It’s stock full of pretty impressive features like:

• 2Xs faster than the iPhone 4
• 7x faster graphics for you hard-core game players
• 8MB camera with better light absorbency (73% more light) = better interior home shots
• 1080p HD video recording. Web video is becoming more and more important to lead capture so now’s your chance
• Cards app allows you to create a card on the phone and mail it to your clients… snail mail! You could take a picture of your clients in front of their new house and then send them a congrats card. Apple will actually print it and mail it for you for only $2.99
• Download speeds as fast as the fastest 4G carrier but on the 3G network… no more bragging you Android users
• Now available on AT&T, Verizon AND Sprint
• Pricing: $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB

• The iPhone 4 is a great choice, especially at $99. The speed and web are plenty fast.
• If you only want it for connecting with clients and shooting pictures and video outside and around communities then the iPhone 4 is enough.
• If you are thinking about using it for shooting interior shots or property videos, then it is worth spending the extra for the higher end camera on the iPhone 4S.

G Plus Pic works well for creating a banner on your profile, but it’s also nice if you want to do something fun with your profile picture too! You upload an image of 750 x 150 pixels to the site.  Then you can decide exactly what part of the picture you want to use – this tool is much easier to use if you want to manipulate, scale or move one section out of the frame, or make it more prominent.  With GPlusPic, you upload the images individually, and in order to your profile until it looks like you want to. The first time I did this – I think I was going to fast, because I had trouble getting them in the right order.  Sounds easy – just give yourself a few minutes.

Gplus Banner Maker is really simple!  You find a picture that is at least 690 x 125, and you upload it to the site (top of the page, in BLUE), then, you get something that looks like the red airplane below.  It’s also nice that you can save your work, and link to your website from here!  Share it on Facebook, or Twitter.  I did a plane, but if you have a beautiful listing, why not create something interesting, a focal piece so to speak.  Show off your great photography skills!  http://www.gplusbannermaker.com

If you have questions about creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – contact me. I’d love to help you and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!

It’s similar to how Gmail looks when you view it through the web app on an iPad, and how the iPad’s mail app looks. In fact, it looks a lot like desktop email clients.  (If you haven’t tried to hook up your iPhone, iPod or iPad to Gmail yet, it’s actually pretty easy!)This means you can alter the panes between vertical and horizontal orientations!  Just go to the Mail Settings in Gmail (top right corner, next to your profile Avitar, looks like a flower <kinda>) and click on LABS. All you have to do is click on Preview Pane in the list!

In addition, as you go through the list of gmail apps, you should also check these out:

• Add Images to your Gmail – you upload and insert into the email!
• Canned Responses!  This totally changes the way you do some of your auto responding emails, lead generation and drip campaigns!
• Insert Invitation to an Event from your Calendar (another Outlook feature many people love)
• PLUS – my favorite – you have an “Oops Option” so if you hit send, and realize you meant to do something different, you can make changes to it!

These are great tools for Real Estate – I’m sure you’ve used other apps with Gmail that you like too!  The way I see it – with Google buying Motorola Mobile, game is ON for Google and Mobile Apps!

If you have questions about your creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – call Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301.  I”d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

While it’s a multiple step process, it’s not that difficult.  You might want to create an Opt-In email list and “touch” your Facebook friends with a newsletters.

This could also be important if you are trying to build your list of followers on Twitter, or find more connections on Linkedin!  Once the contacts are imported into Yahoo!, you can login to your Twitter Account, and upload them to Twitter!

In order to make this work – you need to have a Yahoo! Account.  Login to Yahoo! and go to your Contacts Page:

After you click Facebook, you will need to login to Facebook, and then you will see:

Now – If you don’t use Yahoo as your primary email account, you can export the contacts from Yahoo to a format that will work for Google, AOL, Hotmail, Outlook… or excel, where you can use it for an upload into your Contact Database.  If you are using a service like Mail Chimp or iContact, make CERTAIN you are adding this folks with Opt In so that you do not get marked as a Spammer.

