I love it when people test things. 

In this case, Celeste tested my guess that perhaps 10% of your friends on Facebook were actually "listening" to anything you have to say. And, she did it in a way that helped her prove her own point. You gotta applaud that. :)

A few weeks ago, ActiveRain released a new feature that allowed members to export an archive of their individual blog posts. In the announcement, Brad said, "It's open nature will allow for the development of third-party import tools."

So, I sent the link to my partner, Steve Zehngut, and we put "create a Wordpress Plugin to import ActiveRain posts" on our to do list. Today we tested it and are ready to release it into the wild. You should be aware that the ActiveRain export does not include categories, tags or comments. So, our plugin imports the posts and gives them a category of "Active Rain" in your Wordpress blog. This will make them easy to find. If you're importing your posts into an existing blog, I would import them as draft. The video below will illustrate.

Visit this page to download the Wordpress Plugin to Import ActiveRain Blog Posts.

Let us know if you have any problems with it.

I'm continually moved by the support that the ActiveRain Real Estate community gives to MFFO. But I want to say a special thank you to Monica McNamara and Bill Lublin, for stepping up to help others double their money!

The first book I shared, The Tipping Point, was mailed to the winner, Jeff Gingerich, last week.

That book was shared from Zeek.com, but this book, Sex And Real Estate, simply MUST be given away here on Active Rain. Why? Because this is where I wrote the original reviews and posts about this very interesting book. These posts still get visits two years after the fact. And the content of the book will always be relevant, in my opinion.

"When you stop to think about it, buying and selling a house is a lot like dating," says Margorie Garber, "the same quickening of the pulse, the lingering around the phone, willing it to ring." Good markets or bad markets, that does not change.

If you'd like to read my thoughts on the book, here are a few links:

• Sex And Real Estate: Part 1
• Sex And Real Estate: The House As Beloved
• Sex And Real Estate: The House As Mother
• Sex And Real Estate: The Conclusion

So here's how this will work. Simply leave a comment here indicating that you'd like to read this book and tommorrow at noon, PST, I'll select a comment randomly and send the book to you. The catch, you have to read it, write your own review and then offer it up to someone else.

Sound fair?

I was honored to be the kick-off speaker at New Media Atlanta last month.

The topic I was given to speak about was, "Why Social Media Is Here To Stay." The reason is simple. Social Media is the love child of Social Networking and New Science. I actually wrote about this same topic here on ActiveRain in February of 2007, it just had a different title: "Why ActiveRain Is Working Even When It Fels Like It's Not." That post was about a book, Leadership And The New Science, complex adaptive systems, and the death of Newtonian business principles. My opinion has not changed.

Here's a video of the presentation. Thanks to Dakno.tv for capturing this session.

The following doesn't surprise me anymore. I've come to expect it. The reading list contained in the conversation below was generated in less than 30 minutes on Facebook. What's more, I expect that it might grow a bit from here. I think it illustrates the beauty of YEO. Because these relationships are real, I've come to trust these people that some of my "real life" friends affectionately call "faux friends." I'd strongly disagree.

I asked a simple question and the community was quick to respond. They spoke and I listened. I now have four of their recommendations in my iPhone Kindle app. And I'm looking forward to reading their suggestions!

The Question: I'd love to do some reading (books) while on vacation next week. Any suggestions?

The answers:

 Brad Hanks at 8:54am June 18: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Quick read but good.

 Carol Smith at 9:00am June 18: The Kite Runner

 Jeff Turner at 9:00am June 18: Brad, that is now on my iPhone Kindle app. Thank you. Anyone else?

 Courtney Brown Simmons at 9:01am June 18: 'The Wisdom of Crowds'

 Kevin Jones at 9:01am June 18: What's the purpose of the read? Self Help? Pleasure? ...

 Garron Selliken at 9:02am June 18: Outliers is great! also "End of Poverty" by Sachs is brilliant. & "Singularity is near" by Ray Kutzweil - heavy but mind blowing.

 Jeff Turner at 9:08am June 18: Kevin... I haven't read a novel in years, if that helps. Not big on typical "self-help" books, so... :)

 Jeff Turner at 9:08am June 18: Carron... thank you. Off to check them out.

 Molly McMahan at 9:08am June 18: On vacation something light might be a little more fun...like Carl Hiaasen!

 Jeff Turner at 9:10am June 18: Garron, ordered End Of Poverty but Singularity Is Near is not available for Kindle.

 Jeff Turner at 9:11am June 18: Carron, actually it is. I just ordered it as well. Thank you!

 Damien D Hustle Bryant at 9:11am June 18:  http://www.thecultureofcollaboration.com/the-book.html

 Stephen Schweickart at 9:11am June 18: GREEN EGGS AND HAM...best book of all time!

 Lyell E. Petersen at 9:12am June 18: Do you like war memoirs?

 DeAnn Monique Rice at 9:12am June 18: Have you read "The Shack"?

 Jeff Turner at 9:14am June 18: Courtney, just purchased "The Wisdom of Crowds" as well. I think that will do it for next week. :) But don't stop Y'all! Great list forming here.

