Todd Clarke's Technology Corner v2.0

Thanks to another great interview with Steve Lubetkin and the National Association of Realtors for this podcast interview.

Thanks to the MN/Dakotas CCIM chapter and SOIR for a fabulous turnout and a great session!

The list of must have iPad apps can be found here.
and the article I wrote on iPad apps can be found in the Journal of Property Management.

You can also always search our blog for iPad or Apps for the latest news.

and I’ve uploaded yesterday’s powerpoint here MN-CCIM-SIOR-Tech-SocialNetworkingWebinar-11102011.

If you have interest in taking our tech session a bit further and using social networking -click here to watch our Prezi.

No, I don’t mean the ability for your Kindle to share its books with other Kindles.

What I am speaking of is the feature in Kindle that allows you to highlight some text then hit two keys to have that highlight and your comments pushed to Facebook and Twitter.

Previously, I used Kindles clipping menu, then I had to hook the Kindle into my laptop, copy the file, login in to Facebook and Twitter and post – an easy 10 minutes has now been saved – thank you Amazon!

This is what the post looks like in Facebook:

This is what the post looks like in Twitter:

And this is what the results look like for the user:

OR, using Groups effectively on Facebook.

As someone who has covered, spoken and taught courses on social networking, I can tell you this the fastest evolving part of the internet today. Facebook membership is rumored to be over 750 million people, or 20% of all of the business people on the internet today.

During the last few years I have seen mildly ineffective to downright disastrous uses of social networking, and the successful uses are fewer and far between.

Today I would like to focus on one of that success by focusing on a local Facebook group page that grew its membership from 30 to 15,000 and experienced over 40,000 posts in one weeks time.

The group Remember when in Albuquerque… had a simple concept – encourage local Albuquerque’s to share their memories of by gone places, people, and events.

The original idea came from Laura Reynolds, a Realtor in Las Cruces, who came across a Facebook group that allowed people who grew up in Ft. Worth to share memories. Laura suggested to her husband that he start a group about Albuquerque.

Steve started the group, Remember when in Albuquerque and quickly had 30 members. As those members started to tell their friends, and started posting their Albuquerque, memories, growth started to accumulate exponentially, and Steve requested a handful of us help administer (myself included).

I kept track twice a day of the growth of the group:

While the occasional commercial does popup on the group and there has been some sniping about deleted posts, the group has continued to grow as more people share their memories about Albuquerque.

Although many people know that four generations of my family has lived and worked in Albuquerque, many don’t know that I am an Albuquerque history buff and have a large collection of old photos, postcards and books. What better venue to share these? As I shared, others chimed in, and my “friends” counter increased by another 15% or so. (No, I don’t know all of them, but if they love Albuquerque history as much as I do, why would I tell them no?)

The group has received recent coverage from the local to TV new on KRQE as

As well as a front page article in the Albuquerque Journal:

(c) Albuquerque Journal 2011

Is this a short term fad, or a long term trend?

For now, I would say long term trend. Although Facebook doesn’t share average time spent on any one group, a common expression from group members is how much fun they’ve had strolling down memory lane, and how much of their day has flown by.

Even after growth in the group stabilized at 15,000 (or so members), the media coverage has exposed the group to new people who are asking to join, creating that ever increasing spiral of increasing exposure, which is truly any marketers dream.

All in all, I’d label this a “sticky” success.

* This article is also posted on our sister blog “Confessions of a Commercial Real Estate Consultant”

TechCrunch has this fabulous infographic on the size of the social networking universe.

AMong the many trends it shows, one of the most startling is the number of mobile devices that access the internet (5.3B) which is more than double the number of computers that do.

A new browser, or actually, to be technically correct, a new browser interface built on top of Google’s Chrome Browser, has entered the market.

RockMelt offers social networking and feed options along the margins of your browser. Now Facebook and your internet surfing can co-exist in the same window frame.

I have to admit the interface is very compelling and easy to use.

Available as a browser on the PC, MAC and an App for iPhone and the Ipad .

Would you like to win a new iPad2 with red leather cover (notice the CCIM logo?)

Correctly answers the first 10 questions on our social networking quiz and give us some feedback on the next 4 questions at:

www.canteraconsultants.com/scavengerhunt
Good luck!

This marketing effort will be used to gauge the effectiveness of social networking in the marketing of the CCIM Technology and Social Networking course http://www.ccim.com/education/course/TSN/TSN0001 .

Technology and Social Networking Tools for Today’s Real Estate Professional
This 1-day course, taught by Todd Clarke, CCIM, teaches how to implement the latest technology and social networking tools into a real estate professional’s day-to-day business and add value to clients. Participants will review the latest hardware available, including smart phones, iPads and netbooks, and find software and data storage solutions. In addition, develop a business strategy for using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, through hands-on exercises.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

Course location and pricing
Chicago, IL ~ April 5, 2011 ~ 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Levine Learning Center
430 N. Michigan Ave Suite 800 ~ Chicago, IL 60611

Members $295 Non-members $395
Instructor: Todd Clarke, CCIM

Click here to register