Category Archives: Marketing

March Madness for Real Estate Events

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I’m a volunteer on the planning committee for the next Seattle Real Estate BarCamp and I’m amazed at how many events being planned for real estate professionals in March…it’s borderline madness!

Here are a couple that I’m aware of:

March 2, 2011 – Northwest Video Marketing Summit brought to you by Frank Garay and Brian Stevens of TBWS fame.   Cost is $100 and you’ll leave the day long event at the Seattle Center with your own video blog.  Follow on Twitter:  #vmssea

March 3, 2011 – Seattle RE BarCamp takes place at the Seattle Center Northwest Rooms (same location as last year).   RE BarCamp is a FREE event where the real estate industry can come together to learn from each other (social media, tech, trends, etc.).  It is NOT intended to be a “class room” with instructors.   It’s an “un-conference” where participation from attendees is required.  The agenda is determined the morning of the event based on what is suggested by the participants.  If you’re wanting to be taught and not comfortable with the BarCamp format, you might want to consider other events.  Twitter: #rebcsea

March 9, 2001 – Agent Reboot  at the Washington State Convention Center.  This is more of a sit down and learn type program with a set schedule of what will be taught.   Cost is $49 if  you pre-register.

March 15 -17, 2001 – Real Estate Coach Tom Ferry will be at the Meydenbauer Center.  Cost $197.

Am I missing anything?

Are you ready for BuzzRE???

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Next week, I’m helping to organize an internet marketing educational event and I encourage everyone interested to set aside next Thursday to join us!  For the BuzzRE event, we’ve lined up some of my favorite educators in real estate marketing including:

edgefieldIn addition to the great lineup of speakers, there’s going to be ample opportunities to learn from and network with hundreds of agents from the Pacific Northwest, many of whom are leaders in internet marketing.

It doesn’t matter if you’re want to learn about SEO, SEM, blogging, conversations, tools, or any other online marketing topic, the experts will be there and you just need to join us to take part!

Details for location and much more are on the BuzzRE website, but here’s a few key stats:

Cost: $25

When: June 2nd: 6pm – kickoff party
June 3rd: 9am – 5pm (with after party till 11pm)

Where: McMenamin’s Edgefield
2126 S.W. Halsey St.  Troutdale, OR 97060
(Just 10 minutes east of PDX)

More info: http://buzzre.com/

Registration: http://ticketsoregon.com/event.php?event_id=537/

We ran another BuzzRE event in Orange County a few weeks ago and it was so much fun. So many great people and so much great feedback, which has really helped guide this event in Portland!

Are you going to be there???  Let us know!

Let us know if you’re going to be there!  Either here or on Twitter!  (The hashtag to connect on twitter is: #BuzzRE).  And just a few of the Seattle folks I’ve noticed mention they’re going to be there include: Linda Aaron, Galen Ward, Darin Persinger and Scott Thomas…

So much fun and let me know if I can add your twitter handle to the list!

[For those interested in a trip down memory lane… I had conversations with another real estate old-timer not too long ago, and we look back at the Las Vegas NAR event in ’07 as the kick-off point for real estate conversations on Twitter…  Back then, we were all trying to figure out if there was anything behind the hype of Twitter, and it seemed to me that the best place to figure out if it made sense was at a conference where we could use the tool to better connect.  With that in mind, I posted a list of real estate folks with Twitter accounts who would be attending NAR so others could follow along and connect with us. While the list started off small (I published the list with only 5 twitter profiles: Jeff, Joel, Jessica, Keith and Myself), I remember that by the end of the week, I was connected to over 50 people on Twitter who I’d met at the conference…  and I like to think that the background real estate conversation on Twitter that was sparked at NAR ’07 has never really died down!

Anyway, I was reminded of this story as I posted this list of a few folks from Seattle joining us at BuzzRE and realizing how these small lists of people sometimes blossom into unpredictable and amazing conversations!]

I hope to see you in Portland next week!

Collaboration: The important DNA in any small business

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Collaboration:  Do you have this DNA in your small business?  Is it part of your mission statement or mantra?

This is not so much an insight into how a successful real estate transaction comes to fruition as much as it is a testimony of what makes any task, job, objective or goals conclude with a positive outcome.  Whether you are in the military and command a small unit of soldiers or, what I commonly describe the role of  a Realtor as,  “the Conductor

Live Video Streams on RCG? With Facebook Chat?

