Rise of 2 Cents
In this digital world, it is no surprise that social media has caused a revolution in the way we communicate, interact and connect with others in our personal and professional lives. Gary Vaynerchuk has termed the internet as the second Industrial Revolution of our time. And I wholeheartedly agree with him. Gary Vaynerchuk is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author, self-taught wine expert, and innovative entrepreneur. You can find more about Gary at garyvaynerchuk.com.
We, as a culture, are obsessed with the need for sharing ourselves via posts, texts, images or videos. A clear example of this is the proliferation of the “selfie”. A “selfie” is a photo taken by oneself, or of the self. It is typically posted on social media sites to be shared with family, friends and the general public. It is equivalent to a modern day self-portrait.
“Selfies” are so prolific in our society that the word “selfie” was selected as the word of the year for 2013 by the Oxford Online dictionary. As of August 2013, there were over 31 million photos hash tagged (social media categorization tool with the pound sign) with the term “selfie” on Instagram. And over 80 million photos with the hashtag of “me”. Instagram is a very visual social media platform. Instagram allows users to share photos and videos via mobile devices.
These numbers are staggering and increasing. The action of feeling compelled to share our status updates, food porn images and selfies is the phenomenon of what I call the “Rise of 2 Cents”.
There are numerous articles on whether the “Rise of 2 Cents” is based in egotism, selflessness or some combination of both. This article does not seek to delve into the psychological motivations behind posting but instead on awareness on the proliferation of it in our culture.
My soon-to-be released “Rise of 2 Cents” ebook will go into greater detail on why we post, what we post, the benefits and challenges of this mindset. The upcoming ebook “Rise of 2 Cents” will explore ways on how to make the most (professionally and personally) out of this rising phenomenon without exploiting others or self.
As always, I welcome constructive thought and feedback. So, what’s your 2 cents on this article?
We, as a culture, are obsessed with the need for sharing ourselves via posts, texts, images or videos. A clear example of this is the proliferation of the “selfie”. A “selfie” is a photo taken by oneself, or of the self. It is typically posted on social media sites to be shared with family, friends and the general public. It is equivalent to a modern day self-portrait.
“Selfies” are so prolific in our society that the word “selfie” was selected as the word of the year for 2013 by the Oxford Online dictionary. As of August 2013, there were over 31 million photos hash tagged (social media categorization tool with the pound sign) with the term “selfie” on Instagram. And over 80 million photos with the hashtag of “me”. Instagram is a very visual social media platform. Instagram allows users to share photos and videos via mobile devices.
These numbers are staggering and increasing. The action of feeling compelled to share our status updates, food porn images and selfies is the phenomenon of what I call the “Rise of 2 Cents”.
There are numerous articles on whether the “Rise of 2 Cents” is based in egotism, selflessness or some combination of both. This article does not seek to delve into the psychological motivations behind posting but instead on awareness on the proliferation of it in our culture.
My soon-to-be released “Rise of 2 Cents” ebook will go into greater detail on why we post, what we post, the benefits and challenges of this mindset. The upcoming ebook “Rise of 2 Cents” will explore ways on how to make the most (professionally and personally) out of this rising phenomenon without exploiting others or self.
As always, I welcome constructive thought and feedback. So, what’s your 2 cents on this article?
TOP Social media websites for real estate professionals
In addition to widely known social media sites--Facebook,Google Plus, LinkedIn and Twitter—you may also want to utilize these sites for your real estate business:
ActiveRain is a real estate networking site for real estate professionals. You can sign-up for a free membership, create your profile, and start interacting with other members. As of right now, the service is free! You can also take advantage of their unique referral program. You can use the referral service to find the best real estate professionals, real estate leads and form local real estate relationships. One of the best parts of the referral service is the ability to search in your neighborhood at a local level.
Vine is a great way to feature properties that are for rent or sale. It is a mobile video sharing site. How does it work? Users are able to upload six seconds of video from their smartphone or tablet. The video creator can create loops instead of just featuring a static photo. This video feature allows you to be creative and help put your prospective client at your property’s location. Real estate companies use this app to display wide views while giving a short description of the property’s features.
Instagram is another video sharing mobile application. Instagram is owned by Facebook (acquired for one billion dollars in 2012). Instagram users can now post fifteen seconds worth of video and it can be featured in your Facebook feed. Facebook promotes Instagram stories within your feed by connecting your Facebook accounts to their Instagram accounts. When you “like” a photo on Instagram, they now appear in your Facebook feed with the intent to entice other people to check out the posted photos.
