October ’12 Tech Tidbits

The Best App Known to the Civilization of Man…And Other Cool Stuff

Drum roll please…..The best app known to man is SeeClickFix.  I found this last week.  This app allows anyone to report items that need repair or attention to local governments.  A perfect item to share with your database, neighbors, friends and anyone else who cares about their community. Prime example: Last Saturday I took a picture of some concrete work that needs to be done to a city gutter in front of our house.  Repair that has been much needed for years.  By 10 am Monday, the city had been out and spray painted the area that needed repair.  That’s crazy!  Use this app for a better community! Brivity is another great app.  I picked this one up at Mega Camp.  This allows you to share real time results with your sellers.  It also has links for every site that the listing appears on.  Very cool! Blogging for Fun, Leads, and IncomeThis 6-week webinar program from John Pohly starts Oct. 5th. John is a true expert in generating online leads and this program is well worth it.  You want more leads?  All you have to do is register to get the process going.

KW Agents – Don’t Call It a Comeback!

eAgentC websites and Wolfnet are back, with a vengeance!  Technically, they never left, but the training focus has shifted back to them.  eAgentC has a ton of design options and topics that can be created on this template that improves the SEO and lead capture capability for agents that use them.  If your third party website is a money pit, then it is time to look at replacing that with your eAgentC template. Wolfnet has also upped its game.  Recently, Wolfnet has improved it’s back office to be much more agent friendly.  And coming in January 2013, the new Keller Williams mobile app for Apple and Droid mobile products will have the Wolfnet IDX as the basis for the property search. Are you circling back and wanting to learn more about eAgentC websites?  Seeing it for the first time?  I am teaching quite a few eAgentC sessions in October.  I can also bring an eAgentC workshop to your MC/Region.  Contact me to start the eAgentC training process.  My team can also take the pain away and enhance the KW websites for you.  View the information in the next block below on how to start the design process.

Let Us Help You With A Whole New Vision for Your Websites

Real Estate Sites…Real Results Looking to improve your KW eEdge and eAgentC Websites?  Want a fresh look?  More importantly, are you ready for better SEO and improved Lead Capture?  Need someone to help with all of the IN DEPTH settings and vision for your sites? My design team has helped enhance over 5,000 KW websites and can help you with the lead capture, content, SEO and overall look of your KW Websites for a minimal onetime fee.  We deliver the custom look AND content your sites need to be successful. View sample sites on MichaelTritthart.com and contact us to get started.  Here are some new additional sites that we just finished: Randee Hainline, Stacy Perry and Monica Parker.

This Month in Real Estate August Edition

The Best Apps of 2012

PC World’s Best Apps of ’12 has just been released.  There are some great items on there for both Droid and iOS users.  In addition to there being great apps for your Real Estate business, there are also some great apps to share with your database.  Here is a sampling: AnyDo – a quick and easy to use To Do list Lookout Mobile Security – Helps to find your lost mobile device GroupMe – Group texting is just one of the many items this app does. Check out the full list of the ’12 Best Apps here.

Who Wants 7 Nights in Destin Florida for Only $20!

Unbelievable offer for Destin.  A $20 raffle ticket could win you 7 nights in a Destin townhouse on the water, a round of golf and dinner for two.  All you need is a swimsuit and way to get there!  The drawing is October 1st, 2012. However, the most important part is that the proceeds are going to a Destin area agent in need.  This is a FUNDRAISER for KW agent Danny Margagliano, who is now paralyzed from the neck down resulting from a recent diving accident.  View Danny’s story here and contest details (should open in a new window as a flier) here.  Chip in to help Danny and his family and good luck in the contest!

