Today is the final day of April 2012 and with that brings to an end a month long challenge.  I wrote back on the first of April of this challenge that was given to me by my good friend Mike Mueller and the consequences if either of us did not complete.  I am happy to report today that there will be no chicken suit wearing happening any time soon by me.

See, Mike & I had taken the blogging challenge to another level.  If one of us did not produce our 21 posts during the 21 business days of April, we would have to dress up in a chicken suit and dance on a busy street corner.  Luckily for me, this is my 21st post and fulfills all my requirements for the challenge.

Over the past month though, I have learned a few things regarding blogging:

1.  Daily Blogging can be tough when you run a business too.  Granted, my business revolves completely around my blog, but some of the days it was really difficult to take the time away from other tasks in my business and focus on writing a post.  See, not only do I do social media consulting, but I also do a good amount of traveling as a social media speaker.  This month I attended one of the larger conferences I do in a year which took up almost a full week away from the office.

During this time I had to be diligent to sit down and write posts at certain times or have the forethought to write a post the day before and schedule it to publish while I was away from the computer.

2.  Creative is hard depending on your business.  While I spend a good amount of time speaking in consulting, there is a third aspect to my business where I build custom WordPress sites for clients.  I found it can be very difficult to think creatively for blogging content when I was spending several hours doing very technical tasks on a site like writing CSS code.  I’d have to take a good break, walk away from the computer and come back later.

3.  Book end hours work best for me.  I found that I was able to get my best blog posts by either writing them first thing in the morning to start my day, or doing them at the end of the previous day.    Whenever I would try to do it in the middle of normal business hours it would take much longer due to many distractions of phones ringing & crisis messages being received from clients that needed immediate attention.  The early morning and late hours of the night seem to be much calmer around my house and provide a better atmosphere for writing.

4.  Killing social networks proved productive.  I used to leave both Google+, Facebook, & Twitter all open while writing so I could multi-task.  But what I learned is that it would take me much longer to write then.  I also would repeat things or say it in manners that didn’t always make sense.  When I shut off all the distractions, I could create much better content in a fraction of the time.

So, now that the challenge is over, what does that mean?  Well, nothing really.  You will continue to receive content from me on a somewhat regular basis.  However I won’t drive myself crazy if a day or two come along where I am busy with other things and do not get the time to write a post.  As I share with clients all the time during coaching, don’t write something just to meet a quota or goal.  Write because you are passionate about it or feel this post will help both you and others around you be better.

So Mike Mueller, did you finish your #21in21?

21 Posts In 21 Days- Lessons Learned From Daily Blogging #21in21 originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 30, 2012. Tweet This

Before I get into today’s post, I must first warn everyone that it might be a little bit of a rant to some and different from my normal how-to type of post.  Here’s why I am ranting today.  I recently received a friend request from someone on one of my favorite social networks to interact with people, FourSquare.  So, I clicked on the request notification on my phone which brought me to their profile.  When I saw their profile image, I almost blew my gasket.

Instead of finding a smiling face for a person named Andrew, I found their profile photo had been replaced by a QR code.  Now, my guess is either Andrew is a really ugly person who broke a camera the last time it tried to take a photo of him, or some marketing genius that he listened to at some point said that QR codes are cutting edge technology that he should implement immediately to make himself look more tech-savvy.

Now, I am not going to get into a debate on QR codes today as that isn’t the point of the post.  Instead I would like to focus on way this tool was implemented.  In my opinion, I feel Andrew did so many things wrong by using a QR code in this manner.

First, social networks are designed to encourage social interactions and connections with others.  When you replace your profile photo with a QR code, or a cartoon avatar, a branding logo, or something else impersonal, you immediately change the mindset people have of you when they are deciding whether to connect with you or not.  I know for me, when I see those, my mind immediately jumps to wondering if this person is going to try to push a product down my throat and beg me to buy something from them.

Secondly, Foursquare is a platform designed and built to be used almost exclusively from a mobile device.  They have had over 2 billion check ins from mobile devices.  In contrast, according to compete.com, their website only receives about 2 million visits.  That means that less than 10% of all their members actually visit the full website version.  The point behind a QR code is to give someone an easy way to access your content from their mobile phone from some sort of printed material by simply scanning an image.

