Featured is Laurie Finkelstein Reader with her winning team. (Image courtesy of Laurie Finkelstein Reader)
The scenario happened like a perfectly-scripted movie: a Keller Williams team based in Plantation, Fla. decides to play their odds at the lottery. For just $20 each, the 11 co-workers could have the chance to win a $338 million Powerball jackpot. Through a series of group text messages and e-mails, the team organized their efforts and collected $240—or 120 tickets—for the March 22nd Powerball. Everyone at Keller Williams Partner Realty participated, except for Jennifer Maldonado, the newest member of the team. “I just started work,” the administrative assistant told team leader Laurie Finkelstein Reader. “I think I can spend $20 on something else.”
Finkelstein Reader warned Maldonado about the consequences of her choice. “Jen, if you don’t pay we’re going to win,” she said, staring her co-worker straight in the eyes. “Don’t worry,” Jen answered with a slight laugh. “I’ll take the fall for you.” (Yes, we all know where this one is going…)
Cut to Saturday when the Powerball numbers were announced. Finkelstein Reader got back on the group text that night—her husband was too tired to stay up for the results—and inquired about whether or not anyone had checked the winning numbers. “We only got five out of six,” one co-worker replied with the nonchalance of someone unaware that the team had just won $1 million.
They celebrated until dawn—even Finkelstein Reader’s husband jumped out of bed screaming, “I’m not tired anymore!”—and chatted for hours about their good fortune, which would amount to $83,333.33 per person, after taxes. “We all got on the phone and it was just ten of us completely freaking out,” Finkelstein Reader says.
But festivities quickly came to a halt the next morning when the team realized that Maldonado hadn’t participated in the pool. Maldonado, who had been carefully monitoring her spending, was happy for the team but visibly shaken by the news.
“The next thing I did was what would come naturally to anyone on my team: I asked everyone what they thought about including Jen in the earnings,” Finkelstein Reader says. “Of course, they were all on board.”
After receiving unanimous consent, Finkelstein Reader handed over what she describes as “a fat stack of cash” to Maldonado, who was brought to tears by the thoughtful gesture.
And that may have been the end of this story, if not for one little Facebook post about the altruistic act that went viral faster than you can say, “cats singing on YouTube.” Within hours, word spread far and wide about the jackpot-winning team and their decision to include the ill-fated admin. Soon national news programs like Dateline, Inside Edition, The Today Show, and more all clamored for a chance to cover the philanthropic feat.
Even Hollywood has been calling, though the team isn’t willing to answer quite yet, that is unless the right offer comes along. “I would go to California if Ellen asked,” Finkelstein Reader admits. “I tell everybody I just want to dance with her!”
Fame and foxtrots aside, Finkelstein Reader says the money has only cemented the already cooperative atmosphere synonymous with a real estate team. “Before this happened, we were every bit the way you see us now,” she says. “The only thing different is that we won a million dollars.”
Have you noticed how quickly your online conversations go into the ether once they’re finished? You might remember that one of your friends had a brilliant idea about how to convert first-time buyers or a witty comment on the latest Fed pronouncement, but retracing that message involves scrolling through old posts—a tedious, time-sucking pursuit.
On Thursday, at Real Estate Connect in New York, real estate tech bloggers Chris Smith and Jimmy Mackin will announce a solution—a way to tag, track, and search Facebook conversations. The new tool, Curaytor, plugs Facebook’s Group API into a WordPress backend, making conversations in groups searchable. Setting aside my personal bias against creative spellings, Curaytor looks to be a neat tool for getting at the best content in Facebook groups you’re following.
As proof of concept, Smith and Mackin have started with content from open real estate groups like Michael McClure’s Raise the Bar in Real Estate discussion. With Facebook groups that are tracked in Curaytor, anyone can quickly see what others are saying or view content from the discussion by topic. Smith says open Facebook groups were the ideal place to start with curating online discussions because Facebook has become the online water cooler with 1 million new status updates posted every minute. Eventually, he says, Curaytor could include conversations from other forums, such as Twitter and Google+. Unlike Google search, for example, Curaytor searches what your friends and colleagues are saying about the latest gadgets, business strategies, and news.
Currently, the site doesn’t pull in an individual’s groups, only the open groups that Curaytor has added, so for now at least, everyone who goes to the site sees the same information.
The launch of Curaytor was in some ways tempered by Facebook’s own announcement yesterday of Graph Search, a technology that lets you search friends’ activities on Facebook. (Here’s a CNNMoney article on Graph Search). What the Facebook tool seems to lack, however, is the curation part. Curaytor promises to organize social conversations in real time so that you can view them in categories like trending, popular, and recent. Using WordPress enables Curaytor to tag posts and populate a “Staff Picks” feature. You can search Curaytor by keyword, user profile picture, company name, or news source.
