100 great Twitter tools

Kelly Sonora from Online Best Colleges just sent me her post titled: 100 Twitter Tools to Help You Achieve All Your Goals. 

There are many tools here that I never heard of and will be testing them throughout the week. 

If you are still coy about Twitter, think again. Where else can you broadcast your message to an entire world for free? 

There are conversations going on right now about you, your marketplace, your industry and life in general that you could be a part of. Many of the tools listed above can keep you connected easily with little intrusion.  

Twitter is open 24/7. It's an online rave. The ecstasy you ingest and the high that ensues come from the connections you are bound to make that will lead to opportunities you would never, ever, create otherwise. 

Unlike blogging, little time is needed to get something out of Twitter.  Personally, I invest no more than thirty minutes a day. What I accomplish would have, in the old days... been impossible. 

Davison

Twitter:1000wattmarc 

Speaking to a Tweeting crowd

This image was posted on Conversion Agent this morning in a great post titled "Twitter Brings Interaction to Events." In it, Valeria Maltoni offers some great tips to speakers on how to craft presentations that are interactive and sustain audience attention.

This is certainly a must read for anyone on the speaking circuit today, especially if you are addressing large audiences from a stage and may have wondered why half the crowd appears to be asleep during your presentation. You can be assuaged of your self doubt and take comfort in the knowledge that all those bowed heads are probably distributing, commenting and conversing about your subject matter to the world at large via Twitter.

Having spoken from large stages, I can vouch for the energy a speaker derives from eye-to-eye contact with the audience. The increasing number of Tweeters wrapped up in their own broadcasting makes that harder to achieve.

Personally, I wonder if the resolve for speakers is as simple as setting up a Twitter account for each presentation with appropriate hashtags, project it live onto the screen, and seamlessly incorporate the comments that ensue directly into their presentation.

There is no doubt that this would complete the circle of social interaction. But in any event, it is clear that speakers who are used to the "1.0" method of addressing a crowd - you presenting and the crowd listening - need to adopt new communication skills for a new kind of audience.

Kinda like every thing else these days.

-- Davison
Twitter:1000wattmarc

Here lies Web 2.0

John Cable published a blog post this past October titled "The End of Web 2.0?"

His end was marked by the drained IV bag of venture capital that no longer pumped its lifeblood into the veins of all the loosey-goosey ideas hatched to amass audience rather than revenue. When the flow stopped, so did they.

Many are now on life support. Last December, Peter Schwartz published this article in the The Huffington Post. He cites the Web's most popular social network, Facebook, and the $300 million they earn as having little impact on the expenses they burn. With ad dollars evaporating and their need to add more servers and personnel, their future, in a way, looks grim. 

Peter talks about Web 2.0 burnout, and the "longing to return to the wholeness of the physical world." That has resonated heavily with me for a while now.

As Peter explains, Facebook grows by reaching new audiences but also recedes as old audiences shut it off. They unhook. And go back to taking long walks, reading books, hanging with real friends and seeking some white space in life. 

Twitter continues to grow at an explosive rate. In better, more fantastical times, fanciful conjecture such the late Portland journalist Russell Shaw's prediction that Google should buy it might be exciting. But this would'nt be too thrilling today unless Twitter or Google could explain how to monetize all those millions of disposable and time sensitive Tweets. 

The true fate of Web 2.0 

In recent months we've read about layoffs in the Web 2.0 space. Jaxter, LastFM, Mahalo, Yoomba, LinkedIn and YouSendit are some of the many firms doing everything they can to weather the storm.    

None of this comes as any surprise given the state of our economy. But does all this point to a pandemic that could wipe out even the most popular Web 2.0 sites? 

It's still too early to tell of course. But we all need to be prepared. There are plenty hanging on for dear life in real estate.

In order to survive they must evolve out of the primordial FREE waters of Web 2.0, deliver real benefits and start charging their users. This presents a challenge to the many people who have been enjoying and benefiting from these no-cost services.

A couple weeks ago real estate's largest online community, Active Rain, enacted a controversial subscription fee for new members. It would be absurd to think that AR could continue operating without finding some way to monetize members who use its platform to build their businesses.