Lastly, in order to scan a QR code, you need to have a phone with a scanning app.  So, for me to scan Andrew’s QR code, I would need a second phone since probably 95% of the people who would see it are on a mobile device already.  You can’t use the camera function of a phone to scan something on it’s own screen.  So a second device would be necessary to access the QR code.  Personally, I don’t know too many people who would go through the effort of borrowing a second phone from someone else just to scan your code.

To me this just makes someone like Andrew look like a fool instead of someone tech savvy.  So, before you listen to the next guru or expert who mentions the next latest & greatest technology tool, take a moment to think through how you are implementing that tool.  Ask yourself if this will make me more tech-savvy or look like a tech fool.

Are You Tech-Savvy or a Tech Fool? originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 27, 2012. Tweet This

Coming up with ideas for blog content on a regular basis can be rather difficult for many people.  It’s one of the biggest objections I hear whenever I speak on blogging.  How do you think up new stuff to write about that isn’t just a repeat of something you have already done?

During this month long challenge of 21 blog posts in 21 business days, I’ve found myself at times even pondering what to write on next.  But, what I have come to the conclusion is that by using one of the four options below to inspire content for your blog, you should almost always have a wealth of content available.  These are the four areas I turn to when I am trying to think of something to write about:

1.  Content written by others.  No, I don’t mean go copy & paste something you liked that was written by someone else.  That’s called plagiarism.  What I mean is go out & read content written by others in your industry.   You will come across posts that you like that you can then write in your own words or make it applicable to your area.

Another thing I do with these posts written by others on a rather regular basis is use it as a underlying theme to a post.  I may write what I liked or didn’t like about the other person’s post.  Or I may write a blog post why I agree or disagree with a concept/idea that they shared.  This is a great source of content for your blog, and can also help you learn things from time to time.

2.  New Products.  No matter what type of business or blog you run, there is always something new coming to that industry.  Either some new piece of technology comes about or you find something that you really enjoy implementing into your business.  When you find these things, they can make some really great topics for blog posts.  People love learning about new things and how they might be able to use it to make their job easier.  I’ve written numerous posts about things I use when building a custom WordPress site for a client and have received many comments thanking me for providing help to others.

3.  Past Experiences.  Getting content ideas from here can be a blessing or a curse depending on what you pick to write about.  In the past I have shared funny stories of working with clients, but some that share stories can end up getting into hot water by sharing things that they probably shouldn’t have.  You have to always remember to use a good level of discretion when writing content for your website as it will live on the internet forever.

But, on the other hand sharing things you have experienced and had to do in the past to reach a level of success or accomplishment can make great content for your blog.

4.  Your Inbox.  This last area is probably my biggest secret weapon for new blog content.  Every day I receive anywhere from 10-20 emails from clients of past, current, and potential regarding all types of topics.  What I realized a few years ago was that if I was receiving the same question on a regular basis from those I’m connected to, how many other thousands of people were asking the same question and looking for an answer.   The video tutorials alone that I have created to answer questions related to WordPress have generated well over 3,000 views.

These are the ways I come up with content for my blog.  What about you?  What is your inspiration for your blog topics?

What Inspires Your Blog Content? originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 25, 2012. Tweet This

Facebook usually does a good job at catching spam/fake profiles, but from time to time profiles do slip through the cracks and get connected to tons of people. Here’s one fake profile I’ve found on Facebook and how I was able to confirm the photo was not a real person:

Can You Spot A Fake Facebook Profile? originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 24, 2012. Tweet This

I am as much a Facebook Junkie as the next, but over the past few months I have found myself spending less and less time in the actual stream and more in private Facebook groups.  This is because I have found specific private groups to be much more valuable to my business than just my public news stream.  Last night however, I took some time to read through the stream of my friends and when I did, I kept coming across quoted images or graphics similar to the one above.

Now, I understand why people make these, but I really don’t see any value in them for a person sharing it.  The reason people create these is due to the fact that Facebook’s edgerank algorithm places more emphasis on photos as that is overwhelmingly the most popular thing for people to view, comment & share on Facebook.  This was made obvious to me by the incredible popularity a photo of my daughter received the other day. (97 likes & 43 comments & growing)  So, marketers learned that if they create quotes into an image instead of just plain text update it is more likely to be viewed by people and receive interactions and popularity they want.