Pinterest is an immensely popular photo sharing site. Basically, it is a virtual bulletin board. You can “pin” images or videos from the web to different boards under your created profile. You can have an unlimited number of pins and boards. Each pin has a description and links directly to the website you got the image or video from.
Once you share a pin, your followers can like it and re-pin it to one of their boards, which goes to all of their friends on the site. This action and reaction translates into visibility for you and your company if used correctly. As a side note, there is an excellent shelf life for pins. This means that your material can be shared for significantly long periods of time. You can pin home listings, neighborhood information, project photos and company photos (displaying a sense of teamwork). There is also a Pinterest Real Estate Board group that you can request to join. Here’s a YouTube video for how Real Estate professionals are currently utilizing Pinterest.
Trulia is a question and answer platform where people post specific questions about real estate issues. You can create an account and post answers, or ask questions of your own. This platform is a great opportunity to build credibility and demonstrate your subject matter expertise. People often post common questions and ask for assistance in housing matters.
Zillow’s Discussions is similar to Trulia. It is also a digital question and answer platform, where you can build credibility and display your areas of expertise. Zillow has a specific realtor group category under the Advice tab.
Meetup is a great site to create relationships and connections for yourself. Just like LinkedIn, it is a great way to network in your area. Form a Real Estate Meetup Group in your area! This is a great way to mastermind with other investors. Your imagination is the limit to what you can do on this site.
Utilizing multiple digital media channels to generate leads, build community, and create branding opportunities is a must in today’s market.
My Tips:
· Provide consistency across multiple platforms by using the same hashtags (#pinoftheday is the most popular hashtag on Pinterest and Google), photos, and videos to build brand recognition and reach a wider audience.
· Do not be afraid to experiment with one visual platform to see what photos and videos do best with your targeted demographic.
· Lastly, sign up for a daily posting management system like HootSuite or a mobile application like Everypost to easily create a stream of posts for the week, or longer, all in one sitting.
ActiveRain is a real estate networking site for real estate professionals. You can sign-up for a free membership, create your profile, and start interacting with other members. As of right now, the service is free! You can also take advantage of their unique referral program. You can use the referral service to find the best real estate professionals, real estate leads and form local real estate relationships. One of the best parts of the referral service is the ability to search in your neighborhood at a local level.
Vine is a great way to feature properties that are for rent or sale. It is a mobile video sharing site. How does it work? Users are able to upload six seconds of video from their smartphone or tablet. The video creator can create loops instead of just featuring a static photo. This video feature allows you to be creative and help put your prospective client at your property’s location. Real estate companies use this app to display wide views while giving a short description of the property’s features.
Instagram is another video sharing mobile application. Instagram is owned by Facebook (acquired for one billion dollars in 2012). Instagram users can now post fifteen seconds worth of video and it can be featured in your Facebook feed. Facebook promotes Instagram stories within your feed by connecting your Facebook accounts to their Instagram accounts. When you “like” a photo on Instagram, they now appear in your Facebook feed with the intent to entice other people to check out the posted photos.
Pinterest is an immensely popular photo sharing site. Basically, it is a virtual bulletin board. You can “pin” images or videos from the web to different boards under your created profile. You can have an unlimited number of pins and boards. Each pin has a description and links directly to the website you got the image or video from.
Once you share a pin, your followers can like it and re-pin it to one of their boards, which goes to all of their friends on the site. This action and reaction translates into visibility for you and your company if used correctly. As a side note, there is an excellent shelf life for pins. This means that your material can be shared for significantly long periods of time. You can pin home listings, neighborhood information, project photos and company photos (displaying a sense of teamwork). There is also a Pinterest Real Estate Board group that you can request to join. Here’s a YouTube video for how Real Estate professionals are currently utilizing Pinterest.
Trulia is a question and answer platform where people post specific questions about real estate issues. You can create an account and post answers, or ask questions of your own. This platform is a great opportunity to build credibility and demonstrate your subject matter expertise. People often post common questions and ask for assistance in housing matters.
Zillow’s Discussions is similar to Trulia. It is also a digital question and answer platform, where you can build credibility and display your areas of expertise. Zillow has a specific realtor group category under the Advice tab.