Social Media – Random Thoughts in a Hot Summer

Whoa, it has been hot and hot here in Dallas! So let’s jump right in to some easy Social Media news, updates, and highlights:   Facebook, by now I hope you have established a SHARP looking timeline photo (851 X 315) and are using it daily.  The only big item right now that is coming up for Facebook is in Groups.  If you are in a Group on Facebook you will start seeing which members have viewed updates.  It appears to be rolling out slowly and I have personally seen it pop up in only 1 of my Groups.  Groups are AWESOME for business and interest.  I am in groups for Running, Social Media, Real Estate, and Healthy Recipes.    Blogging….keep reading I promise this will be painless.  My number one ‘excuse’ I hear “I don’t know what to blog about’.  As realtors, you get a bazillion questions a week from clients.  Answer one of the questions in the form of a…BLOG!  400 words or less.  Matter of fact you are welcome to steal this mini one below:   Wow!  What a crazy (hot, cold, rainy sunny) summer we have had in (your city name here)!  The market these past few weeks has been: (dreadful, AMAZING, better than last year).  Our office is seeing interest in the area of (neighborhood or town here).  The mortgage interest rates (insert rate here), have really stirred up some activity.  We all finally went to try the new (pizza place, kids’ place, etc.) and it was AMAZING.  Thought you may enjoy seeing some of our vacation photos from our team. Next thing you know, we will all be back to school shopping!    Ok, now rearrange those sentences, expand on my thoughts…..make it your own. That took 4 minutes to type.  Next post it on your Facebook and/or Twitter.   Twitter, no news or updates from them.  Still an excellent way to follow local happenings and news.  I have been following LinkedIn Marketing (@LinkedInExpert1) and have really enjoyed several of their links.  Who are you following, I would love to know!  I will not be surprised if we see some changes in the next few months from them.  If you hear it before I do…email me SusanHoldrich@gmail.com!  You can follow Michael @Mtritt and me @SusanHoldrich   Feel like I am running out of space but I have 1 more thing…..Animoto.com.  Really. Love it.  If you have a YouTube account and are just to afraid to make a video this is a service that you can load pics or videos and they produce a great movie/slide show for you. Super easy to use.  I have the $30/year account and it is lovely.  Here is the one from vacation: http://goo.gl/E5gcp.   Please feel free to email, tweet, FB me questions.  I balance my life between design, wife/mom, and yoga teacher, I will get back with you!  If you need more tech tips, head to Michael’s Facebook business page.    Need more help with Social Media? Susan offers a Social Media eEdge enhancement package.  She can build your Social Media platforms and connect  them together to where you can easily manage/update the sites.  She can also train you to manage the sites or even manage your Social Media platform for you for a low monthly fee.     Go to Social Media Enhancements on MichaelTritthart.com for more details and to get a quote!

Enhance Your KW eEdge and eAgentc Websites

NEW SAMPLES ON MY SITE! Looking to improve your KW Websites?  There is value in using both; one for your haven’t mets and one for your have mets.  I have helped enhance over 5,000 KW websites and can help you with the lead capture, content, SEO and overall look of your KW Websites for a minimal onetime fee.    View sample sites on MichaelTritthart.com and contact me to get started.

July ’12 Technology Tidbits

School’s Out But Not The Discounts

JourneyEd.com is a great site that I picked up from an agent last week in New York.  This site offers huge discounts on hardware/software.  Student discount pricing!  All you have to do is show proof of having a student from Kindergarten and up.  Not just a college student discount anymore!

TMIRE Videos – They’re Back!

A recent YouTube change knocked out the KW This Month in Real Estate Videos for over a month.  Now, they are back and better than ever!  There are 3 videos that will automatically update on your websites: A US version, A Canadian version and a new US version with Spanish subtitles.  Check them out along with the directions on how to load them to your eEdge and eAgentc website.

