Chris Nichols
By Chris Nichols
Monday night on my flight home from the National Association of REALTORS® Midyear meetings in Washington, D.C., I noticed that the flight was offering free satellite TV and it just so happened one of my favorite shows was on – Survivor. I have been a fan of the show for all of its 22 seasons, and every season ends up practically the same, with the finalists sitting in front of the jury (aka: losers) enduring all sorts of attacks and personal jabs from those who wish they were sitting in the finalist’s position.
This led me to recall recent events in game 4 of the NBA Conference Semifinals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers were just 2 minutes away from being swept in the series when frustration took over and Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom committed two of the most flagrant and classless fouls in the history of the NBA, leaving an indelible mar on the coaching career of Phil Jackson, not to mention a bad taste in fan’s mouths across the country.
Both of these events then reminded me of the meeting I had just attended, where the Board of Directors for the National Association of REALTORS® had just passed a $40 dues increase to fund a Political Survival Initiative. The tweets and social media comments that sprung up as a result of this vote passing were much like the jury on Survivor and the frustrated Lakers, full of animosity, name calling and all around unprofessionalism.
So this raises the question – have we lost the art of losing? Continue reading »
Chris Nichols
By Chris Nichols
I recently attended a conference where I heard the following story related:
An elderly man had dreamed of taking a cruise to the Mediterranean for most of his life. The man did not come from means of any sort and had saved for years and years to make this dream of cruising a reality. Being frugal with his money he kept mostly to his cabin, venturing out only when the ship was docked at the various ports he was so anxious to see. He brought several cans of food with him on this trip and ate in his cabin, avoiding the fancy dining establishments throughout the ship. He also skipped all of the parties and entertainment opportunities the ship offered throughout the cruise. On the last night of the cruise as he was returning to his cabin to prepare another meal of canned food, a crew member inquired of him which of the various final evening parties he planned to attend. The man quickly responded that he could not afford to attend any of them. When the crew member explained that all of the parties, entertainment and food were included in his ticket, the man suddenly realized that he had been living well below his privilege for the entire cruise.
This story struck a nerve with me this last week as I have watched the blogs, Twitter and other social media venues light up with discussions on the REALTOR® Party Political Survival Initiative (RPPSI). While there tends to be vociferous opposition to RPPSI, what disappoints me even more are the number of NAR members who have chosen to live well below their privilege of membership in our great association. Much like the man on the cruise, many members choose not to understand or exercise all of the benefits and opportunities that are already theirs for the taking at no additional cost. It pains me, as I am sure it pained the crew member who informed the frugal man, to see members missing out on so much simply because they haven’t taken the opportunity to discover the world of benefits that membership in NAR provides to them. It’s not like they are hidden, or that NAR hopes you don’t take advantage of them. Simply by visiting REALTOR.org, most, if not all, of these benefits are just a few clicks away. (Check out where your NAR membership dues go.) Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
For a very long time I hated Twitter. Hated it. I hated that I felt like I was broadcasting my life to people I didn’t know. I hated the amount of DMs (direct messages) I received from porn stars, perverts and others trying to sell me SEO tricks and the like. I hated the cumbersome search to find people that I was interested in following, and I am not a fan of a “these people are cool so follow them” list. Most of all, I hated that actually using twitter.com to manage your Twitter account basically sucked.
But my part of my job is to get out there and try these tools and then advise my agents – so I gave Twitter a fair shake… I thought. By the time RE BarCamp Philadelphia rolled around last May, I had broken up with Twitter and moved back in with FriendFeed. If you ever attended a BarCamp you know – your Twitter handle is almost more important than the name on your badge. I attended a session with the TwitterQueens @LesleyLambert, @HeyAmaretto and @MayaREguru and learned more about Twitter in 45 minutes than I could have ever imagined. I felt left out afterward and I decided to give Twitter another chance. This time around, I broadcasted less and shared more. I learned the unwritten rules of the retweet, the hashtag and other Twitter tweaks and tricks.
Still, I found Twitter to be dull. A necessary evil at this point, but not something I enjoyed. I continued to teach our agents about Twitter and the various ways they could use it for their business, but I’m not sure too many of them bought it, because really, I didn’t buy it.
I can’t say exactly it happened, but something suddenly clicked into place for me and Twitter. In the last 6 months or so, I have learned to tolerate Twitter and even (shhh ….) enjoy it. Why? This part is easy – connection. I was craving connection but broadcasting instead. Once I started actually connecting with people on Twitter and building real relationships – I got it. Finally reaching out to others and putting myself out there allowed me to make real connections.
Initially, I would reach out via DM – a private “hello, how are you?” to someone, and then connect by way of the @username mention. There is nothing cooler than meeting someone in person that you have connected with online in a meaningful way. It’s like running into an old friend that you never met. Twitter has widened my business and my social circles – I have connected with agents on Twitter that I might never have met offline, real estate and technology trainers from all over the place and even made a few friends along the way. I teach my agents that want to use Twitter for their business to find and follow the locals, connect and build relationships and attend or host Tweet-ups to achieve that IRL (in real life) interaction with folks using Twitter.
And Twitter – the twitter.com, I mean – has improved along the way, too. Now I can create and follow lists, a feature I love as a list-person. I can search and even save my searches from right on the homepage. Even the Twitter spam reporting is easier now. That said, I still use TweetDeck to manage my Twitter account(s).
Twitter is not for everyone, I know that… and I’m still not in love with Twitter. But I get it now.
Stefanie Hahn is the education director for Coldwell Banker Hearthside, REALTORS® in Willow Grove, Pa. Visit her Web site: www.StefanieHahn.com.
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