Bart Wilson

If you've been on Twitter for any length of time, you might be like me, wondering you can possibly figure out how some of these people can follow more than 500, or 1,000 people. Check your emails. When someone starts following you on Twitter, look at how many people they're following. Because I will give you a pretty good acid test to see how to tell if they're a moron, JABHOT or just another Twitter shark looking to bait you and take your money, your time, or both.

I get these emails and I am staring at the number of people they are following in total disbelief. It's like some people here on ActiveRain with 400,000 points. How the hell do you get points like that? Do you spend every minute of every day blogging with nothing to say? You're supposed to be a REALTOR. Go out and sell some homes for Pete's sake. Jeez!

I wonder the same thing with the followers I am getting.

Today I get an email saying that Wendy Denning is following me on Twitter.

Thank God I get to check out who this really is and see if I want this person following me or not.

I click on their profile and I get the following snapshot of the last dozen or so posts they did.

Look below. this is an actual snapshot here.

Four Steps are all that is needed to recognize and delete Morons like Wendy.

Step 1. There is no Photo link here, or the photo is sexually suggestive.

Step 2. Look at the posts. Trending. Making money. All of this smacks of borderline practices that Twitter can kick you out for.

Step 3. Look at the number of people they are following. Hundreds of people or thousands. If this is real, she can maybe follow 48 - 60 people actively on any given month. Nobody has the time to sit on Twitter and follow 400 people, read their posts and not go bankrupt. Most people on Twitter except for the King of Jordan are working stiffs. If you're filthy rich, you can surf Twitter and maybe follow 400 people if you do nothing but that 8 days a week.

You can bet your next commission advance that people who post they're following 400 to thousands of people is a sure sign of a liar, a JABHOT or just another moron smart enough to bait you and get you to join some of the same sites they are promoting to suck your time, take your money or quite possibly: BOTH.

Step 4. Block the Bastards. Click the link here and you will block the moron. As you can SEE from my screen above, Wendy is no more. Buh-bye Wendy. Go and bait some other sucker. I'm not buying anything you have to say.

Bottom line: Twitter can be useful. But there is a dark side to anything that is potentially good.

So if you DO sign up at Twitter, be SURE you police your account at least once a month. Block the morons. They are not looking to buy a house from you. They will wait until the time is right to strike and hit you up with what appears to be an innocent marketing message and lure you to some dark part of the web to mug you. It happens all the time. Identity theft. Click this link and BOOM your entire PayPal account, bank account is theirs. You wake up the next day and log into your online banking account. Trying to figure out who cleaned out your checking account and why your credit card shows two airline tickets to Bolivia.

It has been said you can be judged by the company you keep. Nowhere else is this becoming MORE important than online. Too many people can disguise themselves and hide behind pretty photos that are copied from another website or a stock photo agency.

It would be nice if there was an Internet Condom so all of us can practice safer surfing on the Internet.

Until that day comes, the Bartman is here to protect you, dodge the bozos and help you climb your way to the top of the Real Estate Food Chain.

If I can be of service to anyone, I'm easy to reach.

Bart Wilson

Chief Marketing Officer | REALTOR Support Desk

The Real Estate Marketing Company

Tel: (505) 466-2493 | iPhone: (505) 204-8097

72 days ago, I did it. I joined Twitter.com and in two weeks, I became a master. It wasn't very hard to do.

Step 1. Sign up.

Step 2. Start Following some people.

Step 3. Go to ActiveRain and connect it to your Twitter account. So your BLOGS are chirped on Twitter.

Step 4. Go to Twitter Gadgets and add Twitter box to your website. Ask people to follow you on Twitter.

Step 5. When you get 10 people or more following you, create a custom Twitter Theme like mine.

These five steps above are what makes Twitter an important tool for increasing your productivity.

But you have to be careful about how much, is too much. Today, I went to Twitter to get people to STOP following me because they're bozos or they're a group of techno savvy female business sharks that want me to go to some Adult Web cam site and have me watch them take their cloths off for $9.99.

Today, I fired iJustine from M-TV. I had enough of her.

She broadcasts she's heading out for breakfast. I fired her an hour ago. Buh-bye iJustine.

Okay, let's review this chirp to see if this is useful information to anyone's real estate career.

