Long Island, New York – Movie Theatre

Thanks to Dean Hartman of Continental Home Loans, Inc. http://www.chlmortgagebankers.com, I was able to present my 6 Ways to Build Your Online Brand.

Here is the PowerPoint Presentation

Here is the handout that will help you create your online social networking profile.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddtd5whr_153cm9sx5dd

Are you Tech Strong?

Farmingdale Cinema

What was great about speaking in a movie theater was that everyone could see the screen, questions could be answered, and there was parking.  Shows don’t typicaly start until the afternoon so meeting planners, associations, and companies should consider this as an alternative in selecting a proper venue.

The challenge in teaching technology is that there are so many things to cover in such a short period of time is that we really don’t have much time do dig deep in the details.  The range of skill sets varies tremendously so we must make it make sense to the beginners and not bore the techies.

The 6 Ways included:

• Online Social Networking – LinkedIn, Facebook, and Myspace
• Blogging – software, RSS, reading blogs, comments, risk
• Podcasting – software
• YouTube – TV Channel, links, types, editing software
• Widgets – Plugoo, WidgetBox
• Text Messaging –  http://www.Jott.com, email to text message http://www.CellSigns.com

Not bad for a one hour presentation??

You will be seeing “Doug in a Disc” Series for live video based tutorials to learn how to use these websites in more detail specific to the real estate series.

Brand Awareness vs. Brand Insistence

Are people aware that you are in the business or do people insist on your brand?  I heard this from Nido Quebin and thought to myself… wow, I have been missing this mark.

Marketing is so much about letting people know what you do and how you do it but it never did occur to me that just marketing did not make people insist on your brand.  The more I thought about this I finally figured it out.  The only way people will insist on your brand is if they have tried it before.  The brand was soooo good that you had to come back for more.

Do our past clients demand for more?

Do our clients rave about what we do?

Do your clients insist on your brand?

If not, then we have a serious problem.  You see the only way we can grow a business is if more people know about what we do and have good things to say about the experience they had.

I think the only place that we can make mistakes is in practice, not in the field.  If we make mistakes in practice we can correct, redrill, and prevent from making the same mistake twice.  Clients will not let you make mistakes twice.  Clients will not let you forget the mistakes that you made.  Clients have so much to do with your future success it is crucial to understand that we must be 100% on target when we enter into the arena.

Insistence is the demand, requirement, or necessity of an individual.  Whatever it is that you are selling if people do not insist on what you sell or insist others to try it then action to say yes does not exist.

People are willing to pay a higher price for those things that they insist upon.

People are willing to make sacrifices for things that they insist upon.

People are willing to break the rules for things that they insist upon.

What is it that you have that people will be willing to do whatever it takes to get what you have?

Think about it and make a comment to this post.

Advertising From the Eye in the Skye

Google is God!  Let me prove it one more time.  Google earth is so awesome because it allows you to see the ariel view from above and let’s you see buildings from an angle.  To start using Google Earth you must download it from Google.   Watch the tutorial

Visit http://earth.google.com/ and download the program to your computer. Once the program is installed then you can start playing around.

The photos are precisely detailed, and you can view buildings from an angle instead of just the tops of the roof.  If you use a program called Snag It, then you take screen captures and save pictures of the images created on Google Earth.  Be sure to check with your attorney to make sure you have the rights to use these pictures in your marketing.  Just a warning.

Snap shot from Google Earth

Direct Mail Tree Killers

Let’s see how much is wasted in the mail.

Letters. Even the pretty notices on company letterhead just don’t get read as much as we would like to think. If the envelope was not hand written it get’s trashed. If we had the time to read of the things that came in the mail our productivity would suffer. I have tried letters and they just don’t work. There is no way to track how many people receive our mail, open our mail, and take action from the direct marketing piece.

Newsletters. We look at newsletters just like we look at newspapers. We read the headlines, ads, and event schedules and put them right into the trash unless it has our name on it. The shelf life of a newsletter has 10 minutes. It takes more time to deliver a newsletter than it does read the newsletter. Thousands of dollars and paper are thrown down the drain.

Magazines.Magazines have pretty pictures but have the shelf life of newsletters and cost 4 times as much. Magazines are great for image building, brand awareness, but can drain a budget faster than any other form of media.

