Explaining Technology With Scissors and Sharpies

The job of explaining technology can be a daunting task. I have become much better over the years at creating analogies and references that help demystify the aspects of how technology works. I still fall into the trap of speaking in terms that escape my audience from time to time. If you're days are spent immersed in the intricacies and nuances of technology it's an easy mistake to make.

Enter the folks at CommonCraft.Com. Perhaps you've seen a few of their viral videos on the web. I love the approach they take in simplifying the complicated with nothing more than scissors and sharpies. The folks at Redfin were so enamored with the concept that they have employed the services of Common Craft to explain their business model to consumers.

Below is an explanation of RSS (really simple syndication). It was created in April, but it's still the most popular of the common craft videos. I often refer to RSS as the engine of Web 2.0 and try to create metaphors that help agents understand syndication and it's impact on the distribution of listings and listing enhancements. The visuals and goofy hand gestures employed in this explanation add a great deal of impact to the delivery of the message.

Big Ideas In Web 2.0 - 1000Watt Consulting

Marc Davison and Brian Boero of 1000WattConsulting have created a nifty guide to track resources in the universe of Web 2.0 and real estate. Marc and Brian's new consulting company has been designed to help real estate companies plot their course through this new universe. Their recent "call to arms' for MLS' to add more Web 2.0 features like RSS and social networking is an interesting topic for discussion considering many associations are just now seeing the value in creating public portals to support their membership base.

What are your thoughts on MLS' adding social commentary to listings? I'm pretty sure in most markets it will be an uphill battle against conventional wisdom. What are the ramifications of a broker using an IDX feed to display listing data with their own social commentary components added to the mix? Would it meet the muster of the rules regarding broker reciprocity or would it get the same smackdown that Redfin experienced with their blogging effort? Food for thought.

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0 1000Watt Consulting RSS Real Estate

Web 2.0 & Information Technology

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been pretty swamped. I had the opportunity to speak to a few groups of real estate professionals. This post should be a good follow up to our discussions.

I had the opportunity to read an article today regarding how Web 2.0 is having an impact on the way corporations are approaching information technology. It's a perspective piece by the Chief Development Officer of EMC, Mark Lewis.

Every time I read something like this, it makes me wonder why so many in the real estate industry haven't had their "Aha" moment.

Web 2.0 flips the information delivery model upside down--it's now about global access, and information at your fingertips, aggregated from sources that you don't even necessarily know about, or care where they exist. Based on a set of search criteria, information in all its rich forms--media, video, audio, images, documents, text--all will be assembled together in context and delivered to users and applications for real-time experience.

Thinking about the value inherent in data, and how to best package it for consumers as well as industry participants should be the focus of any forward thinking real estate entity. It doesn't matter if you're a broker, agent, trade associations or anyone else in the supply chain of data.

It's not too much to say that a whole new world lies before us--finding effective ways to organize and access information regardless of its origin could spark a renaissance in the way knowledge workers think and perform their jobs.

Let's face it, we're all "knowledge workers", the best of us will figure out a way to use new rules and new tools to be more successful than the next guy or gal.

Mike's Corner Celebrates Its First Anniversary

A little over a year ago at a board meeting our Executive VP, Mark Basile, suggested the concept of developing a blog for our prospects and clients. Our product is a single spoke in an entirely new kind of wheel that for better or worse has been slapped with the Web 2.0 moniker. It was clear to us that we had an opportunity and an obligation to help explain the landscape of Real Estate 2.0.

When Mark and myself get together to discuss business, we almost need a moderator to keep us on point. We both enjoy talking about everything we see as having an impact on the industry. Mark suggested we create the blog in a fashion that would establish a one to many conversation about technology and it's impact on the real estate industry. A face to a name, a direct connection to the leadership of the company. While I haven't exactly stayed on point every time, I think what I've had to say has been done in the spirit of our orignal goals.

Yesterday was exactly 365 days from my original post. I'm pretty proud of what we've accomplished. We plan to take the blog to another level in the next few months. If you've just started reading or you've had us in your RSS reader for a while now, let us know what you think and what you would like to see from us in our second year.

