SBM Systems Web Design and Development

Technology is a great tool, as long as there is a need and a desire to use it. If you don’t feel comfortable using a computer or the tech tools available today for work or personal use then figure it out.

When I speak of tech tools, I am not talking about you having to be on the “bleeding edge” of technology and knowing all there is about it. No, what I am speaking of is getting familiar with what you can use for your own personal use, or for your work, to help you be more effective, organized, or more in contact.

Email is a good example although you are probably using email for both personal and business right now, but are you using it to possibly stay in contact with your personal and business network of friends? This is potentially the best way to find a new job or get referrals for more business.

A friend of mine runs a business called “Send out Cards” (Click here to visit his site ). This is a great online tool to keep in touch with friends, family, and clients by mailing out cards (that’s right, real cards via the postal service) through his website. You can create a database of people with addresses and send out a big group of cards at once, like for Christmas, or individual ones, like for birthdays. A client of mine, a real estate agent, uses this to send out birthday and anniversary cards each year. She put in the contact, their address, their birthday or anniversary, and then schedules the card to be mailed 7 days before the date. This makes it so she NEVER forgets to mail a birthday card and yet she does not have to remember each year to do it – BOY what technology can do is neat isn’t it?

I was watching television this morning and Good Morning America had a story of how you should be using Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com and MySpace.com to be networking with to find new jobs. This is the direction that the world is taking now, getting connected over the Internet. Social Networking is one of these tools I am speaking of that requires some effort to figure out how to make it work for your needs. GMA stated that LinkedIn.com has millions of users and over 200,000 of them are recruiters. The site is just like on online resume with searching capabilities. There are lots of jobs posted and would be good exposure to you. Apparently this is somewhere you need to be on.

This is just a couple of ideas of how to use tech tools to your advantage. Check in for more details next time.

Out of all the Internet activities that people do, email is probably the most important yet undervalued resource at your disposal. Close to 88% of all Internet users in the U.S. use email. This statistic comes from a UCLA Internet Report. This same survey states that 90% of those use it for business purposes.

Out of all of the years I have been in this business, I have found most people, not all, but most could improve on their email skills or Etiquette. Unfortunately there is no “written guide” or “book of laws” that govern the use of email, if there was then we would not have spam – wouldn’t that be nice? But there are a number of things to keep in mind when emailing for business.

1. Use a business email address. If you get an email from sexymom.isp.com,
   would you take it serious? Enough said.
2. STOP!! Turn your ‘caps lock’ off! YOU DON’T WANT TO SOUND LIKE YOUR SHOUTING.
3. Keep it short and clean. Don’t go on and on and on and on, (eh sorry) and
   not get to the point, most people are not reading a book, just a message so
   get to the point. Your email will be more readily read if you keep it concise
   yet descriptive but remember to be polite at the same time.
4. Be Polite. Make use of the most powerful 3 words in the business – “Thank
   You” and “Please”. They a greatly under rated and more importantly under used
   and goes a long way with emails
5. Were you joking? It is important to remember that your email does not reflect
   your tone of voice or facial expressions so choose your words carefully and
   make sure you don’t offend someone.
6. HUH? Don’t use shorthand or whatever people call it. Business is business
   and it is important to convey professionalism so don’t use ” Can U plz send..
   “ in the place of “Can you please send..”. Don’t assume everyone understands
   this shorthand just because you do.
7. Proof Read. Make sure you don’t have glaring errors or poor grammer, although
   I have never been known for mine. Just double check your wording and spelling
   quickly BEFORE clicking the send button – it’s a little late to do it after
   the fact.
8. Did you get my email? I can’t tell you how many times I have emailed a
   client or colleague and never received a response. Now I am not saying that
   every email requires a response, though anything important should. I would
   email a vendor with a problem and never get a response yet the problem did
   get fixed. The issue here is NOT that there was a problem, but there was no
   one on the other end to let me know they were working on it. If find that
   my clients respond well to problems if they know I am working on it. So let
   people know that something is happening with their request.

I am not stating that I am a certified expert on this topic, but I am conveying my findings of years using the Internet and email. Keep common sense when using your email and use good manners and you will find your emails will be much more effective for you.

I have worked with real estate sites for close to 10 years now and things have changed drastically since then. Years ago agents would carry around a MLS book. This was a book that came out monthly and it had all of the properties for sale in the area and the information about it. Now I have had agents tell me that they miss this to some degree, since they used it as a weapon. Yes, they would slam it down on the coffee table and scare the stew out of the buyer – some intimidation technique.

Today, there is a slightly better way of getting home and property information — the Internet. What a tool, every home listed in your area is most likely able to be viewed on a Realtor’s website. Every property listing will be there, not just that agents’ listings, but everyone’s listings. This is called IDX. IDX is basically a format that allows everyone to show most everyone’s listings (as long as you agree to the rules) on their web site. The catch is a small disclaimer (in most cases) that states who listed the property or what office listed it. This now provides Real Estate Brokers and Agents the tools to connect buyers with sellers more efficiently.

With this in mind, you can probably understand why real estate on the Internet is the #1 legitimate searched for product. I say legitimate since Porn is actually number one and I personally don’t call that legitimate. Over 80% of the home buyers last year searched for properties on the Internet – OVER 80%! That is huge.

Real Estate agents need to embrace this tool called the Internet. After years of training agents I have found that there is still a large number of REALTORS that still don’t understand the basics of using the Internet for their business. Utilizing email, websites, blogs, and marketing can be a daunting task, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You don’t have to understand how a computer works to be able to use these tools, just learn how the tools work.

Blogging: If you are not blogging in real estate then you should be. This is a simple way to post messages, preferably yours, and letting people know what you think or how to do something. It is easy to do and there are many sites out there that offer blogs for free (with some ads showing).

E-Mail: If nothing else you need to effectively use your email. I recommend using a professional looking one for real estate and not the free ones. Most of the free email accounts have strict spam blockers and you may not be getting all of the emails you think you are, plus it looks much more professional to have yourname@yourname.com than it does if you use someone7731@aol.com.

Websites: Your website should have the ability to search the entire MLS in your area for your potential client. That is the number one reason they came to your site – to find properties to buy. Keeping this in mind, the second reason is for information. Content is important and the more the better, as long as it is relevant and organized. The last thing you should have is a way to capture contact information.

Marketing: Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that Google, Yahoo, and all of the other search engines know about it. Even more, they probably could care less. This means you have to tell them you are there. That is where marketing comes in to play – it’s not check and it is not for the faint at heart, so use an expert to get the best results.

I will go into more detail about these later.