 Sarah Nichols at 9:15am June 18: Well Jeff, I would suggest some classic novels but you just wrote that you don't read novels. Anyway, My favorite novels are: "The Good Earth' by Pearl S. Buck, 'Memoirs of a Geisha', all the Harry Potter books (You won't be able to put those down) - that should occupy you for a while if you opt to read a few fun novels.

 Cathy Carnell Chapman at 9:17am June 18: The Noticer by Andy Andrews!

 Julianna Turner Salvante at 9:19am June 18: My favorite "Einstien's Dreams" ....... Right now I am reading "Stumbling on Happiness" very enjoyable read.!

 Sarah Nichols at 9:20am June 18: Memoirs Of A Geisha is actually a very riveting novel that - while it glorifies the idea of being a geisha - also shows the pain, struggles, and mental anguish that these girls go through when they are torn from their families and thrust (and sold) into this life that they didn't choose.

 Jeff Turner at 9:21am June 18: My reading list for next week. :) http://skitch.com/reshows/bwi1t/reading-list

 Jim Cronin at 9:22am June 18: 52 Rules of Thumb by Alan Webber (Founder of Fast Company). And yes, Outliers was great.

 Audrey June-Forshey at 9:24am June 18: I am with Carol Smith, Kite runner!

I was honored to be interviewed by Angie Swartz on Twittertalk Radio a couple of weeks ago. 

Angie and I spent a good portion of the first segment talking about YEO and it's origins here on ActiveRain. Her take on the segment: "Jeff Turner coined one of his taglines by accident in a blogpost he wrote for Active Rain…SEO vs. YEO. Although Jeff admits that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important, he purports that YEO (You Engaging Others) is by far the most essential factor in developing good content and relationships. If you focus on interesting conversations with others, you’ll likely win in all directions."

I thought I'd share the archives of those conversations with you here. 

Segment 1: Jeff Turner Talks YEO vs. SEO

Segment 2: Gaming Twitter and Jeff Turner's Fake Bott #FollowFriday Friends

Segment 3: Jeff Turner Mentors Ines Hegedus-Garcia with Mojitos

Segment 4: Rocky Turner's Story: Twitter Helps Kenya by Launching Mothers Fighting For Others

When I talk about the concept of YEO, You Engaging Others, the word "engaging" is used as a verb. This is not an accident.

Reading through the comment stream of my post last week, I occured to me that some were responding to the word "engaging" as an adjective. In it's adjective form, engaging means, "Interesting; charming; attractive, especially of a manner or behaviour." And while I think that's all well and good, that's not what I mean when I use the word "engaging."

I mean the verb:

• To gain over; to win and attach; to attract and hold; to draw.
• To gain for service; as, to engage friends to aid in a cause.
• To employ the attention and efforts of
• To embark in a business; to take a part; to employ or involve one's self; to devote attention and effort; to enlist; 

For our purposes, whether or not you are "engaging" is judged by other peoples actions, not by yours. It is not judged by how charming you are, but by whether or not your followers take action on your behalf.

The path to engagement is through awareness and interaction.

Focusing on "engaging" as an adjective may get you to awareness and interaction, but only focusing on the the actions required to make it a verb will lead you to engagement, to someone taking action on your behalf.

One additional thought.

Often, engagement must look like this first. If you want others to engage on your behalf, engage on their behalf.

The following conversation on Twitter inspired this post today.

• HomesByThomas  yesterday

  @respres Jeff, with over 6000 followers, how hard is it to maintain any sort of contact with people? Did you notice that I sent you a Thank You?

  • respres  yesterday

    @HomesByThomas yes, I did, but hadn't responded yet. And a lot easier than you might think. You may have given me my YEO post for the week.

    • HomesByThomas  21 hours ago

      @respres Jeff, I'm glad to hear your response. I thinks it's awesome that you can respond like this and I'm excited I could inspire a Blog!

      • respres  12 hours ago

        @HomesByThomas well, let's hope I find the time to write it tomorrow.

If you're being followed by a lot of people, how hard is it to maintain any sort of contact with those people?

Not very hard at all. Why? The answer lies in how we define "contact" and "engagement." And that is different for the 6,000+ followers I have, people who have chosen to "listen" in on my stream, than it is for the nearly 4000 people I follow, people I have chosen to "listen" to.

In this context, "contact" can have a good number of definitions. Each time I post a status update, I have the potential of making contact with some percentage of those 6,000 people. There are many variables that influence what that number will be at any given time. It depends on who is online at the time and their level of interest in me and the content being delivered. It also has to do with the number of people they're following (their own stream noise level) and the pace at which others are posting status messages at that same time.

If I'm consistently delivering value to, the contact happens as part of my daily activities. There is no extra effort required. I call this "ambient presence." My followers are aware of me and what I say and can choose to engage in a conversation or take action on a request, but I don't have to reach out specifically to anyone specific each time I want to make contact.

