Your Time and Social Media
“Social media” is defined by Wikipedia as “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.” In laymen’s terms, social media helps people connect online. In popular usage, the term “social media” typically refers to social networking and sharing sites, including the following:
• Blogs
• Forums
• Image/Photo-Sharing Sites
• Video-Sharing Sites
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Linkedin
It has become the battle cry of the new Internet revolution that businesses MUST be involved in social media to succeed online. This includes realtors and their business. But with new social media outlets emerging and others going in and out of favor at an ever increasing pace, it can be hard to keep up. And many realtors find it a real challenge to know where to invest their time and how to leverage social media effectively. Many frazzled real estate business owners are asking themselves and others the following questions:
• What social media outlets are best for my niche?
• How much time do I need to spend online to be successful?
• I’m so busy working IN my business – how am I going to Tweet, blog, and spend hours on LinkedIn too?
• Do people really care whether or not I’m on Facebook?
Sure, managing your social media efforts can seem frustrating and overwhelming at first glance. But fortunately, you don’t have to invest hours and hours posting tweets about what you ate for breakfast, or uploading videos of your cat to YouTube. In fact, you better skip those things.
Instead, approach social media with a plan, and focus on providing and sharing useful information while also interacting with your fans, friends, and followers. If you do that, social media can be an effective and even fun part of your marketing mix.
In fact, if you approach social media marketing with the right goals, tools, and strategies, you won’t have to spend more than 30 to 60 minutes a day in order to reap great benefits.
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2011 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen.
Digital Communication Overpowering the Personal Touch
Email, texting, twittering, facebooking, skyping and all the other forms of social media have overwhelmed us and taken over the way we communicate, including myself.
We seem to be so caught up with technology and instantly acknowledging others through blanket responses that we’ve lost our way to communicate with a personal touch.
Being that my time is just as valuable as the next person, I started using an online automated greeting card system to enhance my business and stay in touch with friends and family.
What friend would not love to get a personalized card in their mail box saying “Thinking of You!”.
What client wouldn’t want to receive a personalized card in their mail box saying “Happy Home Anniversary!”
My family and friends adore getting these terrific greeting cards. Receiving them not just on special occasions but when I think I need to reach out to them. The system also provides many gifts to send with my cards. Tokens of appreciation that brighten their day!
I also use this system to connect with clients and prospects to strengthen my business. There’s a card for everything or I can upload my own design. Showing my business associates how much I appreciate them helps me to stand out from the rest. I know this because when they receive their cards in the mail, they let me know how much they loved receiving it!
These greeting cards are a fabulous way to show that you care or stay connected with your business relationships. The best part is that it’s so simple, inexpensive and I love sending them. It makes me feel good that in some way I made others feel good too.
I’m so excited by this service and the results I’ve received that I’d like to share it with you. All you have to do is email me at admin@vacontact.com and I’ll send you access to try it for free on my dime.
SHOW THAT YOU CARE TODAY!
Time Bandits And Productivity Saboteurs – Identifying And Managing Them
Today’s working environments are riddled with interruptions and distractions. Just when we get focused on one task, a new e-mail arrives, the phone rings, or someone stops by and off we go on a new tangent. Later, when we return to the original task, we need to get back up to speed before we can make any progress. The net result is lost time and greater anxiety.
Unfortunately, interruptions or distractions are a part of the workplace. Consequently, we must understand the nature of each to better manage them.
Dissecting Time Bandits
Productivity saboteurs originate from one of three sources – You, Them, and It. Let’s examine the role of each source in diminishing our productivity.
You. The most insidious time bandit is yourself. We each allow, even create, distractions that reduce our productivity and cause our workloads to pile up even higher. A classic example of this is flitting from task to task or place to place during the day. The act of just “touching” your work is a distraction you create rather than actually doing anything substantive on any one task. For example,does this sound familiar? You’ve got to get a task completed, but you find yourself incessantly checking your e-mail Inbox, your Twitter account or your Facebook updates. Nothing is getting done, but there’s a whole bunch of activity going on! The most productive way to manage this type of self-inflicted distraction is to sit quietly in front of the work you need to do. Yes, just sit there. Quietly …maybe with a blank screen or pen and paper in front of you. Let your mind settle down and allow yourself to think just about what it is you need to get done. Resist the urge to dart off to some other perceived exigency. As your brain settles down and begins to focus on the task at hand, you’ll discover the path to completion for this project.
