(Frances Flynn Thorsen is hosting the  Route 66 Real Estate Social Media Retreat in Williams, AZ, later this month. She is also launching the Social Media Skills Builder.)

There is still room in two classes tomorrow:

Real Estate Social Media Mastery 101:
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Trulia
(9 am - 12 noon)

There are THREE social media sites most important in a Real Estate Social Media Business Plan. We will spend time learning how to leverage these sites and establish a social media cornerstone as part of a carefully designed strategy for social media success.

1.  Trulia

Learn 5 Tips for Social Media Success on the fast growing real estate web site … learn the secrets of designing a powerful profile page, create a free blog, and learn the best ways to engage buyers and sellers looking for your help in Trulia Voices.

2.  Facebook

Facebook has 200 million users … more than some countries! Learn how to harness the viral power of the Facebook community in your market area … it’s FREE and it’s easy (when you know how!).

3.  LinkedIn

LinkedIn is fertile ground for building an online reputation, scouting business opportunities, vetting business partners and new hires, and creating new alliances with group creation tools and numerous other cyber gadgets.
 

Why should you attend:

Brokers and agents are using social media – you need to understand the culture to achieve success.

SPECIAL PRICING

Our special relationship with Title Security Agency lets us offer you this class for $25.
You can attend TWO of our social media classes for payment of $40.
Location: Title Security Agency, 6390 E Tanque Verde Rd.,Tucson, AZ 85715
 

REGISTER BELOW FOR ONE OR BOTH CLASSES

http://facebookmaster.eventbrite.com

http://socialmediamastery.eventbrite.com

Real Estate Social Media Mastery 102:
Facebook Strategy and a Plan for Success
(1 - 4 pm)

There  is a social media phenomenon brewing at Facebook as more than 200 million users ENGAGE, EDUCATE, and EMPOWER each other in a passionate online community. Join a nationally known social media diva and put Facebook to work according to PLAN! You are welcome to tote your laptop and air card and participate in a social media lab. Pen and paper are OK, too! Come, let’s ENGAGE, EDUCATE, and EMPOWER!

• Understand the culture of Facebook, where there are 200 million members.
• Who are your friends? REALTORS? Family? Friends? Clients?
• Create a Facebook Business Plan.
• Learn about Profile Pages, Fan Pages, Business Pages, and Events Pages.
• Develop a Facebook strategy for your niche.
• Should you mix personal and business "friends"?
• Create groups for your niche, your church, and your civic organizations. 
• Learn the art of photos: tagging, creating albums, and sharing.
• Have a blog already? Learn how to feed your blog content to Facebook automatically?
• Learn how to use Facebook video to engage your market! It’s easy and fun!

BONUS: Twitter for Fun AND Profit.

Why should you attend:

Brokers and agents are using social media – you need to understand the culture to achieve success.

SPECIAL PRICING

Our special relationship with Title Security Agency lets us offer you this class for $25.
You can attend TWO of our social media classes for payment of $40 at ticket above.
Location: Title Security Agency, 6390 E Tanque Verde Rd.,Tucson, AZ 85715

REGISTER BELOW FOR ONE OR BOTH CLASSES

http://facebookmaster.eventbrite.com

http://socialmediamastery.eventbrite.com

Instructor: 

Frances Flynn Thorsen

… got her real estate license and became a REALTOR® in 1985. She was an early adopter of real estate technology on the Internet. Frances was one of the first real estate bloggers to receive national attention early in 2005, with interviews in Investors’ Business Daily, BusinessWeek Online, Inman News, REALTOR® Magazine, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She was founding editor of RealTown.com and worked as Community Manager of Trulia.com. She is CEO of Socialebb Strategies and Solutions and offers an ecumenical approach to blog and social media coaching and consulting services. She appeared on the 2008 list of 50 Most Influential Women in Real Estate in the U.S.

This is the blip.tv version. A blog business plan is an integral component in developing a social media presence. The most successful bloggers marry social media technology and human beingness technology for best results. Register here for No Blogger Left Behind.

Click to play

Resources mentioned in this Webinar:

• Typepad
• Blogger.com
• RealTown
• Trulia
• ActiveRain
• Wordpress

 Handout

Take your blog to millions of consumers on the most trafficked community sites in the Real Estate Net - Trulia, Zillow, and Yahoo! Real Estate. Use popular question-and-answer platforms to establish dialogue and expert credentials.

Download handout here.

No Blogger Left Behind

Twitter Soup for the Soul

Twitter Soup for the Soul is a 98-page mashup of original photos and Twitter posts and an exercise in online transparency. The e-book is $9.97 -- half the author's proceeds will be dontated to CARE through the Web Women's Giving Circle.

Frances Flynn Thorsen is a Twitterholic, blogger, journalist, blog coach, and author who writes about real estate, social media, law of attraction, and prickly pear cactus jelly.

This is not a tutorial about how to use Twitter for microblogging ...

