The Tech Byte Blog

New Facebook Timline for Pages

Amy Chorew — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:16:28 -0700

Brace yourselves ... on March 30 Facebook will automatically switch over your business page to their new timeline format! Whether you like it or not. You are probably seeing notifications at the top of your profile/page that you have the option to switch over to the new timeline.

Once you have upgraded to the new timeline, you will have some ability to dress it up. "Once you upgrade, you'll have 5 days to play with your timeline before other people can see it. You can use this time to add a cover, fill in life events, and star important stories. You can also choose to publish your timeline at any time by clicking the Publish Now button at the top of your timeline. So you might want to go ahead and switch over now so you have a few days to play with it before it is forced upon you. Note: You won't be able to see your friend's timelines until they upgrade and publish."

Your page is organized with different sections covering your life. Various boxes will be arranged with your photos, items you've liked, comments you've made, your statuses, your apps and more. Another area will allow users to click on a year and see what was happening with you at that time. Check out Facebook's synopsis of Timeline here. You can see what an example page will look like.

Your Business page can now include a cover tht represents your business, pin important posts, different admin security levels and more.

Reminder: Be sure you're happy with what you share and to whom by reviewing your privacy settings located in the upper right corner dropdown menu.Change can be hard, but embrace it! Facebook is a free application, and maybe it'll be better than before! :)

Oh Yeah-Don't forget to LIKE our Page: www.facebook.com/TheTechByte

Mobile Marketing for Real Estate

Amy Chorew — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:57:32 -0800

An in-depth discussion on how real estate agents and brokerages can generate business by creating and marketing their mobile presence. We will cover topics including: why going mobile is so important, best practices for creating a mobile website and app, effectively marketing your mobile presence, mobile specific Search Engine Optimization, and tracking your response to get the most out of your mobile initiative. This is an indepth interview with Alex Camelio of Barcode Publicity.

WHEN: TOMORROW-March 7 at 11:00 AM EST (10 CST, 9,MST, 8PST)
REGISTER FOR FREE: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/341246106

Audio and Youtube

Amy Chorew — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:11:05 -0800

I must first remind you about copyright laws and fair use agreements: Music is considered licensed work by musicians, and unless they grant you permission to use their music on your videos, don't.

YouTube has arranged some audio clips from musicians that you can use on your videos. If you create a video of a neighborhood or home and you do not want to narrate it, add music instead.

After you have your video uploaded to your YouTube account, select "Edit Video." Then you'll see the "Audio" tab at the top. If you click there, you will be able to choose an audio track. Search for music or select to see music appropriate for the length of your video.

And remember, if you do use music or any other content that violates fair use, YouTube reserves the right to shut down your account. All your videos? ... Gone! I've seen that happen before, too!

For more on copyright and fair use, see YouTube's Copyright Education page.

Submitted by Kim Wood- Lead Coach of the The TechByte

Tumblr Is Growing and Fast...

Amy Chorew — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:53:45 -0800

Tumblr is a multimedia rich microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their short form blog. If you haven't started blogging but want to give it a try this is the perfect platform to get started. It is amazingly easy to use.

Their numbers are impressive.

900% growth in the last 12 months
90 million users compared to only 10 million a year ago
Addictive and highly engaged audience with 2% of its audience making up 43% of total visits

The engagement on Tumblr is only second to Facebook at an average of over 141 minutes per month per user.

Ease of use and making it simple to post images plays into a web that embraces high definition and addictive images. Here are some more great stats about Tumblr.

Source: http://mashable.com/2011/11/14/tumblr-infographic/

Your Brand and Why it is so Important!

Amy Chorew — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:36:50 -0800

A strong brand helps you focus your energy and engage your clients with a clear message. Because of technology we process more information per day then ever before, if you are not strongly branded and instantly identifiable, you will be lost in the piles of data that are thrown at people every day. We will review tools and approaches for building a strong brand by interviewing Branding Expert, Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru, www.promoteuguru.com. As an award-winning Branding and Marketing Expert with over 20-years of experience, and recently voted one of “The Top 30 Most Influential Branding Gurus in the World”, she truly understands what it takes to: Build a Brand Platform; market a person, product or business effectively; and more importantly how to grow a business. So join us for this free webinar as Lisa, along with Amy, will share some of their best tips and ideas about Branding!

We provide a ton of great free content so make sure to register and mark the date on your calendar.