The more critical question would be this: "How do you maintain any sort of contact with the 4000 people you are FOLLOWING."

Why is it more critical? Because what I have said by "following" those people is this, "I am listening to you." I'm saying that I want to have a conversation with them, that I want to engage with them. I'm saying they are of interest to me. I don't follow everyone back for one reason and one reason only. I want the people I follow to know that I have a desire to engage with them at a higher level.

Thomas sent me a welcome message shortly after I followed him and about 12 hours before the question that prompted this post. I knew this because I got a txt message update using a tool that we built at Zeek for Ben Martin called Twext.me. Twext.me sends a summary of the "mentions" I receive on Twitter and alerts me to the possibility that I might want to go pay attention. Ben expressed his need for a tool like that, so we built it. And it's free. I needed that tool too, because it IS hard to pay attention to 4000 people. It's not as hard as one might think, but it's still hard.

There is a need for better tools to manage our online relationships.

If we are attempting to engage with thousands, this may seem fairly obvious. But even if we're trying to engage hundreds, we will not be as effective if we don't use tools like Tweetdeck and Tweetgrid to our advantage. That's a fact. But even if we do, we are missing systems that would allow us to understand who we have and have not talked with in any given period of time. Current systems don't allow us to see who has and has not acted on requests we've made. They don't give us the tools to help us assess our reach with the messages we're promoting. And while the social side of me says, "who cares. Just engage and let it take it's course." The business analytics side of me says, "it would sure be nice to know."

So, Thomas, if someone mentions me on Twitter, I know about it. I have all the tools necessary to make sure that I can respond and engage appropriately. What's missing are the tools to help me beter categorize the people I'm following and help me me identify who I've not spent enough time conversations with. Sites like twitTangle attempt to make it easier for me to conentrate on certain people, but they don't go nearly far enough.

But this has me wanting to ask a different question.

If you are a local real estate agent, why would you need to follow thousands? Having thousands follow YOU may happen whether you like it or not. If you're interesting, it will probably happen. But why would you need to follow thousands?

I saw this tweet a few weeks ago from @anitamatys. She said, "I am new to twitter and my son told me I needed to get 2000 followers." To which i replied, "Why did your son pick the number 2000? Are there 2000 people on Twitter in Klamath Falls?" I never received a response. She now has her 2000 plus followers, but she has only posted 11 updates. I glanced through a few pages of her followers and who she was following. There was no rhyme or reason to the people she had chosen to listen to. Not that it matters. She isn't really talking to anyone. i don't get it.

Again, do YOU (not the universal YOU, but you specifically) even need to maintain contact with thousands of people in order to be successful in the social media space? What are your goals with Twitter? Facebook? Does the number of people you're listening to support those goals or interefere with them?

Last Thursday I wrote about Why Twitter Follower Counts Mean Nothing.

The post touched off some interesting public and private discussions. The number huggers are everywhere and their logic, in a very comfortable, that-sounds-like-something-i've-done-before, kind of way, can certainly appear sound. They ask questions like, "Why broadcast to 10 people when you can broadcast to 10,000?" Who could argue with that, right? <raises hand> The clue to the answer lies in the question itself.

Broadcasting?

Is that really what we're doing in the social media space? Some think so.  I don't. I received a direct message from Matt Rathbun this morning that contained a link to a page selling a Twitter Mini-Course Book. I'm not sharing his site. I'm not giving Snake Oil salesman link love. Matt wasn't kind in his analysis.

The people who will succeed by treating Twitter, Facebook and other social networks like electronic direct mail are people who are selling “magic” solutions for growing your business to people looking for “easy” “I want results now” answers. And those successes will be short lived. Because that’s not how effective social media marketing works.

Engagement Is The New Marketing Metric.

Engagement through Social Media is aligned with how trust is built, how real relationships form and transactions result. "Working to build relationships (over time)" is not as easy to sell as "attract more customers now!" But those who see its wisdom will profit in the long run.

In 2008, Forrester Research rightly stated that "engagement" was the new marketing metric. "Using engagement, you get a more holistic appreciation of your customers' actions, recognizing that value comes not just from transactions but also from actions people take to influence others. Once engagement takes hold of marketing, marketing messages will become conversations, and dollars will shift from media buying to customer understanding."

All the numbers that really matter are related to engagement. Forester proposed a four "I" concept for measuring engagement.

• Involvement tracks site visitors, time spent, page views and more (old-school stuff)
• Interaction measures the contributions to blogs, photo and video creation and uploads, and purchases
• Intimacy tries to understand consumer attitudes, perception, and feelings about a brand through surveys or monitoring technology as well as applications providing an interactive environment between brand and consumers
• Influence measures the likelihood that consumers will recommend or advocate products or brands

I'm not against numbers per se. But the numbers must mean something. Would truly engaging with 10,000 be better than truly engaging with 10? Of course. But the key to the value in that statement is the word "engaging." How many people can YOU truly engage? It's going to be a different number for you than for the next person stumbling onto this post.

