Some Incredible Stats To Start Your Week

In this Mashable article - Remarkable Stats on the State of the Internet - well, short article and then a video from Jesse Thomas, get a snapshot of some astounding numbers associated with the Internet today.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Have a rockin week!

My Latest Crush - PowerPoint 2010

I take a ton of screenshots. A ton. For every class I teach, I have a PowerPoint presentation to go along with it ... usually anywhere from 25 to 75 slides. Most of those slides will have one or more screenshots. Screenshots are great for capturing what is on your screen at this very moment.















For agents, it can be a cool tool to use in your listing presentations to a consumer. A screenshot of what their listing looks like on a particular website, a screenshot of your Facebook Fan Page (with their listing posted as your latest update), or anything - anything you want to capture.

Taking a screenshot is easy ... take a moment to look down at your keyboard. Go ahead. Look for a key that says something along the lines of Prnt Scrn or Prt Scn. I'll wait ...

Typically, your "print screen" is an F-key ... look top-right~ish.

Find it? Okay good, now, use it. Is it a "function key"? Meaning I have to press my Fn (usually lower left) to make it work? If the wording on the key is in a different color and that color (usually blue) matches your Fn key ... then you need to use both for a screenshot.

Ok ... so we take our screenshot ............... then what? Here is when you say to me, but Stef, nothing happened???!!!

When you take a screenshot you are "copying" your screen. Now, in order to see it - you have to paste it somewhere. Open Word or PowerPoint and paste. Your screenshot is now a .jpg within your Word or PowerPoint document. You can treat it just as you would any other photo.

So to the point of this blog post ... I LOVE PowerPoint 2010. Why? One reason. The insert screenshot and the screen clipping option. When I need to capture something on my screen, as long as I have that screen open. I simply go to Menu > Insert > Screenshot ... all of my open windows will show up in a little drop-down as thumbnails. I select the thumbnail I want to insert and whammo! It's in!!! Or... even better ... I can select "screen clipping" just underneath all of the thumbnails and PowerPoint 2010 takes me out to my active window ... from here, I have clipping tool. I can select what I want of that active window and poof! Easy peasy - it's in :)

How great is that?!

By the way, if you don't have this latest version of Microsoft Office - get it here.

More Cool Stuff on your Agent Websites

Hey CBHer's ... hopefully you all saw the latest and greatest from Chris Beadling with regard to a few new extras on your agent websites. Just to review:

1) In each agent site if you search for a property and then click on the details you will now see a "printer friendly version" icon at the top of the page. This creates a printable version of the listing, complete with your contact information at the top.

How GREAT is that??? Let's take a peek ...

When you click, Printer Friendly Version - another window open with all of the details neatly formatted with your happy smiling face at the top and all of your contact information. Making you ... super cool.

2) You now have the ability to link your listing on the CBHearthside site to the individual property web site you created through the EPropertysites.com tool provided by Mortgage Mobility.

To connect your ePropertySites URL with your listing on our site ...

- Go to http://www.epropertysites.com/ and login

- Mouse over the Properties tab

- Click on Properties

- On the listing you wish to link up ... click the Tools icon on the property menu
- Under Marketing Tools, click Website Links & Sharing & HTML (oh my)

