Real Estate Pod Casting Technology

Everyone is Pod casting these days, uploading audio/video to websites that can be downloaded and replayed on your iPod.

I found an article yesterday touting to be one of the first Pod Casting sites specifically designed for the real estate industry. For those of you that are iPod users, you'll know what all of this means. For non-iPod users, well in short...you can now buy an iPod and go to some of these sites to download tips, tricks, training and general chatter about how to better manage your Real Estate business.

http://www.podcastingnews.com/archives/2006/07/new_real_estate.html

Here are some things to remember when Pod Casting, or downloading Pod Casting files:
1) Most of these are amateur recordings and may or may not have accurate data
2) Because most of this is amateur, just remember opinion is NOT fact. A lot of people will share their success tips which may or may not work for your area.
3) Only download from reputable sites, remember there are still a lot of virus and spyware sites out there. Never download stuff from sites that look less than professional or give you errors when you start downloading.
4) If you are recording a pod cast, be clear, concise and site your statistics. Making up data or sharing your internal data doesn't support your idea unless it can be proven in general or over a larger test group.
5) Be careful of liability - don't say things that may put you in the sights of lawyers; avoid using competitor names, brands or other products, especially if you are not providing favorable information. Even favorable reports may require approval from the companies, it never hurts to ask before you publish your pod cast. If you can, issue a release of liability for the pod cast (especially if it's on your site, let people know that this is Opinion or Recommendation and that some markets may require different strategies/methods). Just be careful.

Finally - before you publish online, load the files to a test site and have a few of your internal employees test them to make sure they sound OK, download correctly and are a reasonable length.

If you are managing a larger group of agents or brokers, you should really consider pod casting or media file downloads within your internal corporate network to provide your employees with valuable training and educational material. I've known a couple of CEO's that have developed weekly messages that they record for their staff (and an additional message for their customers/potential customers) to help motivate and educate their staff from an executive level. In fact this can be very effective for marketing. I’ll use an example; my company, myAgentPHONE has a relationship with Hobbs Herder Advertising. We supply them with a telephony product known as VoiceCast, (which I’ll write about in a future post,) to communicate their message to their clients. For instance, Don Hobbs uses VoiceCast to record holiday greetings or reminders of upcoming seminars that he sends out to his clients routinely. . He recommends Realtors to use it to stay in contact with their farms. The main difference here is that VoiceCast sends the messages to phone lines whereas pod casts can be sent and or downloaded. So all though it’s not the same technology as pod casting, it allows for the same ease of delivery of a consistent message. Subscribe to my RSS feed to stay tuned for more info on VoiceCast.

Okay so for those of you not really interested in the iPod generation or Pod Casting...remember myAgentPHONE gives you the ability to play a pod cast
message directly through an 800 number that people can call at any time for free. The quality can usually be better and give people the ability to connect with someone by phone or cell right after the broadcast...a much more effective way of converting this type of marketing tool directly into a lead.

Yep, if you're in the Real Estate & Mortgage business, myAgentPHONE really is that important...it can take the place of several "hot technologies" or just be a more powerful full-service offering for you to leverage to sell more real estate.

SSend me an email about your thoughts on this subject. And if you have the time, let me know if you've heard of other similar technologies being used to pod cast.

Until next time,

Damien Zamora
dzamora@myagentphone.com

Top 10 list for mobile real estate professionals

Good morning everyone,

I was looking up Realtor Technology the other day to just see what was being promoted out there and see if there are any new and cool applications or devices that I could play with and found a good article by HP (obviously bias toward their technology but if you take out the branding, it's still a good article). Check it out.

I did want to comment on a few of the things in the article because I have had some experience using most of the stuff in here, I'll just go point by point.

1) PDA Phones - Got to have one! If you actually use the technology you own...then this is a HUGE benefit to your day-to-day operations and successful flow of business. If you love technology but don't actually use it to its full potential...don't waste the money and just get a small laptop.