The solution…

Effective email marketing.The difference between email marketing and effective email marketing is that effective email marketing allows you to track what people are reading. Send out mass emails that are personalized, loaded full of links, and have less words. See www.Icontact.com for a good email marketing software.

Blogging is better

Blogs.The new media that is trackable, scalable, and profitable. Take all of your content you put in a newsletter and add it to your blog. Find multiple authors who are are good writers who can commit an hour a week to posting to the blog. Chances are the content is already written in an email or the print newsletter. Just copy and paste to the blog. This extra effort pays off. Maximize the RSS functionality and educate your membership or audience how to subscribe by email or in a RSS reader.  www.WordPress.com is my favorite.

Video casting.Headline events demand multimedia formats. Host interviews with important authorities on hot topics and allow your members to subscribe to receiving videos by RSS. Create your own FREE real estate television channel. You may already own a digital video camera but if not then www.FlipVideo.com is my favorite. www.YouTube.com, www.Viddler.com, and www.ScreenCast.com are good alternatives for video hosting.

What’s interesting is the solutions cost 10% of the traditional formats that burn resources, time and money from the organization. The value increases 500% because people can receive information on a regular basis in a digital format. Collaboration of members produce results efficiently and money is saved.

Stop printing, start linking

Give chips not paper clips

Go digital, not traditional

Tree Killers in the Classroom

Every time I see a presentation to sell something I am surprise at how much paper is wasted.

Let’s take a closer look at the wastes that happen at educational classes:

Registrations. Fax in, mail in, and live that require a piece of paper waste paper because they are used once just for the credit card information and then shredded. Also the regsistrant has a security risk that their credit card number is floating around until the paper is destroyed, filed, or misplaced.

Handouts. How many handouts have you taken purely because they were available and never put them to use? I have a stack of handouts that I have saved over the years which were only looked at during the class and perhaps a day or two afterwards. If action was not taken in the next 30 days then the paper is almost worthless because of the recall necessary to take action is very difficult.

Save time and money

Surveys. How many paper surveys did you receive from a class where you then had to enter into a database after they were completed? Hand written surveys take longer to fill out than electronic surveys. Surveys taken after classes may not reflect true results because of the rush to leave the class or fear the instructor will look at them immediately after they are handed in. More time and paper are wasted.

Here are my solutions:

Establish secure payment gateways for classes.  Many online services offer ways to let students or registrants pay to attend classes. www.EventBrite.com is a good one for those who only set up a few at a time. www.PracticePaySolutions.com is a more robust system that has several features for those who offer more consistent classes or events.

Make handouts available to download. If you cannot upload documents to your web host then you will want to use Google Docs

http://docs.google.com to upload your Microsoft Word 97-2003 documents and publish them to the web. Each document created or uploaded to Google Docs has its own URL or website that you can add to your auto-responder when students sign up for your classes so they can download to their computers to preview before attending the courses.

Electronic surveys.

www.SurveyMonkey.com is one of the FREE websites that allow you to create surveys and send them out to a group for feedback. Each survey can be customized to the type of question and answers that you want to add. Give students something of value in order to fill out the surveys whether it is money off the next class, a free ebook, or VIP seating for big events.

Stop printing, start linking

Give chips not paper clips

Go digital, not traditional

Conference Tree Killers

Every time I attend a conference, meeting, or class I am surprised at how much paper is wasted.

Recycle Bin

Are we so afraid that if we don’t print it out then people won’t read it and take action?  Please…  If the information was so great then we would be talking about it rather than stacking it in the corner of our desk for the next opportunity for us to consider throwing it away.

Does that make sense that someone recycles at home but prints a monster stack of paper in which half will be disposed of anyways without being read?  It’s like me going to McDonalds and ordering a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, extra large fries, and a large diet coke.  Do you think I am doing my body that much more justice by ordering the diet coke?

Let’s take a closer look at the wastes that happen at conferences:

1. The binder. Some conferences give you the big fat bible of information, course handouts, and advertisements that give people the opportunity to see everything about everything.  I have seen the binder take as much as 300 pages of which only 10% is actually is implemented from the classes or break out sessions.  The 90% represents what we didn’t have time to see live or advertisements about some product or service that we will not use.
2. The flyers. Extra paper shows duplicate information that is already covered in the binder but printed separately to promote the hot topics or higgest bidder.

