses being all colorful and got the answer right away.
Many people agreed with me. But one person didn’t agree, my Twitter friend Melissa Case DelGaudio (@startabuzz), and she came right out with a very valid point: “As silly as it might seem, I submit that EVERYONE is talking about this right now. So whether anyone actually cares what color anyone’s bra is, it’s got people talking about awareness, which was the whole point. :)”
My opinion on this topic isn’t swayed by her point…I still don’t see how Breast Cancer research will benefit from knowing what color my bra is (and I am still not telling you dirty lecherous beasts). I do see her point and I get that it brought this to everyone’s attention, BUT what it brought to my attention was THIS….
SOCIAL MEDIA IS FAST.
Before you get too deep into “duh Lesley”….I knew this already, you did, too, but I mean REALLY REALLY fast.
How powerful is this tool? How amazing that someone (and do we even know who started this bra nonsense anyways?) decided that today would be the day to post your bra color (tee hee hee) and suddenly WOOSH every woman (and many men-not that there is anything wrong with that!) were doing just that and within hours it was a huge topic of conversation.
What does that tell us?
Well, it tells me that my grandmother was right…clean underwear all the way. Cuz if I get in an accident I don’t want you all going viral with the fact I died in dirty underwear.
What it tells me (really this time, no REALLY I swear) is that social media is becoming the most powerful marketing tool in history.
People, fasten your seatbelts: this is the best ride ever!
oh and ps. Go donate to Breast Cancer Research.

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What would it take to get you into a new car today?

For your information:

“The study found that 42 million women in the United States (roughly 53% of the 79 million adult women in the United States who use the Internet) participate in social media at least weekly. As they spend more time with social media, women are spending correspondingly less time with traditional media: 39% less on newspapers, 36% less time reading magazines, and 30% less time watching TV.” - Small Business Trends

“Women purchase 65% of all new cars and 53% of used cars...” - Road and Travel Magazine

“According to J.D. Power and Associates, women purchase 60 percent of all new and used automobiles, and influence 85 percent of all car purchases.”

Why, then, was this said to me the last time I went to buy an automobile? “What will it take to get you into a car today?” Let’s see- how about a car with features that I want, at a price that I know is reasonable because I have done the research?

Or, even better, why on earth would two separate dealerships (one Chevrolet, one GMC) be condescending to a woman intending to make an auto purchase, one calling her a control freak because she wanted to make sure that the auto had enough power to tow her boat?

1964 Buick Rivera Commercial Sexist

It is not the sixties anymore, and the only place that the above scenario existed was in some ad exec’s mind anyway. A car isn’t something that a woman “can admire and enjoy to the fullest, but only a man can really understand.” Automobile companies claim to have in-depth training for their salespeople. Are the salespeople all not listening?

These are the facts. Women make up your largest client base, generally, in auto sales. Are women less knowledgeable about price and function of automobiles?

A study from 2007, which states that women are most likely to shop “with their heads” as being influenced by the heart also mentions: “No Condescending Salesmen Allowed Another sign of the changing times is that women are increasingly knowledgeable about cars. As a result, men and women indicate that they are equally satisfied with the automotive sales experience, at least according to the most recent J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index… (italics and bold mine).

Good enough. I don’t mind being classified as someone who is knowledgeable, and because of this knowledge looks for what she wants. Does that make me and my sisters control freaks? Yes- and I hope my brothers are as well. I want control over my decision-making when it comes to MY purchase that I will likely be paying for over at least 4 years. I will not give that power up to a salesperson who has known me for maybe 10 minutes and whose paycheck is derived from my purchase. Any salesperson who tries to wrest that control from me will see me vote with my feet.

Realize that we are heading into your dealership with our homework done. We know what we are looking for, and whether the largest factor is price, safety, reliability or environmental impact, we have done our homework. We are the people that you want as repeat customers. We will tell our friends if the experience was good, and we will blog about it if it is not.

Change your sales tactics.