YEO (You Engaging Others) is not focused on YOU. It's focused on OTHERS. YEO is about communicating in a way that allows you to be heard above the noise. It’s about listening more than talking. And it's impossible to listen when all you're doing is broadcasting.

Ashton Kutcher is about to pass 1,000,000 followers on Twitter.

I'm happy for Ashton. And I mean that. He plans to do some great things with the account and I hope he does. But you're not Ashton Kutcher and neither am I. Unfortunately there are a whole slew of Twitter geniuses out there encouraging you to focus almost exclusively on getting as many followers as possible. It's fools gold. And I'm about to illustrate why.

Getting followers is easy. Building a community is hard.

A phone call with Jim Marks about creating some fake accounts (an entirely different post) prompted me to do something I've been meaning to do for a long time. People ask me constantly, "How do people get all of those followers on Twitter?" To which I always answer, "if all you want is followers, I can get you 10,000 followers easy. Building a community is hard."

I created two fake Twitter accounts.

@jwmont and @holachick are not real. Furthermore, 99% of their tweets were randomly generated.

I set both of these accounts up last Thursday. It took all of about 30 minutes to make up profile information and populate Twitterfeed.com with the RSS feeds that generated the random tweets to their accounts. @jwmont was set up to focus on iPhone twitter search results and @holachick was set up to focus on affiliiate marketing twitter search results.

So, how did I get 2900 and 2500 people to follow accounts that were just a series of randomly generated status updates in less than a week? Click here to learn how I got thousands to follow two fake twitter accounts and why you should ignore Twitter follower numbers.

"The computer is a moron." - Peter Drucker

A few days ago I received an email from someone who was comparing Real Estate Shows to another company. They wanted to know if we automatically distributed our Shows to the 10 or more social networking sites that another tour company distributed them to.

My response was a simple. No. 

And we have no plan to do so either. Why? Because doing so would simply encourage our clients to let the machine control their behavior instead of having their behavior control the machine. There are no technical barriers to making this happen. It's actually quite simple. But just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

What I explained to them was this; unless presented in the context of a conversation with potential clients and referral sources, links to social media sites have almost no value. In fact, they probably have negative value. Social networking sites are organized around conversation, not advertising. The more your page looks like an advertisement, the less successful you will be. Guaranteed.

What happens when you let the machine control your behavior?

We don't have to look much further than right here on ActiveRain to find out. No doubt you've seen the "Announce new blog posts on your Twitter feed!" section of your settings here on ActiveRain. It's a convenient little setting. Once you've set it, you don't have to think. That's the problem.

Sure, it takes a few minutes off of the process of posting your AR blog posts to Twitter, but it also encourages some really silly behavior. I can't tell you how many times I've encountered the following, but I saw two just like it today alone.

In all fairness to Bill, this image was captured four months ago. He has begun to do more than just post his ActiveRain posts, but at the time of this writing, Bill's twitter stream is still dominated by ActiveRain posts. I'm not sure what this use of the tool accomplishes, but I'm 100% certain what it will NOT accomplish. It will not accomplish engagement.

The machine wins way too often.

In the case above, what Bill and hundreds of other like him have become is a big billboard for ActiveRain. I like ActiveRain as much as the next guy, but I don't want my twitter page to be another cog in the ActiveRain promotion machine. And the crazy thing is the same exact result could be accomplished by simply posting an ActiveRain RSS Feed to Twitterfeed.com.

Instead of every tweet starting with "Just posted on ActiveRain:" he could have had each tweet begin with, "Just posted by Bill Arce" or "Real Estate Latino." Then his Twitter page would be a billboard for himself. I mean, if you're not going to use social media to be social, you should at least be promoting your own brand and your own keywords and not those of another social networking platform. The result will be exactly the same, of course, but you might get some Google love from it.

The Focus Should Be On You Engaging Others - YEO

The only thing that matters is you, your clients and your clients needs. The temptation to take short cuts will always be there. And some automation tools can be extremely helpful, if used with the right focus. The right focus is engagement not expedience. Is it expedient to be able to post to 10 different social networking sites without thinking? Sure. But being able to automatically post to 10 different social networking sites only has value if you are actively engaging people on 10 different social networking sites. I know very few people who are successfully doing that. Actually, I don't know any.

Don't let the tools dictate your behavior.
Don't let the machine control you.
Make the machine work to help you engage others.

_______________

BTW... This is an anniversary post. Two years ago today I wrote this, "It's Not About SEO. It's About YEO."

At the time, I was simply looking for a catchy headline to grab some attention in the Project Blogger competition. The competition has long since ended, but the concept of YEO continues to resonate. I'm glad it has.

(aside: It would be great if the gang here at ActiveRain allowed you to put in your own "Twitter lead-in," like Twitterfeed allows you to do.)

And one last thing. Bill, I hate pointing out a problem without offering a solution. So, if you'd like some suggestions on how to make Twitter work for you, please send me an email or send me a direct message on twitter (@respres). I'll be happy to help.

Yes, I'm a proud husband. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever been prouder of anyone or anything.