DATE: 2/24/2012 - Friday
TIME: 3:00PM EST (2:00PM CST, 1:00PM MST, 12:PM PST)
REGISTER (for free)-https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/433338482

Royalty Free Photos

Amy Chorew — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:10:30 -0800

Just becuase an image is on the web doesn't make it available to anyone to use. If you are using photos for your website or blog you need to be aware of what photos you are using. There are many sites that offer low cost or no cost images. Sites like creative commons and bigfoto to name a few. Of course you can always take your own photos which is the best option! Everyone loves photos so don't shy away from photos, it just takes a little effort.

Take a moment to watch this short video about where to find no and low cost images. Enjoy!

Is Your Browser Running Slow? Quick Fix

Amy Chorew — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:32:31 -0800

Whenever you notice your speeds dwindling and your browser creeping, you want to clean your browser.

Browser cleaning only takes about three minutes, and if you aren't currently performing this simple cleaning step, you should add it to your weekly to-do list. Your browser stores information and can get overloaded, so cookies, cache and history need to to be deleted in order for your browser to be refreshed and regenerated - sort of like what sleep does for us!

Here are the simple steps for cleaning the top three internet browsers:

Internet Explorer

Open your internet browser, and in the top right corner, you will see a wheel.
Click and open "internet options."
Another window will open; in the middle, select "delete" under the browsing history.
Select which items you want to delete - most or all of them - and click "delete."

Mozilla Firefox

Open your internet browser and select "tools."
Another window will open; select what items you want to delete. Again, most or all of them.
Click "clear now."

Google Chrome

Open your internet browser and click on the wrench in the top right corner.
Go to "options" and "under the hood."
At the top, select "clear browsing data."
Another window will open where you can select which items you want to clean. I suggest selecting most or all of them.

Cleaning isn't ever fun I suppose, but at least this cleaning doesn't take much time and you will save time browsing when you are finished cleaning!

Submitted by Kim Wood

Do You Have a Social Media Business Card?

Amy Chorew — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:53:50 -0800

As we create more and more profiles online, a social media card may be a good solution. Our personal information was once manageable. Today we are overwhelmed by our online information. Every day more profiles, more contacts, more content, creating new problems for consumers and businesses.

What’s a social media business card ? It is a mini website or a virtual card that will hold all your social network identities just like in a business card so you can hand it over, or share the link to anyone. Its a fairly simple concept, just provide some details, like your social media identities, a quick bio and picture and these sites auto generate the card for you. TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE...

Find Locals on Facebook

Amy Chorew — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:00:04 -0800

You can perform a simple search of your local areas on Facebook to find who is talking about the areas where you work.

Let's perform a simple search of "Moving to West Chester." Type in the search box at the top of your Facebook page, then click "See results for moving to West Chester" in the box that pops up below your search.

What should you do with this information? I'll tell you first what not to do: don't invite yourself to be someone's newly found friend so they can buy a house with you. Also, don't comment on their wall with, "I can help you!" Instead, make a connection. If you'd like to invite to connect as friends, go for it, but don't forget to send a personal message with your invite. If you'd like to comment on someone's post, don't make your comment sound too much like sales; instead comment on how nice the area is or even add a simple "congratulations" to a post they've made.

I have been able to connect with more locals in my area this way. Of course the important thing is to build the relationship after that connection is made. So when real estate is on their mind, they remember you.

Submitted by Kim Wood

Akismet.com for Wordpress

Amy Chorew — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:44:41 -0800

Akismet is one of the best tools to cut down on spam comments in your Wordpress blog or website. Without it you will be inundated with silly comments, links selling stuff and just plain silliness! And once a spammer finds an unfiltered site you are really in for it.

If you use Wordpress.com you will need to install it. Simply do a search for “Akismet” and follow the instructions. Most of the time it is already installed with a Wordpress.org account. It will be found in the list of installed plug-ins, you just need to activate it.

First, sign up for an Akismet API key at Akismet.com to receive your API key via e-mail. Next, yenter the API key into the plug-in settings. From your Wordpress dashboard, go to Akismet Configuration in your Plugins box. You may also see "Activate" instead of "Configuration." Paste your API code in the box, save changes and you're ready! It runs behind the scenes filtering out all the junk.

Akismet is free to use, but they request a donation and since they do great work, consider making a small donation to keep this ‘free’ tool available.

Submitted by Kim Wood, Master Social Media and Technology Coach

Do You Get Overwhelmed with Technology?