Recently, on Twitter I posed the question, "Would anyone here pay for their Twitter account?" Every single single response I got was "not I."

Really? Mmm. I would. Considering the benefits I've reaped from a free Twitter, I can only imagine what I could garner interacting with a paid membership. The thought of Twitter going away because they can't create revenue from its millions of users who have been spoiled by free is alarmingly sad. 

So given the inevitability that many more Web 2.0 sites will perish, including those inside our own industry, do you have a game plan for what's next when the free service you've been leveraging either goes belly up or starts charging?

You should. After all, it's not likely that door knocking is going to come back into fashion.  

- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Real estate on steroids

Stattweets launched today, enabling sports fans to follow their favorite teams, get spreads, scores, standings, ranks etc.

The idea isn't new but their angle is. The content here is broadcast direct from the teams themselves rather than from the arbitrary public. 

Immediate info.
Direct from the source.
I love this.
 
And I would love this from real estate.

Imagine a REStatweets that broadcast Just listed, Just sold, Pending, local stats and spreads from every major, minor and collegiate real estate brand locally and nationally. 

Subscribers might include agents and brokers who would be able to acquire new listing information from any or every one of the brokerage brands listed in the network. If agent A gets a listing right this second, how much time would elapse before that listing is uploaded into the MLS and broadcast to out to the agent population? How much time would it take before it's broadcast out to the marketplace?

REstattweets could reduce that down to seconds. 

This does not replace the MLS. It simply acts a surrogate service that gets the ball rolling quickly. It's a listing alert on steroids. It's an open house alert on steroids. It's what's happening on every block on steroids. 

It's real estate on steroids.
 
Consumers could subscribe too. Now, I know sports engenders a certain fanaticism that you may think real estate does not have. But I'm not dribbling in that end of the logic court. I believe real estate is addictive. I believe it's voyeuristic. And I believe those who work inside it (agents, title reps, mortgage orginators, and the like) as well as those outside - the consumer - possess a healthy passion for it.

Especially now.

Micro-broadcasting in real estate is still in its infancy. Early adopters are currently focused on broadcasting about themselves and what they are doing. I've learned there is value there but I am still convinced that content only has a few seconds of real relevancy and pales in value to reporting useful data. 

Sports might be apples to real estate's oranges. But data is data. Any engine that could power the instant delivery of it is one I believe is worth subscribing to, paying for and driving. 

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Life during wartime

Part one of a two-part series.

A hubbub of technological euphoria swirls in real estate. It's been here since the early days of agent domain squatters and will likely last well past Real Estate Connect 2008, where talking heads, brokers, innovators, technologists and bloggers sipped from the Pixie Sticks of cool and trendy.

Web 2.0. It's now a bona fide addiction. Connect proved that. The merry band of bloggers and Twitterers mingled, typed and grooved to the orange and green.

For some,  it has become a lifestyle. But this stuff can also be a van loaded with  weapons, packed and ready to go.

Or it can  be a gravesite out by the highway -- a place nobody knows.

And gunfire off in the distance

By the close of Connect, dozens sat in airports Twittering about sitting in the airport. Others madly signed up "friends" on social networks. Bloggers blogged to other bloggers about all the blogging taking place at the conference.

I spent the  weekend sifting though e-mails, accepting and denying invites from people I do  not know.

I wondered  how any of this helps build business.

Of course I get Web 2.0. But with a calm reserve. Enthusiasts might note that my year-old consulting firm has benefitted greatly from our blog, but that would then detract from the years of experience my business partner and I have inside this industry.

And herein lies a balance I feel is often overlooked by the preachers, teachers and believers. The promiscuous social necking and compost heap of useless tweets that steam atop the real estate "conversation" often, for me anyway, have no correlation to terrestrial real estate excellence.

Real estate is in the market equivalent of wartime.

The battle is fought between what's trendy and what's real. Between anecdotal and fact. Between hype and truth. Between profit and loss. With so many Web 2.0 tools and applications now being deployed onto real estate it feels as if practitioners are armed with only a fuse. Bullets of random advice are pinging off your helmets daily. Your efforts ricocheting out of control.