A Look At SearchCloudlet and twIRC

Tweetgrid's IRC client: I'm a big fan of Tweetgrid for monitoring conversations on Twitter, mainly because it autoupdates and allows me to see up to 9 different conversation topics at once. (One of my tutorials is on the home page at Tweetgrid) But there are times that I want to concentrate on one specific topic or event and see who is most active in that conversation. That's when I turn to twIRC on the Tweetgrid platform. The following video will show you why.

twIRC from @jazzychad from Jeff Turner on Vimeo.

SearchCloudlet: I'm not a fan of "auto-following" on Twitter. Yes, I know there are "strategies" out there that can help you rack up big numbers of followers using a combination of automation techniques. I prefer to have conversations with people. So, I look at every person who follows me on twitter to determine if I want to follow them back... or not. One of the tools that helps me (not the only tool) is the SearchCloudlet plugin for Firefox. It gives me a quick way to look at what someone has been talking about on their most recent Twitter page and who they've been talking to. It also provides tag clouds for searches on Google as well. This will give you a quick glimpse of how it works.

Using SearchCloudlet To Vet Twitter Followers from Jeff Turner on Vimeo.

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen these already. :)

I will be speaking or appearing on panels every day at the National Association of REALTORS® National Convention. Here's the schedule:

Using Social Media to Engage Clients
Sunday, November 9 from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Location: Orange County Convention Center, West Building, Valencia Room W415D

Determine how to use social media tools and websites including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, to market yourself and generate business. Identify ways to use social networks to manage and protect your online identity and successfully engage with online communities.

Dustin Luther, Rudy Bachraty and I are planning a "different" kind of presentation. :) Be sure to bookmark this in your event planner.

                                                  

Web 2.0 Panel
Saturday, November 8 at 11 AM
Sponsored by Diamond Dwellings
In the Exhibitor Presentation Theater inside the Exhibit Hall, Booth 4840

Joining me will be:

Teresa Boardman @TBoard from StPaulRealEstateBlog.com
Cyndee Haydon @cyndeehaydon from SandbarstoSunsets.com
Ines Hegedus-Garcia @ines from Miamism.com

Intro To Real Estate Shows & Preferred Agent
Chase Booth - Main Convention Hall - Booth #4427

Friday, November 7
    4:15 PM & 6:15 PM
Saturday, November 8
    9:15 AM, 1:00 PM & 2:30 PM
Sunday, November 9
    1:30 PM & 3:00 PM
Monday, November 10
    9:45 AM & 11:45 AM

For other updates about events at the 2008 REALTORS® Conference, be sure to follow @nar2008 on Twitter.

On February 14, 2007, I wrote "Barak Obama: This Post Is NOT About Politics." I wrote it less than 48 hours after the Obama campaign launched BarackObama.com. I'm embarrassed that I didn't spell his name correctly in the headline. I am not embarrassed by the analysis or the conversation that took place. What my instincts told me were true in 2007 have now been validated by history.

This is still NOT about politics. I wasn't interested in making it about politics then and I am not interested in doing so now. I ended the post below with this statement, "And I bet we'll all learn a thing or two as well."

One thing we learned was how powerful an intelligently crafted and properly executed social media strategy can be. 21 months ago it was my opinion. Today it's a proven fact.

Here's the original post (headline corrected):

---------------------------------------------------------

Barack Obama: This Post Is NOT About Politics

This blog post is about the ever growing power of the concept of YOU.

And this post is about recognizing a moment.

I am not interested in discussing politics right now and I'm not endorsing Barack Obama for President.

What I AM doing is endorsing an exceptionally well conceived viral marketing campaign. I'm giving a brief ovation to an idea that is brilliant on it's face. I'm cheering an important moment on the Internet. It has nothing to do with politics. I've been registered as a republican since I was 18 years old. So if someone on the Republican side had done this, I'd be standing up and applauding them as well.

What Obama has done is construct a social networking site based entirely around his campaign.

He has enlisted easy to use technology - internet videos, blogs, event planners, fundraising widgets - to build a constituency and to make garnering their support remarkably simple. He has made his campaign videos easy to share, download and embed into other websites. He's enabling viral marketing iike no other politician. In less than 48 hours there are already 1422 local and 1018 national groups in the network. In one fell swoop, he has both given his supporters their own voice and provided a platform from which they can use that voice.

And he's not just leaning on his own site. He's doing what anyone who understands how the Internet works would do. He's using other social networks to whip the long tail as hard as he can. I've been unable to verify this information, but according to one source he has over 1,000,000 friends on Facebook, and is ahead of Hillary Clinton and John Edwards on MySpace.

Carole Cohen quoted a comment in The Washington Post a few weeks ago, talking about Hillary Clinton: "Go to 'blog' on her website. It's nothing more than a standard feedback form." The actual blog hasn't been launched yet and the headline still says, "Write Our First Guest Blog Post." The difference is stark and overwhelming.

Political leanings aside, you have to admire the brilliance of what Barak Obama has done. The blogosphere is buzzing. One blogger has labeled this new social networking site "Web 2.Obama." Catchy.