Real Estate 2.0 Observations From The Street

I've been doing something the past few weeks that I haven't done in quite a while. I've been hitting the streets. Tuesday morning meetings, broker technology committees, training classes, you name it. I've been getting face to face with as many folks in the business as I can. In doing so I've made a few observations I'll share with you.

Observation I.
There are some very forward thinking people out there. There was some enthusiasm and activity surrounding new business models and the new rules of real estate. Some brokers are making some changes in business models and marketing that are bold, but wise moves in my opinion.

Observation II.
It's time for a little tough love. For the most part (at least at the agent level) it was like replaying presentations I made 10 years ago. The same questions were being asked and the same fears were being uncovered. Many agents were unaware of Web 2.0 companies like Zillow and Trulia. Blog is a four letter word that many still do not know the definition of. Industry events like the recent fed report on competition were unknown to many . The impact of social commentary/networking, listing distribution etc. etc. are issues that are largely ignored. The same "I just don't have the time to learn all of this" statements were being made. As I said in the meetings, I can empathize. There really isn't much choice in the matter though.

Transparency is forcing the methods in which an agent interacts with a consumer. Things are different now. The days of having everything happen by osmosis because of things like a Title company handling all of an agent's listing marketing efforts are gone. Consumers are armed with a great deal of knowledge and information. If I were an agent I would more fearful of not having the proper amount of product and industry knowledge than where I was going to find the time to learn it.

Observation III.
Attention levels were at an all time high. Most agents recognized that if they want to thrive in the RE industry of the future it would be a good idea transcribe "the writing on the wall". I've never seen more copious note taking.

Observation IV.
Brokers are getting with the program and providing agents with education and tools necessary to compete in the world of Real Estate 2.0.

Observation V.
Broker, Agent or Vendor. . . I think it's a great time to be in this business.

The Marketing Monsoon Part I

Monsoon season is here. When spring has sprung, the real estate ad budgets kick into high gear. Whether it's during the Today Show or the evening news, It seems just about every big label broker has a slick new commercial, all with the exact same messages. I haven't seen anything in the ads that, as a consumer, would compel me to pick one over the other. Don't get me wrong, I think they are all well done spots, the calls to action seems to leave something to be desired.

We've all seen the mind numbing stats regarding the sheer volume of advertising or marketing messages a consumer is faced with each day. Marketing firm Blackfriars reports in their white paper, "The Tyranny of Too Much":

"In one experiment, when researchers asked subjects to compare chocolate chip cookies from a jar of 10 cookies and a jar of two cookies, the subjects rated the cookie from the smaller jar better than the one from the larger jar. And the cookie wasn't just better. It was rated more valuable, more desirable to eat in the future, and more attractive as a consumer item, despite the fact the cookies were identical. More choice made the subjects feel that their sample was less desirable."

The job of the broker or agent might seem like it's getting harder every day. After all, how do you keep up with all the changes of technology based marketing and the overwhelming number of choices a consumer has at their disposal? Not only do you have to find a way to set yourself apart, you need to find new and better ways of marketing property.

Being Extraordinary
Extraordinary: 1.beyond what is usual, ordinary, regular, or established.
Every time a consumer selects you as to represent them in a real estate transaction, something extraordinary happened. You were picked on a strength. Those strengths should be the things that you use to market yourself. I find most marketing messages in real estate concentrate more on the goal than the processes used to achieve it. The goal is ordinary, it's the same for every transaction. In my opinion it make more sense to speak to the means than it does the end. To rise above the clutter of sameness take the time to identify your strengths and craft your marketing message around them. How do you make something ordinary, extraordinary? Take a look at the yard signs that Bloodhound Realty creates for their listings. If you can take something as nebulous as a yard sign and make it unique, what else do you think it's possible to improve upon?

