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What Makes Pinterest Pinteresting for Business?

February 22, 2012 By tlyons Leave a Comment

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a pinboard-styled social networking site which primarily allows users to create, manage & organize themed-based image collections. Pinterest is a with a visually-pleasing interface. Users collect photos and link to products they love, creating their own pinboards and following the pinboards of other people whom they find interesting. I would describe it as, a group of friends or office mates sitting in a room sharing beautiful & interesting pictures out of magazines.

People use Pinterest as a way to keep all sorts of ideas in one easily accessible place & sharing them on the web. Among others, most people have boards for photography that inspires them, quotes that amuses them, tasty looking foods they wish to cook over the weekend, house exterior & interior decorating pictures, etc.. And this is how I see it being useful and advantageous to whatever industry or business specifically Real Estate.

Realtors should be pinning the most beautiful images of their listings with notes about the design or unique nature of the architecture. Imagine your listing photos getting shared by 1,000 people with a link back to your website. Does that sound like it could have a positive impact? This kind of marketing is actually fun and easy to do.

We all know that home purchases decisions are made on emotion. An image is sure to trigger an emotion or impression of a “Lifestyle”. So really when you are selling homes, you are selling a “Lifestyle”. Approach Pinterest from a Lifestyle perspective of selling homes. Set up your Boards on Pinterest to focus in on the different Lifestyle aspects of what you are selling. Have a board dedicated to photos of home with new kitchens and a board of home exteriors, living rooms, bathrooms, landscaping, etc.

Once you have gained a small following, continue that practice and begin to occasionally add photos from your website of your listings to Pinterest. Do this by re pinning from your website, not uploading directly to Pinterest. By doing it this way, there will be a link to your website that follows that photo no matter how many times it is re-pinned.

Chrome has an extension that will allow you to right-click on a photo on your website and select “Pin to Pinterest” – this will allow the link to your website to follow that photo as it gets re-pinned hundreds of times. Over time, you will become known as a Real Estate resource in your area while having fun and marketing at the same time.

The site is currently invite-only, and it has experienced rapid growth in recent months. You can just go to the website and request for an invite & start pinning!

Filed Under: Articles, Featured, Pinterest, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings

SocialRent: Renting Just Got Social

January 19, 2012 By tlyons Leave a Comment

Looking for the exact home that you want online is tough. Going over what seem to be an endless list of homes that don’t really show you what you want is another thing. Finding the words to describe what you want in a home is a little hard that you just want to grab a pen & paper & put in to writing and drawing the details & the layout that you want.

A new startup called SocialRent, aims to make situations like these a lot easier. SocialRent, a Facebook app, basically works like a “Supplier-Buyer” matching service with a fun & helpful twist. For now, SocialRent aims to address the need of apartment-seekers and coordinate those needs to real estate agents. The app is a collaborative tool – after users sign up, they build a “crew” of Facebook friends, then each member can add inputs and edit information about what neighborhoods they want to live in, the location, number of bedrooms, bathrooms and the monthly rental budget. When everything is agreed and everyone is happy with the outcome, SocialRent will then send the information to real estate agents.

CEO James Zar together with other students of Boston University built the app over their winter break. The company has already incorporated and it has recruited real estate professional, Jamie Lebowitz, as its president and first investor.

Currently, SocialRent is limited to real estate agents in Boston area but promises that they are working to bring other agents into the program quickly. He noted that for now, renters in other cities outside Boston area can still use the app to coordinate their needs but the information just won’t get forwarded to an agent. The CEO added that in the future they are looking at adding features that allow renters to actually find roommates through the app and much more.

I find the idea of the app impressive and interesting. At the moment, it has a lot of room for opportunities. It could actually be a jumpstart to something broader which may include a different approach in looking for a place or a house not just to rent but to buy or maybe looking for commercial places for lease, etc.. This could be of great help to real estate agents across the country considering Facebook’s influence in social marketing & maybe in the future SocialRent is not just going to stay as a Facebook app.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Maximize Twitter Marketing with Tweet Adder

January 5, 2012 By tlyons Leave a Comment

Twitter is without a doubt an integral part of online marketing. It’s a great way to drive traffic to your website. I have tried different Twitter management tool just as Hootsuite and MarketMeTweet, but Tweet Adder has got to be the best that I have used. Tweet Adder is a software that automatically builds up your Twitter Follower Network with like minded individuals for huge increase in your twitter marketing strategies.