Twitter is described as a microblogging platform.Twitterers use the tool to push product, build brand awareness, instant message their friends, acknowledge and share links about trends and events and their most personal moments.

Twitter is a mashup of brilliance, idiocy, art, confusion, hyperbole, and prayer in 140-character-or-less sound bytes.

I think Twitter is even more ... Twitter is a reflection of the human soul. I've been Twittering since Sept. 8, 2007. Everything you need to know about me is contained in a bank of content there within a growing stream of some 1,749 140-character-or-less posts. My Twitter address is http://twitter.com/FrancesFlynnTho.

Welcome to my soul.

Join our Affiliate Program!

Webinar Handout

PDF Handout for Webinar

Trulia is the fastest growing web site on the Real Estate Net. Real estate professionals have a complete set of Web 2.0 tools to magnify their online voice and connect with buyers and sellers everywhere! Here are 10 ways to leverage an Internet presence in real estate (the Webinar was distilled from these tips):

1. Earn credentials as area expert.
   
   A complete suite of Web 2.0 tools lets real estate agents show market expertise with up-to-the-minute statistics and reports that you can use in your blogs and on the Trulia Voices question-and-answer platform. You will achieve an increasing level of expertise as you answer more questions and blog.
    
2. Brand your listings.
   
   The most consumer-friendly property detail sheet is not complete without your name, your contact information, and a link right to your web site. Trulia receives listings from real estate companies, multiple listing services, and other online publishers. If your listing is here,brand it and it will appear on your profile page.
    
3. Build your reputation proactively.
   
   Construct an online profile that includes a record of your accomplishments and lists your affiliations. There’s plenty of room, so include memberships in organizations that fuel your passion even if they are not real estate related (i.e. CARE National Advocacy, Big Brothers and Sisters, Turning Point).
    
4. Showcase your testimonials on the Trulia profile page.
   
   What better way to build a reputation than with the kudos of past clients and colleagues? As you are building this page, take a few moments to contact some past clients and ask them for a few words that you can use on this important page.Here is a great example.
    
5. Drive quality leads to your web site.
   
   Trulia delivers more traffic to agent and broker web sites than any other web site. The more tools you use, the more traffic you will drive to your web site. And consider the qualitative value of visitors who have researched the real estate market and read the answers to the questions that you post, and visitors who read your blog.
    
6. Attract your ideal client.
   
   Put the Law of Attraction to work for you and let your personality shine on your Trulia Blog. Share your thoughts and successes, share your joy as well as your frustration. Be real. Be you. Watch the magic happen as you establish an online kinship with like-minded consumers. What a great way to kick off a formal business relationship.
    
7. Use widgets and mobile applications to share market stats and listings.
   
   Use a Trulia profile badge in your e-mail signature that keeps your online presence ever ready. Trulia market stats widgets and mapping widgets are FREE tools that drive consumer engagement on your personal web site. A TruliaHomeroll lets you customize a widget to match your web site and show properties for sale. A Trulia Searchbox widget lets your site visitors search for homes right on your web site.
   
   Trulia iPhone and SmartPhone applications bring maps and property information to your mobile devices and car.
    
8. Trulia Pro broadens your reach and exposure.
   
   Trulia Pro offers exposure beyond organic search. Featured listings appear at the top of search results, and you can aim your exclusive Spotlight ad at 20 market areas or zip codes. Trulia Pro is easy to use, easy to modify, and the perfect way to upgrade your suite of FREE tools and services at Trulia. (Sign up for Trulia Pro and use this coupon for TWO FREE MONTHS: F44NN)
    
9. Convert more inbound and outbound referrals.
   
   Use the Member Search on Trulia Voices to find a real estate professional in other market areas to find the right match for your family, friends, and clients. Read agents’ answers to consumers to gauge their market savvy and select an agent or several agents to interview for a chance to work with a buyer or a seller.
    
10. Carve a niche in your local market.
    
    What is your special fancy? First-time homebuyers, historic homes, equestrian properties, luxury homes? Spend energy and have fun sharing insights and information about the market you know best. Use the keyword search tool to find conversations other agents and consumers are having and lend your voice to the discussion on Trulia Voices. Leave a trail of footprints that buyers and sellers can follow to find their perfect agent.

I am very happy to share some exciting news -- I am Community Manager at Trulia.com!

Check out my Trulia Blog and my first editorial project, a new Surviving the Housing Crisis page.

“.. I'm not so sure that consumers are looking for or even expecting a Web 2.0 experience in growing numbers when it comes to purchasing something, especially when buying or selling a house! This seems to be another "myth". Rather than real estate being a "social" interaction, it is what we have always referred to as a "sales" situation.”

It is hardly a myth. The National Assn. of REALTORS report that 92% of home buyers used the Internet in 2008. Real estate Web 2.0 giants Zillow and Trulia each report traffic in the neighborhood of 5 million unique visitors each month. Modern real estate professionals are happy to trade outdated “sales” descriptors for consumer-centric words that reflect service and consultancy expertise.