2) Mobile PC - I've never liked the tablet PC and haven't met anyone who has used them so I don't have much advice there but having a laptop is a big benefit. Before you go buy one consider this...is your primary objective to show pictures on it or to do business on it? If you're using the laptop to show pictures or presentations then go with the bigger, more powerful laptops that have the nice screens and act as a mobile PC. They're heavy but you can't go wrong with a great display and tons of power. On the other hand, if the laptop is for doing business then go for the "mini" laptops they have that have anywhere from a 7 1/2" screen all the way up to about 12" screen. These babies are small, weigh under 2lbs and pack enough power to do everything you need (except heavy graphics or image management). If you're a road warrior like I am, these little laptops are great because they're light, do the job and some are smaller than a note pad...and just slightly thicker.

PC Card - If you can afford one, and the monthly service (usually $50-$100/mo) then you'll never want to leave home without one. Almost every major metro has high-speed bandwidth for them and they are a tremendous help in keeping you "always online." If you live in a rural or semi-rural area that has spotty connectivity then forget it, it will only frustrate you and make you wonder why you're wasting so much money. If you travel a lot like I do you may want to consider an Air Card from Verizon.. It’s only $59.00 per month and the $249.00 air card is free with a 2 year agreement. Don’t quote me on this; they change from time to time. One of the main reasons why I use and also recommend their service is....You've heard it before...."It's the Network." It's actually true. I find their service available in some of the most unlikely places.. So a carrier's network coverage is very important to consider.

4) Mobile Printers - I've never been a fan of them. I know a few people that live and die by them but I have yet to find a truly mobile printer that actually is reliable and prints quality docs. I usually just carry around a thumb drive and hit Kinko's or any print house if I need something on the road. If you have studied what myAgentPHONE can do for you in this regard, keep in mind that you can store all of your important documents in your myAgentPHONE fax inbox and retrieve them from anywhere online. This could be your clients home, Kinko’s as mentioned above or anywhere that you can access the net with a printer. Or you can even call into your myAgentphone account and have your docs faxed to you on demand right to any fax machine..For more information go to myAgentphone and check out E Fax services. Just a couple of alternative options for you to consider before you invest in a Mobile Printer.

5) Digital Camera - Required, Period. Try and get at or around 5 megapixels, anything over 6 is overkill but may produce better images. The big brands are so good now, you can't really go wrong with a Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Fugi, Sony and any brand that's been doing digital cameras since about 1998. Some of the newer brands still need to get the experience under their belt. But as a Realtor you have to know how important this piece of simple yet very effective technology can be for you and your business. And it’s also great to keep track of the fun family times.. Bigger bang for your buck when you can use a piece of business technology for personal use too.. :)

6) Wireless keyboard for PDA - If you're using a PDA or PDA Phone...don't leave home without one of these.

7) Digital Recorder - I hate my voice so I can't get use to these things but if you don't mind hearing yourself...I imagine they can be a huge help in personal memory management.  If you are like me...just carry around a note pad or something to scribble down ideas, appointments, etc. or just actually use your laptop.

8) Portable Backup Drive - Technology is NOT reliable, just remember that mantra. If you always back your work up and be a fanatic about it, you'll never have to worry about losing information, schedules, contacts, deals, etc. Find what works best for you and just be a Backup Junkie.

9) PowerPoint - Learn it, Live it, Love it. Makes your sales process REALLY easy. And if you throw in Adobe Acrobat, you can print all of them to PDF files so that you can send to people who may not have PowerPoint. I give presentations all over the country and using my power point presentations in most cases, make me a hit! No really, I give a great presentation using this invaluable piece of software..
Email me a request and I will send you one of my powerpoints that I use to present my technology, PBNext which if the parent brand of myAgentPHONE

10) Mobile Mindset - Success is a decision. So is being a mobile professional. If you truly want to do it right....force yourself for one month to use all of the new Tech-Toys you buy and by the end of the month you will know if it works or not and will also find ways to make your life and business even more streamlined than you ever thought possible.

And that's my $0.02 on the subject.

Hope you all had a fantastic 4th of July!

Please post additional helpful comments on this topic or email me of some other technologies you use or your feedback on the ones listed in this post.

Until next time,

Damien Zamora
dzamora@myagentphone.com