Tweet Adder gives you the functionality to narrow your searches and create customized lists for the best, and largest, possible network. Once you have set everything up, you can basically leave the program to run on its own. TweetAdder simply puts your Twitter marketing campaign on auto pilot, so you can work on other tasks.

Getting Started

Here are some of the features:

Tweet Adder Account Overview
This opening screen easily shows you all the details you need for your Twitter marketing campaign which would take a significant time should you find all of these information manually.

Tweet Search
This is a great feature to find more targeted followers. You can enter a keyword and a location and Tweet Adder will search all tweets with the ability to set the recency and language.

You can add as much keywords to the “To Follow List” and Tweet Adder will automatically follow them at a later date. You also have the option to turn on the “Automation” which lets Tweet Adder search your entered keyword & location regularly to find more matches.

“To Follow List”
The “Twitter Search” feature will give you a good list of people to follow in your “To Follow List”. Turn on the automation function and Tweet Adder will automatically start following those people on the list for you.

Auto-Tweeting
Another amazing feature of Tweet Adder is that you can write out tweets to be automatically sent out during the day/week/month you desire. This is great if you have event promotions or product links. You can configure the settings and the order of the tweets that you want to be sent out regularly, there’s an option for you to send it out ever 4-5 hours or every 5-10 minutes, it’s up to you. I think this is good but I personally think that you still have to check on Twitter to respond to your followers questions personally.

Manage Multiple Twitter accounts – You can manage multiple twitter accounts within one interface.If you are targeting specific niches, you can create multiple twitter accounts and grow each account simultaneously.

Automatic Thank You Messages
This feature checks for new followers (at intervals that you set) and sends a direct message to each of them. You can set up a message thanking people for following you, maybe even including a link to your website or upcoming events.

Full Tweet Adder Features & Functions

The talks about TweetAdder is very good as users have found that they can easily generate targeted traffic from Twitter. It’s all a numbers game though as you’ll need to grow your accounts to become large for you to generate a great traffic to your website, but with Tweet Adder this can be easily managed at a reasonable price: 1 Profile – $55, 5 Profiles – $74, 10 Profiles – $110, Unlimited Profiles – $188. You can also go to the website and get the free demo.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Broaden Your Social Marketing Using Google+ Pages & Direct Connect

November 24, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

Eversince Google+ started, businesses have always wanted to be part of it. In July, Google closed any account that has been verified as a business. Fortunately, earlier this month Google+ Pages welcomed in businesses & brands to use the Google+ social network. An amazing addition is that Google+ branded pages are appearing in search results.

People + pages, better together

Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too.

For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.

For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you’ll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.

A number of pages are already available and to create your own Google+ Page for your business, go to the Create A Page and choose which category you belong.

Local Business or Place
Product or Brand
Company, Institution or Organization
Arts, Entertainment or Sports
Other

According to Google, if you create a page for a local business, you have special options.

Local Google+ pages are unique from other categories of pages because they have features that allow customers to easily connect with that business’s physical location. For example, local pages include a map of the business’s location and feature its address, phone number, and hours of operation.

Just like how vanity or branded URLs are in Facebook, you can also have them in Google+ page, so be sure you can secure and use your real business name.

In addition, business pages will have an overall Google +1 count that shows on the profile page in which people can also +1 the page.

Direct Connect from Google search

People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they’re looking for businesses and brands. Today’s launch of Google+ Pages can help people transform their queries into meaningful connections, so we’re rolling out two ways to add pages to circles from Google search. The first is by including Google+ pages in search results, and the second is a new feature called Direct Connect.