Thinking Different
One of Apple's biggest strengths as a company is it's marketing prowess. One of the best campaigns they ever had was the "Think Different" campaign. The ads never even featured a shot of their product. They featured iconic figures in history. They were cults of personality that made their marks by thinking differently than the rest of the world, (Albert Einstein, John Lennon etc.) with the simple tag line, "Think Different". When your market share is the single digits, you need to come up with a compelling reason to get consumers to even consider your product. The same is true of your marketing and sales effort. If you're listing presentation is covering the same ground as your competition, you'll be counting on luck as much as anything else to help you succeed. Your prospect wants to hear compelling features of your service, each packaged in a way that directly benefits them wrapped up in testimonials of success.

How does all of this tie into Web 2.0? Simple. There are myriad ways to do things differently with regards to marketing yourself and your listings these days. Blogging, podcasting, social networking, contextual advertising etc. They are all means to an end, each of them with a unique features that will help you weather the marketing monsoon. My next post will address how thinking global and acting local can kick your web results into high gear. Stay tuned.

Web 2.0 - Best Practices Award

Last year I awarded the first Mike's Corner Web 2.0 "Best Practices" award. Today I'm bestowing the award on a company that's had it's share of issues with regard to customer communication recently, Dell. The folks in Austin have decided to use the power of social networking to find out what people really want in a PC. They call it Dell IdeaStorm. Essentially it's a form of consumer transparency.

"Dell IdeaStorm launched on Friday, February 16. Dell employees are monitoring IdeaStorm to gauge which ideas are most important and most relevant to you. And we'll share those ideas throughout our organization to trigger new thoughts about how we evolve as a company. As your ideas continue to pour in, we will use this page to provide updates on ideas that Dell is considering. We'll also show you how your ideas are being put into action at Dell over time. Please check back to see your ideas in action."

The site uses a "Digg" social news style format to promote good ideas to the top. Idea Storm also features a discussion forum and section to preview and comment on upcoming products. The top voted ideas come as no surprise to me. High on the list is a "Craplet Free" system. Delivering a system with a clean operating system unencumbered by resource hogging trial ware, nag screens more. They are even using the site to determine how the site itself should be structured. The next step is "YouTube" style video upload section. I just wonder if they will allow the exploding laptop videos to make their way to the site?

I could see this same type of environment working for well for brokers. The Tuesday morning meeting is probably all but dead. It's a safe bet that most offices see a lot less of their agent staff these days. Home offices and mobile technology have seen to that. Allowing agents to participate in "digital brainstorming" sessions could provide brokers with a good road map for company initiatives and prevent investments in programs that may not be well adopted. Using this type of tool could be more effective than a digital suggestion box or Intranet due it's social structure and transparency. In a business model such as RE/MAX where decisions are made by committee, this could be an invaluable way for individual groups to post and work with new ideas. From a business planning perspective it would be great to take a historical snapshot of the decision making process from the birth of an idea to it's implementation and beyond.

On larger scales, such as Dell, the biggest obstacle I see to this type of program is manipulation of the system. Anyone with an agenda or just too much time on their hands could potentially "game" the site. An example is a thread that says "Bring Back The Dell Dude" For all we know that guy might be trying charge up the paddles on his 15 minutes of fame in hopes that the Idea Storm site can shock it back to life. Then again maybe there are people out there that actually want to go through the hell of those commercials all over again. I'm sure there are people hard at work on ideas to avoid situations that prevent unscrupulous use of the system. That said, I am of the mind set that there is value in pretty much all of the content, even at the long end of the tail.

Mike Antoniak, a tech writer for Realtor Magazine mentioned to me recently that Michael Dell publicly proclaimed he would be happy to sell a system with Apple's Macintosh OS X operating system on it. Now there's an idea I would love to see it stormed to the top of the list. Because for me personally -- Dude, that's the only way I'm gettin a Dell.

Interview: Damon Pace - HomeHugg.Com

Damon Pace, CEO of Incredible Agent wants consumers, Realtors and lenders to show the love. Pace has recently unveiled a new web effort entitled HomeHugg. The premise of the site is similar to popular social news and bookmarking sites like Digg and Netscape.Com.

"HomeHugg is very much like the social bookmarking communities that have gained momentum over the past year. Their popularity is based in discovering and sharing similar interests. HomeHugg members can share information and opinions with one another in order to identify the homes that meet their search criteria."

