Social Media Best Practices

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor REALTOR® Magazine

Social media should be used to create communities and not to push listings out. You wouldn’t go to church to hand out your listings, and therefore, you shouldn’t do it through your Facebook page.

That was one of the main arguments presented by Ginger Wilcox, GRI, Kelley Koehler, and Mariana Wagner—all experts with the Social Media Marketing Institute—at the Introduction to Social Media session at the 2009 REALTORS® Convention & Expo this morning.

The panel advised real estate pros to think about using social media to connect with people to build relationships that will eventually lead to communities.  Read more

REALTORS® Make San Diego a Little Greener

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Yesterday, almost 50 practitioners gathered to help build a new home at 1441 Harding Avenue, National City, Calif., with Habitat for Humanity.  Since 2001, NAR has partnered with the organization to build a home in the host city for the annual Convention & Expo.  Watch this video to find out more about how REALTORS® are making a difference:

Trick-or-Treat, Zillow Style

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Looking to maximize on Snickers and Milky Way bars this Halloween? Zillow.com has put together a guide to the best homes in Seattle and Los Angeles for trick-or-treaters based on property values, population density, a walking score, and safety. “There is a common belief that wealthy neighborhoods are the Holy Grail for harvesting the most Halloween candy,” Zillow’s Whitney Tyner writes. She claims that their calculations have produced a list of neighborhoods where children will get the most candy while doing the least walking (is this really a good thing?).

Deliver Happiness

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

A few months ago, I heard Alfred Lin, COO & CFO of Zappos.com speak at Inman’s Real Estate Connnect San Francisco 2009. The company has won accolades from the business community for taking an innovative approach in terms of their values. “We’re in the customer-service industry and happen to sell shoes,” Lin said.

I’ve found myself thinking about Zappos’s unique business model. Here are some key points from his talk: Read more

Are You a Master?

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

In February 2009, REALTOR® Magazine launched the Masters Series, a video diary of top-producing practitioners, who represent expertise in a certain field within real estate. We traveled all over the country to meet some of the best real estate pros, followed them around for a day, and learned their trade secrets.

We’re planning for the 2010 series and we want to hear from you. Next year the video will focus on mastering certain aspects of the business: staging, prospecting, negotiating, and more. Read more

Your Chance to Be Part of 30 Under 30

Alison Levine: Beware of Complacency

As a child, Alison Levine suffered from a life-threatening heart condition that prevented her from even climbing the stairs and therefore couldn’t imagine that she would one day be at nearly the peak of Everest leading the first American women’s expedition to the world’s tallest mountain. On August 24 at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® 2009 Leadership Summit, Levine recounted the lessons she learned trekking the seven summits that took her to the top in business as an associate with Goldman Sachs. Read more

Tell Us About Your Pro Bono Work

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

I recently read an article in the New York Times about John Burger, a practitioner with Brown Harris Stevens in New York, who offered to sell Bernie Madoff’s penthouse (list price: about $7,000,000). Here’s the most interesting part: Burger planned to donate his commission check, which could have been as high as $400,000, to the fund for victims of Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme

Ultimately, the government rejected his offer because standard policy prohibits them from accepting pro bono work. Not a bad idea, though: Burger comes across as a generous practitioner and generates some good publicity from it.

I’m working on a story for the November/December issue on practitioners donating their services. Have you ever done this? What successes have you had working pro bono? I’d love to hear your stories at ktarbox@realtors.org.

When Negotiating, 30 Seconds to Set the Tone

As the founder and director of
Harvard’s International Negotiation Initiative, Daniel Shapiro has had his hand in numerous discussions between dignitaries, terrorists, lawyers, business leaders, and even real estate practitioners. Shapiro, a trained psychologist, has embarked on a new field of study in trying to understand emotions as they pertain to negotiating. As a world-renowned academic, he travels across the globe teaching his ideas. Yesterday, he presented “Capturing the Power of Negotiation” at Northwestern University.

Shapiro argues that there are hundreds of emotions, and it’s often difficult to focus in on one when trying to come to a resolution. Instead, he believes one should focus on five core concerns: Read more

Facebook TMI

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

A friend sent me this article from The Washington Post, which basically outlines how Facebook plans to overhaul its privacy settings. They want to make our information less private and more searchable by Google in order to compete with Twitter and other social networking tools.

Even though I was one of the earlier Facebook users, I’ve been slow to adopt new applications when they launch a new version of the social networking site. In the earliest iterations of Facebook back in 2004, there were no status updates, let alone pictures, or information about my interests and hobbies.

Back in the Mesozoic Age of Facebook history, it was simply a virtual address book. Over time it seemed the Web site wanted more information about me: my hometown, my occupation, who I’m dating, and so forth. I played along, and updated my information when it was only for my close friends. Then more people began to sign up and request my friendship (my parents and co-workers) and I began cautiously updating my page. Read more

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