Export the files in a CSV or VCard format .  Then you can import them into Google!  EzyPzy!  Need some ideas for your Email Campaigns?  We’re here to help!

If you have questions about your creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – call Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301.  I”d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

Business card recognition is one of the most popular uses of Google Goggles, so we’re rolling out some new updates to make the experience even quicker and easier. Additionally, instead of simply recognizing the content as text, Goggles now recognizes the information as a contact, making it easier to add to your phone’s contact list. via Google

But the opportunities to use this visual recognition is HUGE!  You take a picture from your phone of landmarks, logos, a book… and it will give you back all of the links and information available on the web!

Zoom Forward a Few Months…  Can it be too long before Google Goggles will connect to the GPS on your phone on a grander scale?  Imagine standing in front of a Property, clicking a picture, and having the single property website for that house pop up!  It will likely also be able to provide you with the age, square feet, lot size, bedroom/bathroom count, and the last sales price.  Google already has all of the information available on the Web!

There are other apps available for digitizing business cards – but this is uber cool, because of the FUTURE opportunities for Real Estate!

I will be excited when they connect the information with the LOCAL maps that Agents are creating and contributing information to!  So having it tell you the age of the house, and the last sale price is cool – but if it also tells you that it’s near the City Park, and there’s a Spring Festival every year about .5 mile away, and shows the you video from the Festival??? … well, THAT will be AMAZING!

Photo Blogging and Video Blogging: Cell Phone to Blog Post in 90 Seconds Flat

Photo blogging is a way to leverage what you are already doing every day—looking at properties and using your cell phone.  Now you don’t need to feel guilty about not being in front of a screen trying to figure out how to create fresh content that the Search Engines will love! Easily add Photos AND Video of properties for sale in your area! (Because a video is worth more than 100 words, and will engage with people on an emotional level!) You will be updating your blog a couple of times a day, which gives you even more Google Juice!

Here’s how to get started:

The first thing you need to do is set up a F-R-E-E account at Posterous.com.  Once you’ve completed that, you’ll be able to send your cell-phone posts to post@posterous.com, and it will know who sent it (it also works with e-mail sent from any device, including your computer).  Additionally, you can have these posts sent to Facebook, Twitter, your blog, You Tube, Tumbler, Linkedin, Flickr, Viddler, Vimeo, Delicious and more… seriously simple syndication of your info!  You decide how you want it syndicated.

If you want to get more out of this feature, you (or your webmaster) will have to make some small adjustments to your blog (WordPress or Drupal)

Create a subdomain from your main Web site domain that points to your photo blog.  For example, if your main site domain is HarleyLtd.com, then you may want to set your photo blog URL to photoblog.HarleyLtd.com with links to it on every page of your site… maybe in a sidebar.

Because you are adding property specific information (in the title and in the text) and because you are adding that content via a link of some sort on every page – search engines like Google will attribute the new photo blog post / content to your entire site.  It will also help tie you and your area and your site together in searches multiple times a day… Wouldn’t this be the EASIEST way to be adding quick 30 second videos of your area to YouTube?

You can have a “Skin” created for your Posterous Blog site that looks just like your “main” site… similar to what you can do to your Twitter and YouTube page.  Consistent branding will help – no matter where someone finds your information.

Now You’re Ready for the EzPz Part Before a Listing!

1. Grab your cell phone and Snap a picture of the house you’re hoping to list on your way in.

2. Compose an e-mail with the address of the listing as the subject line and just a sentence or two describing the property. “123 Main Street Plano, Tx Going On The Market!  Beautiful Stucco 2 story home with over 4500 Sq Feet located in The Old Mill Court Neighborhood, pool and tennis courts just down the street! Updates Coming Soon!”

3. When you get inside, obviously ask permission of the Sellers then – Send the e-mail to post@posterous.com and it will instantly post your subject line as the blog post title, insert the photo, and follow it up with the descriptive text as the main body of your post…and syndicate!  Show the Sellers how you can market their home! Is anybody else in your market doing this?  Ugh, No.