For a post by the original “control freak” click here

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Another one to add...

Well, I am happy to be heading home, but we had a great time in Delaware. Ignite was very cool! Met a lot of people and saw some old friends. Thanks to Bill Lublin for coming to see us- he had to leave early for BlogWorld the next day, but was there to show support.

Our classes at DAR convention at Dover Downs went well too. We realized after the feedback the first day that we needed to simplify the content, so we revamped our class prior to the second go-around, and made it more relevant.

You know what I wish, though? Online relationships are great, but I wish that I lived closer to Lesley and Maya. I would never have met them had it not been for twitter- Lesley is outside of my service area, and Maya is so far away from me. But they are both brilliant, and I love being with them. We are very comfortable with one another.

So your scope enlarges with a social media presence, but there are more “good-byes” to deal with. Trying to figure out where to plan another TQCamp- Chicago? Florida? The face-to-face meetings are energizing and we are ready to do anything.

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I wanted to post a few things coming up that some people had asked about:

Oktober 10: Oktoberfest Tweet-up in Maine- Smugglers’ Den Campground, Route 102 – Southwest Harbor, Maine, to be exact

Horny Goat Beer

Next we will be in Delaware:

October 13: Maya, Lesley and I are honored to be one of 12 chosen to present at Ignite Wilmington. We are working on our presentation now for that- we will have 5 minutes to say what we want, and anyone who knows us will realize that that isn’t a hella long time.

October 14: The next day, we will have a booth at the Delaware Association of Realtors Convention. We will also be presenting our 3 hour CE course from 2-5 then and on

October 15. After the second presentation of the course, TwitterQueens are organizing a tweet-up at Fire and Ice at Dover Downs from 7:00 PM until whenever. Thank you so much, @DoverDowns!

At the end of the month of October, Lesley and I will be presenting about twitter to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. We have a couple of other things going on in the month that will not be open to the public. Starting to get busy!  Hope to see you at least at one or the other tweet-up!

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Regarding social media: …marketers need to bring a little balance to the justifiable demand for performance accountability… when you’re in a competitive market that demands innovation, you have to get in the trenches to help innovation along, instead of just throwing up knee-jerk stop signs to every project that doesn’t come with a business case tied up in a neat bow. from Social Media Metrics The Marketers Consortium

Let’s say you have invested a lot of time in ramping up your social media presence for your business.

Let’s say that you have heard a lot of arguments for doing this, including endorsements of aspects of social media by celebrities and other people of influence.

Let’s say that you are in real estate, and your broker wants the agents involved (or doesn’t), or you are in customer service and have read a couple of places that a social media presence can make it easier to solve problems before they get big. Then let’s say that you are watching Late Night with David Letterman. He has Kevin Spacey on, and you expect an interesting show. Oh! They are talking about twitter! But wait…

Letterman says that it’s a waste of time, and what the HELL is Spacey doing with twitter that could possibly translate into increased business? So what does this mean? Is the emperor naked after all?

Probably the most telling article that I have read lately that reinforces that the emperor is, indeed, clothed is this one at internetnews.com. The title is Social Media Marketing Makes More Money, and, really, isn’t that what you want to hear? There are lots of anecdotal reports about the number and demographic of people involved and how social media has benefited certain individuals- all interesting, but is it going to help your top line?

This article cites a study of the top 100 most valuable businesses. 21% of their advertising dollars are being funnelled into interactive marketing- perhaps a better handle than the term social media. The companies that have invested the most heavily in social media are reaping a large return rate than those that are not.

It is possible that the companies who invest the most in social media are just that much more progressive in general and that contributes to their increase in business, but I will stand on the side of progression any day.

It has been said that social media is the least expensive way to fail. Well, I for one do not plan on failing, and it is nice to see data that supports what I believe.

By the way, twitter.com/davidletterman is available as of now. Go for it, Dave!

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I was sitting outside today with my daughter and a person working for the local newspaper drove up- giving away copies of that paper. I was surprised at how thin the paper in general was, and when I glanced at the section that contained the classified ads was really shocked at how few there were.