- At Full Website Link - highlight (Ctrl + A) and copy (Ctrl + C)

~~~~Part Deuce~~~~deep breath~~~~Just a few more steps ...

- Then ... go to http://www.cbhearthside.net/ and login

- In the Manage Listings box, click on My Listings & find the listing you want

- Click on Edit ePropertySites.com link

- Paste your previously copied URL from ePropertySites in the box

- Click Save

Now ... you should see this when you click view details on your listing on http://www.cbhearthside.com/:

3) While not new, we have just added a link on the home page of the main CBHearthside.com site that helps visitors connect their twitter accounts with School-District based new listing feeds. This tool then gives them access to all the new listings in that district by tweet everyday.

>>> http://www.cbhearthside.com/twitter

Rockin right? A little snippet ...

How GREAT is all of this new stuff???!!! Have a wonderful Friday :)

Buzz-Worthy

In playing with the newest social media tool to hit the streets ... Google Buzz, I have discovered a few things about myself.

1. I have no patience when it comes to slow internet. None at all.

2. I want to LOVE any *new* cool thing that Google throws my way.

3. I miss FriendFeed.

So Google Buzz is the current hot topic in my little geek world. What is it? So glad you asked ...

Buzz is another micro-blogging platform. Think Twitter with components of FriendFeed. You can post status updates, photos, links, etc to your followers and/or to the world. Buzz is connected to your Google Profile and your Gmail. It looks like this:

So the first thing you notice is that Google Buzz is located right inside of my Gmail. The Buzz link is just below my inbox link. The issue with this ... when I click back and forth - from my inbox to Buzz and back again is that the load time is insanely slow. Painfully slow. I've started writing this post at least 3 times now and every time I get hung up on just trying to grab a screenshot of Buzz.

I want to LOVE anything and everything Google. And I usually do. Because of this, I am giving Buzz an extended trial period to work out the kinks. Fingers crossed.

What excites me about Google Buzz is that it looks & acts like FriendFeed. So micro-blogging without all of the limitations of Twitter. I can type more than 140 characters, load photos directly from my Buzz page, add links without needing a URL shortener and my followers comments are directly below my original post. I can also "like" a post.

So speed up Buzz and make me proud to love Google. For more on Google Buzz, check out Chris Beadling's post from 2/11 - You Have a Chance to be an Industry Leader.

New Facebook Layout Got You Down?

Facebook rolled out a new layout earlier this week ... I know you noticed. How could you not ... with all of this extra time spent indoors due to #snOMG2 these last few days?!



I caught my first live glimpse of the new homepage layout on Tuesday when I was covering Facebook Fan Pages with an agent in Hellertown. At first, I was excited! I love a new look ... something different and fun. Then I played around with it for awhile and I have to say, I'm not in love.


For me, managing my news feed is very important. I want to see updates from certain people and certain groups quickly and easily. I spent time setting up friend lists and grouping my Facebook connections and then moved those groups into priority order on my homepage. I was happy and life was good. When the new layout popped up, I thought, there must be a way to keep my lovely little lists ... so I searched, and searched and searched.



Well, I still have my lists, but I can't conveniently locate them where I want to ...


























So, not exactly a deal-breaker. Other than this minor inconvenience, it appears to me that most of the homepage items are just moved around a bit. The menu you used to have across the bottom - Applications - Photos - Events - etc. is gone and now up on the left under your photo.

If you manage a Fan Page, note that your Ads and Pages button is now on the left-side menu!

Happy Thursday :)

Twitter REsources

For those of you just venturing into the Twitterverse or if you are already here, but not sure what to do ... I wanted to give you a few resources.

1. CBHearthside on Twitter - we are all over Twitter > use us!

> @CBHearthside
> @JamieMancuso
> @ChrisBeadling
> @sahahn (Stefanie Hahn)


2. CBH's School District Listing Tweets - help your consumers follow & find a home!

> http://www.cbhearthside.com/twitter.html


3. A few names you know ...

> @coldwellbnkr
> @InmanNews
> @RISMediaUpdates
> @realtors (NAR)
> @realtormag (Realtor Magazine)
> @askNAR (NAR answers your questions here)
> @RealtorAction (Realtor Action Center - Washington, DC)
> @PAR_JustListed (PAR news)

Want more ... check out Roost's "RE People You Should Follow on Twitter for December 2009!"

See also ... NAR's field guide to Twitter - http://www.realtor.org/library/library/fg234

The Twitter EVERYTHING Guide from Mashable - http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

And I am just scratching the surface here ...

Little Miss Sunshine Strikes Again

Happy Monday! I know that I often come across on this blog as a Little Miss Sunshine - because, as many of you already know, I am a pretty positive gal who loves her job. Well, brace yourself ... I am all about the love today.

A little side note ... last week, while at the PAR Business Meetings in Harrisburg, I ended up in a hallway conversation with two friends discussing "social media responsibility" and what can be done if someone posts something negative about you online. I take the position that when you put yourself out there online, you give up some control - like it or not. Of course, you must be aware of your online presence and absolutely respond to any comments - this is just good social media marketing. Through this hallway conversation I became more aware of a new change to our REALTOR® Code of Ethics (as of January 2010).

Standard of Practice 15-3
The obligation to refrain from making false or misleading
statements about competitors, competitors’ businesses,
and competitors’ business practices includes the duty to
publish a clarification about or to remove statements
made by others on electronic media the REALTOR®
controls once the REALTOR® knows the statement is
false or misleading. (Adopted 1/10)

Now just a refresher on Article 15 ...
REALTORS® shall not knowingly or recklessly make false
or misleading statements about competitors, their
businesses, or their business practices

So, what does that mean? Well, if you make a statement that you find out later is false or misleading you are required to publish a clarification to your original statement OR remove your original statement altogether.

My advice - don't post negatively about your competitors - focus on what you are doing right and it will be painfully obvious that your competition is lacking. If something really gets stuck in your crawl ... post, but respond with the grace and brilliance that I know you have inside.

Many agents are afraid of being attacked online, either by a consumer or another agent. When I teach agents about marketing online, I try to squash these fears. I believe that people are inherently good and that no one will attack you online if you are trying to do the right thing.

After this weekend, I'm reminded that not everyone got the memo. Sometimes, a person will attack you online - not with a constructive comment - but an outright personal attack.

Now, that said, putting yourself out there online gives you a new level of responsibility as well. As a blogger, tweeter, etc. you must be aware of the information that you are putting out there via your posts, tweets and otherwise. Expect and accept that people will disagree with you and may comment or tweet you to that end. Accept it and embrace it - a new perspective should challenge and may even enlighten.

So, what should you do if you are personally attacked? Please please please - take the high road. The only one who looks bad in this scenario is your attacker.