realweenie

Huh?

Full post

Whether we like it or not there are influencers on the re-net.  Some are a positive influence and some are not. I don't believe any real estate bloggers are active exponents of knowing evil, but they could be, I am not sure what it means.  Some days I think the hound doth protest too much. The people who influence the hound don't influence me.  None of it really matters because the internet isn't just for Realtors any more. The re-net is a very small world, it is a pimple on the butt of the internet, lets not lose site of that, and stop taking ourselves so seriously. 

Blogs - Not Just For Realtors Any more

I am trying to spread the word again.  Blogs are not just for Realtors any more.  There are blogs out there on just about every subject I can think of.  I like to read local blogs, news blogs, technology blogs and photography blogs. I leave comments on them too if I have something to contribute of if I really like the post.

People who are not in the real estate industry read blogs too.

The real estate industry did not invent the blog.  This might be hard to believe but most of the most read and best loved blogs on the planet are not related to real estate at all. This kind of proves that there are a lot of people out there who might not be reading the conversation we seem to be having amongst ourselves on the Internet.  Instead they are reading something interesting.

As for the whole inside outside argument that I have read about on Active Rain, there are far more blogs out side of active rain than there are inside of Active Rain. Can these millions of people who prefer outies be wrong?

Help Spread the Word

I know that  several who attended the NAR convention heard me say this and it was put out on Twitter but I really want everyone to know that Twitter isn't just for Realtors.

There are people outside of our industry who use it too.  If you look around you can find these people.  They are a lot of fun and you can learn from them too.  Some of them buy houses, and others are small business owners that you might want to do business with. There are also local and national news organizations who use twitter making it a great way to  keep up with what is going on in the world outside of twitter.

Some of my friends who went to the recent unchained event in Orlando learned that twitter is for idiots. Proving again that twitter is not just for Realtors.

So again I will say . .

Twitter isn't just for Realtors

Please help spread the word!

Broken Promises

 

Size Doesn't matter

I should have mentioned when I originally posted this that someone using Google used this search and landed on my blog, I took a screen shot of it.  Some bloggers like to test search phrases on Google and I do a little of that but I like to see how people actually search and learn from it.

Daily Mugshot

I don't get it, so I thought I would try it and I still don't get it. Why do people like taking pictures of themselves?  I looked at other peoples mugshots and hate to sound like I am bragging but most are even scarier than mine.

Daily Mugshot

We Are The Twitterati

By @mizzle, @gingerw, @HouseChick, and @tcar

Recently, our friend Greg Swann referred to some people in RE.net as The Twitterati. Who exactly he was addressing, we don't know. It didn't sound like a compliment. But damn. That's a great name! We're claiming it.

We are The Twitterati. The coolest clique on RE.net.  Are you a member?  Maybe you are, without even knowing it.

If you're in this picture, or can identify everyone in it, you're absolutely Twitterati.

• If you are a master at responding to EVERYTHING in 140 characters or less … You are the Twitterati
• If the first things you do when you sign up for things like blip.fm or dailymugshot is look for the auto-Twitter-notifier …
• If you won't sign up for any social network that DOESN't auto-notify Twitter...
• If your friends call you by your Twitter name IRL (In Real Life)...
• If you've known for forgetting the D at inopportune moments...
• If you've ever been in a Twhirl vs. TweetDeck debate...
• If you secretly look up other people's Twitter Grader, then try to scheme out ways to bump up your grade...

If you make a business decision to purchase 600 bumper stickers with your twitter name ONLY on it because you know SOME people will "get" it … then YOU and those people who "get" it are DEFINITELY the Twitterati.

• If you ever leave a comment on a blog post using your Twitter name and a link to your Twitter profile instead of your name and website … You are the Twitterati.
• If people tweet how excited they were to have met you...
• If you have Twinkle, Halo, Twitterific and Twitter Mobile on your iPhone, and are still wishing for something more ideal...
• If you've ever dropped the F-Bomb on the CEO of Zappos.com via Twitter... (sorry about that)
• If people tweet, wondering where you're at when you haven't tweeted in a few hours...
• If people follow you just to join in on the twittercizing...
• If you've ever worn an @Mizzle tie...