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I’ve been told my interest in using Facebook for marketing is a bit unhealthy, but I’ve been having so much fun, and this week I pushed the limits in some ways that I thought I’d share in the hope we could spark some interesting conversations…

275x229First off, I’ve been really fortunate to work with the team behind a really interesting movie called The Stoning of Soraya M. that’s being released in selected theaters today (and Seattle on July 17th). It’s a controversial movie based on the true story of a woman who was stoned to death in the Iran after being accused of adultly adultery by her husband. To help with outreach for the movie, I built (with some ridiculously well-timed help from Loren Nason of the Future of Real Estate Technology) a Facebook app that let me combine both a live video stream with a streaming facebook chat-style app. The result was an interview with the director where we took questions from the Facebook community. You can see a recording of the video on the Spinnio app page where we hosted the conversation.

However, before I was ready to go live with the app for the movie, I decided to use the Spinnio app to record a weekly radio show that I run with Rob Hahn called the RE:RnD (Real Estate Radio with Rob and Dustin)… Normally, Rob and I record our radio show form opposite sides of the country, but this week, we were both in Orange County for REBCOC. We took advantage of some of the great real estate people in attendance to interview:

You can watch the video here:

But wait, there’s more!!!

seattle-channelI happen to think the technology of streaming video with Facebook Chat is simply too interesting to resist… so I created a page on RCG that combines the live stream from the Seattle Channel with a chat box that lets you comment on the video with anyone else on RCG watching the video. While I doubt this page will get the critical mass to be extremely interesting, hopefully you can see how cool it could be and just where the Facebook chat/status update technology is heading.

Also, I’m somewhat hesitant to throw a generic chat on RCG in a prominent place, but what do you think?

FB.init(“639647c0b027e22dfc546244ab17a875”, “files/xd_receiver.htm”);

(By the way, this works! Feel free to try it out, although be prepared that each comment leaves a “status” update on your profile.)

I’ve never liked the idea of adding a message board because I simply don’t have the time to moderate it, but I have a feeling that this would be pretty self-moderating considering it’s tied to people’s Facebook account… But what do you think? Should I create a place on RCG where you can leave comments and engage in conversations that aren’t tied to any blog post?

1% for Authenticity

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2009 is definitely the year to try to make the World a better place.  If 2,000 to 2010 will be the decade of greed, then let’s make 2010 to 2020 the decade of “authenticity”. The age of “What you see is what you get”.  Showing what you ARE vs. what you think you should show them to get them to choose you.

Many years ago, 1% of the budget for building new construction in many big cities had to include 1% for “art”.  I remember the authentic ones of my time.

Aspring to Authenticy

Aspring to Authenticity

Authentic Art is about what IS, or what one at least HOPES TO BE.  Philadelphia’s been hoping to be The City of Brotherly Love for a very long time, long before this artwork made the scene in Love Park at JFK Center in 1978.  It’s a lasting reminder of what the City is supposed to be all about.

City of Clothespins?

City of Clothespins?

When they put this 45′ clothespin up outside my office window across from City Hall in 1976, many of us were not happy with the choice.  It was 1976.  It was the bi-centennial of a great city.  What did clothespins have to do with that?  Yet the artist’s view of Philadelphia was one of city folk hanging clothes by clothespins out of their apartment windows…I guess.  That’s what they get for hiring an artist who never lived in Philadelphia.  Wasn’t very authentic, even less so today,I’m sure.

So what is “authentic”, what would 1% for Authenticity look like?

Longaberger Building in Ohio

Longaberger Building in Ohio

Back in 1993 or so, I gave these Longaberger Baskets as closing gifts.  I hired a woman to bake home made sweet breads to put in the baskets, that people could eat while unpacking at their new home. 

Wouldn’t it be great if all businesses and professionals were that obvious?  Imagine having a meeting at Longaberger and trying to find the building.  Would you need a GPS when “within range” to find that place?

What would Authenticity look like?

SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE COMPANY:

Enter at your own risk

Enter at your own risk

The receptionist at the bottom would assign an evaluator.  Alt-A loan? – 4th floor.  NINJA Loan? Top Floor.  The visual and the feeling of being on the top floor, with the perception of little support underneath would say it all…no?

Look around the big cities with the 1% art rule.  You can spot them, because over the years the impact has been dramatic with only 1% going toward art.  What will 1% of time, effort and resources going toward authenticity look like, a decade from now?

Deceptive Advertising Update: Linden Home Loans, Paramount Equity and Assurity Financial

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Linden Home Loans received a “Statement of Charges” back in Dec of 2007  for a deceptive television and radio ad.  The Department of Financial Institutions discovered that Linden promised consumers residential mortgage loans at “1% interest, with no points and no fees,