And while Smith and Mackin are focused on the real estate market today, there’s no reason Curaytor couldn’t be used to track and search conversations on any topic that’s actively discussed on Facebook, Smith says.
The big story in the blogosphere this week is that Facebook has released Timeline for business pages. Blogs will be written, tweets will be made, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few webinars in the works. All of this is great. But just remember one thing;
I wrote that post two years ago when the latest shiny object was that everyone needed to have a custom landing tab for their Facebook business page. Since then, many crazes have come and gone. Quora, QR Codes, Empire Avenue … the list goes on. Some of these shiny objects are just plain fun, and it’s okay to play, just don’t call it work. But too often, I see real estate agents spending way to much time chasing the latest shiny object for their business.
This week we are obsessed with Facebook again. The question at the heart of all the chatter: How are we going to take advantage of all these new features? If you have a business page, you probably should take a look at what has changed. But just like two years ago, the real issue is the business strategy behind your online efforts. Have you been spending your time trying to learn how to master the latest shiny object before you’ve even determined why you need to? Are you focused on pinning or winning?
Don’t get caught up in the hype. Here are five tips for avoiding social media syndrome. It’s a good list. Remember to focus on the proven stuff that already works and let others chase the latest shiny objects.
By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS®
Facebook recently overhauled their page insights tools to help page administrators better measure engagement on their business pages. The new tools let users measure how viral a post is, the number of people talking about a page, and the cumulative total reach of a page — in other words, a bunch of stuff most real estate pros really don’t need to know.
A lot of importance has been placed on engagement. Opening and maintaining lines of communication with clients is tried and true, so of course this makes sense. But ask yourself — do I want my clients to:
- Like me on Facebook?
- Follow me back on Twitter?
- Comment on my blog?
- Buy a house?
When measuring a return on your investment, be sure to count the stuff that helps you attain your goals. If having more friends on Facebook is the goal, so be it. But most agents are trying to sell houses. Their engagement strategy should be to build real, lasting relationships with people who are likely to refer them business. Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, or the number of times someone clicked on a QR code may not reflect anything more than a shallow layer of casual and even lazy engagement on the part of their sphere of influence. Measure the stuff that really matters.
By Erica Christoffer, Multimedia Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine
You may have heard the buzz surrounding Facebook’s impending launch of the “timeline” profile. If not, get ready…it’s sure to take users to the next level in how we share information, make personal connections, and experience Facebook as a whole.
The timeline feature itself is described as an online scrapbook – “the story of your life” as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it during his company’s f8 conference in San Francisco Thursday. Facebook fills in milestone events it knows from the existing profile information, such as your high school and college graduations, the start of your current job, the date of your wedding anniversary, etc. But you can take the timeline back further and fill in all your life events starting from when you were born, your first job, places you’ve traveled, or even when you purchased your house.
“Now REALTORS® who are friends with clients can help them mark those events – add photos in front of their new home, mark the date on their timeline,” said Brian Copeland, REALTOR® at Village Real Estate Services in Nashville and the national YPN Advisory Board chair. Plus, the new timeline feature is quick to navigate; in just a few clicks you can look at statuses, photos, or events from years past in your archived Facebook content.
Curious? While Facebook is planning to roll out timelines over the next couple of months, according to Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor, those who want a jump start can add the new profile now by following these steps outlined by Mashable.
[As a side note, I just have to point out just how on fire Zuckerberg is: His net worth is now over $17.5 billion, up $10 billion from last year. And this week he landed 14th on the Forbes 400 list. ]
Yours truly downloaded the new profile today and my first impression was that it’s reminiscent of a WordPress blog template. A large “cover image” stretched the width of your profile header, which could easily serve as a branding tool for real estate pros, Copeland pointed out. Continue reading »
By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS®
What was your initial reaction to Facebook? Was it anything like this:
“So far, my ‘friends’ fall into two categories. People I already knew before Facebook, and people I still don’t know, but asked to be ‘friends’ with me … It appears to be more of an online playground, perfect for college kids, but kind of dumb for professionals in our industry.”
I said this in a blog post in November 2007. People were throwing sheep at me. I didn’t like it. I was sure Facebook would be a colossal waste of time.
Change is hard. Even for people who like the idea of change. This week, I’ve see a lot of people writing posts like the one I wrote almost four years ago. Only this time, it’s about Google+. Continue reading »
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