

The Maplewood Chamber of Commercewill be hosting its quarterly business luncheon on November 10, 2009, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Schalfly Bottleworks. I will be speaking at the business resource session on Social Media Marketing. Learn the basic strategies behind a social media campaign with examples from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Activerain, YouTube and more. For more information, visit the Maplewood Chamber of Commerce website.
Need a speaker on technology, real estate or construction? Contact Ryan Shaughnessy at PREA Signature Realty at 314-971-4381 or visit our website at www.PREASignatureRealty.com.
THANK YOU TO THE GATEWAY MEN'S CHORUS FOR A GREAT SHOW!!!
On November 5, 2009, the Metropolitan St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Council of Realtors held its 2009 Vendor Expo and Fashion Show at the Sheraton Westport Chalet. It was a sold out event with over 300 real estate professionals in attendance. However, this year's event had a new twist and an added benefit. After dinner and before the fashion show, the Gateway Men's Chorus of St. Louis regaled the sold out crowd with various melodies and numbers from previous and current shows. Just in case they didn't know it - their after dinner entertainment was a great hit with the crowd.


If you saw their performance, I suspect you don't need much encouragement to become a subscriber for their 2009-2010 Season. Season tickets start at $65.00 for three shows. The current line up for the season is:
You can also support the Gateway Men's Chorus by purchasing their CDs and cookbooks.
With less than 50 days to Christmas, there are several easy gift ideas for your brokerage staff, referral partners and clients. Trust me - they will love the show. Plus, it is a great way to support an organization that contributed to the success of the 2009 WCR Expo and Fashion Show.
For more information on their 2009-2010 Season, vist their website: Gateway Men's Chorus. Or, follow them on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Yesterday, I posted an article to my ActiveRain blog entitled "Stop Annoying Your Facebook Connections - Use SeeMyListings.com to Place Your Listings on Your Profile Page." It was a pretty simple post. It described how you could use the www.SeeMyListings.com widget from the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com to place your listings on your Facebook profile page and eliminate or at least reduce those "just listed" type status updates that can be annoying to friends, family and colleagues on social networking sites.
The response from AR members and subscribers to my AR and outside AR blogs was positive with most comments being something along the lines of "Thanks... I didn't know that about the listing widget." Given these comments, I posted the article as a link in a status update on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Again, I received positive comments so I also posted to several LinkedIn groups. Again, 99% of the responses were extremely positive. In the NAR LinkedIn group, it seemed to provoke a storm of protests from the self-proclaimed "social media police" and "social media gurus." It seemed odd for two separate reasons: first, the listing widget was created by Realtor.com for use by Realtors, and, second, it was intended to allow Realtors to show their listings without bombarding or annoying their "friends" on Facebook with listing information. Realtor.com has held tech seminars around the country this year and the listing widget has been offered in these seminars as a preferred method of presenting listings over repetitive status updates. Nevertheless, the discussion posted to the NAR LinkedIn group seemed to be controversial.
Here are a few of the comments that I wanted to share from the LinkedIn discussion:
Now, I actually respect the commentator who made the first two comments. However, I fundamentally disagree with her position. Here are a few points to consider:
Some members of social networks want to preserve social networks as a pristine, commercial-free playground of thought and discussion. In reality, LinkedIn and Facebook are or at least can be powerful marketing tools when used right. The fact that businesses are actively promoting their presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is a pretty good sign of the marketing potential held by these sites.
Oddly, I don't disagree with the underlying premise of the comments above - that is, ad and marketing machines on social networking sites aren't effective. However, I don't view a listing widget on your Facebook page as contaminating or fundamentally changing the social nature of sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. When I look at most profiles on Facebook, I often see a link to one's website. The website is typically their company website or personal business website. My question is: Is using a listing widget on one's Facebook profile really any different than having a Facebook profile with a link to a person's business website?
The Marketing Machine - Annoying your Friends, Family and Other Members of Your Social Network
Social networking sites such as Facebook can be great tools for keeping in touch with members of your sphere of influence. Keeping your friends and family informed of your professional interests is an appropriate use of social networking sites. However, there is a fine line between sharing your professional insights and experiences on social networking sites and using social networking sites as an advertising and marketing machine. For those new to social networking sites, it is easy to take the wrong approach to social networking by blasting your listing information repeatedly to your connections. 
Use SeeMyListings.com Widget to Place Your Listings on Your Facebook Profile
For Facebook users, there is now a simple solution. Use the listing widget provided by the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com to place your listings on your Facebook profile. Here are the steps:
Step 1 - Go to www.SeeMyListings.com.
Step 2 - Click on "Add My Listings.
Step 3 - Log on to your Facebook account.
Step 4 - Enter your MLS provider and user name.
Step 5 - Click on "Add to Profile" or "Update Listings."
In a few simple steps, you are able to automate the addition of your listings to your Facebook profile. Given the number of Realtors who I am connected to on Facebook who aren't using this feature, I thought I would post this this short how-to post to get them motivated. Five easy steps to get your listings on Facebook without annoying your friends, family and even colleagues.
Gilded Age, a Lafayette Square real estate development company, and Butler's Pantry, a local catering company, jointly announced the grand opening of the state of the art event facility known as "Palladium Saint Louis" in the former Laundry Building of City Hospital No. 1. The opening of Palladium Saint Louis marks the the completion of the first phase of the City Hospital - Carroll North Project with construction of corporate apartments set for Spring, 2010.

Located just South of Downtown St. Louis, Palladium Saint Louis is now open with the ability to accommodate 400 guests for dinner or over 700 people for cocktail style events. Some features of the new venue include:
Take a glimpse at this great venue space:
Development Team Credits:
Interested in relocating your business to Lafayette Square or in obtaining additional information on the City Hospital - Carroll North Project? Contact Ryan Shaughnessy at PREA Signature Realty at 314-971-4381 or send an e-mail to Ryan@PREASignatureRealty.com. Or, visit our website at www.PREASignatureRealty.com.
Prior Blog Post: Palladium St. Louis - First Event
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