But, what I have noticed lately that these quoted images are taking over the Facebook stream.  They get thousands of shares, comments, & likes.  But, they go against everything that Facebook was designed to do.  Facebook was created to give people a place to share images of each other & connect with people you know.  Unfortunately marketers have come in and are ruining this concept with these images.

I may be alone on this, but I feel like this new trend is making Facebook feel a little bit like MySpace where people spammed your comments with stupid images and shared things they found on another profile and thought was cute or funny.  Luckily, Facebook doesn’t allow animated GIF’s (yet) so we don’t have to worry about the sparkling princess fairy just yet.

What do you think?  Do you feel these new quotes are junking up the Facebook stream and making it feel a little bit like MySpace?

Are Quoted Graphics Turning Facebook Into MySpace? originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 23, 2012. Tweet This

As many know by now, I have a fond love for video and have been using it more and more in my business.  With the increasing importance of using video I’ve been asked more and more to speak on video while traveling the country.  Inevitably, the one question that comes out during the presentation is what type of gear should I be using to create these videos.

Here’s a quick video run down of what I use:

What Video Gear Do We Need? originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 20, 2012. Tweet This

Over the past few days I’ve been doing a lot more reflecting on my business and what has helped to make it is today.  As I have thought about my successes over the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that these are not caused by the knowledge or skills I possess.  It’s not from 13,000+ fans I’ve connected with on Twitter.  Nor the thousands on Facebook.  While those things are nice, they don’t make people hire me to speak or ask me to build them a custom WordPress site.

What I realized is that people hire me because they have formed a level of trust with me.  This revelation came to me the other day as I thought about the amazing time I had this past week in Atlanta, GA at the RETSO conference.  It was a fun time spent with friends & family, but what made the trip so enjoyable was my good friend Maura who lives there and her assistance with what to do when not at the conference.  Maura is a real estate agent in the area that knows what is happening in her community.  She also runs a really great site called 365 Atlanta where Maura shares great information on places, events, & things to do in the Atlanta area.

Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know Maura somewhat well through various conferences and social media platforms.  In fact, the past two years I was invited to an amazingly delicious dinner held at her house before RETSO because of the connection we have made online.  I know that Maura wouldn’t just randomly invite me to her house if she didn’t trust the connection we made online first.

In the past when attending RETSO, I would just go wherever to eat and do whatever was close by for entertainment because I didn’t know the area.  Sometimes I would have OK experiences, but most the time it ended up in disaster.  To be completely honest, the top experience was visiting a Dave & Busters once for Gahlord’s Edamame.  However, this year I decided to take a different approach based on the trust I have formed in Maura through our interactions on social networks and her blog.  Whenever it came time for dinner or to go do something, I simply asked Maura and she would quickly recommend a place.

She told me before the event even began that she had made reservations for us all on Friday night for a dinner downtown.  Now, the conference is a good 30 minutes away and as we drove to downtown Atlanta, I did start to wonder why we were going so far away just to eat a meal.  Until I placed the first bite of food into my mouth.  Maura recommended us going to a restaurant called Rosebud which is owned by chef Ron Eyester and the food was out of this world delicious.  I had fantastic tastes of everything from pimento cheese spread, mouthwatering calamari, and so much more.

While I could have eaten anywhere else along the way or much closer to our conference, I went with Maura’s choice though because of past good experiences and the trust I’ve formed from her past successful recommendations.  Now, whenever someone mentions Atlanta & housing, I immediately think of Maura.  She knows her area and people form a trust in her because she is a regular person online just trying to help others.  What’s even more amazing, is that once someone trusts her, they are more willing to work with her and trust her with not just their bellies, but also their money.  She has had great success with her real estate career all from her 365 Atlanta site that doesn’t even really talk about real estate.