I believe, regardless of whether he succeeds or falls flat on his face, we are all witness to a seminal moment in political history. Traditional media would be advised to watch this one closely. The impact of this experiment is sure to extend far beyond the political arena in which it's being conducted.

And I bet we'll all learn a thing or two as well.

67% of all statistics are made up on the fly.

It may actually be higher than that, since I just made that one up on the fly. You get the point. This morning, I read a report on MarketWatch that struck me as more than odd. It struck me as misleading. So, I decided to use my EyeJot This! bookmarklet and put out a little video message on Twitter.

What you see below is the instant conversation that took place. It's best to read it from the bottom of this post to the top. And it illustrates a couple of things for me.

First, the speed at which conversations can move in the social media space is incredible. This bulk of this took place in a span of about 30 minutes and as I'm typing this word, it's still going on. (My apologies to those who might be left out below. I'm writing this quickly to further illustrate the point.) The speedy reaction to the assertion that "67% of all agents are now members of social networks" was almost 100% negative.

Second, in this day and age, if you put out a press release making specific claims you need to be prepared to defend it. Vigorously. In this case, I merely questioned the real estate professionals who use social media the most, those on Twitter. I don't know if any of the execs at Quantum Digital are engaging the real estate community on Twitter, but if they are not, it may further illustrate just how far off the 67% number may really be. As Teri Lussier points out below, how they conducted the survey and how they defined "social network" play a large role in how they got to that number. (Just as my use of Twitter ONLY severly skews this conversation!) Neither of those pieces of information are included in the press release, so we're all left to guess. Leave a void and it will be filled. Guaranteed.

What should Real Estate Brokers be thinking right now?

If I don't write this post, the folks at Quantum Digital probably never see that conversation.  So, Brokers, do you have any idea what conversations your real estate agents are having online? If not, you should. My bet is that a very high percentage of brokers are not actively engaged at all with the kinds of conversations, like this one, that are taking place almost every minute of every day in places like Twitter. And if the number really is as low as many state below, then, in part, the absence of a social media strategy at the broker level is to blame. That must change. Right now, the RE.net is talking to itself for the most part. And if social media is to provide the return it has the potential to provide, that also has to change.

Here's the conversation. Just the replies directed to me. Again, it's best to read it from the bottom up.

• 
  KevinBoer: @respres Or perhaps [Use email + Use R.com + Use MLS + Have an AR Account] = 67% ?
  less than a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

• 
  SteveBelt: @respres for my brokerage, it looks like it might be as high as 25% have a social network account...but less than 1% are using it actively
  5 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  KevinBoer: @respres I suspect their definition of "online social network" includes Realtor.com Then 67% makes sense. http://tinyurl.com/6nxfgy (expand)
  10 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

• 
  acummings: @ResPres I don't know any other agents in my area here on Twitter. Few on FB and MS, a few on AR, that's about it that I've seen.
  14 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  mattwilkins: I think @respres opened the perverbial can of worms by uncovering the truth about the RE using social media/networking!
  14 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  Vingold: @ResPres unless we're counting something like ActiveRain as a social network - I would say here in MD the numbers are low low - 5% if that
  14 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  ChrisShouse: @ResPres I say only me in my office period and in the valley on Twitter I think John and I are most active agree@LVRealEstate
  16 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  wharriman: @ResPres I would second the other people here, 67% is WAY high. I can only think of a handful that are actively using... http://ff.im/1ce
  16 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  wharriman: @ResPres I would second the other people here, 67% is WAY high. I can only think of a handful that are actively using SM in their biz.
  16 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  BradCoy: @ResPres in my local market, it seems that their are maybe a handful of RE pros are *using* Social ntw. 'a part of' maybe 15%
  less than a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  DaleChumbley: @ResPres When I teach @ my local office, less than 10% have MS, facebook, LinkedIn accounts. 67% is way high IMHO.
  2 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  Twitterzilla: @respres that would probably be an interesting polldaddy to put on Active Rain. Ask what % is social in their office 1-5% 5-10% 10-15% etc.
  3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  mlbroadcast: @ResPres I am sooooo looking forward to that blog post
  3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  DaleChumbley: RE: 67% RE Online. Bunk! Besides me, I know less than 10 RE peeps on Twitter in all PDX/Vanc. area. http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  mlbroadcast: @ResPres 1000 percent I agree jt
  5 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  LVRealEstate: @ResPres In Las Vegas I think we're a lot closer to 6 to 7% than we are to 67%. Consistent users are probably less than 3%.
  5 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  TBoard: @ResPres 10%
  2 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  EricaWallace: @ResPres cannot wait to see the blogpost on this!
  2 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  joelrunner: @respres 10 or 15 out of 65 if you count having a facebook account that hardly gets used.
  2 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: @mattwilkins oh, you'll get credit. Be careful what you wish for.
  3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  mattwilkins: @ResPres as long as you give the twitterazzi credit as the inspiration :)
  3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: @mlbroadcast I don't care what it is. Misleading information is dangerous, IMHO. I know you agree.
  3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  mlbroadcast: @respres it's exactly this type of traditional media bullcrap that is going to go the way of the T-Rex. SocNets will kill it eventually.
  4 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: Now that I know 67% of real estate profs can see it, I'm going to turn this Tweetfest into a blog post. Hope y'all don't mind. :)
  5 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  joelrunner: @respres I have 35 agents at my RE company and another 30 I consult for, and I can think of 5 (out of 65) who are active in social media.
  5 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  mlbroadcast: @respres quantum sees no threat in that number, they know it's crap. that is a press release, not an article, its an Ad not editorial
  5 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  PhoenixREGuy: @respres whoops, missed @terilussier's point. But it is at least a data point that great minds think alike ;)
  6 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  Twitterzilla: @ResPres http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223 Just looking around my office I would guestimate maybe 15% &I would think that is ambitious
  6 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  jasoncrouch: @ResPres Actually, @LaniAR may be even closer with her estimate of 15%. Any time I mention this stuff, I get blank stares from agents.
  7 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: RT @LaniAR: @jasoncrouch aren't you nice? i would argue about 15% ( re: http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223 )
  7 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  mattwilkins: @ResPres I agree with ya. if I had to guess at most 10% of the RE professionals in my local market are social netowork members
  8 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   