You should be doing this with all types of property in your area!  What about FSBOs?  Knock on the door, ask their permission, and you have another property to market!  Ask the agents in your office if you can market their listings… go to all of the HUD homes in your area (you don’t need permission for those, or the VA homes, USDA homes) and snap, txt and send your way to tons of content!

Best of all???  You can SCHEDULE out these updates!  Several agents hired a professional photographer to take photos of their area, and then hired a Virtual Assistant to schedule them out!  How much would it cost to have your Photographer take extra pictures every time they went to shoot one of your listings?  Use those photos of the Community pool, front entrance to the neighborhood for these shots!

The Good news is that this is SIMPLE, and if you can take photos and text with your cell phone, you can create photo and video blog.

If you have questions about your creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – call Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301.  I”d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

There’ s a great free app that let’s you set up a landing, or Welcome Page for your Facebook Business Page that takes 2 seconds to create!

The system is called “Fan Gate” As many of you are aware, the fan gate (when coupled with incentives like deals, contests and exclusive content) has been one of the most effective ways for Facebook page owners to grow their fans/likes. Facebook’s FBML fan gate functionality enables marketers to display one type of content to fans, and another type of content to non-fans, thus providing a great way for brands to encourage Facebook users to “like” a page (e.g. non fans might see a message such as ‘Like us to access exclusive content or a 50% off coupon”).

The trick is to create a custom image that is 520 x however large you want it to be.  You can create an image in Picnik, and add text to the picture.  You could say something like Thanks For Being a Fan!  Check out our website at www.fathomrealty.com for the folks who are already a fan of the page.  For people who are not you can use an image from Wildfire that’s like the one below, or again, create your own.

It takes about 2 minutes to set up the Wildfire Iframe Application, and it’s F-R-E-E.

Dakno Marketing also set up an app to create a “Fan Gate” for your Facebook Business Page.  I would use it if you are not interested in trying to create your own custom image.  It has a small monthly fee, but it has a ton of style, and is also super easy to set up!

If you have questions about your creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – call Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301.  I”d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

Stand Out From The Crowd

I thought the QR Code Follow Me Tshirt was a REALLY cool way to show folks that you are “into” Twitter – but the $36 price tag is a little much… (would you wear that to the gym?)  Personalized Twitter Backgrounds, on the other hand are pretty easy to use, spiff up your Twitter Profile, and really do help you get noticed!

Make It Easy For Others To Engage!

TWEET MEME: This is the Twitter equivalent to the Facebook Like Button.  It makes it easy for people who read a post to share that post on Twitter.  You can easily add it to your blog, website, splash pages and anywhere else you want to make it easy for your visitors to share your content with their Twitter followers. I love to use the TweetMeme button myself whenever I find great content on the web to share with my Twitter followers, and I’m always disappointed (especially with news pages) that don’t have this available – you have the option of setting up the message for the person, in advance.

You’ll normally see the TweetMeme button at the top or bottom of a post - that’s the WordPress TweetMeme plugin. (In addition to the Facebook Like Button and TweetMeme Button, be sure to also add the LinkedIn Share button to your website, blog, opt-in pages, business page and splash pages).

Twitter Lists:  You should be using lists on Facebook and Twitter to manage your social network.  Easily build your own source of curated content by making a list of Twitter users in a certain field of expertise. Twitter allows up to 20 lists per account with up to 500 names in each list.

Remember that lists on Twitter can be public or private (on Facebook, you have to change your settings to make them private). Anyone can follow a public list. (See Twitter List instructions here).  Creating lists also allows you to create your own paper or magazine using  paper.li or MyTweetMag.  These are free “newspapers” and “Magazine” created and published for you.  You can set up a list for top news in Real Estate, to include Inman, Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com (be sure to add your own name!).