Them. Everyone in your workplace is a potential time bandit. Without warning, these folks can pounce on you, delivering up huge interruptions. Some of these interruptions are substantive – they actually require your assistance. However, many of them are unnecessary and do nothing but cause you to veer away from your well-intended and productive efforts. Moreover, keeping an “open door” and managing by “walking around” are highly lauded management practices that must be considered when seeking to manage unnecessary interruptions for fear of communicating an unwanted message – leave me alone! The best tact is to divide your time physically between periods when interruptions are “acceptable” and periods when they’re not. Thus, during “acceptable” periods, make yourself available via the open door, etc. When the interruption occurs, quickly determine its priority and manage accordingly – deal with it right now, schedule time with the interrupter (in the future) to deal with the issue, or stand up (to indicate closure) and accept any physical manifestation of the interruption and place it in the Inbox for future consideration. Conversely, during “unacceptable” periods, make yourself unavailable via a closed door (with or without a note on the door asking not be disturbed) or simply by leaving – go to a place where you’re unlikely to be found such as a conference room or empty office.
It. The “it” to which I refer is most often technology. We are bombarded by various interruptions and easy-to-access distractions via modern technology. For example, take new message alerts! “You’ve got mail” became the banner of the Internet age. Today, busy workers deal with tens, if not hundreds, of e-mails every day, with a corresponding “Ping” and screen flash every time a new one arrives. What’s the point of knowing every time “You’ve got mail”!? If it’s so darn important, why aren’t you calling me or coming to see me? You get my point. The same goes with the onslaught of social media – updates to Twitter and Facebook and their progeny are bombarding us with largely unexamined and generally unimportant information. The best way to handle this particular productivity saboteur is to take command of the technology and drive it, instead of being driven by it. Specifically, turn off all new message/update alerts and visit each technology source as often as necessary to remain in control of the information being delivered via that channel. Thus, you can turn off your new e-mail alert and check it every 20 to 30 minutes to make sure you’re remaining responsive. With social media, check it on your breaks – they’re “social” by definition, so treat them as such!
Doing What You Can With What You Have
In short, interruptions and distractions can never be eliminated from our days. In fact, some matters are truly urgent and require an interruption. However, if you realize that these emergencies are in the great minority of events and construct mechanisms to efficiently attend to the rest of the productivity saboteurs that come at you during the day, you’ll find that your focus goes up and, along with it, your productivity and sense of accomplishment!
By: By: Paul H. Burton
Paul works with clients who believe individual performance drives organizational success. As the creator of the QuietSpacing productivity method, he is a frequent speaker and recognized expert on getting things done. Paul works with individuals, groups and organizations to create more productive working environments via high-content keynote addresses, interactive training seminars, and one-on-one coaching sessions. You can learn more about Paul’s work and subscribe to his complimentary newsletter – Six Minutes to Success – at www.quietspacing.com.
Article Source : Time Bandits And Productivity Saboteurs – Identifying And Managing Them : ArticleDashboard
Let go and your real estate business will grow! Contact us today to find out how a Virtual Real Estate Assistant can be that support for you.
It’s Time to Give It Up!
Time-sapping administrative tasks are a distraction for any real estate professional. But when you’re accustomed to doing the work yourself or think that no one else can do something as well as you can, it’s often hard to delegate.
“Only I have the extra, special, super skills to do this task”
“By the time I teach someone else how to do it, I may as well have done it myself!”
While these are valid reasoning’s, don’t let these barriers hold you back from greater success. Get rid of the idea that you’re the only person who can do anything right. Other people have skills that you don’t have.
Most realtors fail to realize that you must focus on results in order to reach the next level.
You need to be aware of the fact that as a professional real estate agent you just don’t have one job. When you are doing too much by yourself, or you’re spending hours working on a large number of different projects, this is a sign that you will need to begin delegating tasks to an assistant.
Here are 5 Key Tips that will help you get over those barriers and take a well-planned and logical approach to delegation:
1) Figure out what needs to be delegated – Choose tasks that you tend to drag out because you don’t enjoy doing. These tasks that are stressing you out are only sabotaging your chances of personal and professional advancement.
2) Be picky when choosing the correct person – It may take time, but by having thorough discussions about your expectations and the other person’s ability, will allow you to make a good decision about who you choose to assist and support you.
