Not familiar with HootSuite? If you have a presence on multiple social media channels and are looking for a tool to help you manage all the places you appear, HootSuite is one to check out. It is free to managing up to 5 social media accounts so there is no cost to test it out.  You can also test drive a pro-account for 30 days for free.  With a HootSuite account, you can:

• Send updates to multiple social media sites – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.
• Schedule postings for a future date
• Monitor the interest level of the content you are posting
• Easily share content from any webpage you are on
• Find and engage with influencers who can help spread your message
• Gather intelligence through keyword research and brand mentions online
• Collaborate your social media communication and response amongst your team

With this new certification, Stacey has launched a new live training course: Managing & Scheduling Your Social Media Strategy. This one hour live training will give attendees an understanding of how tools like HootSuite can help organize the chaos of a distributed social media strategy and build social media success.  If you are interested in having Stacey train your brokerage, company, or Association on this topic, please contact us to discuss available dates.

Harmon Enterprises is proud to announce that it has launched a niche company, Pixel Coaching, which focuses exclusively on Facebook marketing for the real estate industry. With over 500 Million users, Facebook continues to infuse itself into the fabric of how a growing percentage of humans communicate with each other, find new products and services, and interact with companies. But, Facebook also represent a whole new vocabulary, marketing philosophy, and learning curve for many real estate professionals. As a marketer, Facebook is a complex medium filled with diverse products, multiple terms of service, constant product launches, and platform changes that suddenly appear with little to no warning. What is an agent to do? Enter Pixel Coaching, the Facebook marketing resource for the real estate industry.

Pixel Coaching is an education and services portal providing the foundation, tips, and strategies needed to effectively market on Facebook. In a business dominated by relationships where who you know, repeat business, and referrals make up a huge portion of an agents transactions, most agents (only 5% of California REALTORS are using Facebook as part of their real estate business) are greatly underestimating the opportunities that exist on Facebook today. And as Facebook is continuing to grow and expand their platform offerings, the opportunities are only going to increase.

To learn more about how Facebook can become part of your real estate marketing plan, check out Pixel Coaching.

In addition to the ample free information and tips Pixel Coaching provides, there is an evolving and growing product line of Facebook related marketing and training services.

There are multiple ways to connect and keep up with Pixel Coaching.  You can:

• Visit the Pixel Coaching website
• Subscribe to the Pixel Coaching blog in your RSS reader
• Like Pixel Coaching on Facebook
• Follow Pixel Coaching on twitter

For further information on Pixel Coaching and its services, please contact Stacey Harmon via this form or 714.754.5788.

Back by request, and in conjunction with Tomato University, I’ll be presenting another Facebook Fan Page Strategies for Realtors webinar on July 8th, 2010.

There were some great feedback from the last session:

“Excellent overview of Facebook Official Pages and how Realtors can implement them in a marketing strategy. Stacey had great samples of not only outstanding pages, but also samples of some not so outstanding pages.”

“Stacey Harmon really knows her stuff, and communicates benefits and practical strategies for using Facebook for business. Kudos on bringing in a stellar presenter.”

“Stacey provided by far the most knowledgeable and developed presentation on Facebook for Realtors that I have ever participated in. She knows her topic and packed the session with insightful and helpful advice. Excellent course!”

“Stacey, Great Job! Thank you so much for explaining in great detail how to use Facebook to build a successful fan page. I highly recommend your webinar and look forward to the next one.”

So, if you are interested in using Facebook for real estate business development, and want to learn the do’s and don’t of how to use Facebook’s Official (Fan) Pages to build your business, register to attend.

IMPORTANT EXPECTATION SETTING INFORMATION:   To get the most out of this webinar, you need to be familiar with the Facebook interface and how to navigate around it, or this webinar training will move too quickly for you.  In addition, I do not cover the Facebook Profile in this course – the focus is on the Facebook Official (Fan) Page.  If you are a Facebook newbie, you may prefer to attend one of my Getting Started with Facebook for Real Estate webinars or live training sessions.  I also offer training on strategies for using your personal profile for business development.  You can register for our training interest list to be notified of future webinars and training offered by Harmon Enterprises.