The  explosive power of deeper thinking and real application of these revolutionary  tools is left unharnessed and lost.

Three passports and a couple of  visas

Video, mapping, blogs, vertical social networks -- these Web 2.0 tools are sound. But I wonder how are you applying them? How are you not applying them? Are you caught up in a facile enthusiasm, spending days and nights Twittering about what the most menial things you're doing instead of participating in truly meaningful discussion about the consequential benefit of that activity to your clients?

Are you starting to wonder whether this Web 2.0 stuff, or at least how it's being presented to real estate is
noting short of a way to distract you in the wake of such a slow market?  Are you scratching your head wondering what the heck the bottom line is on all this stuff? Or if there is some sound application to all this that has not yet revealed itself?

If you are you are not alone.

And she was

Real estate had it right all along. Buying a home is different than buying a used car. Or airline tickets. Or shoes. Online, or for that matter, off. While there are things we can and must borrow from those experiences it is its own experience that needs to be polished not molded to become MySpace.

As for the tools and applications and the spirit of Web 2.0,  it is, at this juncture a complement, not a replacement, for the old-fashioned tenets of real estate services that are born out of providing a deep sense of intellectual guidance, service and benefit to the consumer.

As for transparency, well... I think that when it comes to stripping that final coat of cheesy camouflage off of real estate and revealing it's many secrets and truths, that's more about survival than it is about Web 2.0. 

"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, This ain't no fooling around, No time for dancing, or lovey dovey," or you  ain't got time for that now!"

- Davison

This is part one of a two-part series. Next: A deep, balanced dive into the new tools, what they mean and how to get the most out of them.

The terror of Twitter

The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops.

-- Pozzo, in Waiting for Godot

What if you could float in the ether and listen to the wails of the world?

The unending hidden noise of humanity.

That's what comes to mind when I think of Twitter. It's marvelous and weird.

And it gives me the heebie-jeebies. But that's my personal neurosis. I don't want people to know what I'm doing now. I don't follow much either. And I got rid of Twhirl, which is beautiful but distracting. So now I peek my head in when I'm looking for something. I occasionally find Summize useful, but that's it.

If that makes me Nixon to your John Lennon, that's OK. I'm comfortable in wingtips.

Discomfort aside, I've been eager for the business case for Twitter to become clear, because I do think there is one there. I have talked with some and read about many who have earned or kept business because of it. But here I'm thinking about scale. The enterprise. The "Waiting in line at Starbucks" writ large.

The launch of identi.ca last week may move us closer. The new open source microblogging application got a lot of play in the the big tech blogs but gained little notice in real estate. But the possibilities identi.ca holds for real estate are interesting, particularly for brokers.

Of course, the overriding benefit to Twitter -- and the weakness of identi.ca -- is not so much the app, but the community. It is the millions on Twitter that make it possible for real estate professionals to enter the stream and make connections. identi.ca can't deliver that and never will.

Nevertheless:

• I'd like to see a real estate blog or website provider throw identi.ca on a server, fuss with the code, and deliver a private-labled microblogging app tailored to real estate
• A brokerage or franchise organization could implement identi.ca as an improvement upon the standard extranet. Agents and brokers could float referral offers and sample from the collective expertise of the organization in all kinds of new ways
• An implementation of identi.ca that weaves in content would be great. I'd like to be able to create a feed of market stats from Altos, mortgage rates from Zillow or listings from an IDX solution.
• A "Neighbors" version would be even more interesting. This would be in the same vein as a FriendFeed room, a neighborhood blog, or a Yahoo! Group. Again, piping hyperlocal content in would help a lot.

The microblogging format is here to stay. Real estate leaders should keep a close eye on it as it matures at warp speed. Even if, like me, they find it a little terrifying.

-- Brian Boero

Today's open social, a legacy from the past

If you think your customers know you because of your website bio, think again.
If you think you create loyalty from a simple brand statement, think again.
If you think all this innovation separates you from tradition, please think again.

