210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors

How to Use Twitter – Tip #2 – Panning for Gold Nuggets

by Jason Crouch on July 27, 2010

Although the title of this post says “Tip #2″, it could rightfully be called “Tip #0.5″ since it probably should have come before my first post on this topic.

One of the biggest points of confusion/complaint with Twitter is this one:

“How can I possibly keep track of hundreds or thousands of people and their tweets?”

Well, you can’t. So, I would highly recommend using a tool to screen out the noise so that you can really focus on the people you care about. The top three sites that I can suggest for this purpose are Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and Seesmic.

Each of these tools has its own features and advantages, which I’m not really intending to cover within the scope of this post, although I may visit each of these in a separate post sometime. In a nutshell, Tweetdeck must be installed on each individual computer, while Hootsuite is a web-only application, and Seesmic offers both versions. I have friends that love each one of them for different reasons.

Why are these applications so valuable?

If you remember nothing else here, keep this in mind: Using a tool like this will enable you to create columns of people and things that YOU deem important. In other words, you can sort out your REAL friends from the masses. You can also set up searches by keyword, which is exceptionally valuable. As a quick example, if you own a local restaurant or furniture business, wouldn’t you like to know every time you get mentioned?

Sadly, many people give up on using Twitter as a business tool before they get around to filtering their feed. It seems overwhelming unless you take the time to narrow it down. Believe me, I felt the same way when I started there.

As of this writing, I have just over 12,000 Twitter followers and I follow close to 9,000 accounts. However, I have about 300 people/accounts in my “Real Friends” column. Obviously, I add (and very occasionally, subtract) people over time, but it’s a focused list of folks that I’m interested in. Maybe I know them “in real life”, or maybe we’ve just had some good conversations online. Either way, these are set apart for easier digestion, as opposed to the social media firehose that Twitter could become if unmanaged.

I hope this helps – thanks for reading!

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Proud Sponsor of #REBCRYE on September 11

by Jeremy Blanton on July 24, 2010

I am excited to announce that we here at 210 Consulting have jumped on board as a sponsor of #REBCRYE in NY on September 11, 2010. This is our fourth Real Estate Barcamp that we have sponsored. For this Barcamp we have created their logos for both their soon to be launched site and also their Facebook Page. We teamed up with Mike Mueller to help design and create all the necessary sites for this event.

While we are sad that we won’t be able to participate in this event in person, we believe the importance of these type of events and therefore were happy to assist in getting this event off the ground. If you have never been to a Real Estate Barcamp before, I would highly reccommend attending this event. People will travel from long distances to participate.

What is a Barcamp? Barcamps are usually day long events that have no schedule or agenda. The discussions for the day are decided at the event by those in attendance. There is no pre-planned schedule. If there is a topic you want to discuss, you simply write it on the schedule in the morning and people who are interested in your topic will come to the session. If you are afraid of having to talk about the subject, that is where true Barcamp spirit comes in. The sessions are not to be presentations. So leave the powerpoint presentations at home. Instead ask questions of the group and engage them in sharing with others.

The most successful sessions I have ever participated in are those in which I did nothing but facilitate where the conversation was going by asking questions of the group and allowing those in the audience share their experiences and successes. If you can achieve this in the session you suggest and moderate, you have reached the pinnacle of what a Real Estate Barcamp was designed to be.

If you were wondering what type of things were going to be covered at a Real Estate Barcamp, some of the things I have seen discussed regularly include things like: Facebook, Twitter, blogging, WordPress, Mobile apps & much much more. I have seen discussions on the mortage market, how to use Microsoft Outlook, and even how to create successful listing presentations. That is what makes Barcamps so wonderful, there is no agenda and no subject is off limits.

So if you are near NY on September 11, 2010, make sure to plan on spending the day at Real Estate Barcamp and learning information on how to revolutionize your online marketing strategy for your real estate business.

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WordPress Plugins – Why the Facebook “Share” Button is Critical

by Jason Crouch on July 19, 2010

Currently, it’s hard to think of a site more influential than Facebook. Google, Twitter, and YouTube are all in the mix, to be sure, but Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla of social media. As such, it seems more important than ever to have a presence there, both personal and professional.

One additional tool in your arsenal is one that you can place on your WordPress blog (and probably elsewhere, too, but since I’m familiar with WordPress, I’ll stick to what I know).

I’m referring to the “Share” button that you see on many WordPress posts these days. If you aren’t using it, you’re simply cheating yourself out of some potentially valuable exposure. Why not allow your readers to share your content with their friends? In the old days (read: pre-social media days), business owners would die for this kind of word-of-mouth advertising! Now it can be accomplished with a single click, along with a description (e.g. “Check out this interesting article I just found about nose hair!”).

The only equivalent that I can think of in the analog world would be for someone to call all of his/her friends to mention your post. Once the info is shared, it appears on the user’s wall as an endorsement that your post was worth reading.

The plugin itself is extremely easy to install in mere seconds. You can customize the location within your posts, too. On our blog here, you can see this button above the post and to the right. Feel free to use it liberally anytime you come here to read. Along with the TweetMeme button, which is basically a “Share” for Twitter users, the Facebook Share feature is a must-have for bloggers.

But what about the “Like” button, Jason? Well, I think it’s handy, too, but I appreciate the “Share” feature even more, since it provides a deeper level of detail about the post, rather than just a link.

If you have any questions about the Facebook Share button or any other WordPress plugin which you’ve heard about or seen, we would love the opportunity to help. Ask away!

Thanks for reading!

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