• If you follow @NARSocialMedia on Twitter, and think it's for real, you're NOT Twitterati!
• If you've ever used the term "wiffle bat orgy" or "more cowbell" you are Twitterati...
• If you can never again listen to "It Takes Two" from M.C. Rob Base without laughing...
• If you're married to Mr. HouseChick or Mr. Mizzle...
• If you own both twitternames @mrhousechick and @mrmizzle...
• If you have to write your twitter name under your real name on nametags to have your friends recognize you, you might be Twitterati.
• If you ever replaced your Twitter Icon with something that said e-Twit, you need help … I mean you are the Twitterati.
• If you know the qualifications for e-Twit without having to look it up...
• If people who AREN'T in the real estate business know your Twitter name, and EVER reference you by it …
• If your children have ever called you by your Twitter name …
• If you ever tried to explain Twitter to someone only to give up half-way through the conversation...
• If you've ever declared a Twitter-hiatus and you only lasted 45 minutes in the cold silence of a Twitterless world, you might be Twitterati.
• If you secretly wish for Fail Whale schwag, you might be Twitterati.
• If an item you wear in your Twitter avatar is now a social object...
• If you have jewelry custom made with the @ symbol, you are Twitterati...
• If you've ever been in a blip war...
• If you miss McLovin...
• If you're thinking of lobby-conning Inman Connect New York, just because you want to go to the parties...
• If you've been to an Altos Research After, After Hours Party, you're Twitterati for life.

And finally, if you have been to more than one Altos After After Party, you're not just Twitterati, but Twitterati SUPER elite.

Are you Twitteratti? Tell us why.

Joe Six Pack for president

writers block

Hey buddy can you spare a dime?

Thought I would write a few words on this my blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand.

Business is slow for me right now.  I know that I am the only Realtor out there who is experiencing a slow down.  Business is always fantastic, for those who have the right attitude.

I feel like a loser because the housing market has contracted a bit locally and I am the agent who ended up with less business this month.  Everyone else is happily going about their business and making a ton of money.  I feel so left out.

It is all about attitude and frankly mine sucks right now.  There I said it.

Maybe if you are not too busy today you could stop by the weenie and give me some words of advice. 

A grave situation

Hard to imagine but there are people out there who do not understand how to properly use twitter at a funeral.  The deceased twitter ID should always be turned into a hash tag and 'RIP' is put on the end of it. Example: #mickeymouseRIP. 

Use twitter search, put in the hash tag and use the RSS feed to put it on a blog. It is all so simple yet people seem to be having trouble with it.  The last funeral I attended  people were using a couple of different hash tags and I had so much trouble following it all I almost left.

A classic

This video is from a post written more than a year ago. I was reminded of it when I met the Wagners in person last weekend at REBlogWorld. 

Most of us have noticed that many of the property photos that we find on the MLS these days are . . . just bad!  Really bad.  Now some Realtors have decided that video is where it's at and have added video to the spew stream.  Guess what?  The video is just as craptastic as the photos, except it moves.  I looked at one where I could hear heavy breathing from the agent as she walked up some stairs while she was recording.

Yah I get it. Video is drop dead cool but video taken with a really cheap camera by an armature mostly causes motion sickness for me. This one made me laugh, so enjoy.

Colorado Springs Real Estate , Derek Wagner demonstrates the drawbacks of video marketing for the amateur. See the entire post, "It is harder than it looks".

You can also find the Wagners on Active Rain

A True Geek

Jeff Turner. @respres, the President of Real Estate Shows, arrived at Re-blog world wearing his #FFFFFF shirt.   Turner gave an excellent presentation on social media tools.  We all knew that he would  amaze us , and he did. 

Not trying to be a weenie . . .

It has been awhile since I have written on this blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand.  It seems that there was a time when I only wrote controversial posts here, these days I seem to be writing them everywhere.  It isn't my intention to be controversial, it is just that I question EVERYTHING.

I am not being intentionally anti-social these days either.  The reason I have not responded to the 123 friend requests I have accumulated on face book is because I don't know the friends.  They could be friends and heck we can never have too many friends but it is getting harder and harder for me to click the "accept" button when I have no idea who the friends are.

It is the same on Twitter.  I looked today and figured out that I don't know about 600 of my followers, and probably don't have any idea who a few hundred of the people I am following are.  Some don't tweet so it is no problem to follow them.  Some I do know but they have screen names and avatars that confuse this simple Realtor who lives in fly over land so I don't interact with them very much.  sometimes I figure out who people are but they change their avatar and after a few changes I lose track of them.

It is getting harder to be social.  My participation in multiple social networks has made me a bit anti-social.  I have a tremendous amount of contact with total strangers while at the same time the people I do know have a hard time reaching me as I struggle to hear their voices through the crowd. There are people in my community that I would like to get to know better and others that I would like to meet.

It would be nice if there was truly a general social network that I could use for business and maybe another that I could use for friends and maybe a third that I could use to meet people.  Instead they are all lumped together in one big confusing thing that is way out of control and has limited value for me personally or professionally.

Having hundreds of friends who are Realtors is kind of nice.  From a business point of view it isn't so great.  Yes I get referrals from other agents, a few a year but I mostly don't take them on becasue, It doesn't make sense for me to ever pay a referral fee, especially when the buyers are relocating and take an enormous amount of time and energy.  I just can't run my business that way.