I’ve found this to be the same in my business.  I don’t really do a lot of selling across the social networks.  Very rarely do I even make mention to my business on Twitter, Facebook, or other social networks. Instead I try to spend more time helping others and sharing all I know with others openly.  On Twitter, over 75% of the 29,000 tweets I’ve sent, are me having conversations with others or promoting them, not me broadcasting stuff.  On Facebook, I find myself spending most of my time now in private or closed tech support groups interacting with others and helping them with whatever they need.  I share openly my skills and help whenever possible.

By simply being my normal self and not focusing on a sale, it has brought my business tremendous success.  When someone contacts me about hiring my services, they don’t question my ability to do the job.  They already know me well enough through the various social networks or my blog to just trust me.  When I mention a price or my rates, they don’t second guess them, they already know enough about me to simply agree and hire me if it fits their budget.

If I spent all day trying to just make sales and not be social across the different platforms, people would no longer trust me. Instead they would start to completely ignore every single thing I posted in fear of being sold to.  I’d go from being a good friend to just noise that gets ignored.

So before you send your next tweet or next Facebook status update, ask yourself this: How will this update build more trust with those I am connected with?

Are You Trying To Create Social Sales Or Social Trust originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 19, 2012. Tweet This

This past week I was in Atlanta, GA for a real estate tech conference where I got the honor of hearing my friend Matthew Shadbolt deliver a very powerful presentation on how social media is ruining us.  He shared about the addictions people are forming to the instant gratification and recognition they receive on social networks like Twitter & Facebook.  The mentions, likes & comments we receive release a level of oxytocin that makes us feel better.  Once a person starts to receive some, it becomes even more addicting.

It gets to the point where people spend hours at a time bouncing from one social network to another trying to find another dose.  Not only is the addiction a bad thing, but it has also caused more and more people to do more multitasking each and every day.  No longer are we just focusing on our duties for our job, but we also splitting our time that should be spent working on a task on Facebook updates, Twitter statuses, and all other types of social networks.

While I used to believe that by multitasking I was accomplishing more.  I also used to brag at how well I could do it and how I could do so many things at once.  But what Matthew shared in his presentation changed my whole thinking.  No longer am I going to try & multitask.  Instead, I’ve implemented a new work into my daily routine called uni-tasking.

To me, uni-tasking means I will no longer keep my inbox, Facebook, Twitter, iMovie and several other networks/programs open at the same time and bounce from one to another.  Instead, I am going to only do one at a time and shut the other networks off.

On Monday I tested this theory to see how it would work.  I shut everything off but my inbox.  I took the next three hours and spent just the time on email.  What I noticed is that I was able to respond to everything I need and seemed to be much more focused on it while doing so.  I also found I didn’t miss the likes, mentions and praises that the social networks provide.  I was then able to move on to another task without having to wonder if everything was finished or not.  I found myself more productive than I’ve been in weeks and had everything done to then spend time with family.

So in closing, this uni-tasking might just be the best thing I implement into my business in a long time.  If you don’t believe me, give it a try and see if you receive the same results.  My guess is you will be amazed at what you can accomplish by trying to just do one thing at a time.

The Art of Uni-Tasking originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 18, 2012. Tweet This

RETSO 5.0 wrapped up this past Friday in Duluth, GA and let me tell you, it was probably one of the best real estate technology conferences I’ve ever attended.  Unlike many conferences where it is littered with this new network or this shiny tool that just launched, RETSO focused the attention more on practical applications that can be put into place now by those that attended.  The theme focused more around doing than any conference I have ever been to.

I wanted to share my experiences with everyone, so here is my RETSO experience through my camera lens:

RETSO Day 1

Jeff Turner kicked off the event with a powerful keynote titled Technology Will Not Inspire Action in which he shared that while technology is great and can be very beneficial to our business, to still be successful, we must implement tools that work and not be so easily distracted by someone trying to get us to use the next shiny object.

I then caught some of Dan Stewart’s session which he called De-Douching the Sales Process in which Dan shared some pretty powerful statistics related to the importance of being human in your sales techniques and the power in which email marketing held.

After lunch I caught a session with Maura Neill and Ron Eyester in which they shared how the hospitality industry handles social media and use it to provide A+ guest experiences.  With my background of coming from working in restaurants and a degree in Business Management specializing in Hospitality, I particularly enjoyed this talk.

