If you’re not involved in the Social Media revolution then you are missing out on everything the information age has to offer.

Social Media defined by Wikipedia:

Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings.

Now my interpretation:

Social media is THE KEY to make the internet yours. Did you know that you can customize your entire experience based on what you like? You can keep up with friends, listen music you like , find interesting videos and even find websites that you’re almost guaranteed to like by using social media?

Where to start?

The first place I went was Facebook. Facebook is a social utility (similar to MySpace) that allows you to connect to your friends, family, and the world. You can share pictures, have conversations, and find people with similar interest. It’s the perfect place for a beginner.

The next step I took was social bookmarking:

If you know how to bookmark a page, then this should be a snap. The idea behind social bookmarking is sharing. When you bookmark a page on your browser it can be cumbersome to share. Social bookmarking sites make it easy to bookmark and even easier to share.

The same concept that applied to facebook applies here, find people with similar interest, befriend them and start sharing.

My 2 favorite sites for social bookmarking are:

#1 StumbleUpon is an internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos.

Stumbleupon is the best thing I’ve ever found on the internet. I’m not sure what I was doing on the internet before stumbled upon it. Basically you can surf the web, find sites that you like, bookmark, comment and share.

It gets better when you start using the stumble button. When you sign up it takes you through a questionnaire to determine what you like, then when you use the stumble button it delivers websites based on your interest. Once you start using it you can give websites a thumbs up or thumbs down. When you use the thumbs up it figures out what you really like and gives you more of it.

#2 Digg is a website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories, in a social and democratic spirit.

Digg is a lot of fun. I use it for political news, odd ball stories, and even some business news. The great thing is that you get to vote on what you like and it moves the page up the ranks where more people will see them.

Don’t forget Blogs. Believe it or not blogs are part of social media.

You may be asking yourself, “How is a blog part of social media?”

It’s pretty simple, blogs are maintained by people and they are available on the web. Most blogs have a comment section which gives readers a chance to interact with the blogger and fellow readers.

If you’re just reading blogs and not commenting you’re actually missing out on all the fun. This is your chance to add your two cents. Take advantage of this opportunity by telling me what you think of this post in the comment section below.

How to get started:

• Participate in the discussions
• Be honest about what you like and dislike
• Find friends with similar interests
• SHARE (sharing is the basis for all social media)

** It’s Uber important to learn Social Media etiquette before you dive in, so check out this post.

I hope this was helpful to you. I plan on writing more about social media and WEB 2.0 in the future, so take a moment to subscribe to my feed so you can keep up to date.

Definitions by Wikipedia:

• Social Media
• Blog
• Social Bookmarking
• Digg
• Stumbleupon

Lets be friends, here are my profiles:

• Facebook
• Stumbleupon
• Digg

What’s a twitter?

I’ve been asked this question about 100 times in the last week so rather than answer each person individually, I thought a post might be more helpful.

The wikipedia definition of twitter:

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

For those of you that can’t make a point in one sentence, twitter will be tough.

Some of the great benefits of twitter are:

1. Research: There are millions of people tweeting every minute. Using the Advanced Twitter Search you can target key words in peoples tweets. I’ll be devoting an entire post to this feature in the future.

2. Sharing: Twitter is a great way to share links amongst your friends. How many times have you been at a meeting where someone talks about a great article or website and everyone scrambles to write it down? With twitter you can easily post a link and share it with your network.

3. Networking: Twitter is a social network. You can meet people in your own backyard, or half way around the world that share the same interest as you.

4. Brand Monitoring: People are talking.  Using twitter it’s easy to listen to what they are saying about you or your brand.

There are a ton of other benefits to using twitter which I will share in upcoming posts. If you haven’t checked it out I recommend you get over to twitter and sign up for an account to see what all the hype is about.

When you get there, be sure to say, “HI!” to ME

Some great twitter resources:

I recommend reading TwiTip. This is an amazing blog brought to you by the guys at ProBlogger.

If you’re already on Twitter I recommend you skip ahead to Using Twitter Search for REALTORs Where you’ll find an amazing video on using the search feature to target referrals in your area.

Twitter for REALTORs : eBook

If you’ve got no clue why you should be Tweeting then I recommend you read “Twitter for Real Estate.” This book will not only show you how to use twitter, but it will show you how REALTORs are using it right now to generate referrals.

