More and more of the questions I get or conversations I have are surrounding tech tools.  Agents often bring to my attention great websites, apps and other tech tools that help them save time and money in running their business.  As you know we talk about many of these in our meetings; however, I find a reminder is always good.  So, starting today, I'm going to start sending out an email on Tuesdays with a few new tech tools or tips.  I'll also include previous tech emails below as a reminder of what had been mentioned in past emails.  

 

If you have any suggestions or feedback on items you'd like to have included (or on items that we've already included) let me know.  So... let's go

 

www.facebook.com -->  Ok, we are starting with one you may have already heard of.  Faceboook is fast approaching 600 million users.  There are 2 conventional ways to use facebook for business.

1. Personal Page - set up your page and go!  Once you add a few "friends" facebook will start to suggest more people to you and it is pretty easy to get hundreds of "friends" in a short period of time.  So what do you do once you are there?  Get involved in conversations!  The same rules that apply to a social function also apply to facebook.  If you spend most of your time talking about you ("I Just did an open house") , you'll likely not have much success in building and nurturing relationships.  However, if you show interest in what others are doing and talking about ("Hey Mrs. Client, congrats on becoming a grandma!  Little Emma is precious") you will soon be the life of the "party" My suggestion is to spend your first (or next) 2 weeks not posting a single thing about yourself on your facebook wall but rather commenting on and liking things that your friends are talking about

 

2. Business Page - If you go to any business page on facebook (heck, www.facebook.com/selectonmain is a great place to start) you will see a "create page" link on the left hand side.  Click this and you are about 5 minutes away from having a business page (John Smith - RE/MAX Select Realty) Those in the know on faceboook seem to think (and it makes sense) that people are more accepting of business talk and bragging on a business page than they are on a personal page.  This is where you'd talk more about new listings etc.... but keep in mind you still must be thinking about "what are my friends looking at/for when they log on to facebook?" and try to provide that.  Look at other business pages and borrow ideas that you like.

 

 

 

Dropbox - I would call dropbox a "must have" application for real estate (there are other services that do what dropbox does, and they are fine as well) -  With dropbox, you get a online folder for storing files, and it is free!  The catch?  Your files cannot exceed 2 gigs in size (total) unless you pay for a storage space upgrade.  As a bonus, we keep our shared files on dropbox, so you'll have access to common documents and forms through the website and application.  So how do you sign up?

 

1. sign up for an account http://db.tt/UYWpBCH

2. Email cory and tell him the email address you used to sign up

3. Cory will send an invite to that address to connect to the Shared Files Folder

4. You are in.

 

ZAPD App for Iphone and Ipad  - This is an amazing new app; In about 5 minutes, from your phone, you can make a basic website.  Snap a couple pics, write some text and you've got a website.  If a REALTOR(R) was so inclined, they could even spend the 10 bucks before a listing presentation, get a domain name specific to that house (123mainstreet.com ) and show the owners a basic version of their website as part of the presentation (along with a look at a current listing so they can see what the full featured website wil look like.

 

GENIUS SCAN for Iphone and Ipad.  This app takes pictures of your contracts and saves them as a PDF you can email.  The quality is not yet where you'd use it if there is a scanner right beside you, but in a jam when kinkos is closed?  GENIUS SCAN will do the trick

 

LOGMEIN - This app allows you to use your Ipad to remotely connect to your laptop or desktop (and connect to MLXchange!) 

 

Plaintext -A simple note taking app that syncs to your dropbox account for instant backups.  

 

Dragon Dictation - Speech to text

 

Talkatone Free Calling to anywhere in North America (you need a google account to use) 

 

REMEMBER also RE/MAX Western Canada's Webinar Wednesdays - where the tech guys from Region walk you through how to better use the tools offered by RE/MAX.  They do webinars on leadstreet, design centre, RE/MAX University and more!

 

Until next week, remember that all this technology is there to make your life easier and/or more profitable, but NO technology can replace good old fashioned sales tactics.  Your phone calls and in person touches with clients and prospects are more important than ever.  And with some agents being guilty of "hiding behind" technology, you can stand out even more than ever by getting in front of people.  I spoke with an agent a few months ago that calls all his clients on their birthdays (we knew those FINTRAC forms were good for something!) and hears from every other person that the only other person who had picked up the phone to call was the client's own mother.  Do you think that stays with the client longer than a posting on a social media website with 300 other people?