Social Media Enhancements – Instagram and Your Summer Social Media Plan

Here are some easy social media guidelines to help grow your business.  Provided by Susan, the Social Media guru, on my design team. Congratulations to the Jan Richey Team on their newly designed blog!  North Texas Living was rolled out at the beginning of June.  They have done an excellent job with weekly updates and content.  Please visit them at thejanricheyteam.wordpress.com.   My newest obsession….Instagram!  I could write an ode on how much I love it, so I think I will. We are picture takers, A picture that could sell a home. A home to raise your glass,   a place to cheer on your favorite team. There is no reason to not love a photo. A moment captured on that hand held device. To share with your clients and on Twitter and Facebook in one easy post. Please, don’t judge…but I really love this app!  Get Instagram from the AppStore or Google play. The beauty of Instagram is the simplicity of it…. simply snap the photo and press the green check.  It will take you to a screen where you can add a comment as well as post to Facebook and/or Twitter in just one easy step. You can follow me on Instagram buying finding SMHOLD.  You will meet Charlie, my favorite coworker! Having trouble committing to a Social Media plan? Here is my summer recipe to help you cope: Social Media 20-30 minute plan Divide out during the day 15 minutes in morning, 5-10 mid-afternoon, 5-10 minutes evening. Please START BEFORE EMAIL. 7 Minutes: Login and check your FB Business page, if anyone has posted to you page PLEASE RESPOND back to them.  You will see faces to invite on the center right side, INVITE a few or all.  Really Facebook is about the SOCIAL connection.  Than go back to your Home Feed where you should read, comment, like on other peoples post   Check the groups you are in, you never know what type of referral is waiting there for you! 5 Minutes: Login to Twitter.  Check to see if you have new followers, if so AWESOME!  PLEASE DO NOT ONLY TWEET ‘Thanks for following me!’.  If you want to acknowledge a new follower with a simple hi, hello, thanks, etc. that is great but make sure you are tweeting other things as well.  Tweeting should be fun, but never snarky.  Below are some of my favorite people to follow: Pete Cashmore @mashable DanHL @Dan_HL  Eric Stonestreet @ericstonstreet Coom Mom Tech @coolmomtech Jack and Janis Lynch @LynchTeam (full disclosure, they just got their Social Media started, have just joined Twitter, so if you tweet give them a shout out!) You can follow Michael and I on twitter: @mtritt and @SusanHoldrich Pick 3-5 new people to follow.  How do you find new followers…In the search box type in the name of the city you live in and see who pops up! 3 minutes to spare: LinkedIn or read your favorite blog!  Repeat during the day. Please feel free to email, tweet, FB me questions.  I balance my life between design, wife/mom, and yoga teacher, I will get back with you! If you need more tech tips, head to Michael’s Facebook business page. Need more help with Social Media? Susan offers a Social Media eEdge enhancement package.  She can build your Social Media platforms and connect them together to where you can easily manage/update the sites.  She can also train you to manage the sites or even manage your Social Media platform for you for a low monthly fee.   Go to Social Media Enhancements on MichaelTritthart.com for more details and to get a quote!

June ’12 Technology Tidbits

Random Links for Your Clients

Here are a couple of items that are outside the norm but can be just as effective in communicating with your clients.  They are also great value add items to share with your clients in your own marketing pieces to your clients.Verbling.com – Se habla espanol?  Parlez-vous français?  Could it be better?  It easily can with Verbling.  Reach a whole new client base and learn another language in an easy, natural way.  This site allows you to have a 10 minute webinar with someone else speaking a foreign language.  Speak five minutes in English and five in their language.Sprinkler Times– The perfect Summer app to use yourself and share with your clients.  Sprinkler Times will ask you a series of questions about your weather, lawn, etc.  It will then create a custom watering plan for your lawn that changes monthly.  It will conserve water, money and keep your lawn green.  I started using it last month and love it.  Share this with your database!

Social Media Enhancements – Quick Blogging Tips

Here are some easy guidelines to make blogging a more beneficial and easy process for your business. Provided by Susan, the Social Media guru, on my design team. Blog 101 Tips Keep it short, sweet, and relevant. Know your niche.  If you market is luxury…then a blog about 1st time home purchasing is not for your audience. Your audience is homeowner, renters, relocation peeps….not other realtors The blog is ‘your voice’ for your brand Invite people that you work with to post a blog (Lenders, Appraisers, Landscape, etc.) Add a great photo to your blog, something that will catch your eye when it shows up in the FB homepage feed. If you attend a ‘fun’ professional even, share pictures and a short recap of the evening, then email that out to the event planner. Please feel free to email, tweet, FB me questions.  I balance my life between design, wife/mom, and yoga teacher, I will get back with you! If you need more tech tips, head to Michael’s Facebook business page. Need more help with Social Media? Susan offers a Social Media eEdge enhancement package.  She can build your Social Media platforms and connect them together to where you can easily manage/update the sites.  She can also train you to manage the sites or even manage your Social Media platform for you for a low monthly fee. Go to Social Media Enhancements on MichaelTritthart.com for more details and to get a quote!

April ’12 Technology Tidbits

Spring Cleaning Time for Technology

For many of you, when I mention spring cleaning you want to run for the hills.  At least I do!  However, eEdge – MyMarketing is being released on April 5th.  To prepare for this great marketing tool we have been asking Keller Williams agents to do some spring cleaning on their database to get it ready for the new marketing pieces.

In addition to that, below are some spring cleaning tips that ALL AGENTS can use:

Fantastical – This is for the Mac users.  If you don’t have this yet, get it!  It’s The Mac calendar you’ll actually enjoy using!

ScanCafe.com – Get all versions of your family videos updated safely and cheaply.  This is a great giveaway for your clients.