Here are my solutions:

PDF Download. Give every attendee a link to a downloadable PDF document once they have registered online.  This link can be set up in an auto-responder message which contains all conference handouts, brochures, and other relevant information.  Spread the advertisements throughout the PDF document to keep advertisers happier.  This will save money printing paper, conference staff time sorting paper, and still be able to sell advertisements to sponsors.

SD Card. Outsource a 3rd party to take the PDF download and all other conference brochures and handouts and save them to a SD Card or memory stick for people to be able to download onto their laptop or PDA telephone. Cost $10/a piece.

Conference Resell Package. Video every single presentation, meeting, or break out session.  Separate the audio file from the video file using audio editing software.  Hire a 3rd party to transcribe the audio into a typed format which can be saved as a PDF document.  Now you can sell the video, audio, and written transcription of every single event as a extra revenue source.

Stop printing, start linking

Give chips not paper clips

Go digital, not traditional

Publishing to Your Blog Using Google Docs

to

This is amazing. Anyone who has set up a Google Docs account and a WordPress blog can now post their content directly from their documents created in Google Docs. If you are the sole author, great! If you have people who will collaborate on the document, great! Anytime the document is created to in Google Docs it can appear right on your blog without having to log in to your blog administrator and copy/paste the text into your blog to publish.

Let’s take a look at some practical examples:

1. A marketing assistant starts typing in their listings into a Google Docs document that he/she wants to appear on their blog. The assistant also invites the team leader to collaborate on the document just in case the team leader wants to make any last minute changes. Once the final changes have been approved the marketing assistant can now press one button and the document will not appear on their blog that includes, pictures, links, property information.
2. A broker is looking at working with their agents on receiving testimonials on why their company is the best to work for. The broker starts out the templated document on Google Docs with company information, etc. and invites all of their agents to collaborate on why their broker is the best to work for in town. The broker or admin, can take the testimonial document from Google Docs and post it directly to the blog. One email is sent to the agents to collaborate. That is all.
3. A REALTOR association is looking to set up a meeting agenda for their education committee next month. The Education Director starts out a quick few lines about past discussions in a Google Docs Document. Each committee member receives an email from the Education Director to collaborate on the agenda so that all of the hot topics and new items are discussed in the meeting. If any new items appear on the agenda the Education Director or committee chair can decide on the order or which topics to focus on. The agenda is set. Since the association posts all agendas to their blog every member can see the direction that the association is leading them to further develop member benefits.

Young Real Estate Leaders Unite

This is your chance to give back in an open and collaborative environment.

Calling all up and coming real estate leaders!  This is not a MySpace page,  it is not a Facebook group,  this is a place where discussions will take place to help one another grow in a  private and collaborative environment.

Young Real Estate Leaders http://www.YREL.org

This group is not for everyone. This group is ONLY for those who are dedicated towards serving their communities, REALTOR® associations, and companies by becoming centers of influence.

If you join and do not participate you will be removed from the group.  If you join and post obscene or hurtful comments you will be removed from the group.  If your messages become too political you will be removed from the group.  If your messages turn into self promotion you will be removed from the group.

We will be able to work faster, smarter, and share ideas that will help our REALTOR® associations with fresh ideas that can easily be implemented which will benefit membership and the private property rights of home owners.

Here are the ways to participate:

1. Videos.  Post videos that demonstrate the benefits of being a REALTOR, educational talks, and anything that will benefit the search or sale of homes.  We encourage out of the box thinking and creative ways to define alternative ways of serving buyers and sellers of real estate.
2. Photos.  Post pictures that actively display collaborative meetings, agents working hard, clients being served, and successes within the community.
3. Forum.  Post discussion topics that everyone can benefit from and also answer questions that will benefit members.
4. Chat.  Post anything that is on your mind that has relevance to the market, challenges of being a young real estate leader, or success stories from the day.
5. Events.  Please list any events that other members will benefit from.  These include webinars, designation courses, and conventions that other members are able to attend.
6. Notes.  Please list anything on your mind, great websites found, or invaluable tips that you want to share with others.  Please limit the notes to 100 words or less
7. RSS.  Each member should subscribe to the latest activity history by email or in a RSS reader to keep up to date on what is happening in the young real estate leader community.

How do you get started?

Visit http://youngrealestateleaders.ning.com/ or http://www.yrel.org

You must sign up and join the group.  Anyone is allowed to join but they must meet strict requirements in order to stay in the group.