I then left to go do my part as a social media speaker and presented on Blogging With WordPress.  I was very happy to see the room packed full of doers ready to learn how to implement blogging into their online marketing strategy.  As I share with clients all the time, I feel that without a strong website/blog to direct traffic to, you are missing a key ingredient to online success.

Day 1 ended then with a great time of sharing among friends and getting to meet others.  Some may call it networking, but I honestly don’t think it feels that way at RETSO.  I feel the community of RETSO is just looking for ways to reconnect with each other and not necessarily look to sell something or make that next referral connection with someone.

RETSO Day 2

Matthew Shadbolt of The Corcoran Group kicked off day two with one of the most thought provoking sessions I have heard in a really long time.  It was titled Why Social Media Is Making Us Miserable.  Matthew shared on the addictions people have formed to social media as well as the constant need to have that interaction.  He talked about how the positive feedback creates oxytocin that turns to an addiction for some.

The other part I enjoyed from Matthew’s talk was related those who multitask on a regular basis.  While they think they may be getting more done, the harsh reality is that they actually are performing well below the levels they should.  Because of this presentation, I have started implementing into my business a term I like to call Uni-tasking.

Ines & Derek did a simple 10 minute session called Taking the ME out of Social MEdia but was probably another one of my top highlights from this year.  They shared practical advice with some great simple examples to support from both within the real estate industry and outside too on how to use social media more effectively.

Before the final session of the day, Jeff Turner came back on the main stage to do a RETSO Reset.  This was a quick recap of the past 2 days of things that happened during the event.  I always enjoy this quick session as there are normally so many things that happen simultaneously that I miss some of it.  This at least gives me the quick highlights of the event from Jeff’s perspective and the sessions he was able to attend.

Brian shared on the importance on becoming viral in who you are and the longevity of doing this instead of trying to make one single video, or a blog post, or comment thread go viral.  Those types of virality do not last.  But if you are a good person, doing the right things, your life can become viral and last forever.

Brad Nix then returned to the stage to thank everyone for coming. He also thanked Bill Lublin for being a fantastic emcee of the event this year and then announce Brian Copeland as the emcee for RETSO 6.0.  Just as we thought Brad was going to dismiss everyone, he pulled a Steve Jobs-esque move and gave the audience a “just one more thing” moment.

The one more thing was the announcement of Daniel Rothamel as the new curator for RETSO.  Daniel shared earlier in the conference on the importance of curation.  During this final moment Daniel energized the crowd and shared how RETSO plans to turn into more than just a once a year conference but something that lives year round.

My other favorite part of past RETSO events is the ability to see friends from around the world and spend time together.  While we know each other and keep in contact through social media, nothing beats the time we get to spend face to face during an event like this.  This year was no different.

Here’s several more photos of special moments of this event:

Special thanks to both Brad Nix, Mike Pennington, and Ben Carter on putting together another wonderful conference filled with great information.  Your passion for making the real estate community a better place was evident in this year’s event.

RETSO 5.0 A Visual Recap originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 17, 2012. Tweet This

One of the things that I do on a regular basis is check the page load speed of my site to see how well it is doing with loading.  Page load speed is becoming more and more important each & every day.  While search engines are beginning to place more emphasis on the load speed of a site for SEO purposes, it’s also becoming more important as the number of consumers visiting a website via a mobile device or tablet is growing rapidly.

One of the ways that I like to check my page speed is by using a site called pingdom.  It will run all sorts of test on your site & show you how the site performs, how long it takes for something to load, and also shares what items take the longest to load on your site.

During a recent test of my site, I found that one of the plugins I used to use to display a way for visitors to share my content to Twitter was slowing down the entire load time of my site by over two seconds, a simple change from that plugin to a different Twitter plugin and I shaved over two seconds off the time my site loaded.

By doing these tests, not only do I learn what works better for my site, but I then know which plugins are better performers for my clients.  Needless to say, I never install that Twitter plugin anymore when building a custom WordPress site for someone.

Optimizing Page Speed For Your Custom WordPress Site originally appeared on Social Media Advisors | Social Media Speaker | Custom WordPress Site on April 16, 2012. Tweet This