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 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, Realtors- 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, Realtors. 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, Realtors 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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I never realized how dependent I am on my connection to the world at large via Internet until we lost power for 5 days this winter. The ice storm was bad but not horrible for me, although I know others didn’t fare as well. It brought its own fragile beauty part and parcel with the devastation. No water- in particular, no hot water- was hard. No heat was very hard, particularly at night. No lights? Going to bed early was a big adjustment.

The killer for me was no Internet. It was 1 day coming back anywhere around here, and 5 days at the house. I could only tap in at the office during those 5 days, so I spent a lot of time there, and after I left each evening, I felt as if I was living blindfolded without the real ability to interact with many of the people I know.

My poor little cell phone, which I had happily picked out 5 months before, was capable of sending information one way only. I could update my facebook and twitter status, but I wasn’t really aware of how interactive these were until I couldn’t see the responses.

Then I went to Connect NYC and REBar Camp. Most people had iPhones, and even the Storm users liked the feel and use of it. One of the technology seminars pointed out that iPhone was made to receive add-on applications- a different paradigm.  Woke up some of that old geek-lust in me, seeing the genius of a leap-frog in intent and design. That happened with the iPod, and I had to have one of those, and here it was again.

Today, about a week after the conference, I picked up my iPhone. Another snowy day in New England, and I trudged out through that snow to the Apple Store and got it. It is a stand-alone gem, but I can’t wait to start picking out apps for it to customize its use for me. Got the one with the smallest amount of memory, so I will have to be choosy about what I pick.

Is the choice of platform really that important? I think so, both to stay socially connected, and to be able to tap into anything new that would aid the business side of things. You can’t do your best until you explore all of the options.

But for today: Twitteriffic or Twittelator?