I hear a lot about Social Media Strategy or Technology Tactics… but there is something that seems to be missing from many of these conversations.  Rather than framing the discussion in terms of the end result, it gets formed around how to use a tool.

First we need a GOAL…

The goal is the missing ingredient.  In fact, not only is it the missing ingredient, but it is the most important part.  Since I am a car guy, let me illustrate it like this…

• The goal is to win races.  We decide that we want to win a drag race…  GOAL
• In order to win the drag race, we will need a very high power to weight ratio…  STRATEGY
• To accomplish this, we have two paths we may need to take…
  • Path One is to increase the power…  TACTIC A
  • Path Two is to decrease weight… TACTIC B
• Of course now there are a lot of steps involved in accomplishing our tactical goals.

As you can see, in this example, you could deploy the tactics without having a goal, but it might be difficult to know exactly which tactics would be best for achieving the goal.  You might even be able to use the strategy, but that strategy is similar for almost any kind of racing… so again, without the goal, the details would be hard to work out.

Another example would be baking a cake.  The goal is to have a cake to eat when you are done.  The strategy is to combine the right ingredients to make a cake… in the right order to make a cake.  The tactics are how you employ the tools of cake making and how you utilize the ingredients.

Social media and technology aren’t much different.  Within a few minutes I could come up with 100 of social  media sites and maybe thousands of technologies.  And we deal with vendors all of the time that want us to use their latest and greatest.  I know that my inbox overflows with offers to use free this or paid that…

But too many of us don’t have the FIRST step completed.  We don’t know where we want to go.  And one of the most common examples of that would be…  “My goal is to make money.”  Really?  Sorry, but that isn’t a goal.  A goal might be to have 50% of the transactions in your niche, or maybe to be the dominant agent in a particular area.

The strategies to achieve that may involve direct mail, newsletters, websites or a myriad of other encompassing options.

The tactics could be to create a hyper-local community blog platform or employing mobile marketing to build open house attendance.

From there, you can decide which specific platforms and/or technologies would best serve the larger needs.

The point is, before you can decide how to get somewhere, you need to know where you want to arrive.

Not kinda… but fully on.

1 October, 2010

The venue is set to be the Gwinnett Braves Stadium… but that could change.  It will run from about 9:00am until around 5:00pm… a full day of real estate technology and social media training, learning and sharing.  Check the website.

If you’ve never been to a rebarcamp…

They are really cool events.  They are billed as ‘the unconference’ because so much runs counter to the standard conference experience.  At a normal conference, there are a bunch of break-out sessions where we all get to listen to someone tell us about a cool new product or service… usually that they offer… and how it can help our business.  Don’t get me wrong… I love going to conferences and find them very valuable.

During a rebarcamp, the break-outs are geared more towards group discussion.  I’ve found that almost every CAN have something to add to the conversation.  We all seem to have parts of the puzzle… but few have the whole box.  Some participants have incredible experiences and can answer some of the questions.  Others have their experiences in different areas.  But, one of the most valuable things to have is a question… they drive the whole agenda.

Did I mention that it is FREE?

Of course, there is still a price for free…  For attendees, that price is participation.  Dive in, meet people, share, make friends… participate.  It is amazingly rewarding.

The other cost is the cost borne by the sponsors… many of whom we are still searching.  We have a few of our sponsors signed up, but we will need a lot more before all is said and done.  Check out the site for more info on sponsoring…  We have a level of sponsorship for almost anyone!  From $100 up to $2000… you can make this a reality.

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I am proud to say that I attended the very first REbarcamp, which was a real estate industry specific technology “unconference”.  Basically, the idea behind barcamp is that the conferees get together and create an agenda and then host the sessions.  It is an amazing peer-to-peer discussion.

continue reading "Small Business BarCamp Atlanta"

Right now there is a small core group looking at the feasibility of a real estate bar camp in the Atlanta area.  If we can put it together, the event will be held this fall… September or October is the likely time frame.

Here are a couple of posts on Active Rain with more info about #rebcATL (that is the ‘official’ Twitter hashtag for the event).

Should Atlanta have a reBarCamp?

A little more about an Atlanta rebarcamp

continue reading "reBarCamp – Atlanta?"

I am a FireFox user.  I prefer it over Internet Explorer for a lot of reasons.  It has WAY more flexibility.  And one of our MLSs is even going to be supporting it soon.

I had installed one particular plug-in a long time ago, and was left wondering why.  In fact, when I set up the new computer, I didn’t install that particular plug-in.  But while at REtechSouth (#retso), I attended a session of FireFox, and it was mentioned as a ‘must-have’ add-on.

It is back.  And it is back with a companion.
continue reading "Just a little GreaseMonkey…"

I woke up one morning a few weeks ago quite unhappy with all of my websites. They look reasonably good.  They mostly have good traffic (not great, but good).  The ones I am pressing the RSS subscription on seem to have good subscribe rates.
continue reading "Free Your Mind… and the rest will follow"