ResPres: @gregstaker @jasoncrouch I think your numbers are more typical. http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
10 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

 

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  jasoncrouch: @ResPres I am in a tech-savvy town, and VERY few of the agents I know are members of ANY social network. This in inflated IMO - maybe 30%?
  11 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: @PhoenixREGuy Yep. I think that's the point @terilussier is making. Would be interesting to see how they collected their data.
  12 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: @mattwilkins I realize our conversation here is anecdotal, but I'm convinced the report is way off. http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  13 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  PhoenixREGuy: @respres - re 67%. Ask people via a blog post, and you'll get a high number. Walk into a brokerage and many will say "do I social what?"
  14 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  mattwilkins: @ResPres I also think that's very high considering I'm the only member of a 1000+ member local REALTOR board that ACTIVELY uses the medium
  14 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: RT @Twitterzilla: @ResPres 67% belong to soc networks & the rest are still looking for the "any key" http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  16 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  ResPres: @604homesguy I have Eyejot Pro account, which allows for your own branding. http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  17 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  jimreppond: @ResPres I guess if you consider email itself as an "online social network", then MAYBE 67% :-)
  18 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  SeattleCondo: @respres wonder if it included non-business social networking...&/or someone who just signed up at a few sites but don't ever participate
  19 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  Twitterzilla: @ResPres 67% belong to social networks & the rest are still looking for the "any key" http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  19 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: @TeriLussier excellent point. How survey was conducted is critical. http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  19 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  ResPres: @wilkeshe @Agentaudrey I certainly think you're right. But even on inactive use, I think 67% is high.
  20 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  Agentaudrey: @ResPres I think 67% is very high. I invitied everyone to AR. Probably 25 signed up and 3 of us use it, and only 2 of us use it daily.
  22 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  wilkeshe: @respres the telling # would be active. There's a bunch of agents on AR in my area, about 7 actually post.
  25 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: @Twitterzilla LOL email use failure is one of the reasons I think the 67% number is misleading. http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  25 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  wilkeshe: @ResPres It'd be a stretch here. I'd say about 20% here. Some large companies auto-sign agents on facebook,etc, might account for some?
  27 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  FreedomWeaver: @ResPres I definately think the 67% number is high also. I've been in RE for 13 years and I'm a lil tech savvy and i joined SNs > 2 yrs ago
  33 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  Twitterzilla: @ResPres Further, I did 1mailing thru quantum in my hood, card came to my house addressed to Ex, had never lived @address.Reputabl, reliabl?
  34 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  Twitterzilla: @ResPres 95% of all agents have an email address, but how many of them actually check their email? Just sayin'.
  37 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  DezDaniels: @ResPres sounds way off to me in my daily experience with agents... I would say they might have signed up but don't utilize at all 47%
  39 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  retechblog: @ResPres That eyejot video bar should get best innovative tool for 2008
  41 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  PhoenixREGuy: @ResPres Really struggling with that 67% number. Even if that's just making a profile and never coming back, that seems way high. WAY
  41 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  jeanettejoy: @ResPres Love eyejot! I think the 67% is high. Agents may be members of Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter, but they don't participate.
  43 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  susieblackmon: @ResPres 67% is not only surprising, it is misleading.
  43 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  EricaWallace: @ResPres umm yeah that seems really really high! must be counting membership for sites like linked in but not active participants...
  44 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  localism: @ResPres Maybe they're counting MySpace or the Bridge Club?
  about 1 hour ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ManaTulberg: @ResPres I agree with you. Most sign up and never return. On AR there are many in my area that sign up and do nothing.
  about 1 hour ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

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  localism: @ResPres No frickin way!
  about 1 hour ago · Reply · View Tweet · Show ConversationHide Conversation

   

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  ResPres: Does anyone else find this 67% number surprising? http://www.eyejot.com/et?ResPres-514223
  about 1 hour ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

I'm a fan of Eyejot, the Eyejot This! Bookmarklet and David Geller, Eyejot's President. So, yesterday when he told me they were launching a new SMS feature, I was intrigued and immediately set up my personal Eyejot account to receive SMS text messages. But I didn't have time to test it.