We asked Damon to answer a few questions regarding HomeHugg and he graciously accepted.

Q: Your web site states, "HomeHugg is a community of Home Buyers, Realtors and Lenders that help each other discover, save and share their favorite homes for sale or rent in their community." Can you explain individually, how Buyers, Realtors and Lenders can use your site and what the benefit is?

A:First, HomeHugg helps home buyers by allowing them to simply search any real estate website they want and save that home listing to their HomeHugg account. Once they save it to their account, other home shoppers may find that home and then save it to their account as well. With HomeHugg, the more members who like a home, the more exposure the home receives on our site. Which brings me to my second point. When a Realtor has a listing posted on their website and that listing becomes a popular home on HomeHugg, there will in turn be more targeted home buyers driven to the Realtors website to learn more about the home and possibly become a lead. Don't forget they also get paid when that listing sells. HomeHugg will be promoting that listing for them and hopefully it will sell faster because of the number of huggs it recieves. So essentially, Realtors are able to promote their clients' listings and drive traffic to their website at the same time. With HomeHugg, Lenders can play an important roll by promoting listings for Realtors, leaving comments on homes and therefore bringing exposure to themselves to build their business. We will also be rolling out other tools in the future to help Lenders become a larger part of the HomeHugg community. We believe Lenders play a significant, yet untapped roll in the online real estate marketplace.

Q: Do you plan to monetize HomeHugg in the future, if so, how?

A: Yes, we plan on monetizing HomeHugg someday. How? There are many different ways we are kicking around to help us monetize HomeHugg. For the moment, we simply want home buyers to use the site and Realtors to promote their listings as much as possible. Also, at Incredible Agent we have many different products that we currently monetize to help real estate agents. In other words, we're not dependent upon HomeHugg being enormously profitable in order to keep HomeHugg up and running. Obviously profitability is our goal, but we already offer great products to the real estate community and therefore have no investors to answer to other than ourselves.

Q: Explain the process for a Realtor to include a listing in HomeHugg

A: This is a very simple process. All a Realtor needs to do is visit http://www.homehugg.com/huggme/ and copy the html for their favorite "hugg me" link. From there they simply add that line of code to each of the listings on their website. Once that's done they can click on the "hugg me" link on each of their listings and insert the basic home information onto HomeHugg. Now that the listing is on HomeHugg, the other community members will find the home, visit the Realtors website and decide whether they want to hugg the home or not. It's that simple. We hope to make the process even easier as we develop the site out of Beta. Especially for our Realtor friends.

Q: Do you have plans to accept bulk uploads of listings from brokers and large agent teams?

A: Yes, we will be developing a seperate set of tools just for brokers and Realtors. Our community is rooted in helping Realtors find ways to communicate with the home buyers and promote their listings. There will be several different ways for Realtors to highlight their skills and services to our members. Bulk uploads of their listings is only one of those ways.

Q: How does HomeHugg integrate with other Incredible Agent offerings?

A:Ultimately, Incredible Agent is about utilizing Real Estate technology to help agents get more leads and sell more homes. We offer everything from real estate websites and lead generation to blogging and training. We believe in order to be truly Incredible on the Internet you need to integrate all the tools and opportunities available into your real estate business. HomeHugg will be a part of our overall solution by helping our agents market themselves to home buyers, sell their clients listings faster and drive traffic to their websites to in turn get more clients.

Q: What do you think the reaction will be from the Realtor community regarding a consumer's ability to actively comment on a listing?

A: I've thought about this subject for a long time. We also run another website called http://www.IncredibleAgents.com (with an "S" at the end). It is our real estate agent review website that allows consumers to leave reviews for Realtors. We've noticed the majority of the reviews have been positive. Some of them are from agents directing their clients to the site and some have just found their agent and left a review. I firmly believe the same thing will go for home reviews as well. I realize it may be somewhat controversial for people to leave comments, but who says those comments have to be negative? As a Realtor selling a home, why can't you have the home owners go to HomeHugg and leave their comments about the home? What about neighbors or friends of the home owners who are familiar with the home and neighborhood? Why do we automatically assume that comments will always be negative? Why can't we be proactive and use positive comments to help sell the home?