Xmarks – Do you use multiple web browsers?  Have different bookmarks in each one?  Now you don’t have to with Xmarks.

March ’12 Technology Tidbits

MARCH MADNESS….In a Bad Way

March is one of my favorite months….Love me some college basketball!  However, March is off to a controversial start with technology.  Here’s why:

Google Privacy Policy Change  Google’s unified privacy policy change has a piece that starts March 1st that is causing concern among Google users.  Starting on the first, Google will begin to collect your Google Web History and share it among all of the Google products you use.  Gmail users already see this, but it does raise some privacy and “big brother” issues.  Want to know more about this and maybe more importantly, want to turn this OFF?  Follow the link on Google Privacy Policy Change to my Facebook business page for the full article and steps on how to change it.

The Hottest Tech Trend May Have a “Pin” Pop It  EVERYBODY it seems is joining Pinterest lately.  It is a fun, interesting site; however it could open you up to some legal issues.  Enough to make you think twice about using it.   Check out my Facebook business page for the full article and the legal problems it may open you up to.

February 2012 Tech Tidbits

App Mania!

It’s that time of year.  Many companies have released their best of 2011 lists and what they are predicting to be the best of for 2012.  I have added two good ones to my business page.  Check out Facebook.com/TechnologyTidbitsfor the complete list.20 Mobile Tools That Will Make You Stand Out from Inman Newshas some tools that can make a difference in your real estate business very quickly.  I use quite a few of these already.50 New Tech Tools You Should Know About from CNN offers some tools that not only can help you in your business, but would be a great value add to share with your database of clients.

My Family Reunion Schedule in Orlando

For all those attending Family Reunion in Orlando, my training schedule is below.  Feel free to follow my updates on Twitter @Mtritt and Facebook.com/TechnologyTidbits.  I would be happy to meet up with many of you and talk tech shop.  Tons of great tech training sessions this year.  Take it all in, but start to implement pieces of it quickly so you can reap the benefits! KW Tech Room: Generate More Leads for Free – Sunday, February 12th 7:30-8:45 AM  Great tips using non KW and KW tools. KW Tech Room: eEdge Making the Most of Marketing to Your Contacts – Sunday, February 12th 4-5:30 PM  Learn the new features of MyMarketing. Increase Your Database IQ and Make it Work for You – Tuesday, February 14 7:30-8:45 AM  Maximize the foundation of your business. Get Started with KW Technology-That Was Easy! – Tuesday, February 14th, 3-4:15 PM  See the features/benefits of the new KW Intranet. KW Tech Room: eAgentC: Rock Your Website – Monday, February 13th 4-5:30 PM Turn eAgentC into a powerful lead generation machine.

Enhance BOTH of Your KW Websites

NEW SAMPLES ON MY SITE! Looking to improve your KW Websites?  There is value in using both; one for your haven’t mets and one for your have mets.  I have helped enhance over 4,500 KW websites and can help you with the lead capture, content, SEO and overall look of your KW Websites for a minimal onetime fee.    View sample sites on MichaelTritthart.com and contact me to get started.

NEW SERVICE!! Social Media Enhancements

I travel and train on multiple topics all over North America.  When I train on social media the following question comes up quite often: “I know I need to do this, but I don’t have time to do it.  Can you build it for me?”  Well…now we can!  My team offers a Social Media eEdge enhancement package.  We can build your Social Media platforms and connect them together to where you can easily manage/update the sites.  The best part, my team can provide 1 on 1 training if you need to learn how to effectively manage the sties.For the eEdge package, she can properly import your database, set up your marketing campaigns and get you going with marketing to your database.   Go to Social Media Enhancements on MichaelTritthart.com for more details and to get a quote!

December 2011 Tech Tidbits

Great Sites to Take Your Business Into 2012

Many of you are in the middle of enjoying your holidays, but now is the perferct time to start building your business for 2012.  Use some of these sites for multiple parts of your business. Asana.com Asana is a great tool for teams.  It is a shared task list site that will keep everyone on task and in sync. Weebly.com Looking to enhance your online prescence?  Maybe build a nich site for a subdivison, foreclosures, short sales, etc?  Weebly is a FREE website creator that is EASY to use?  Check it out! DeleteMe.com Hey, remember the photo of you from that event?  You know, the one that is all over the internet.  Or that MySpace account you just can’t completely get rid of?  Well, here is a site for you.  DeleteMe.com will….do just that.  Check it out to see how it works and what the fee is.  It may just be worth it. IFTTT.com This is short for “If This, Then That” and it is my new favorite site.  With this site you can make the internet work for you.  You set up triggers from over 30 channels like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Craigs List, Stock reports, etc.  For instance: Looking to buy a stock?  You can set this site to notify your stock broker when the stock hits your price point.  For real estate you can set up Twitter to automatically email you any tweets that contain your desired keywords. Very cool.  Check it out.