Ways to encourage others to join:

1. Email your friends the exact same notice or the link http://youngrealestateleaders.ning.com/ or http://www.yrel.org and encourage them to join the group.
2. Create a badge.  The badge identifies you as a member of the group and you can post your badge to your blog, Facebook profile, MySpace Profile, and/or website using HTML source code.

If you wish to participate in the administration of the Young Real Estate Leaders Group we will be looking for the following positions:

1. President
2. Chief Technical Officer
3. Treasurer
4. Secretary
5. Membership

There will be plans to have a Board of Directors that will actively manage the direction of the group.  All meetings will be online or using teleconference as a last resort.  These meetings will be paperless and efficiently run in 20 minutes once a month.

Thank you again for your interest!
Doug Devitre
Young Real Estate Leader Network Administrator
Info@YREL.org
http://www.YREL.org

How to Add a Video into a Live Power Point Presentation

There are many reasons why you would want to add a video into a PowerPoint presentation.

1. Adds excitement.  Sound, animation, and videography captures the attention of people immediately.  Videos can show emotions of multiple people interacting in a way most speakers cannot describe just from their voice.
2. Explains complex subjects.  Demonstration how to videos found on www.CreativeCommons.com explain new terms and processes better than most can describe live.  An articulate voice describes uncommon terms in a way that makes sense while animating pictures with their hands.  This clear, concise, and jovial voice is exact each and every time.  This also allows the speaker to view audience members to see who is having more trouble understanding complex subject matter.
3. Give speaker a break.  A pause in the action can allow the speaker to get a drink of water, recollect thoughts, and organize materials for the next learning objective.  Also, the tone, speed, and differentiation in volume can refocus the attention of your audience.
4. Live examples.  Sometimes it may be difficult to clearly articulate a case study because some people cannot envision the people involved in the example.  Videos allow your group to see, hear, and watch the entire situation happpen.

Here is how you add a video into a PowerPoint Presentation:

1. Select the video.  Make sure the video is in the appropriate file format and length that video will play back in a good quality.  Acceptable file format for Microsoft PowerPoint is .avi, .mpeg, .wmv.  The higher the quality of the video the larger the file size.  The lower the quality of the video the smaller the file size.  When a video is inserted to a PowerPoint it may also increase the size of the PowerPoint presentation depending how the video is inserted (see step 2).  I recommend saving all videos in folder called My Videos located in My Documents.  This way you can find them when you need them quickly.
2. Microsoft PowerPoint.  You can insert video into Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations two different ways.  First, you can insert a hyperlink (CTRL-K) from either text or a picture that when clicked will open up the video in the default video player establilshed on your computer.  This requires that you move back to the computer to click on the link and close down the video player when the video is finished.  Second, you can insert the video directly into the PowerPoint presentation as an animation effect (see step 4).  This will then play the video when the wireless presenter remote is clicked on the screen in a section or in full screen mode.  Once the video has finished playing the video can disappear and move on to the next animation effect in the PowerPoint Presentation.
3. Animation effect.  If the video is inserted directly into the PowerPoint presentation then it is automatically considered an animation effect.  All animation effects can be edited from the aminations tab and selecting custom animation.  Once custom animation has been selected a window will appear on the right hand side of the screen with the video marked with the standard play button.  All animation effects can be controlled by the wireless presenter remote, playing while other animations are happening, or after animations that have taken place.  Also, enhanced features will determine how the video appears and how long it will last.
4. Enhanced video features.  Most presenters will want to have the video zoomed to full screen and played by the click of the wireless remote.  This saves time finding the video, travelling to the computer to play, and the class patience waiting for you to get the video started.  On the animations window, right click on the video file and choose effect options.  There will be three tabs that control the movie animation.  The third tab you will want to check the box that says “Zoom to Full Screen”.  On the second tab called timing you will want to select the box that says triggers and then animate as part of click sequence. 

Once you have followed these steps then you will be able to add excitement to your presentations, explain complex subjects, give yourself a break and show live examples of the idea you are trying to communicate.

You may make some mistakes as you learn but that is all part of the process.  Teach it to someone else.  That is really the best way we learn.

Thank you, thank you, thank YOU

Thank YOU to my loyal readers. 

I appreciate the continued support reading my posts, making comments on the hot topics and referring it others to pick up some quick tips.  This week my blog hit #5 for up and coming blogs on WordPress and I owe my gratitude to YOU for continuing to support me. 

Thank you again for supporting me!