The truth of the matter is that we have to think about ourselves differently when it comes to the Internet. We are only at the beginning stages of the "Recommendation Economy". It used to be that you could live anonymously and run your business with very few consequences to your actions. Today, anyone can say anything they want about you or the product you're selling and share that with the rest of the world. Think of it this way...Realtors and Homes are the equivalent of politicians and movie stars; the Internet is just one big paparazzi. They get to say and do anything they want. My point is that we've lost control over our Internet personas, so do everything you can to make sure you beat the papparazzi to the punch and manage your image appropriately. This goes for everything you care about, including your personal reputation, your business and the homes you're selling.

Ultimately, the real estate community may initially be bothered by leaving comments, but soon they'll begin to see it as an opportunity more than a problem.

Q: How many listings do you think it will take for you to consider HomeHugg a success?

A: That's actually a very tough question. To be honest, I haven't thought of it in terms of quantity yet. I guess the real success of HomeHugg will not be measured in how many listings are on the site, but rather in how many home buyers are using the community for their home search. It's very similar to the whole chicken or the egg question. What comes first, the listings or the home buyers? I believe if the buyers are there, the listings will come next. The interesting aspect of HomeHugg is that home buyers can add listings to the site as well as Realtors. It's the first site to allow anyone to add a home listing without actually being a Realtor or Broker. The whole premise behind HomeHugg is for it's members to add listings for other members to find, not to only search for listings on the market. Therefore I believe the number of active home buyers will be our measuring stick, not the home listings themselves.

I Could Have Been a Hacker Today

I've posted a few times about new innovations in the Web 2.0 space, one of which is the web based operating system. Essentially these programs provide a desktop style interface that mimics what you see on your PC or Mac. They have considerable promise for mobile professionals and more. Here's the downside. If you're not careful you could be exposing yourself to the world of the world of web bad guys. If you're blog is enrolled in Feedburner, there's a nifty little stat tool that shows "unusual uses" of your blog. I clicked on an "unusual" link and was taken to the home page of a "Protopage" user. Protopage is one of several new "Web OS" companies developing the aforementioned application. The Tabs at the top of the page of this OS user were entitled Stuff, Blogs, XTra and Client Notes. Assuming the inbound link to my blog came from "Blogs" I clicked the link and a really cool interface that had select RSS feeds came up. Sure enough, there was the Feedburner subscription link to this blog. Cool.

Since I had never really looked at a Protopage site in detail, I decided to tool around a bit. I clicked "Client Links" I was shocked at what I saw, Three clients listed with user names and passwords to gain access to 3 different web servers, one of which was a MYSQL database server. Not Cool.

After looking at a couple of other links it was apparent that the private portion of this user's site was anything but. It had a complete set of links to the users bill payments every credit card company, utility and more was listed. It's just too much information to hang out there for potential identity thieves. Security issues often get blamed on the development world, when in fact, many of the issues lie with the end user's responsibility to use basic precautions to protect themselves. As the world of Web 2.0 gains traction, the connected consumer will have to rely on remote servers for much of what they have previously done on their local PC. Here's hoping we can all do a better job of keeping that data reliable and secure, developers and users alike.

Trulia Advisory Board on The Agent Value Proposistion

Trulia recently created an advisory board of industry leaders to help guide their business development efforts. They recently asked each board member the same question and posted their results in a blog post yesterday.

"With property information available across the Internet and new discount real estate services popping up everywhere, how should full service agents reframe their pitch to buyers and sellers to communicate their true value proposition in the home sale transaction?"

The responses were all very succinct and insightful. I would recommend it as required reading for all real estate professionals. Real Living COO Kaira Sturdivant Rouda summed up some of the most important issues

"Key elements agents must be able to master and pitch to clients today include: immediate e-mail response time, a robust personal and brokerage Web site, a blog, a listing search marketing strategy, and online contextual and key word advertising. It’s critical to be where today’s consumers are - and she’s there - online. And the majority are, as always, seeking a professional real estate agent’s help."