Listorious allows you to add your Twitter List to those created by others, and it allows you to be found under 6 different tags.  GeoChirp mashes up Google Maps and Twitter to find what people close to where you are right that minute are saying (one of my Favorites!) … and Chirp City gives you a new way to VIEW what’s being said in your area and about your area.

Tip 1:  USE FLICKR TO HOLD YOUR PICTURES

Have you ever had trouble sending property photos through email because they were too large? Have you ever received an email from someone and it was difficult to open or it took up a lot of space in your email? Usually they have to send you a series of emails just so you can get all the property photos and you have to sift through each email and download them to your computer so you can begin browsing through them. Let’s be honest…that’s kind of annoying and it takes up a lot of time. You can prevent all of this with Flickr.  You can even upload your photos to Flickr from your PHONE!

This might not seem like much of a tip – emailing a link to your pictures?  But that will constitute HITS to your Flickr Photostream. You can also Tweet your pictures directly from Flickr, and you can use the URL in your blog posts, as opposed to uploading new images into each post.  All of these links, and shares, and hits will help you get seen faster, plus, people can favorite and comment on your pictures!  This is also a great place to have a VERY complete profile!Tip 2:  MARK THE PICTURE LOCATION ON A MAP

Flickr gives you the opportunity to “pin” where the picture was taken on a map.  many people search and use Geo-Location to see what else is in a given area!  It’s just one more time to shwo that you are an expert in a given Geo Location.  Don’t you want to be on this map? 144 MILLION pictures on here?

And if you were considering a new place to live, or find things to do, wouldn’t you be looking at things located near you?  See the find my location button on the right in the image below? Have you looked to see if you could make friends in your area?  There are tons of Cities in the Country that have Flickr Groups that MEET in real life on a regular basis to talk about Photography! You can NETWORK within Flickr!

TIP 3:  TAG YOUR PICTURES

You can’t upload pictures to Flickr that say 123 Main Street for Sale, or Buy My Listing of 123 Main Street… and I’m not so sure I’d want inside shots of my house on Flickr – but you can definitely tag the picture as 123 Main Street, Wickem Subdivision, 35674, Carrollton Tx, Near GWHS… all of those might be searches that someone puts in for homes.

My point is that all too often I see people who upload img3450068400831 and that does NOTHING to help you get found ANYWHERE.  Take the time to write a description, tell the sellers that you put the pictures on Flickr and recommend that they make a comment about some of the things that go on around that property.  Upload pictures of the sign at the entrance of the subdivision, upload your videos of shopping nearby… you CAN maximize every picture that you’ve taken, and use it to be FOUND.

If you have other ways that you are maximizing your pictures, and time using Flickr please share them!

Did you know that there are over 70,000 iPad and iPhone Apps available at the iTunes Store??  Wow!

I just think it might be fun to see which apps YOU find to be the most helpful! Here are some of my favorite apps (in no particular order):

Evernote:  Gives you the ability to easily see your to do list… and to share your notes on each topic.  With the ipad app – you have more space on the screen.  When you click on a notebook, you get a really nice icon view of your individual notes and documents in the selected notebook, with selected content displayed underneath.

Dragon Diction: This allows you to dictate your notes.  It does require an active internet connection, but it is super cool for searching the internet and then saving your notes.

Dropbox: This is especially great for larger presentations and projects that you need to share and work collaboratively on.  It’s one of the easiest ways to work in the cloud!

Xpense Tracker:  I believe in working my real estate business as a BUSINESS.  Keeping track of mileage, food, travel expenses is smart and EASY.  This is a huge time saver!

Scanner Pro (Cost like $7 bucks):  Allows you to scan multipage documents and upload them to Evernote and Dropbox.  Also generates PDF files.

Keynote: This $10 app allows you to create KILLER presentations that are animated.  The Real Estate agent who goes into a listing appointment with a 3 ring notebook is… well… not going to be able to compete with someone who goes in with their listing presentation LIVE and Interactive!

I’m sure you have more cool apps for me to play with – so SHARE!

If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!