Meetup is a great site to create relationships and connections for yourself. Just like LinkedIn, it is a great way to network in your area. Form a Real Estate Meetup Group in your area! This is a great way to mastermind with other investors. Your imagination is the limit to what you can do on this site.
Utilizing multiple digital media channels to generate leads, build community, and create branding opportunities is a must in today’s market.
My Tips:
· Provide consistency across multiple platforms by using the same hashtags (#pinoftheday is the most popular hashtag on Pinterest and Google), photos, and videos to build brand recognition and reach a wider audience.
· Do not be afraid to experiment with one visual platform to see what photos and videos do best with your targeted demographic.
· Lastly, sign up for a daily posting management system like HootSuite or a mobile application like Everypost to easily create a stream of posts for the week, or longer, all in one sitting.
HOw to successfully whack the online information overload mole
Feel like you are playing whack-a-mole with online information overload? You are not alone. It turns out most of the internet users feel that way at some point or another. Many feel overwhelmed with all of the social media posts, tweets, likes and shares. This doesn’t even take into account your emails and YouTube videos. In this digital age, it’s inevitable or is it? In a survey by Reuters, two thirds of managers said that information overload hurt their personal relationships and made their jobs less satisfying. One third of managers felt that the stress and anxiety from information fatigue syndrome (coined by David Lewis) damages their health. So, what can be done? Here are 3 simple strategies to help you combat data asphyxiation (coined by William Van Winkle)
1) Streamline the social media noise with web filtering programs. You can use web filtering programs to help keep spam and other unwanted online noise to a minimum. Believe it or not, there is a program called “Freedom” that will disconnect you at specific times to help combat information overload. You can Google or Bing it, your choice.
2) Utilize social media dashboards. Social media dashboards allow you to send posts and updates to multiple online social media platforms (ie Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, Pinterest) simultaneously. This feature allows you to look at a large information at one site and then manage it with auto scheduling abilities. In the end, this saves you time. We all need more time in this digital age! There are numerous social media dashboards to help out; however, I highly recommend the HootSuite dashboard. I use it myself.
3) Go cold turkey for a few hours. Yes, I said it. It’s okay to turn off ALL of your digital devices and go dark for a while. And in this information-rich age, it’s necessary. Down time or rather “thinking time” is needed to reset our impressive human computers. Our brains need time to process the megabytes of information consistently coming at us. So, feel free to take time to play a round of frisby golf, paint a Picasso, make three-cheese lasagna or go for a hike. Your work productivity and personal relationships will be better because of it.
Feel free to respond to this blog. I want to hear your thoughts. How do you combat information overload?
1) Streamline the social media noise with web filtering programs. You can use web filtering programs to help keep spam and other unwanted online noise to a minimum. Believe it or not, there is a program called “Freedom” that will disconnect you at specific times to help combat information overload. You can Google or Bing it, your choice.
2) Utilize social media dashboards. Social media dashboards allow you to send posts and updates to multiple online social media platforms (ie Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, Pinterest) simultaneously. This feature allows you to look at a large information at one site and then manage it with auto scheduling abilities. In the end, this saves you time. We all need more time in this digital age! There are numerous social media dashboards to help out; however, I highly recommend the HootSuite dashboard. I use it myself.
3) Go cold turkey for a few hours. Yes, I said it. It’s okay to turn off ALL of your digital devices and go dark for a while. And in this information-rich age, it’s necessary. Down time or rather “thinking time” is needed to reset our impressive human computers. Our brains need time to process the megabytes of information consistently coming at us. So, feel free to take time to play a round of frisby golf, paint a Picasso, make three-cheese lasagna or go for a hike. Your work productivity and personal relationships will be better because of it.
Feel free to respond to this blog. I want to hear your thoughts. How do you combat information overload?
All browsers are not created equal
It’s true. Not all browsers are created equal. But first, what’s a browser? A browser is a piece of software on your computer that allows you to visit webpages and use web applications. Browsers are free and only take a few minutes to install on your desktop, laptop or mobile device.
What does a browser do? A browser displays web pages (information) to you. Every web page runs through one. Keeping the latest version of your web browser updated helps to ensure browsing speed, safety and overall general appearance of the web pages. Web browsers are not operating systems or hardware. If you are not sure which browser you are using, you can click on https://www.whatismybrowser.com/ to find out. This site will also tell your IP address, and if you have the latest update for your browser. As a special bonus, it provides information on whether your browser provides the “Do Not Track” feature. (This feature enables users to opt out of tracking by websites they do not visit, including analytics services, advertising networks, and social platforms.)