NEW SERVICE!! Social Media Enhancements

I travel and train on multiple topics all over North America.  When I train on social media the following question comes up quite often: “I know I need to do this, but I don’t have time to do it.  Can you build it for me?”  Well…now we can!  Dawn Rose, a social media designer/trainer, has recently joined my team. Dawn offers both a Social Media and eEdge enhancement package.  She will build your Social Media platforms and connect them together to where you can easily manage/update the sites.  The best part, she can provide 1 on 1 training if you need to learn how to effectively manage the sties. For the eEdge package, she can properly import your database, set up your marketing campaigns and get you going with marketing to your database.   Go to Social Media Enhancements on MichaelTritthart.com for more details and to get a quote!

Enhance BOTH of Your KW Websites

Looking to improve your KW Websites?  There is value in using both; one for your haven’t mets and one for your have mets.  I have helped enhance over 4,000 KW websites and can help you with the lead capture, content, SEO and overall look of your KW Websites for a minimal onetime fee.  View sample sites on MichaelTritthart.com and contact me to get started.

November 2011 Tech Tidbits

I hope everyone had a safe and fun time on Halloween. Here are two tech sites that will still put a scare into you.

TakethisLollipop.com Ok, a little disclaimer here: (pretty bad if I have to do a disclaimer, huh?) This site is not for everyone. It will not infect your machine or your Facebook account. Google it if you don’t believe me.

Lollipop is a one-time download that puts your Facebook account into a creepy short movie; just in time for Halloween. The movie underscores a valid point regarding how vulnerable we are on line. It is very polarizing; reports are that there were big discussions at Facebook HQ when the site went up. Also Facebook contacted the creator to “inquire” about his intentions.

Bottom line: This site will make thing before your next Facebook posting involving family photos/data. If you want a creepy scare for Halloween and you want to be part of the movie then check out TakethisLollipop. Or do what I did and watch it with someone else’s data on YouTube!

Internet Archive Wayback Machine They’re baaack! One of my favorite sites is back up and better than ever. Just like radio waves in space, nothing on the internet ever goes away. To prove that point, Wayback has archived over 150 billion from 1996 (soon after Al Gore invented the internet!) to just a few months ago. How does this affect your business? Have you ever had a photo or text on an old site that you still wish you had? Would you like to see the activity history of your website over the course of years? Now you can.

Bottom line: This is a valuable and fun tool for your website. Since you can see how your site looked like in 1996 it may be even scarier than TakethisLollipop!

October 2011 Technology Tidbits

NEW SERVICE!! Social Media Enhancements

I travel and train on multiple topics all over North America.  When I train on social media the following question comes up quite often: “I know I need to do this, but I don’t have time to do it.  Can you build it for me?”  Well…now we can!  Dawn Rose, a social media designer/trainer, has recently joined my team.    Dawn offers both a Social Media and eEdge enhancement package.  She will build your Social Media platforms and connect them together to where you can easily manage/update the sites.  The best part, she can provide 1 on 1 training if you need to learn how to effectively manage the sties.   For the eEdge package, she can properly import your database, set up your marketing campaigns and get you going with marketing to your database.     Go to Social Media Enhancements on MichaelTritthart.com for more details and to get a quote!

Facebook – The New Look

Change is coming.  Don’t dread or fear it.  The new look of Facebook is amazing.  The timeline feature is one of the most revloutionary featues that I have seen in years.  Starting around October 7th, Facebook will roll out the new look.  Want to get a jump on the new look?  Go to the Social Networking page on my site and click Facebook – The New Look.

Enhance BOTH of Your KW Websites

Looking to improve your KW Websites?  There is value in using both; one for your haven’t mets and one for your have mets.  I have helped enhance over 4,000 KW websites and can help you with the lead capture, content, SEO and overall look of your KW Websites for a minimal onetime fee.  View sample sites on MichaelTritthart.com and contact me to get started.