1.) Does iJustine telling me that she's 'headed out for breakfast' help me do my job better?

a.) YES b.) NO

2.) Does iJustine telling me that she 'headed out for breakfast' help me sell homes faster?

a.) YES b.) NO

3.) Does iJustine telling me that she's 'headed out for breakfast' help me with obtaining any of the 30 CE's I need so I can keep my REALTOR license?

a.) YES b.) NO

iJustine is a JABHOT. (Just Another Bubble Head on Twitter). Nothing more.

The problem with iJustine is that there are thousands and thousands of other JABHOTs, twits, sharks and morons on Twitter. It's also filled with impostors, too. Drew Barrymore does not have a Twitter account, but there are several Twits saying that it's really her.

Drew admitted on the David Letterman show just a few months ago, she doesn't have a Twitter account because she sees no (useful) need to have one.

My next blog will show you some important steps to follow to PRUNE the morons, sharks and time wasters and how to BLOCK them from your account.

- bart

***** Shark Alert. Shark Alert. ******

Just when you finally get signed up with Twitter, along come the bozos, the sharks and cute women who want to lure unsuspecting men into their world of adult webcams.

This rant will cover the more sinister part of Twitter Scams. The bozos who send you unsolicited emails from China, Bulgaria and Finland that tell you of the wonderous riches that can be made by working with ClickBank.com and Twitter.

Don't fall for this one. Don't even bother REGISTERING for this.

ClickBank.com is a firm that got a bad rap at not paying their affiliates for the time thousands of their subscribers used up getting affiliate links linked up to a few gazillion web pages. The BBB has them as one of the WORST firms on the planet, and the FTC is in the process of investigating them for fraud.

If you signed up for Twitter anytime this year, you've probably got the same email I got below:

IMPORTANT: Do not sign up for this program. Instead, look up the numerous complaints about ClickBank.com here.

Stay tuned to my BLOG for more alerts and how you can safely use the Internet without being scammed.

- bartman

No matter how things change, some things just remain the same, like good old fashioned customer service.

Meeting someone in person and being greeted with a warm handshake and a sincere smile, instead of WebEx computer to computer.

Picking up the phone and calling a prospect or a client instead of email.

Mailing out a nice, hand written letter instead of the email or the phone call.

This BLOG is about Press Releases. The old fashioned PR was crafted on a computer by a PR agency. Then it was mailed out and faxed to a select group of TV stations, newspapers and magazines. Today, the way we send the Press Release out has changed, but the content is the same as it was twenty years ago.

For REALTORS and brokers who are looking at their $100,000 a year annual (or more) ad spend on marketing and advertising, here's the Bartman's top 6 rules of getting Press Releases to WORK for getting you Location, Location, Location for your real estate website.

Step 1.

Create a GOOD MS Word template PR template. You will need to use this at least (5) times a year.

Step 2.

Put your NAME, your TITLE and your Phone and Email at the top of the PR along with the Sub Title: For More Information, Contact --- then put your name, title, email and phone under that.

Step 3

Write two to three paragraphs about the topic you want to include in the PR. If you have a partner, mortgage company, custom home builder or any other ABA, leave one paragraph for them.

Step 4

Include at the END of the PR, a short paragraph About Your Company. Use this area to include information about who you are, what you do and if you can craft it... add a comment about your marketing statement. Something unique and memorable about what makes YOU stand out from the competition.

Step 5

Once you've written the PR draft, share it with a few of your colleagues. Get them to read it. Then ask them: If you saw that PR, would you read it? does it have a catchy headline? Would you visit the website after having read it?

If you get panned by your friends or colleagues on the content... then it's time to write another one.

Remember, nobody likes boring or ordinary. And here's the challenge for most REALTORS. We are not unique. We sell homes. Thanks to technology and the Internet, there's nothing really special about being a REALTOR anymore. Anyone can take the 8-week course, pass the REALTOR exam and hang a real estate license up. As sales people, some of us are better than others.

Some of us who want to BE better at our job will take time to do the self improvement courses and learn how to chirp on Twitter, how to create a presence on Facebook and how to get Press Releases written so we can enjoy more leads and more commissions.

Step 6.

Pick PRWeb and 1888PressRelease.com. PRWeb.com allows you to EDIT your PR and add links on certain key phrases to point to your website. You can also go BACK and RE-edit them. 1888PressRelease.com is a great site for adding your PR into all the big social networks online and the cost is $50 - $60 to get page one.

Click here for an ACTUAL PRWeb.com Example for a Keller Williams agent in Colorado Springs.