I want to be anti-social, but I have not figured out how to do that without cutting myself off from the people that I would like to have contact with and from those I would like to meet or would like to get to know better.   There really is a huge world out there and a lot of people worth knowing who do not have real estate licenses.

Conventions

This is what the convention looks like to me. I won't say which convention because if I put a tag on this post or a keyword in it the red white and blue elephant who has been following me for days will put it out on twitter.  After 5 days of having my tweets broadcast by the elephant and hearing choppers all day long my last nerve is shot.  With that happy thought in mind, I write on the weenie knowing that my words will be safe from the relentless, but clueless red white and blue elephant, and that the choppers don't seem to be following me on twitter.

Small "T"

I can't help but notice that some of my friends on twitter have decided to use their high school pictures as avatars.  There is even a group on Flickr for yearbook pictures.  I was invited to the group, which is nice, but I have decided not to play.

High school really sucked.  For some it did not, but the last time I was dragged kicking and screaming to a high school reunion I couldn't help but notice that people had changed.  Who they were in high school just doesn't seem relevant any more.

The cute boy I sat next to in my science class with the think curly hair, doesn't have any hair.  The girl who was so popular and so pretty has accumulated 40 pounds and 3 divorce decrees, and managed to drink more during my last reunion than I could handle in a month.

Life is a journey and high school is just one short stop along the way.  Most of the important things in life come after high school, like credit scores and being able to drink a glass of wine without being arrested.

**note:  Dad, ask mom how old I was when this was taken. Think I was 2 but I don't remember.

More than you wanted to know . . .

By Todd Carpenter

This post is so ridiculous, that if I published it anywhere on RE.net EXCEPT here on the Weenie, I would half expect Teresa to roast me for it.
It seems like recently, I spend most of my time chatting it up on twitter, or pimping my blog conference in Vegas (yes, you should go, Teresa will be speaking, along with lots of other top bloggers and... oh snap, there I go again). Occasionally I do actually blog about real estate. Well sort of. I'm a mortgage blogger.

Three and a half years ago, I set about to build the industry's first B2B mortgage blog. A normal person would have called it The Mortgage Reports, but I called it lenderama. Yep, that's how I roll.

Lenderama has had many looks, logos and color schemes. But what most people never notice, is all the half hidden, silly crap  I've always included with every new theme. Up until last week, one little Easter egg I had on my site, was an avatar of myself that was color matched to lenderama's logo. Every time I saw that avatar, it made me laugh.

Nobody else seemed to get it, and that made it even funnier to me. Lots of people told me it was scary looking. Almost everyone refers to it as "the mug shot". Teresa was no fan of my avatar, and even organized a contest to replace it. Well, it seems like half a million people entered the damn contest, but nobody actually voted.

Getting back to lenderama, I finally gave the site some new web digs. It's looking all grown up now, without any silliness. My old avatar was looking out of place. Time for a new one.

I decided that all those pictures from San Francisco would be a good place to start. I also considered my favorite from all the birthday greetings I received. If Jeff Corbett and I ever collaborate on a post, I have a perfect shot. Same goes for Ginger Wilcox. I considered some sombrero picks, but they just don't work at 38px X 55px

Teresa took some pretty some pretty good pics of me (I like this one). As did Kristal Kraft. But Jeff Turner took the winner. Thanks to everyone who took my picture. Now, let's do it to Teresa in Vegas.

Editors Note: Lets not do it to Teresa in Vegas

Another Splogger

I found another splogger scraping content from the Re-blogosphere.  Stop by, find your content and send out your cease and desist email.  These slime bags should be thrown off the internet.
http://blog.nodebtmortgage.com/

In Honor of the Latest changes in Page Rank

Sad to say but the weenie has gone from a page rank 4 to a 3.  I hang my head in shame and worry that my peers on the re-net will think less of me than they already do.  I will understand if no one wants to read this blog any more.   St. Paul Real Estate is still a  PR5, no one really knows why. I see evidence that people read it.  One late night reader has been leaving cracker crumbs.

Have a great day, and remember if your PR dropped it is because you are a loser.

Inman Connect, San Francisco

It is great to be back on the hot dog stand.  I have just one take away from the blogger connect conference that I would life to share.  There is more than one way to have a successful real estate blog.  Of course I like my way the best, and the other bloggers like their way the best, which is why it seemed like we don't agree on anything, because we don't.  I learned the typo's and misspellings are a really bad thing on a blog and so is bad grammar but I am going to keep writing my blogs any way.

The people who attended the blogger connect sessions must have left feeling a bit confused.  There was a lot of good information in the sessions.  My advice would be to keep in mind that none of the "rules" are carved in stone.  be creative, use your imagination.  Take the ideas and improve upon them.

I got to take some pictures while I was in San Francisco, and here are some of them.