Getting started with twitter for REALTORs

It’s likely that people all around you are using twitter and you don’t even know it.  One thing is for sure, with over 6,000,000 users per day twitter is the new internet hotspot.

The question is, how can REALTORS use twitter in their business?

Over the next few posts I am going to lay the ground work for a twitter strategy that can be implemented in your business to help you gain visibility on this social network and in your area.

Today we’re going to go through the very basics of setting up your twitter account.

twitter home page

Welcome to the twitter home page.

This is where your adventure begins.

Click on the green box to

Join the Conversation

twitter sign up

Sign up is as quick as 1,2,3

1.  Enter your full name

2.  Choose a twitter ID

3.  Enter your email address

Remember to choose your twitter ID wisely because you can’t change it once you’ve  set up your account.

It’s also important to use an email address you check frequently so you don’t miss an important updates.

confirm your email address

After signing up you will receive a confirmation email from twitter.  Your account will not be completely set up until you open this email  and click the link.

your twitter home page

Welcome to your twitter home page.  This is the page that everyone will see when they look up your twitter ID.  I recommend taking some time to customize your home page before making friends.  It’s easier than you think.  Check out this article on Customizing your page using power point.

Making friends on twitter

That’s all we have time for today, subscribe to our feed to be the first to get the next post where you’ll learn How to Use the twitter search to Make Friends.

Twitter for REALTORS pt 2 : Using twitter search

As I mentioned in an Twitter for REALTORS part 1, I want to share how you can use the Advanced twitter search to find local people in your area using twitter.

Originally I was going to put together a video myself, but luckily my friend  Simon Ford came to my rescue.

Simon is the visionary behind the Social Traffic movement which is deeply rooted in the facebook community.  His company, Social Traffic has put together a team of social media experts in all areas to comprise one of the sharpest teams in social media history.

I’ve been lucky enough to become a part of the Social Traffic team which is how I was able to convince Simon to lend us this video so we can all learn how to use twitter search to find people in our areas using key words for our business.

Using Twitter Search

As a REALTOR, twitter search can be your best friend. It is the most advanced feature in getting connected with people. You can quickly and easily get connected with your friends, co-workers, relatives, loved ones, or even people you don’t personally know but you have the same interests. Using twitter search you can see their real time activities, be updated with their recent blog posts and keep up to date on the latest news. Realtors will want to use twitter search to find anything and anyone by using keywords, phrases, places, interests and more. Just by typing in a word or group of words, you will see the results in real time. This makes twitter search an incredible tool for finding and locating prospects.

With twitter, you can search names, either first or last name, or you can search for twitter ids. If you were not able to locate or find the one that you are looking for, you can go to a more detailed search. For instance, if you want to know what investors, brokers, Realtors, and home inspectors think of a new listing, all you have to do is search on twitter using a phrase or keywords.

Using ‘twitter search’ is the key for online prospecting and a great way to increase your sphere of influence because you can search for keywords directly related to your area or specialty. Twitter search is truly a secret weapon for Realtors. With all this information at your fingertips you’ll be able to spot out potential clients light years before your competition. Emails, blogs, and phones are old school, as a REALTOR in todays market you need new tools like twitter to keep your clients up to date in real time. Using twitter you can share the latest news, blogs, and activities on the web – be it business or personal, as it happens.

Twitter is a relatively new tool. There’s not much competition from the real estate sector. If you learn how to use it now you’ll easily capture more market share before other Realtors jump on the bandwagon. You know, 80% of buyers start their search for a new home online before they ever consider contacting a REALTOR. There are a lot of interesting people on twitter which you can add to your networks. Twitter can be a great help to Realtors by providing a quick and timely way to share important information with your sphere and your clients.

You can use twitter to touch base with your clients, your fellow Realtors, investors, home inspectors and other members of your team. You can invite your clients and your team members to use twitter, you can follow them and they can follow you, this way you can exchange information and ideas quickly. You can even establish your own twitter real estate community.

Some Realtors really have to struggle with time and how they manage it. Sometimes losing a sale can be attributed to the slow process or poor communication. As a matter of fact, the biggest complaint about Realtors is poor communication. Using tools like twitter, you can make communication a breeze. Have you ever pondered how much time is spent on making phone calls, writing emails, and following up during the entire process of your transactions? With twitter you can streamline your communications. You can put the entire team working on the transactions on twitter and allow your client to see progress. Now that’s transparency.