EXAMPLES CATCHY SUBJECTs IDEAS -- for your Press Release (below)

Amazing Realty Forms a Commercial Division. Now Paying $10,000 Bonuses to Million Dollar Producers.

The above subject would be used if your firm "Amazing Realty" formed a Commercial branch and wants to use the $10,000 bonus as a sign on bonus to recruit agents away from the other guys. This same head line can be used if you're just recruiting Million Dollar producing agents from Broker Bob across town, too.

Amazing Realty Lands Page One Visibility on Google. Home Sales Soar.

This above subject does two things. It announces to the competition that you have arrived, and top producing agents WANT to work for the broker with best visibility. 2.) If you home inventory is starting to run on empty, this lets home owners know that you have page one visibility on Google and that homes sell fast. So listing with your brokerage... seems like it might a good idea to them.

Amazing Realty Announces the Death of Agent Desk Fees.

It speaks for itself but the subject limits itself to brokers and agents. If you want to start grooming agents to come on board at your place, this is always a great subject to use. But be creative and take this idea and come up with some of your own.

Amazing Realty Announces New Website. Google Maps, FREE IDX Search.

This might seem too special, but if you dump your watered down Agent Disadvantage Website or Not Very Advanced Access Website and build a new one from scratch... adding a custom IDX with FREE MLS search means a big deal to next time home buyers and those thinking of listing with you.

Amazing Realty Announces One Stop Brokerage, Mortgage and Title Services

Ahhhhh. The ultimate dream of any brokerage is to put all things under one roof. This is a good story and one that has proven to have worked the charm over and over again.

*********************

PR is a proven way to build the buzz about what you do. It generates incoming links, it helps with increasing Google PageRank and for go-getters like Jamie, he's averaging 15 solid leads a month. Every time I call him, he's either showing a house or getting ready to close on another.

The Reason's for Jamie's Success (below)

Jamie's effort to improve his business took 10 months and was an investment of over $20,000 but judge the results for yourself.

1.) New website built from scratch, new IDX and SEO program was created in March 2008.

2.) In December, Jamie reported an 800% ROI and sales commissions were $40,000 just for the month of December. This was done at a time when most REALTORS did nothing but complain how lousy the market was treating them.

3.) March 2009, Jamie was page one on Google for three search terms.

Maintaining his current visibility, leads and page rank runs about $400 a month. This includes on going SEO, Press Releases and occasional link building and adding more pages to his website.

........

PR is just one part of the SUCCESS mix you need to follow.

In my next blog, I will cover what you should be doing with a $100,000 a year advertising budget or more for brokers, and a $15,000 a year marketing/advertising budget for REALTORS.

For more information, on PR, SEO or real estate marketing tips, I can be reached at our Santa Fe office.

Bart Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer | REALTOR Support Desk

The Real Estate Marketing Company

Tel: (505) 466-2483 | iPhone: (505) 204-8097

There's a dark side of Twittering now.

Darth Twitter is out there creating multiple Twitter accounts with names that really don't make much sense.

Or in some case, the icons are too good looking to be true or sexually suggestive.

These "fake" accounts on Twitter are a lot like getting thousands of clicks on your Google AdWords or AdSense program. Sure, tons of traffic can be gained but from one person or a small group of people. But this practice became known as ClickFraud and if you thought you'd make a lot of $$$ by clicking on someone's AdSense ad... that idea was squashed pretty quickly by Google several years ago.

Twitter Trend Spiking works like this.

You get a lot of your buddies or colleagues to sign up with a crappy or fake name account on Twitter and you sign up from a Yahoo, Juno or hotmail account so your REAL identity cannot be traced.

Then your use your Twitter buddies to all discuss one subject or topic. This creates the Trend Spike so others chirp and tweet about this to their friends and colleagues too.

Bottom line, it's a really crappy way to build traffic to your website, sell a product or a service.

Twitter is now actively engaged in the process of DELETING accounts for violation of their rules and/or suspicious activity.

And for all the people you just blasted on Twitter, good luck. Because your name, website and brand will be mud. A few hundred complaints about the shady Twittering you used to get traffic can come at a price that's just a bit too high to pay.

For more information on how to be SAFE on Twitter, anyone can contact me at the Santa Fe office.

Bart Wilson

Chief Marketing Officer | REALTOR Support Desk

The Real Estate Marketing Company

Tel: (505) 466-2483 | iPhone: (505) 204-8097