Although my main objective is to introduce new technology tools to better help you with your real estate marketing, I am fortunate to be involved in a way variety of products and services that we can all learn lessons from.  Jive Software in Portland Oregon recently stood out and showed that they  know what it takes to build a community around their brand, something you should be doing around your real estate business.

Real Estate Marketing Skills Can Be Learned Everywhere

I recently was fortunate to attend a seminar titled “Building Communities That Will Grow Your Business” hosted by Jive Software.  When I signed up, it sounded interesting, but I didn’t think too much about it.

I received the typical email confirmation that most people would receive when signing up for an event online.  However, within a day or two, I actually received a phone call (it went to voicemail) that was from a REAL PERSON.  If they’re using some kind of autodialer program, it sounded incredible.  It pronounced my name correctly and even had an “um” in there.  So I’m feeling pretty confident in saying it was a real person.

I think it was the day before the event, I received a reminder email and ANOTHER phone call.  At this point I was beginning to think there were maybe 10 people attending.  When I showed up to the event, there were at least 50 people in attendance (I arrived early and sat in the front, so there could have been twice that number for all I know).

The event was great, they didn’t completely preach their products the whole time, but gave great information with great examples.  I would definitely attend another one of their events.

After the event, I received another phone call thanking me for attending.  I missed this phone call again, but getting the voicemails was incredible follow-up.  I was sent the entire slide deck in one email, some basic information regarding their products in another email, and a list of other events they host regularly in another email, all spaced out with very reasonable timing.

I do feel as though they have communicated with me incredibly well, I feel as though I have a personal point of contact if I have questions, I feel as though they are available to help whenever (within reason) I may want.  At this time, their services can’t be used for my employer, but I would gladly recommend them to anyone I talk to.

What Does this Have to do with Real Estate Marketing?

I bought my house over 2 years ago.  No thank you/congratulations card.  No real follow up.  Haven’t heard from my REALTOR since.  During the process, they were a phone guy, while I’m an email guy, so our methods of communications didn’t match.

Jive Software has covered all of their bases by using a variety of communications methods leading up to the event (phone, email and a web site) and has proven to be effective at follow-through by utilizing similar methods without being overwhelming.

I will be recommending Jive as the opportunities present themselves, will your customers say the same about you?

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For some of my readers, I understand this is old news to you. This is for individuals who have either just setup a Wordpress 2.5 blog site or just upgraded from an earlier version. Wordpress is an excellent platform for real estate marketing with technology as it is easy to use and very robust. There are thousands of plugins and themes available, so Wordpress can be made to fit your needs fairly easily.

I decided to go with Vimeo for my video hosting for 3 reasons:

1. They have no time limit (YouTube only allows 10 minutes and this video is right around 14)
2. I can upload 500 MB per week (this is technically in HD quality, so I ate up almost a quarter of that just with one video)
3. They offer HD quality (too often with screen captures, they are really hard to see - not this one though)

I cover:

• Logging in
• Editing your profile
• Writing a post
• Uploading an image
• Adding to your blogroll
• Editing a post/page

So enjoy and remember, it is about 14 minutes, so give yourself time.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/1054124[/vimeo]

Click here to see it in full HD Quality

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In parts one and two of my new Real Estate Technology Focus series, I examined how successfully OS X and the iPhone can be used in your real estate business.

I’ve had many people tell me how much they love their Apple products and how much they have Microsoft Vista and Office 2007. I completely understand their reasoning and my points remain valid, but now I’m going to take a look into how Microsoft is actually losing customers by listening to them.

1. OS X Is So Much Prettier Than XP

I’ve been hearing this one for quite some time now. It’s perfectly true, OS X looks much prettier than XP. From a tool standpoint, who cares what it looks like as long as it gets the job done. I look at esthetics also, and I understand why people love OS X and hate XP. So what did Microsoft do? They created Vista.

According to many long-time Apple fans, Vista was a complete rip-off of OS X in terms of appearance. Search in the start menu is a direct copy of Spotlight, the sidebar was a pathetic knock-off of Dashboard, icons look like OS X – the list goes on.

So Microsoft listened to their customers who said they wanted a prettier interface by almost directly copying OS X. Now, XP users do everything they can to avoid upgrading to Vista because it’s too different and/or confusing. So people begin to question themselves and say “since I have to completely change my usage, why not just go to a Mac? They’ve been so pretty for so long”.

2. OS X Is So Much More Secure/Safe Than XP

Again, Microsoft listened and added in endless user prompts into Vista asking “Are you sure you want to do that?” Yes, it gets old. But even Firefox, which I have loved for some time, has a prompt to install plugins with a time-delay. It’s proven effective in preventing malicious hardware from installing itself.

3. Vista is too hard to use, I should just switch to OS X

HUH?! I’m unwilling to spend 15 minutes learning the ONE major difference between XP and Vista (hint: search is integrated everywhere) and instead I’d rather go use a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SYSTEM?! Down to the mouse and keyboard, Mac’s are COMPLETELY different. Not impossible to learn, but you might as well go try Ubuntu Linux – you can use a 5 year old computer, it looks pretty, works fast and is FREE.

4. Office 2007 is too hard to use, iWork is SO much easier

Again, spend the 15 minutes it takes to learn it and you’ll be faster and happier with 2007. iWork is great, but for the power-user, I have found them to be limited in their feature set. And again, a completely different interface from Office 2003, so if you really don’t like the idea of switching from 2003 to 2007, why does it seem okay to switch to iWork?

5. Office 2008 (for Mac) is WAY too complex, again, I’ll just use iWork

I agree on this one, I have no idea why there are so many tool bars in Office 2008. It is a pain. If that were my only choice, I would ditch Microsoft and go with iWork as well.