Maybe you’re watching a movie trailer, or you just heard that your favorite band is coming to town. In both cases you want to connect with them right now, and Direct Connect makes it easy—even automatic. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you’re interested in (like +Angry Birds). We’ll take you to their Google+ page, and if you want, we’ll add them to your circles.

*You can add a brand to circles directly from a search result page with Direct Connect.

It will be exciting to watch how traffic is going to go between the big social networks and the integration with Google Analytics, but whatever the case may be, our focus is developing the marketing and brand using the content we have and the tools Google provides.

Filed Under: Articles, Google Tools, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings

Highlight Cam: Pro-Quality Videos in Just a Simple Push of A Button

November 17, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

Have you always had the problem of taking less-than-amazing videos? Too long & too many boring segments with no activity or human faces, poor framing and really only a few minutes of the video is all you really need. Not all of us have the patience to use video editing software and I’m just happy the HighlightCam app has been created. The app reduces the complexities of video editing with just a simple push of a button.

HighlightCam, centering around mobile device & currently works on the iPhone & iPod Touch, is an amazing application that helps you turn your photos & videos into great mini-movies without the need to do any editing. Based on the user’s preference, HighlightCam simulates a human editor’s decisions and implements them aligned with the user’s stated preference. Just feed it a raw video in any format and it will send back a great video that is worth sharing!

It edits a user’s video & analyze both the images and the audio track and convert them into an impressive video with enhanced quality & detects the parts of the video that has activity, voice and human faces. It is amazing how it is able to select the most appropriate scenes to put together and make a highlight video that everyone can enjoy. You can even publish minimovies to YouTube or Facebook in one step. So, you can definitely make use of this app as one of your tools for your social media marketing.

“Think of it like having your own personal video editor: you send them the footage, and tell them what you want, and they do all the editing,” said CEO Robert Neivert. “For us, you send us your footage and tell us what you want, and we do the work and send it back to your iPhone, including scene selection, fades, cutting out of bad shots, audio fading, and more. Just like a professional editor would.”

“Our ideal user is an iPhone user that shoots video and want to share it, but does not have time to manually edit it,” said Neivert. “We expect this will be strongly represented by parents with small children and pet owners who tend to shoot a large amount of casual video, but don’t have the time or skill to manually edit all the footage.”

I am looking forward to shooting more video now that I know I can get results that are actually worth viewing and sharing!

The app is free on the App Store but this gives you only 10 free movies. It costs $2.99 for additional 10 credits.

*You can get a refund if you don’t like the generated movie.

Filed Under: Articles, Featured, Must Reads, Product Reviews, Site reviews, Tom's Ramblings

Get People to Keep Visiting & Talk About Your Site with Rumble Talk

November 15, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

If you have a website, be it a blog, a portfolio website, a real estate website, etc. there’s always this need to keep on coming up with new & interesting stuff to put up to attract & give visitors a reason to keep on coming back & would make them want to stay longer on your site. RumbleTalk is a chat service that provides your visitors an exciting live conversation experience. It’s a fun way of giving your visitors a further reason to stay on your website and will promote your content for you.

To set it up, go to RumbleTalk. You simply need to register with your email and create a password. Rumble Talk is a cloud-based solution so there’s no coding or server required. The chat is added to the site by simply copying and pasting an automatically generated code.

RumbleTalk provides a live customizable chat widget that can be added to any web page in 3 basic options:

Embed anywhere on your website as part of a web page.
Embed as a floating toolbar on the bottom.
Get a URL and share it to your community.

Why use Rumble Talk?

Custom-Designed Chat - You will have an admin panel where in you can customize & design the look and feel of the chat box to align it with your website’s colors, font & theme, control background style in different parts of the chat, use your own image as a background & it gives you the ability to ”stretch or shrink” in size as needed.You can also use Rumble Talk’s skins & templates if you wish.

Promote via Social Networking & Increase SEO – Not only does Rumble Talk adds a chat service to your website, it also has a feature that makes it easy for your visitors to share your website to social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter. Use a single sign-on with Facebook or Twitter account. Visitors will have the ability to “LIKE” your company’s Facebook page & retweet interesting lines from the chat or repost them on Facebook, instantly promoting your site! You can also let visitors contribute content to your site or blog.