The Past

Every Friday morning, as a boy, I joined grandma on her weekly trek to the butcher. Shelly knew exactly what kind of chicken grandma preferred for the Sabbath meal. It  was bagged when we arrived. Her name, scribbled across the wrapping. A few  marrow bones thrown in for her soup. No charge. And a sugary bow tie cookie for me.

Every so often as a boy, I'd join grandpa to the shoe repair store. Mario, the owner, was a tiny man dwarfed by stacks of shoes and shoe parts. His olive skin held a shiny patina from all the polish he handled. "Marco Polo!" he'd scream as I entered his shop. "Looka how bigga you get." Even if he hadn't seen me for a year. Even though I had hardly grown.

Back then, New York's Lower East Side was our Internet. These shops were our destination sites of choice. The owners garnered loyalty the old fashioned way -- by being there. Holding court. Playing to the crowd of visitors, customers, members.

They'd talk and joke -- share their opinions about anything.

Shelly and Mario were yesterday's webmasters. Social networks' architects. They epitomized the very essence of what "local" meant. When I think of them, memories overtake me. They had an intimate relationship with their customers. Chicken is chicken, but there was only one Shelly.

Sometimes, the conversations inside their stores were about politics. Sometimes it was about sports. Often, it was about the neighborhood. Who did what to whom. Who bought a new car. What home was for sale. Sometimes, it was idle banter.

But  it was always real. Honest. It mimicked life. And it was the foundation of their business.

Today

Meet Tony. Zappos resident shopkeeper. Standing behind his counter. Like Shelly, garnering loyalty the old fashioned way. By being there.  Sharing his thoughts. Playing to the Zappos crowd.

I received a Twitter message last week regarding his thoughts on service. It prompted me to go to the Web site. I shopped around and ordered three pairs of Doc Martins -- sneaker shoes and a pair of summer sandals. Asked for 3-4 day delivery. They arrived the next day. Just like his tweet suggested.

Tomorrow

I  know this whole Web 2.0 stuff is seemingly fleeting, trendy and difficult to  measure.

I know it can be argued that so much of what is being twittered about -- especially in real estate -- is hardly quotable, and borderline rubbish.

I know that discounting many of Web 2.0's higher possibilities is a predominant sensibility in real estate especially among die-hard traditionalists holding onto old-fashioned ways.

But I submit that what you are discounting is deeply rooted in good old-fashioned tradition. I submit that if applied correctly, blogs, Twitter and the like could very well be the vehicle by which those old-fashioned ideologies we honor so dearly can be resurrected.

I submit that these Web 2.0 tools stand to better connect you with your customers than the template, static, boilerplate Web tools you have been using for the last 10 years.

Nostalgia

Shelly or Mario never said anything all that memorable. But the social experiences inside their establishments have lingered for 40 years.

Your establishment is online. This is where conversations must now take place. To fight this inevitability is to buck the very tradition you hold dear. Real estate begins with a conversation, and what better way to start and carry one than with the array of free 2.0 tools at your fingertips?

Granted, learning how to properly use these tools might be an arduous swim upstream. But sometimes a trip back to the past is where you can birth a new future.

What  have you got to lose?

- Davison

What are you doing right now?

Twittervision. My new home page.

At any moment I can see what someone is thinking anywhere in the world. Do I really care that some dude is picking lint from his belly button or some girl dropped her cell phone or that half the posts that pop up are written in languages in don’t even recognize?

Sure I do.

It makes me realize that there is a world full of people no different than I am despite their race, creed, color, social class or politics.

It flattens the world in a way that makes each of us more rounded. But mostly, I stare at that map and wonder how cool it would be if the pop up posts where homes being listed RIGHT NOW. Or agents posting cool stuff about their communities RIGHT NOW. Or sending messages up to Twitter about a home they just previewed. RIGHT NOW.

What are you doing right now? Right now, I may have no idea who you are. 10 seconds from now the entire TWITTER universe could. Seems to me real estate has a lot to say but they’re having trouble getting the world to hear it.