6. The Hardware

Okay, I’ve usually just shoved my ugly Windows desktop underneath a desk or in a closet anyway, so I really didn’t mind this at all. But let me tell you, my Mac Mini looks good on my desktop. The Macbook Air is really pretty. You don’t mind leaving them out, whereas I’m always hiding my laptop and trying to hide my desktop. The few companies who are trying to make PC’s look better are apparently only able to do it on their higher end machines, which end up costing more than their comparable Apples and have far worse reputations.

My Conclusion (for now)

For the real estate industry, I really like the iPhone (and am planning on getting one of the 3G versions when they come out), but I would personally hold off on OS X. As soon as your MLS allows access via Safari and you are self sufficient enough to develop your own postcards/flyers/etc without needing to rely on someone who may be using Publisher, go right on ahead and switch. It is prettier, it is (currently) less virus-prone, but it honestly freezes on me as much as Vista does. I’m just waiting for a tablet…

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I currently subscribe to well over 200 real estate RSS feeds.  For those of you just getting started with RSS Feeds (click here for an in-depth explanation), here is my very short list of sites to get started on.  I have intentionally not included any individual Realtor blog sites, either in Portland or elsewhere in the US (the list would be huge, you need to subscribe to ones you like and I don’t want to play favorites), but if you want recommendations, please contact me.

• Inman
• Wall Street Journal Residential Real Estate News
• Oregonian News
• REALTOR(R) Magazine
• Real Estate Tech Coach
• AgentGenius

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This is part two of a three part series: Real Estate Technology Focus: Apple OSX and the iPhone.  If you missed the first part, feel free to catch up here.

One quick update on OSX before I dive into the iPhone – the latest commercials discussing how Office 2008 for Mac is so much better than Office 2007 for Windows are incredibly misleading.

Many people I know who have switched from Office 2003 to 2007 on Windows were initially frustrated. The ribbons were new, which was bad.  Everyone I know who has actually given ribbons a chance and played with them some have grown (quickly) to love them.

Office 2008 also has ribbons.  Here’s a quick shot of Word 2007 in Vista:

And here’s what it looks like for Word 2008 on OS X:

What is all that junk? Who knows, it has taken me far longer to understand the “upgrades” in Office 2008 for OS X than it took to understand the Office 2007 upgrades.  I have a theory about all of this, but that’s in part 3.

What is the iPhone?

Okay, but seriously, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last almost year now, you know what the iPhone is, so I won’t waste your time

Do I own one? No. Have I played with several of them? Yes. Do I want one? Terribly.

The Goods

The iPhone is a beautiful device. I am a former manager and data device guru for AT&T Wireless/Cingular/AT&T and have loved BlackBerry’s and Windows Mobile phones.  The iPhone really is the easiest PDA-style phone to just pick up and start using.

The graphics are brilliant, the screen easy to read in almost all conditions, the processor snappy and good battery life.

Email access is easy, you have a surprisingly good camera even though it doesn’t have a flash and – my favorite part of all – you finally have a true web browser.  Opera Mini and Internet Explorer Mobile sure do try so hard, but they can’t hold a candle to Safari on the iPhone.

One word about the data network, because I’ll also list that as a bad: the iPhone runs on AT&T’s EDGE network.  EDGE has a theoretic top speed of 236 Kbps, but frequently is capped at 135 Kbps.  AT&T also has a 3G network called HSDPA/HSUPA with a current speed of roughly 1.8 Mbit/s. (all info courtesy of PhoneScoop.com).  EDGE is nationwide – anywhere your phone works (except for very few small regional roaming partners), you have access to EDGE speeds.  So the iPhone should basically be the same speed everywhere.

The Bads

No eKey and limited MLS support.  The MLS in my area only allows Internet Explorer in, so the crippled IE Mobile will work, but the full-featured Safari will not.

No video capabilities.  With such a nice camera, screen and YouTube support, video seems like it should have been included.  I honestly could care less about a flash because every on-phone flash I’ve seen makes everyone look washed out and blue.

No chat. Now this isn’t as important for business use, but I personally use Google Talk (which works with Apple’s iChat) to keep in touch with my entire family very easily.

No 3G. Now the reason I want this isn’t the best – I want it because the network exists and I want to take advantage of it.  I have a Verizon EVDO (their version of HSDPA/HSUPA) BlackBerry.  I have run speed tests on my BlackBerry and iPhones.  The iPhone on its SLOWER network browses the internet SIGNIFICANTLY faster than on my theoretically faster BlackBerry.

No user-replaceable battery.  This isn’t a big deal for me, but I know some people need a backup battery.  This is another advantage of AT&T: my BlackBerry gets terrible coverage in buildings, so it usually shuts down the EVDO network, which apparently reduces my battery life to about a third of what is normal.  The iPhone doesn’t have to deal with this, so battery life is consistent.

So Why Don’t I Have One?

I’m waiting for the 3G, 32GB version.  I think it’s safe to say it will be out this year and I’m a patient person.  Every other feature (chat and video) I would want could come as software upgrades, so I would be happy with those two additions.

It is an incredible device, and with the addition of ActiveSync support, it can sync email, calendar and contacts just like my favorite BlackBerry.

Now, for all of you real estate professionals who want your eKey also, you’ll have to get an Active Key I guess (which I have been hearing wonderful things about).  And when it comes time to vote on what you want your MLS to do, make sure you tell them to support Safari.

Coming up next in my Real Estate Technology Focus: how Microsoft has shot themselves in the foot by meeting the demands of their customers.

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