Friends - Followers - Connections

I've been thinking about my social contract a lot lately. I've always had certain unwritten rules that I've stuck to with my social media sites. Recently though, I'm finding those rules bending a bit ...

Facebook Friends

My old rule: If we're not friends in real life, then I'm not accepting your friend request.

Exceptions: If we've met and you wrote me a little note in the friend request explaining why we should link up on Facebook, I usually accepted. Or, if you were especially persistent. However, I probably broke up with you later that week.

My new rule: See my old rule, plus ... if we share a common interest and are likely to meet in the real world through that common interest or are friends in another social media space.

I have my Facebook account pretty locked down, so I am comfortable with my new rule. Plus, I am very comfortable breaking up with Facebook friends as needed.



Twitter Followers

My old rule: I block any porn, SEO experts, people trying to save me and otherwise creepy individuals right away. I will only follow people on Twitter that have a bio. That said, if their bio doesn't appeal to me on some level, I won't follow.

Exceptions: If I already know you and love you, consider yourself in.

My new rule: See my old rule, plus ... I've been branching out. I am following more people with different interests these days and getting more out of my tweet stream as a result. I am also unfollowing people that don't tweet. This includes those of you that I already know and love.



LinkedIn Connections

My old rule: If you were a colleague, classmate or already a friend, I would connect. I did not accept connections from people that I didn't already know.

Exceptions: Sometimes a friend of a friend would sneak in there or a new agent that I had not yet met (but would eventually).

My new rule: See my old rule, plus ... Now I am connecting with other real estate people across the country that I have connected with on Twitter or through the Young Professionals Network. I have also connected with some of my real estate training idols (Doug Devitre, Amy Chorew, etc.) on LinkedIn.

My rules should not be your rules, but I hope that they can at least guide you with setting up your own social contracts. Consider what you will be sharing on these sites before making a friend, follower or connection with someone you don't know.

Happy Saturday :) Yey SNOW!!!

Still Not Catching the Google Wave?

Before it's launch, Google Wave was all the rage in my little geek world. I signed up to be a part of the beta launch and then watched my inbox - eagerly awaiting my invitation. When some of my Twitter pals starting tweeting about receiving their invites, I got nervous. I didn't have to wait long. Before my beta sign-up came through, a friend hooked me up with an invite. Whew. I was in.

I got in right away and played around with my settings. Then, a few friends popped in ... we waved together. Finally Chris Beadling decided he wanted to set up a fake real estate scenario - complete with buyers and sellers agent, title company, etc. He invited me and another real estate social media pal to wave along. We played with that for bit, but got bored and stopped.

Over the holidays, I saw some great wave parodies online - but still, I am struggling to find use and meaning with Google Wave.

Maybe you can help me ...

A little overview of Google Wave:
> Below is a screen shot of my Google Wave account




















> This is a screen shot of an actual wave ...



















In a nut shell, Google Wave can function as a live or offline chat where you can share text, files, photos, videos - you name it - with others that are part of that particular wave. If only some participants are online for the live chat and sharing - others can log in later and follow the conversation, grab the files, comment to the participants or comment privately and leave their mark on the wave.

If you are interested in getting on Google Wave, I do have invites. Email me - first come/first serve.

Have a great weekend!

Blogger Basics

Just today I was asked by one of our managers how to use Google's "Blogger". My first thought? What a GREAT blog topic!!! Actually, that was maybe my 4th or 5th thought ... but still, a post was definitely in order. So let's cover some of the basics.

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ to get started, you will need a Google account ...

A short interruption here - signing up for a Google account does not mean that you will have Gmail. You can sign up for a Google account with any email address you chose. Sign-up is FREE.

2. Enter a display name - the name of your blog - for example, "Tech Daze"

3. Read and accept the terms of service ... go ahead. I'll wait.

4. Click Create!

This is your Blogger Dashboard, from here, you can:

- View Profile

- Edit Profile

- Edit Photo

- Edit Notifications

You can also write a new post, edit posts, play around with your settings and layout -- and of course, view your blog.

Your profile will look like this ...

Make sure you have the basics in your Blogger Profile!

Now the FUN begins! What are you going to post about ... ??? The options are endless. You can write an opinion piece, share the latest news, post a photo or video, the list goes on and on.

My best advice to you - find your own blog voice. Be different - be relevant - be you.

>>> Click the NEW POST button to get started!

This will take you to the "Create New Post" page ...

- Type in a title for your post
- Start blogging!

- ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS spell-check

- Type in your labels - what are you blogging about?

- Click Publish Post

So my labels for this post might be - googleblogger, socialmedia, howto ...

My labels are my tags and tell the reader what I wrote about - in a few words.

See? Blogging is easy! And super fun. But, it's a commitment - you have to blog regularly to make any sort of an impact. (Yep, I struggle with this too!!!)

Time Flies When Your CE is Due!

Howdy & Happy Friday ... just a friendly reminder that we are in a license renewal year. Do you have your Continuing Education credits?!

All PA real estate licensees must renew their licenses every 2 years - the current renewal period ends May 31, 2010. The PA Real Estate Commission requires all real estate licensees to complete 14 elective hours of education each renewal period.

For new PA Licensees ... if your license was issued in the last six months of the renewal period (June 1, 2008– May 31, 2010) you do not have to complete continuing education. However, you still have to complete the renewal application & pay your fees to the Real Estate Commission.

So Important for our NEWEST LICENSEES ...
AOS classes, although approved for 7 hours of PA CE, do not fulfill the PA Mandatory Continuing Education requirement for new licensees who received their licenses after December 1, 2007 and before December 1, 2009.

These mandatory courses must be completed by May 31, 2010.
> Real World Real Estate-General Module
> Real World Real Estate-Residential Module


Check out the Real Estate Academy of Bucks County for class dates/times or see what your Realtor associations have to offer!!!

The Buzz on Brizzly Plus ...

Hellllo and Happy 2010!!! In the last two weeks or so I've had a handful of agents asking me about Brizzly. Mostly along the lines of, "what is it" and "do I need it"? Well, let me see if I can shed some light on this new tool.

Brizzly is a new way to read your content from Facebook and Twitter, all in one convenient location. Go to http://www.brizzly.com/ to set up your account, link your Twitter and Facebook accounts and you're off ...

The point? Keep one Brizzly window open as opposed to both Twitter and Facebook windows open. Do you need it? No, but trying it is painless and you might love it.

There are loads of tools out there for managing your social media sites ... a few of my personal favs include:

- FriendFeed (my old fav)

- ping.fm (an on-again/off-again love affair)

- Shareaholic (my new flame)

Those who love Firefox might want to consider moving to the Flock browser (also by Mozilla). Flock is an entire social browser that will allow you to connect and update all of your social media profiles in a new and fun way! You can still use your old browser for all of your other work and just keep Flock for your social media ... pretty cool, right?!

Get out there and try something NEW for the new decade!!!