3) Provide Clear Instructions – Having clear documentation outlines the details of the work and provides all of the necessary information that is important. But don’t leave it at that. Once everything has been reviewed take time to answer any questions that may arise. An experienced and trained assistant will guide you through this process.
4) Follow the work and provide feedback – When you have found help don’t simply write them off and forget about them. Follow up to ensure its being done correctly and to your specifications. This will allow you to monitor the work and provide feedback for improvements.
5) Keep checking on what needs to be delegated – Business responsibilities change, so your delegation needs will also change. Regularly check what you have coming in and who you are delegating it to in order to determine if you need to outsource more work. This will help you anticipate any changes as they occur.
It is difficult to excel at multiple things simultaneously.
Your time is valuable! With delegating, you can enjoy more time and flexibility to focus on bigger responsibilities such as planning and strategizing, coming up with new ideas, pursing business prospects and ultimately allowing you to focus on the bigger picture.
Let go and your real estate business will grow! Contact us today to find out how a Virtual Real Estate Assistant can be that support for you.
Share your comments with us!
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2010 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen
Why Categorize Your Contacts
Every contact database, whether you use Outlook, Top Producer, IXACT Contact or others, has a feature called Contact Type or Category.
Working with many Realtors, this seems to be an area, with management of their database, that either gets over used, never used or is just plain used incorrectly. I’ve seen many contact database systems set up with so many categories or types that they become too confusing or categories have the same meaning. Having a process on managing how a contact is set up, right at the very beginning, will save loads of time down the road.
This feature is used to easily view and manage the way you interact with the contacts that you set up within your database. When doing mass emails, letters or postcards on the fly to specific contacts, the category or contact type will make it easier and faster.
Here are a few tips on how to organize your contact categories or types.
1) Make a list of the types of contacts that you associate with, right now, in your real estate business.
(These can be your buyers, sellers, prospects, active listings, other Realtors, Realtor referrals, banks, lawyers, business associates, personal, etc.)
2) Think of the different types of marketing that you do or may want to do in the future. Information you will send to your various categorized contacts.
(Will you send a monthly newsletter or possibly schedule weekly emails of your new listings or sending out yearly Christmas cards)
3) Determine if you need to separate the names on your list into more defined categories based on how often you need to access their information AND if it is necessary to market to them.
(For example, do you need a category for lawyers because you frequently contact them for transactions. Or maybe you may combine a category for banks and mortgage companies. Possibly put insurance companies, home stagers, management companies into your business associates)
You can always refine your contacts as you need or as you grow your real estate business. The one thing to keep in mind is that it does not have to be complex and confusing to use your contact categories or types. Keep it simple!
Contact us if you would like to know more about how you can get help with your contact database management.
Please share your comments!
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your real estate business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2010 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen
Ready for a Massive Leap Forward?
Running your real estate business without a contact management system will create a massive amount of work later down the road. That is, when you decide that it’s finally time to ‘get on it’. As realtors, in a busy time of year, this is one area that requires constant attention, which you just might not have time for. Contact management is all about relationship building, which creates the “know you, like you and trust you” factor that leads to repeat clients and referrals.
A Real Estate Assistant provides solutions, supports you in maintaining the database and keeps you moving forward to stay connected all year long with your clients. It’s easy for us, we do it all the time.
Having someone to support you with experience, proficiency and organization can give you a huge stress relief and THAT is important. It’s our job to know how to use it and work with it.
We want you to delegate and share your ideas on what system is best for you. Communicating and working with you during the process and beyond is what you need in your real estate business to be successful with a contact management system.
Don’t let all your hard work with your clients go to waste just because you’ve closed the sale. It needs to go beyond! Top Producing realtors do this and so can you!
Contact us to find out the right solutions for you.
Author Bio: VA Certified and passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. As President and Owner of VA Contact, Lori Isachsen works directly with real estate professionals for over 5 years coupled with 25 years business experience in management, administration, accounting and computers in both the public and non-profit sectors. My clients enjoy the advantage and benefits of gaining their time to focus where they want to. Lori is skilled and highly proficient in organization, attention to detail, maintaining deadlines, establishing systems and strategic planning. Our goal is to listen to you and what you need in your business through communication and client satisfaction.
Copyright © 2010 Would you like to republish this article? You are free to do so as long as you include a link back to the full post, attributing the author, Lori Isachsen
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