“Think about it. When buying new tires, are you really going to read a blog at GoodYear? No! You came to look at replacing your tires... and GoodYear hopes to make a sale today with the price information they display on their site instead of you going to Bridgestone instead. If you want a new Lexus, do you plan on interacting on a blog with the local dealer? No. And once the "sale" has been made, will the consumer really plan on coming back often to see their sites again... even if they have a blog? Probably not for many months or even years! If you just bought a Kenmore washer & dryer at Sears, do you keep coming back over and over to look at washers & dryers again?”

I started blogging in January 2005, the same year that Business Week ran a cover story on blogging. The message in 2005? Catch up … or catch you later!

I don’t know much about Goodyear … but take a look at GE, maker of Supra lockbox products and numerous product lines. They have an excellent blog. 

The Lexus media team thinks that blogs are very important and this company flexes some creative muscle in a blog to sponsor a US Open Podcast.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump is a man with a household name and  a record of accomplishment.  Guess what? He blogs!

“… The main reason many, many agents don't "blog" is because very few can actually "write"! I'm not being sarcastic when I say this, but all you have to do is visit lots of real estate agent sites and read their content to confirm this. Very few of us would be considered "authors" by others ...”

You do not have to be Ernest Hemingway to blog. If you can write an e-mail or a business letter, you can blog. Do some people blog better than others? Certainly! Bloggers can improve their skills with some short-term blog coaching. Superb writing skills are not required to blog successfully. In fact, a conversational writing style is probably the best approach on a blog.

Enough is enough!!!

I have been inspired by recent Laser Blog Coaching sessions, including one about reclaimed blogs and I have decided that it is time to reclaim and rejuvenate my own The FAT Lady Blog. over at the Typepad blogging platform. This poor blog has been neglected and ignored. The screen shot on the rightilustrates the blog in a skin that it wore for more than three years.

I decided to opt for a two-column format that offers a much wider text width and lends itself well to parger graphics. I installed a category cloud and a Twitter feed and later I will review the links that were installed and bring the links up to date.

 

A screen shot of the new and improved blog appears at left. I need to work on a new banner for the top, but a simple text solution is good for now.

I like the narrow measure of the headline text ... it looks and feels so THIN! ;-)

I'm going to spend more blogging energies there to journal some much-needed attention to weight and cholesterol concerns. Funny how health and blogging interests intersect ;-) I welcome all suggestions about the blog format AND recipes and ideas for health and wellness that I can share on this blog.

In the meantime, I am going to commence makeover projects on the remainder of my blogs, including this one! Stay tuned.

Barbara Gaines is a well-known real estate CyberStar. She has a triblogular presence on Blogspot and profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook and ActiveRain. Until today she did not know that she is still a member of the RealTown community. (Time to update your profile, Barbara! ;-)

Barbara is a superb REALTOR who remains upbeat in a tough Michigan real estate market.

We spent 24 minutes today exploring an exit strategy from writer's block and a way to make social networking both FUN and profitable.

You can listen here.

Meet Barbara online:

Sold Team USA

Ann Arbor Real Estate Blog

Milan Real Estate Blog (This is in Michigan, NOT Italy!)

Top Agent Blog

The next eight-week series of No Blogger Left Behind Webinars starts August 29, 2008.

REALTOR and educator Sharon Koziel and I spent 16 minutes exploring ways to increase traffic to her blog, Dreaming of Real Estate.

Whoops, Sharon, I did not notice that you attached a domain name to the blog. www.koziel.com needs to be uncloaked to let your readers send permanent links! When you uncloak (or unmask) your domain name, the domain name will "evaporate" when the page is launched and open the possibility for link sharing.

Each blog post creates a separate URL and readers can click the Link or Permanent Link and send posts separately. That is one of the internal features of blog architecture that makes blogs so wildly appealing to search engine spiders.

Hear our Laser Coaching Session here. There are a few tech hiccups but don't worry, I am going to get this right soon!!! Sharon is a dynamite pro and it was fun to play with her this morning.

Learn more about Sharon at her other web sites:

Golf Homes of South Corona (CA)

Education Plus

The next eight-week series of No Blogger Left Behind Webinars starts August 29, 2008.

Join me for an all-day blog coaching marathon on Webex. I will be taking calls and sharing mouse controls with bloggers from 9 am - 9 pm EST all day on Wednesday, August 13, working in 10-minute segments, scheduling calls every 15 minutes through the course of the day. Calls and Webex sessions will be recorded and posted as an EXTREME VALUE offering of No Blogger Left Behind.

Do you want to brainstorm abouit

• Content, news and topics?
• General design and a makeover?
• How to increase traffic to your blog?
• How to connect your blog to your web site?
• How to use social networking tools?
• How to choose a blog platform?
• ... anything else?

If you are interested in particpating, send me an e-mail with your time preference, and the area(s) that you would like to cover. -- Frances Flynn Thorsen, Blog Coach