Your online strategy can no longer play second fiddle to anything you've done in the past. Bob Peltier - President of Edina Realty stated something I have been saying for years, and it's right on the money

"There is a difference between information and knowledge."

The real estate pro that has mastered information distribution and created the most compelling marketing message regarding the value proposition associated with their knowledge will be the big winners in 2007. I would evaluate my listing presentation and place as much emphasis on your ability to distribute information online as you do on the essential transaction and negotiation skills that set you apart from your competitors.

RSS Patents?

Business 2.0 reports on Microsoft patent applications for RSS. I'm not a big fan of software patents. Most of them are completely indefensible and in most cases they tend to slow progressive technologies. I agree with some that say this is more of defensive move on MS' part than anything else. By filing the patents, any patent troll holding a previously filed application will have no choice but to make themselves known. That will force the rest of the industry to trot out prior art. It's clear that MS, and the rest of the software industry for that matter, will be reliant on RSS as a key component to future application development. If this is a preemptive move, it could make sense on MS' part. Microsoft recently lost a high profile ruling regarding a patent that covered the embedding of multimedia elements in web documents from a multimedia spin-off of the University of California. The changes made to the Internet Explorer browser as a result of the ruling forced developers to completely re-code documents in order to properly display embedded multimedia content. I know of many companies that are still in the process, months later, of re-coding pages that have embedded Quicktime and Java content. If you look at the whole portfolio that Eolas holds, it can be a pretty sobering thought. It looks as if Eolas exists only to hold and defend their patents. They have no products that I am aware of that put them to use. For instance

"U.S. Patent 6,616,701, Filed on May 23, 1998, Issued September 9, 2003

This invention turns full-motion video into a fully-interactive experience. Imagine, for example, being able to view a movie trailer and being able to click on individual actors, as they move across the screen, to bring upWeb pages with more information on their bios, other films, etc. Or imagine that you're watching a video of the 1996 NBA finals, and being able to click directly on any of the players at any time to retrieve their stats, where they are now, etc. The zMap technology makes all that possible, and more."

Imagine it? I don't have to. Hotspots in video like QTVR movies and more have been around for as long as I can remember. I still have an application that I bought in 1996 that has this feature (2 years before the original filing). Surely there was some prior art somewhere that demonstrated this before the awarding of this patent.

I believe in protecting intellectual property, however, the USPTO has horrible track record of approving patent applications for software that, in my opinion, should have never seen the light of day. It's spawned a whole new industry whose sole purpose is to acquire patents and then apply pressure on companies of all size to give up license fees. If the thousands of start-ups basing development of new web applications on RSS are faced with the prospect of being strong-armed by patent trolls, the whole industry will suffer. Those that survive will be forced to pass those costs along to their customers. Only time will tell what will happen with the RSS patents. It's certainly something we will need to keep a keen eye on as we move forward.

Global Neighborhoods - A Preview

The co-author of the wildly famous book Naked Conversations, Shel Israel, is working on a new book entitled "Global Neighborhoods -- How Social Media are moving power from institutions to people". What intrigued me the most in reading the preview was the correlation to the real estate profession's bread and butter lead generator, referrals.

"We know the best shortcuts and what areas to avoid. When we need a recommendation, we ask a neighbor. We trust local experts.

This behavior is now moving to the internet, where people do not have to be physically present to live in a community, or for that matter, be recognized as a leader in it."

I think it's critical for one to understand how these networks are being used by internet empowered consumers to exchange information. Whatever means can be used to infuse your brand and top-of-mind awareness within social networks will pay off in spades in the long run. Social networks survive on target advertising and the level of sophistication regarding how relevant that targeting will be is increasing rapidly. Search engine keyword advertising campaigns are becoming more difficult for the average entrepreneur to participate in. Social networks may provide an opportunity to target contextual ads at a very narrow target. One would do well to understand how and where these networks operate and seek out opportunities to participate as both a member and advertiser.

