Welcome back!
You have to know we are all about real estate marketing here at Dakno. I even commented to Tamara Dorris on her Blog Talk Radio Show that “if my eyes are open, I’m marketing“! One of the really cool ideas Brad (@dakno) came up with was to brand everything that stands still. With that said, we slapped some skin on our laptops, iPhones and Flips. Good thing my grand kids are so active or else they would have an extra “layer of skin on them“. 
Learning How to Use Twitter in Your Business!
Often described as public Instant Messenger on steroids, Twitter is micro-blogging in 140 characters. Common “Tweets” include pithy comments, mundane babbling to high-value information and content distribution. The point of Twitter is to be personal and build relationships! Remember, that’s what social media is all about and Twitter is most certainly that – social. If you haven’t heard of Twitter, you been spending too much time under that rock of yours. It’s one of the fastest growing social communities (period!).
While returning from the REtech South Conference event Saturday morning I was reflecting on Friday’s sessions. I’m convinced there are a handful of questions we will never fully agree on that are often brought up during these conferences. Some issues will continue to be debated and cause many in the real estate industry to ponder for themselves.
Battling the elements (6 inches of snow), real estate professionals from all over the country will be gathering today to attend the Viginia RE Barcamp held at the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors. If you can’t join us in person, we invite you to watch the live video stream provided by Dakno Real Estate Marketing. We will also archive this stream allowing you to watch this event at a later date. So check back here later to watch the event at your leisure.
Read the rest of this entry
Mark your calendar now for a FREE blogging webinar to be held Thursday, February 12th at 2PM EST. This FREE sneak peek at Blogging BootCamp will be streamed live at www.bloggingbootcamp.com/free. At this special live webcast event you will learn how to ignite your blogging efforts by implementing tips delivered by Brad and myself as we teach you how to:
For more information about this FREE live streaming webinar, visit www.bloggingbootcamp.com/free
Take a look at most real estate websites. When you do find meaningful web copy, many times it’s a struggle to read. It’s like a “War and Peace” novel with forever scrolling content. The sheer thought of it sends me searching for the back-button. Have I written terribly long articles in the past? Yes, but no more. Plus, most real estate web sites fail to use proper sub headlines (designated with a Headline tag-H3) to help tease the site visitor to what the paragraph will say.
Dakno’s Blogging Bootcamp combines incredible content filled with search engine rockin SEO tips, results-driven blogging techniques, jaw-dropping ways to use your WordPress system and insightful tips and tricks to help you creatively generate unique content. If you currently author a blog or are considering a blog, this is one blog training course that will help you rocket ahead of your blogging competition!
Read the rest of this entry
In my last post you learned the back story to the genesis of our set and why we went about building it to stream live videos. Using photo’s taken during the construction process, you will see step by step how our new set came to life! It really was a labor of love.
After giving the concept a little more thought, I decided the set could offer some serious potential to our local real estate clients. Imagine our clients using the set to video tape helpful “How To” videos, creating client video testimonials and many other applications. Because a strand of our DNA is to do things right and with excellence, we decided the low-budget, cable access, 2 chairs, a plant and a bed sheet would not cut it. We had to go bigger!
Read the rest of this entry
While attending Bloggers Connect at the Inman Conference in NYC earlier this month the thought came to mind to share the presentations by Jay Thompson and Dustin Luther with the rest of RE.net. Armed with my built-in webcam and Bobby’s new webcam he received for Christmas, I decided to offer a 2-camera configuration for the live streaming video web broadcast. Getting the word out about our live streaming webcast was easy. Because we had been sending out REBar Camp and Bloggers Connect “Tweets” with the hashtags #rebcny and #icny, I figured viewers would come. Within minutes we had about 50 subscribers watching the Bloggers Connect streaming video over Mogulus.
It seems Twitter is all the buzz right now. My relationship with Twitter, like many, has been an interesting journey. At first, I was like so many other Twitter doubters. I even quoted the famous line of “I don’t get Twitter. Does anyone really care that I am eating breakfast or brushing my teeth?” I then decided to take another shot at it. Unfortunately, I again grew frustrated at Twitter because I couldn’t keep up with everyone’s conversations. I mistakenly thought it was because I was following too many people. Frustrated again, I set Twitter aside for a few months. Suddenly, one day it dawned on me. I didn’t have to follow every single conversation on Twitter. I simply could jump in, get a quick snapshot, reply to a few people and jump out. I finally “got” Twitter!
So off to Inman Connect I went with my renewed love for Twitter. In an effort to make my life easier, I put automation to work for me. I decided to have my Facebook status automatically update based on my Twitter updates. Twitter life was good – so I thought.
From the first session at Iman, I started feverously tweeting different updates about what was happening at the conference. The Twitter community loved it. I knew because I quickly started gaining more and more followers. I thought to myself that I had finally achieved Twitter Zen.
My Twitter Zen didn’t last for very long. A tip from Jeff Turner turned into a harsh reality. You see, Jeff mentioned that he’s not a big fan of syncing your Twitter and Facebook status updates because the two social networks appeal to two difference audiences. His point was proven when my Facebook friends started messaging me saying things like “What’s your obsession with this Iman guy” “What the heck is #ICNY” “Your status updates make absolutely no sense!” While the information was quite relevant to the Twitter community (since they knew the context), my Facebook friends had no interest in seeing every detail of the Iman Connect conference.
I looked back at my Facebook Wall and quickly saw what they were referring to. It was ridden with tons of updates about a conference that they had no interest in. My effort to automate my social media back fired! Needless to say, I quickly disabled my Twitter/Facebook sync and now update the two sites separately with difference (relevant) pieces of information.
The entire point of automation is to reach more for less – basically increase your ROI. But it’s important to see how much time you are actually saving compared to the benefit of a personal touch. Let me give you one more quick example.
ActiveRain gives you the ability to automatically update Twitter every time you write a new blog post on ActiveRain. On the surface, it seems like a great feature. Right? WRONG! That’s because the Twitter update looks something like this… “Just Posted on ActiveRain – www.activerain.com/blah.” Now doesn’t that make you want to just run out and view the blog post? <sarcasm> Sure, having this automation saves you 20 seconds in having to manually update your Twitter status, but the problem is that it doesn’t compel anyone to actually click the link! What good is automation if it doesn’t increase your ROI? Instead, what if you took just 20 seconds to personally go to twitter.com and tease your blog post?
I asked Bobby (@rewebcoach) to help me out testing this. Instead of using the standard automated “just posted at…” approach, he created a personal tweet on a recent blog post. It was simple but a great Twitter tease. “Loose Lips Sinks Ships” and a link to the article was all he put on Twitter. Yet he had over 50 people immediately click to view his article. Why? Because it wasn’t the canned tweet that so many people see continually roll across their Twitter stream. In other words, those few seconds to create that personal tweet was much more valuable than zero seconds to create something that would have yielded zero results.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love automation and I think it’s a great way to extend your social reach. But it’s important to make sure you understand when to use it and when not to use it. Just because you can save yourself a few seconds here and there, doesn’t mean you always should.
To Your Success,
Brad Carroll
Follow me on Twitter: @dakno
Recent Comments