By Brenda Marshall, KWU Course Writer, Keller Williams Realty International Support Center

Have you taken your business mobile? If not, it’s time to get on the train! Attendees of Mega Technology Camp were treated to a smorgasbord of tips and tricks for leveraging the latest trends in technology meet the demands of the highly mobile consumer population, and ultimately to generate more business.

Clad in a “Geeky Girl” t-shirt, Dianna Kokoszka, President of KW MAPS Coaching, kicked off this session and insisted that attendees leave with at least three ideas to incorporate into their businesses. Among the presenters were three of Inman’s 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders in 2011—Cary Sylvester, Executive Director of Technology, KWRI, Ben Kinney, CEO and President of Home4Investment, Chris Smith of Inman Next and Sue Adler, CEO of the Sue Adler Team.

Cary and Ben revealed that today’s consumers browse on their mobile devices at home as much as “on the go.” More and more, we are using our smartphones in place of our desktops. We use our phones and tablets to watch TV, browse the web, play games, read books, listen to music, send emails and texts, pay bills, so it’s only logical that consumers would expect to conduct real estate business the same way.

So, what does it mean to take one’s business mobile? Largely, it’s about responsive design—ensuring your website is designed to adapt to the user’s mobile device in terms of screen size, platform, and orientation.

A parade of the savviest of the tech-savvy proceeded to educate and amaze attendees with best practices in leveraging technology in real estate. Some highlights include:

• Matt Fetick, Mega Agent and KWU International Master Faculty, decided six years ago that on weekends, his deals would be conducted from the beach, and today, he has truly taken his business mobile. Some of Matt’s favorite resources: virtual assistants, VoIP,  Dropbox, Shoebox, and Dragon Dictation.
• Chris Smith, Chief Evangelist, Inman News, delivered his presentation on his iPad and highly recommended Sliderocket for presentations and Roambi for interactive graphs. Get his entire presentation here: http://bit.ly/mobile-tools-inman-next
• Seychelle Van Poole, Team Leader of Van Poole Properties, shared 5 Tips to Rock Referrals. Among these were using LinkedIn to build relationships with companies and joining national referral groups on Facebook, such as the KW Referral Group.
• Continue reading ‘Taking your Business Mobile – Mega Technology Camp @ Family Reunion’

Last year, I kicked off our Family Reunion with a blog post on how to catch all the action on Twitter. And the response was awesome!

Now that Twitter is a couple of years old, many of you may know exactly how to tweet, retweet and participate in the ongoing conversation with the help of the Family Reunion hashtag: #KWFR.

If you’re still figuring it all out, here’s a look back at last year’s “how-to” plus a list of notable or official #KWFR Twitter profiles.

You should also check back to the Family Reunion Facebook Page for daily pictures, updates, and the announcement of our 2013 location!

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Why follow KW Family Reunion on Twitter? Following an event on Twitter adds a rich new dimension to the experience. With your smart phone in hand, you suddenly have a backchannel into what hundreds of others around you are observing, thinking and doing. Twitter says its mission is to “instantly connect people everywhere to what’s most important to them.” Each day news stories are broken as users around the globe post 140-character updates about events unfolding around them. As a result, Twitter has often been called the “pulse of the world.” We think it’s the perfect tool for you to experience a big event like Family Reunion from as many perspectives as possible.

Vendors will be tweeting special events. Agents and brokers will be sharing aha’s and tips from their breakout sessions. Networks will announce impromptu gatherings. Jokers will be cracking wise about gaffs and goofs. And, of course, the social media team at KWRI will be sharing interesting and informative information as well.

So what exactly do you need to do to tap into this undercurrent of information and entertainment? Who are the best people to follow?

If you don’t currently have a Twitter account, visit https://twitter.com/signup and get started. There is also a Twitter Start-Up Guide available on myKW on the Marketing tab.

For everyone else, login to Twitter and search for the KW Family Reunion event hashtag: #KWFR . You can then click the “Save this search” button on the top, right-hand side of your page to save the search. All the popular Twitter mobile apps will allow you to add a column for the same search so you quickly access the stream of event-related tweets.

Here is a short list of notable or official #KWFR Twitter profiles:

@KWRI — The KW Blog Team will be tweeting and retweeting right from the floor and will be a great resource.

@KWRINews – A channel for KW’s weekly enewsletter ThisWeek@KW, managed by marketing’s Laura Price.

@MapsCoaching—The award-winning MAPS Coaching team.

@Chris_Smth or @InmanNext — Chris Smith is a guest panelist and Chief Evangelist at  Inman News, and co-founder of Inman NEXT.

@BenKinney — Ben Kinney is guest speaker, a Keller Williams OP, MegaAgent, IMSD founder, co-author of the book soci@l and an agent technology leader.

@keithriddle -  Keith Riddle  a guest speaker, frequent panelist and mega agent, is a great resource on Internet lead generation and real estate technology.

@BethTorrence, @KevinLKauffman, @Mizzle, @ChadHyams, @LisaArcherRE, @Seychelle912, @SueAdler & @Liz_Landry – Because they are smart, tech savvy KW associates that have taught me much and are also a lot of fun.

@DotLoop, @Market_Leader – For lots of great info on the KW eEdge sessions.

Of course, I’ll be tweeting about all the of the above from @JayPapasan. There are literally thousands of KW associates on Twitter every day, building relationships, sharing information and prospecting for referrals and clients. This list is far from comprehensive! I’m sure I’ve missed lots of KW stars. Please share. Who will you be following at #KWFR?

Emerging Technologies with Chris Smith of Inman Next and Tech Savvy Agent

It’s an all too-familiar tale. The minute you think you’ve got a hold of the latest, greatest, ground-breaking technology another one comes out! Or the minute you have your Business Page just right, Zuckerberg decides it’s time for a change. Keeping up with the Facebook’s, Twitter’s and Google’s of the world in an effort to reach more clients online often becomes all-encompassing and sometimes overwhelming. Where are my current and prospective clients?  how much time should I spend getting to know the new technologies, and what will my return on investment (ROI) be?

Thankfully Chris Smith, chief evangelist for Inman News, co-creator of Inman NEXT and author of the popular blog Tech Savvy Agent, took the stage at Mega Technology Camp to present his vision for the future of technology and its impact on the day-to-day business of real estate professionals. Here he is giving his two-cents (worth so much more!) on what’s to come and how smart agents can tap in and effectively leverage technology in their business.

KW’s Vice President of Publishing, Jay Papasan, hit the stage to talk about social media, KLOUT and the numbers of Facebook, then led a panel about social media with KW’s Executive Director of Technology, Cary Sylvester, and KW associates Seychelle Van Poole Engelhard, Liz Landry and Matt Fettick. Here are our top takeaways from the panel:

-Facebook posts get 52% of its clicks within the first 62 minutes.

-83% of businesses use Facebook.

-If you create a page, engage your audience!

-Photos get the most interaction on Facebook.

-Although the majority of us post links, people are the least likely to interact on those posts.

-When vlogging, don’t record more than 90 seconds, power pack the first 20-30 secs and add a call to action at the end.

-Facebook is not a listing feed! If you are going to post your listing…it better be interesting…like this one.

-Don’t be all business all the time. Use the 6:1 ratio…with 6 personal posts to 1 business.

-Ask for what you want…if you want more comments and likes…just ask!

-Go where your audience is-and keep in mind it might not be the latest social media tool.

For more, follow Mega Camp on Twitter by searching #KWMC.