"Global Neighborhoods also examines the likely outcomes to the workplace of a generation that gets its information and places its trust on peers rather than institutions. It asks what happens when they enter the mainstream marketplaces as customers, employees and potential competitors. It examines how businesses will need to adjust course to gain credibility with a generation that has cultivated a Teflon resistance to traditional marketing techniques."

If banks were robbed because "that's where the money is", your marketing will need to be focused on "where the prospect is". Social networks are shaping up to be one of those places.

Google Zeitgeist '06

The Washington Post reports Google has released it's annual "Zeitgeist" report that peeks into the most popular search terms over the last year. Podcasting showed up as number 4 on the list. I found it intriguing that one of the items was the interest in the popular Web 2.0 programming language "Ajax". YouTube was absent from the list entirely. It seems Web 2.0 issues and technologies dominated search in 2006.

"The top search terms were words related to user-generated content, such as blogs, social networking sites and podcasts."

The impact that user generation and RSS based content distribution are having the web is sure to be top amongst the year end "wrap-up" technology articles that will no doubt be gracing my bookmarks and feed reader in the coming weeks.

SmartSheet.Com Adds Real Estate Templates

SmartSheet.Com, an online, collaborative spreadsheet application has added some new real estate specific templates to their offerings. Maria Colacurci of SmartSheet tells me that a transaction coordination (virtual assistant), escrow process and home inspection checklist will be among their offerings being launched tomorrow.

Also being announced are pricing and new relationships for online storage and security with Amazon's new web services division. Look for these type of applications to become more commonplace as Web 2.0 gains ground as a mainstream platform for small business computing. Seat licensing and upgrade costs will become a thing of the past. What's more, applications will enjoy the benefits that come with the social and collaborative features inherent to Web 2.0.

Brokers and agents will soon be able to complete a range of tasks through web browsers that will allow them to become more productive and untethered from their desks.

A free trial is available. Give a try and come back to let us know what you think. The team at SmartSheet seems to be genuinely concerned about creating a great product and accepting input from their user base, so don't be shy about making feature requests.

Vertical and Tactical

To those of you who read this blog regularly, I apologize for the lack of updates lately. My lower back decided it was time for me to take a break from the keyboard. It also decided, for a while, to have me take a break from being able to roll over in bed or string together a sentence that I would be proud to have my Mother hear. I am happy to say that, as Mark Basile my best friend and business associate coined, I am now vertical and tactical. To anyone who's recovered from a really tough illness, you know it's possible for the body to feel better but the mind sort of lags behind in the race. I think my feeble little mass of gray is ready to unleash itself on the world again. Many thanks to my customers, business associates and especially my family for tolerating me. Especially to those who were kind enough to put my cell phone in my pajama pocket and wish me well as they abandoned left me alone on my sealy posturepedic with Bob Barker, Judge Judy every episode of a "My Baby's Daddy" show ever made. If someone can figure out how to get back 30 minutes of a life wasted watching an episode of Jerry Springer, please let me know. I dropped the remote and couldn't move to retrieve it once. All I can say is, I feel violated on several different levels. (I'm just kidding about the abandonment part, my girls took good care of me )

I thought since I had a great deal of catching up on my reading to do, I would include some posts and story links I've found interesting. First up is the interesting tide of debate over at the Bloodhound blog regarding dual agency. My hat's off to Greg for giving unfettered access in his blog to those who share opposite points of view. It shows once again that Greg has the best interest of his readers at heart and he should be commended for walking his talk. It started with this excellent post from Jim Brown, a guest commentator. Follow the thread from there, it's awesome. Greg, Russell and Jim all provide us with insightful commentary on topic that seems to be a hot potato issue these days.

Next is a good snag by Joel at The Future of Real Estate Marketing on a new web metrics tool called Quantcast. Assuming the data is good, it could be a great demographic snapshot tool for tracking the web viewing habits of real estate consumers. I didn't have a lot of time to play with it, so the jury is still out on how effective it is. Looks promising though.