Getting the word out about your business isn’t a dead endeavor, but it is changing.

“Yes, it was built entirely out of 140-character messages, but the sum total of those tweets added up to something truly substantive, like a suspension bridge made of pebbles.”- Steven Johnson in Time.com

This, of course, refers to twitter. Social media is changing the way businesses interact with present and prospective clients. Frank Eliason from Comcast introduced a customer care presence on twitter that has brought attention to the company- even if the twitter presence did not enhance customer service, the free PR generated was priceless. And consumers do feel that their problems can be solved more quickly.

Twitter, Facebook, social media microcultures- these are all low-cost ways to enlarge your presence with both consumers and with other businesses. And there are two aspects to it.

One is the technical- exactly how do you go about setting up this presence? Where can you make the most impact in this changing online environment? And the answers, of course, vary from business to business.

Even more important- do your employees, who have been tasked with the mission of representing you, know how to go about that? Social media is a “pull” type of contact, as opposed to traditional media which pushes your message out to many in the hopes that something sticks. Are your employees cognizant of the unwritten rules of engagement?

Get up to speed with what is going on. You don’t want to be stuck between chihuahuas and chows in a place no one goes.

Dinosaur

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“You’re so 2000 and Late”- Black Eyed Peas from sushigurrl on YouTube

What is a widget? It’s a way to tuck code into your site and draw in content from other sites. On my site right now, I have, for example, a FriendFeed widget that will tell you the latest microblog posts that I have made. If you like my updates, you can come on over and follow me.

I was just reading Mashable’s new post 50 Great Widgets For Your Blog by Stan Schroeder. It’s an old post- recently resurfaced in a tweet in my stream- from 2007. So, some of these are still worthy of mention, but a lot have been updated or replaced outright.

That’s the problem with making any kind of widget or app list- today’s widgets’  little, smarter brother or sister is right around the corner waiting to wow the teacher and steal their thunder.

So here are a few of the widgets that I have used and liked, or seen on other people’s sites.

Mashable’s post mentions MyBlogLog’s recent readers. I had this on Bold Strokes and I liked it at first, but then it didn’t seem to be updating. I will try it again here and see what I think. It is interesting for other members to see each other at your site, and for you to see them too. Also available as a plug-in for Wordpress.

So that’s pretty cool, although I am not so sure of its usefulness. Now- here is a really useful one: I can embed my music choices from blip.fm. Blip is a music service that allows you to choose “DJs” whose music you enjoy and thus build up a stream of music that should be tailor-made to your tastes. You can now inflict this upon your blog-readers with this widget- sign in, and off of the main page choose “embed.” Voila! A neat little player that rolls your music over to your readers (and can be paused as well).

I like a couple of general information widgets there too. I have a new Trulia widget- TruliaSnapshot- and I really like how it displays property for sale. Looks cool:

TruliaSnapshot

I also have a widget from the New York Times for national headlines, and one for more local news. I am interested in creating a blog with a community flavor and I think these add-ons help. I had to modify the Boston.com widget to fit the width of my sidebar, but it was an easy click to do that in widgetbox.com.

I wanted a recipe widget too- recipes are popular search items and would be useful on my blog, I think. I tried the Kraft widget which didn’t work in my site, then went over to widgetbox again. There I found a really cool one- in addition to giving out a recipe, you can type in whatever ingredients you have one hand (although, frankly, some days that would be, well, nothing) and the widget will suggest recipes from your input. So, as far as I am concerned, Meijer Mealbox widget is the winner here.

I also just changed a FriendFeed widget to one from retaggr.com that has all of my contact info throughout the few social media sites I use. You need to sign up and put your info into retaggr, and this takes a while, but after you can use the widget, you can add code to your email signature- a good way to link all of your contact information in one spot. The retaggr widget includes twitter updates.

Have fun! Going back to shave the rough edges off the blog!

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