Amy Chorew — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:50:58 -0800

The biggest complaint we hear from busy Real Estate Agents is that they don't have time to spend on social media and internet marketing. Kim Wood will discuss some of her best ideas to organize your time and how to use some simple technology tools to get it all done to stay in your clients "top of mind". Having an online presence is crucial to succeed into today's market. Isn't it about time you learn how to effectively manage it?

Managing it All- Tech Tools
Today! 1/10/12 at 1:00 PM EST
You can still register for free: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/807455138

I am currently out of the office...

Amy Chorew — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:20:08 -0800

I am used to seeing these automated email responses. This time of year I get more then my fair share and I am glad that we as sales people can actually take time off during the holiday’s as everyone should. But has anyone ever explained how to properly write an auto response? Just yesterday I saw one that said the person would return on 10/11/2009. Hmmm really, it must be quite a trip. And another that just said “On vacation will be back shortly”. If they are anything like the first person ‘shortly’ is quite a long time. Yet another explained that they needed this long deserved vacation and to contact their assistant NOT them. Too much information, not sure I would want this person as my Agent.

Writing a proper automated response is just as important as any other communication you send. You can come off sounding harsh, stressed, uncaring and more if not properly worded. I would suggest that if you haven’t done so recently that you look to see what your out of office reply says. It should be pleasant, short and specific. When I say specific, I am not talking about the above where the person is obviously stressed and NEEDS a vacation. TMI!

A simple greeting, short sentence if applicable of where you might be and the date of your return. It is appropriate to include contact information for anyone that is assisting your clients while you are away.

And I would hope that before you leave, personally call, text or email current clients to let them know BEFORE you leave that you will be away for a bit. Nothing like scaring away a Buyer because they think you abandon them in the middle of their home search. Or a seller gets nervous because they think you aren’t available to accept an offer that might come in while you are away.

Explain how long you will be away and if you are unavailable, who would be assisting them. This simple step could be the difference between losing a deal and worse losing a client or a referral.

Automated responses are a useful tool to communicate with people when you aren’t readily available but can be harmful if not used properly. So next time you are writing your ‘out of office” email take a moment to really think about what you are writing. Oh and include a link to your listings or any other useful information to keep them engaged until you can return to them personally.

Do you Like to Read and want to Make Money?

Amy Chorew — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:16:58 -0800

If you're a book lover or a lover of Amazon.com, why not become an affiliate? You can earn 15 percent off any purchase when someone clicks through an affiliate link of yours.

This is a free feature. You can build widgets of all the products you talk about to recommend on your website.

Think about this ... our buyers and sellers read books about buying real estate. You could write a post on your blog or website about books you've read and link to your affiliate store from your post. And if someone makes a purchase, you can get paid!

Read more and sign up for the program through Amazon here.

Amazon has several widgets that are customizable for you. Try it today! And Happy reading (and making money!)

submitted by Kim Wood

Notepad is an under Utilized Tool

Amy Chorew — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:00:17 -0800

Notepad is a great little tool that often gets under ultilized. The program is usually found in Programs>Accessories>Notepad, and it comes free on most computers. It can be used for many things. For example when your creative juices start pouring out for new blog posts, it's handy to type them out in a document instead of uploading directly to your blog platform. You can either save them for later or copy directing into your platform.

If you've tried to use Word for this, you probably noticed that your blog posts appear weird if you try to copy directly. Why? Word and other word processing programs, embeds code into the formatting when you transfer it over to your blog. This is also true for most website platforms.

Ideally, you want to use a program like Notepad. Either type directly into notepad or copy content into it (to strip the formatting) then paste into your blog or website.

It's also a great tool to save ideas as they come to you. Save it as you would any other program. My suggestion is to create a folder on your computer. When you have an idea or thought simply open, Notepad, type your thoughts and save to the folder, then you can access to them anytime!

Review Sites and More

Amy Chorew — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:51:22 -0800

Today's consumer is adept at researching homes online and now has moved on to researching the sales associates they want to work with. What will they find when they research you? In a recent article in the REBAC June 2011 newsletter, a mind-blowing list of sites was published where consumers are writing reviews about YOU! So, even if you are monitoring your online reputation with Google Alerts, this may not be enough.

Where are they talking about us? There is a host of specialized agent review sites. Some of them include: Incredible Agents, Quality Service Certification,Rate My Agent, Real Estate Ratingz, Zillow, Agentopolis and of course LinkedIn. According to Sara Bonert at Zillow, 30,000 agent reviews were calculated by the end of March 2011.

Also, don't forget the general review sites where not only real estate is reviewed. These sites include Angie's List, Google Places and Yelp.