This course is for you if you are a Realtor and can identify with any of the following:

• You’d like to use Facebook to build your professional network and promote your real estate expertise
• You are uncomfortable with expanding your network of friends to include prospects and clients because of concerns about, privacy, photos and other personal details they may see.
• You want to promote your listings without violating Facebook’s Terms of Service
• You want to use Facebook to help you land on the first page of Google

What we will cover in this 90 minute webinar:

• Why Facebook is a business development opportunity not to be overlooked by Real Estate agents
• Explain why having a Facebook fan page is a great tool for a modern Realtor
• Orient you to the fan page terms of service and discuss how to not get demoted to a “community page”
• Cover the nuts and bolts of how to set up a fan page
• Introduce you to multiple strategies for using fan pages for real estate business development
• Provide multiple examples of Realtor fan pages for you to model your fan page after

Key Webinar Details:

• Where:  Online webinar hosted by Tomato University – Login from anywhere you have an internet connection!
• When:  Thursday, July 8th, 2010, starting at 11:00am PDT/2:00 pm EST.
• How Long:  90 minutes
• Cost:  $30
• Register from the course page at Tomato University

Seeing a need to give real estate agents tangible examples of how others, just like them, are implementing marketing into their real estate business plan, Harmon Enterprises has launched Agent Applause, Real Life Real Estate Marketing Examples In Action.

The site showcases real examples of real estate marketing in today’s market.  It highlights the interesting, the innovative, the creative, and the good.  While there will certainly be multiple examples of social media marketing (showing how agents are using blogging, facebook, twitter, and other social networks to market themselves), the site is not limited to digital marketing techniques.  It  highlights modern marketing – both online and off – and is designed to be a portal for an ever evolving array of practical marketing ideas in the real estate industry.  There are multiple ways to keep up with Agent Applause.  You can:

• Visit the site and browse what is new
• Subscribe in your RSS reader
• Subscribe via email and get new applause automatically emailed to you
• Follow Agent Applause on twitter
• Fan Agent Applause on facebook.

So check out AgentApplause.com and even better, submit an agent who should be applauded.   There are some great marketing examples out there.  Let us know about it and help further the conversation and recognition of those agents who are doing it right.

What I thought would be a simple two week home office remodel project of painting four walls and buying some Pottery Barn furniture is now complete – 3 months later. What an ordeal (but aren’t these things always a bit more than they are initially cracked up to be?).  Unforeseen issues including a roof leak, an urgent care visit, and an 8 week Pottery Barn production delay all played their part. However, I must say, it has been worth the wait. I’m thrilled by my new environment and look forward to many hours of productive work in my updated space. I find the green happy and cheerful, and the expanded desk space and configuration is such a treat. A few details are still to go (my Aeron chair will be arriving soon, and the roof leak issue still needs to be resolved) but, for the most part, I am up and running and productive.

Here is my office before:

This is during (working out of my bedroom during this time was a treat…let me tell you).  I went with the darker hue:

And after:

Where I sit:

My future assistants workspace (and the view you get if you Skype me):

I’d like to give special thanks to the following people whose help on this project is immensely appreciated:

• Trask Harmon – Rowdy and I both apologize for nearly killing you.  That would have been a major bummer on the remodel.  Instead, you have helped me to create a space that is positive and I love and I am so grateful for your help and your continued health.
• Sally DuBane – From square paper cutouts to carpet cleaning to keeping me sane mid project, you are always my favorite and most effective support.  Thank you.
• Jill Parma – Your patience and understanding through the chaos is appreciated.  And, you certainly came through when furniture moving was needed.  Thank you.
• Rico – You were the icing on the cake.  Your calm manner (and brute strength) in executing the movement of heavy pieces of furniture was a lifesaver.  Margaritas soon are my treat!
• Rochelle Matson and Julie Ward – I appreciate your help as I undertook my first ever painting endeavor.  Rochelle, you should be in sales – I was convinced it would be easy ;)  Julie, your help certainly made things more fun.  I’m sure however you will both understand when I hire out any future painting jobs!
• Spencer Brown – Those green boxes were a huge help in keeping things organized and tidy during a hectic time.  I so appreciate the loaner.

For those of you who I Skype with, I’ll be happy to give you a full web cam twirl next time we talk. For now though, signing off from my new M&M green office!