There are several different browsers and you may have heard of several of them. The most prominent browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer (the big 5 browsers). Most web browsers are included with the Operating System for free. There were exceptions to this in the beginning days of the World Wide Web. But today, most web browsers are free. Commercial web browsers are paid by search engine companies to the make their search engine the default search engine. This is where the real opportunity resides from the big 5 browsers. Search engine searches drive traffic and add revenue to these browsers owners.
What should you be looking for in your browser? It depends on how you use it. The obvious answer is speed. However, you should look for other things as well, including HTML5 compatibility, video support security features and other additional features Albert Jackson, wrote an excellent easy-to-read piece called “Comparison on all Major Web Browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome”. In this piece, he clearly lays out the pros and cons of each of the major browser players and gives us his browsing preferences.
I have found that browser choice is complete personal. Personally, I vacillate between Google Chrome (lighter and more streamlined) and Firefox (habit-driven and and provides lots of tutorial help) on a daily basis for laptops and mobile devices. I encourage you to download a couple of major browsers and experiment for yourself. Most of them have exceptional speed times and extra built-in features. As always, feel free to tell me what you find. I encourage feedback.
What does a browser do? A browser displays web pages (information) to you. Every web page runs through one. Keeping the latest version of your web browser updated helps to ensure browsing speed, safety and overall general appearance of the web pages. Web browsers are not operating systems or hardware. If you are not sure which browser you are using, you can click on https://www.whatismybrowser.com/ to find out. This site will also tell your IP address, and if you have the latest update for your browser. As a special bonus, it provides information on whether your browser provides the “Do Not Track” feature. (This feature enables users to opt out of tracking by websites they do not visit, including analytics services, advertising networks, and social platforms.)
There are several different browsers and you may have heard of several of them. The most prominent browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer (the big 5 browsers). Most web browsers are included with the Operating System for free. There were exceptions to this in the beginning days of the World Wide Web. But today, most web browsers are free. Commercial web browsers are paid by search engine companies to the make their search engine the default search engine. This is where the real opportunity resides from the big 5 browsers. Search engine searches drive traffic and add revenue to these browsers owners.
What should you be looking for in your browser? It depends on how you use it. The obvious answer is speed. However, you should look for other things as well, including HTML5 compatibility, video support security features and other additional features Albert Jackson, wrote an excellent easy-to-read piece called “Comparison on all Major Web Browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome”. In this piece, he clearly lays out the pros and cons of each of the major browser players and gives us his browsing preferences.
I have found that browser choice is complete personal. Personally, I vacillate between Google Chrome (lighter and more streamlined) and Firefox (habit-driven and and provides lots of tutorial help) on a daily basis for laptops and mobile devices. I encourage you to download a couple of major browsers and experiment for yourself. Most of them have exceptional speed times and extra built-in features. As always, feel free to tell me what you find. I encourage feedback.
A Survey of Online Dispute Resolution: Past Practices, Present Challenges and Future Possibilities.
Graduate Terminal Project
August 2010
ABSTRACT. This paper surveys the past practices, present challenges and future possibilities within the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) field. Key chapters include: the History of ODR, Advantages of ODR, Challenges of ODR, Current Utilization in ODR, and the Future of ODR. Literature review included: scholarly journal articles, books, online websites, online blogs, and online discussion board threads. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted via in-person and telephone. The results of this project will add to the existing body of literature in this field by providing meaningful insights into ODR’s history, current use and its promising future.
August 2010
ABSTRACT. This paper surveys the past practices, present challenges and future possibilities within the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) field. Key chapters include: the History of ODR, Advantages of ODR, Challenges of ODR, Current Utilization in ODR, and the Future of ODR. Literature review included: scholarly journal articles, books, online websites, online blogs, and online discussion board threads. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted via in-person and telephone. The results of this project will add to the existing body of literature in this field by providing meaningful insights into ODR’s history, current use and its promising future.
Secrets: Facebook Ad Marketing Revealed
Comprehensive PowerPoint presentation on the in's and out's of Facebook paid digital ads. Subjects include: Types of ads, placement of ads, ad development, types of audiences, ad report review, Instagram Ad design, review of metrics, split A/B testing and Facebook Insights. January 2017