Yawwwwnnnn. Zune, Microsoft's answer to the iPod was released 11/14. They were hoping for a big bang with a bunch of release parties and the like but it looks as if it's been more of a popcorn fart. Maybe they should have taken a cue from Sony and figured out a way to get a bunch of geeks to give up a few days of their lives to camp out in front of Circuit City. On the other hand, it was probably a good idea that they didn't. I'm guessing when the news crews showed up to interview the campers there would have been enough iPods in plain sight to make it embarrassing. A couple of days later we learned that it isn't even compatible with the new version of Windows. I downloaded the Zune software to see how well podcasting will integrate with the device. As far as video podcasting goes, you can put an .mpg4 or iTunes compatible video on the device, but that's about it at this point. Word on the street says podcasting will soon be fully integrated. Looks like they should have done a little more work before asking people to come to the social. I'm not counting them out yet, but it looks like '06 is definitely not the year of the Zune.

Jim over at the Real Estate Tomato asks "Who Are You Blogging For?" It's a step in the right direction to help those that are making a concerted effort to blog for business success. In the coming months I plan to expand on that concept and look back on the impact blogging has had thus far and explore the real potential, or maybe even the lack thereof that blogging has for the average full time real estate professional.

Finally, I have gained some valuable insight to a few things and I am willing to share my new found knowledge of the following,
- How To Get Cash Now From J.G. Wentworth
- Where to go if you need Social Security Disability Help
- The advertising agency for Campbell Soup had a large casting call for people who can't sing.
- Disco Still Sucks
- There's a reason why Gunsmoke still holds the record as the longest running television drama.

SmartSheet Templates

The folks at SmartSheet.Com contacted me a couple of days ago.

"We are working on creating a template library for users so they can start out with a sample Smartsheet in their specific area. I would love your thoughts on a checklist for real estate professionals. Are there common items they need to complete in a transaction? I would love your feedback and/or ideas on what may be helpful for your profession."

Here's your chance to help design a great Web 2.0 tool. Leave your comments here on what you think should be included and I will forward them to SmartSheet. Once the template is built we'll do a post on it with some screen shots and links. I think this is an awesome tool, especially if you work in a team environment. I love the idea of being able to update a team document via e-mail.

Technorati Tags: SmartSheet.Com, Spreadsheets, Web 2.0

"40 Is The New 30, Baby"

A new client asked me today about the demographics of the average podcast user. Nielsen, Forrester and Pew Internet Life have been doing studies on podcasting since early 2005. For some reason the media continues to act surprised by the fact that mature adults have embraced new media. I've read dozens of articles after each release of new data. You'd think a 90 year old great, great grandmother had just swam the English channel. The article that showed up in my news alerts today from the Eagle-Tribune in Andover Mass. has to be the best example yet. The lead in sets the tone for the article. I cracked up when I read it:

"New media is no longer just the province of the pubescent. A growing share of its audience is old. Ancient. Like, even over 40."

The writer has some fun with the recent Nielsen stats that were released regarding YouTube and other New Media demographics. Of particular interest are the stats regarding podcasting:

"Podcasting consumers: 47 percent are over 35. All told, the digital revolution illustrates a theory heretofore popularized only by pudgy, balding men in too-tight pants: Forty is the new 30, baby."

Another stat released was something I am very familiar with. There are plenty of over 40 women that are classified as casual gamers. Count my lovely wife Laurie amongst them. If you met her you would never guess that she loves to fire up the X-Box and blow the crap out of alien invaders playing HALO with my daughters and their friends. I've yet to play anything but a bad round of golf on a gaming console.

New media marketing activities like blogging and podcasting are no longer fads or the exclusive domain of the early adopter. Given the demographic of the home buying public, they are actually more targeted and, in my opinion, have better ROI opportunity than any other medium. If you're making your media buying decisions based on how and where you consume media yourself, or how people in your sphere of influence interact with it, you could be making some poor choices.

If New Media isn't a category in your budget planning for next year, perhaps it's time to fire up your favorite web 2.0 spreadsheet application, loosen the belt on your "too-tight" pants and give some serious thought to moving a chunk of that old media money to a new column.

Technorati Tags: New Media Podcasting YouTube Web 2.0