Easy to Manage – You may have a couple of websites that you’d want to add the Rumble Talk to. No need to worry because you have an option to use one account to manage all of your site & you can manage as many chats as you like in each site. You can even restrict inappropriate words. With RumbleTalk you can define a list of words and phrases that will be restricted & ban certain users to help control spamming visitors.

It’s FREE!

What better way to energize your website or blog? Use it to engage visitors & to create a community in your website.

Filed Under: Articles, Featured, Product Reviews, Site reviews, Social Networks, Tom's Ramblings

Boomerang For Gmail: An Extremely Useful Plug-in

November 11, 2011 By tlyons Leave a Comment

From the same creators of the Email Game, Baydin , has developed yet another impressive Gmail plugin called Boomerang. Boomerang is a browser plugin that adds a new button to Gmail. It lets you schedule emails in your inbox to show back up at a certain time, and also lets you schedule emails to be sent at another time. Basically, giving you control when you send and receive Gmail messages. Boomerang integrates seamlessly with Gmail.

Here are the 3 useful & amazing taks Boomerang can do:

Schedule an Email to Be Sent Later

With the Boomerang plugin, you can schedule and email to be sent at a later time. All you need to do is click the “Boomerang” send later button & you have an option when you want your email to go out.This is a great way to make sure your email gets to your recipient at the time you want.

Set Reminder/Schedule a Message to Return to Your Inbox Later

This feature is going to take messages out of your inbox and will be sent to you when you actually need them. It’s like an essential “Snooze” button on your email.Open the email message and click on the Boomerang button & choose the day and time when you want it to pop up in your inbox again, unread, starred & on top of your message list.

Follow-up & Get a Reminder If You Don’t get a Reply

If there’s a very important message that you’ve sent out that needs follow up if you got a reply or not, this is a great way for you to be reminded. This way you will never forget to follow up with people & most importantly follow up with a sales lead.

Another plus, it’s available for Mobile!

Boomerang sure is a missing piece of Gmail. It’s an extremely useful Gmail plug-in, works like a charm!

Filed Under: Articles

The Email Game: Have a Little Fun While Being Productive Taming Your Inbox

November 10, 2011 By tlyons 1 Comment

Checking emails every single day & emptying an inbox is very hard to attain. There’s nothing worse than seeing an avalanche of emails, an inbox crammed with unread messages from yesterday or the week before the moment you open your email account! It seems like an endless daunting task to get caught up with every single email that comes in and to be honest we should spend less time struggling to keep up, if we could just organize them on a daily basis.

Having these same sentiments in mind, Baydin, which is in the 2011 class of 500 Startups, created this utterly amazing webapp/website, The Email Game. The email game is a website that imports your inbox (gmail for free, outlook/exchange/other corporate solutions for a fee) and changes the way that you interact & delegate your incoming mails. It has a countdown timer and the carrot of points for completing various actions on an email. Basically, turning mundane tasks into a game which increases your likelihood of actually doing them.

So here’s how it works:

Go to emailga.me & give the web app the permission to access your Gmail account & you will be directed to this screen to start the email game.

Click start and let the fun begin!

Bear in mind that the main goal is to get emails out of your inbox & put them where they’re supposed to be. The 3 main actions are responding/replyin, boomeranging ( which returns the email to your inbox after any length of time you would like, be it a few hours or a month) and archiving/deleting. So for every email, decide what to do with it.

Try to clear you inbox as much as you can and you’ll get higher points.

Click archive or delete and you’ll receive some positive feedback, along with points:

When you need to respond to an email, you have 3 minutes to do so by default. Get your response written quickly to receive the most points, but you can always add more time if you need to write a longer email.

When you’re done going over your emails, you’ll see your score, along with the option to share it on Twitter:

How cool is that? Now, go ahead and have fun taming your inbox and invite your friends for some friendly & healthy competition!

Filed Under: Articles, Featured, Gmail, Product Reviews, Site reviews, Tom's Ramblings