A little while ago I received my first notification that someone had sent me an Eyejot message. It was David Geller, commenting on our new Instant Shows feature at Real Estate Shows. I couldn't help but share the experience.

WARNING: THIS IS A SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIMENT.

I felt like I needed to say that. :) I have no idea whether the @nar2008 GroupTweet account will work as I hope it will, but i think it's worth the effort. And the only way to test it, is live and with a large group. 

Here's how the @NAR2008 GroupTweet for The National Association of REALTORS® Annual Conference came to be.

At the last few real estate conferences, reBarcamp, Inman, reBlogWorld, the twitter crowd used hashtags to help people keep track of events and conversations taking place. This allows you to more easily follow conversations around an event using tools like Twitter Search. While this is fine, for what it does, it still requires active involvement on your part. You have to "check in."

What I wanted was something that would allow me to be passive.

I wanted a system that would be "instant" and alert me to the events and updates of the people attending the event found important or interesting. So, text messaging seemed like a good option. The first application I turned to was Tatango. I set up a NAR2008 Tatango Group and invited a few of my closest Twitter friends to come and help me test it out. It worked, but it doesn't have the right model for this purpose. What Tatango does is allow a "leader" to communicate with the group. It is a "one to many" solution. So, it would be put to better use by someone like Hilary Marsh (@hilarymarsh) at NAR. She could use it to send out updates about changes in venues, times or event cancellations. Hilary was one of the first few to sign up to test and that account has now the NAR2008 Tatango Group has been turned over to her for her use.

The Beauty Of Social Media And Public Discussions

While publicly testing Tatango, I was followed by @deanalert. The CEO, Matt Beck, had picked up on the conversations and wanted to let me know that DeanAlert was working on a real estate specific group texting option. Matt and I have yet to get hooked up on the phone, but I will come back and update in another post when that happens.

And... while preparing for this post this morning, the founder of Utterli, Michael Bayer, followed @nar2008 and that made me realize I had not considered Utterli's recent (10/22) launch of a Group Text Widget. We had a private discussion over on Utterli and I'll share this much of his conversation with me, "You ain't seen nuthin' yet." Knowing the Utterli gang like I do, I don't doubt it for a moment. "This new app lets you send text messages to your friends (one or many) in Facebook, Bebo, and Utterli. This is the first app to bridge your friend connections on all three networks. Recipients of your text messages can receive and respond from within their social network interface or on their mobile phone."

And then there was GroupTweet.

Ultimately, I decided that I'd like to test GroupTweet. How does GroupTweet work? I'll use the text right from their website:

"GroupTweet piggy-backs on the Twitter service via the Twitter API. Setting up a Twitter group is simple:

1. Create a new Twitter account specifically for your group (e.g. initechwebdevs or smithfamily). If you want to make this a private group, make sure that updates are protected in the settings.
2. Register your group's new Twitter account at GroupTweet.com
3. Tell all group members to follow the group account you created at Twitter. Note that the group account must also follow the group members.
4. Members can broadcast a message to the whole group by sending a direct text to the group's Twitter account. For example: 'D nar2008 Just committed the latest code to the repository'

That's it! GroupTweet is constantly listening for direct texts sent to your group's Twitter account. When a direct text is received, GroupTweet instantly publishes it as a tweet from the group account. Since all of your group members are following the group's Twitter account, they will each receive the message. Easy-peasy!"

Here is a quick "tutorial" video that describes how this all came about and will show you, visually, now this all will work.

Have I piqued your interest? I hope so. Setting it up this way allows each of the followers to determine they level of involvement. You may just want to listen in using Twitter, or you may want to turn on device updates and receive text messages in real time. It's up to you. Let me repeat, I don't have a clue how this experiment will turn out. I'm hoping the members will keep the "noise" to a minimum and use the site for it's intended purpose. If we all do that, I think it will go well. Some have already begun using it to announce other social media efforts, like the NAR2008 Flickr Group.  Want to join in? Go follow @NAR2008 on Twitter. Then direct message NAR2008 during the conference to keep us all up to date on the events you find interesting or important.

I've shared some of the random messages I see on Twitter regarding REALTORS® or real estate.

Often they've been funny, or inspiration for thoughts on communication, or used to point out why it's important to use Twitter. The message below illustrates the potential power of social media and social messaging to spread messages for spreading good news as well as bad. This is someone who is in the real estate industry but appears to have tried to sell his home by himself. It also appears he's now happy with his real estate agent.

"I was trying to sell house with no realtor for 5 months. No activity. List with agent on Wed & Fri we have serious interest. Get an agent!" David Christopher.