Activerain notes from Grand Rapids, MI REBAR 2011

1. Welcome to: Becoming Visible with Take Home Notes Welcome to: Becoming Visible with Sept. 2011 2nd Annual GRAR REBarCamp Discussion Leader: Katrina Alexander-Cole Discussion Leader: Katrina Alexander-Cole Sept. 2011

2. Katrina Alexander-Cole is a Corporate PR/Marketing Director focusing on nationwide marketing, public relations and advertising for 300+ employees and multiple locations. Katrina focuses on overall communication, marketing, social media, sales, development and organization.Katrina has direct experience with real estate, mortgage procedures and all aspects of origination, processing, marketing, social media, public relations, business development, personal coaching and management.Katrina has a true passion for working with others to grow and expand their business and achieving the goals they set out for. Katrina’s Short Bio

3. Katrina’s Thoughts on AR For those of you who ask "Why activerain?", I say: You do this to improve yourself, your business and to benefit your clients. The amount of information alone available on ActiveRain is outstanding. You are doing a disservice to you AND your clients by not participating, even on a small level. You do not have to be a writer, a computer genius or creative. The world of real estate is interesting, frustrating and even funny at times, so your daily job will bring you all you need to share; if you so choose. I do not have to get into the added bonus of optimization and exposure on the web. Read My activerain blog

4. What others have to say about AR Russ Ravary - Metro Detroit homes - Michigan Real estate & Mortgage info (Remerica Hometown One) said 1 day ago,"My latest active rain success story is about a person who works for the University of Michigan. He found me on active rain a few months ago. I helped him find a house last month. He referred another friend who bought a house thru me. We only looked at 3 homes when he found one he loved. He found a tremendous bargain! Then he is referring his mother to me. 3 people out of one blog. Active Rain works over and over. What is nice that you could be sleeping, you can be showing houses, you could be doing paperwork and Active Rain is still out there promoting you." Stephanie McCarty, real estate agent Snellville, Suwanee, Grayson, Gwinnett (Loganville, Snellville, Dacula, Suwanee, Buford) said 1 day ago,"The BEST real estate resource online! What can ActiveRain do for me you ask? Join and find out. For consumers and professionals I think that this website is a gold mine of valuable information. Experienced professionals willing to share their experiences and training to benefit consumers and other professionals alike. There is literally no other site like it - as I have said before ActiveRain rocks! I continue to be very pleased with my association and I try to contribute as often as possible and thank all of the thousands of agents who have given me plenty to think about with their insightful posts over the years." Florida's Beautiful Homes- Realtors® said 3 days ago,"ActiveRain has been an integral part of Florida's Beautiful Homes over all marketing strategy. It became increasingly important when over a year ago I wrote a blog about bank foreclosures in the Tampa Florida area. That same day I received a call from a buyer who had just read my blog and recognized me as a local area expert with whom he wanted to do business. I received several other inquiries that week and still receive calls and e-mails from prospective clients over a year later from that blog. That sounds like success to me. Thanks ActiveRain for providing me with the knowledge and the opportunity. Dave Tipton, Broker- Florida's Beautiful Homes- Realtors" *All content and photos credited to Activerain

6. B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads than companies that don’t

7. 20% of monthly Google Searches are for local businesses

10. Re-state your title in your first line and make it bold and/or underlined

11. Write about 350 words (try to include “key words” at least 3 times if possible)

12. Use some pictures (make sure they are for commercial use and you have permission to use them)

13. Don’t forget to hyperlink whenever possible

14. Vary your topics

15. Try to write at least a blog a week (you can write a few in one day if you have the chance and save them as drafts for publishing them when you don’t have time to write a blog at a later date.)

16. Don’t forget your signature (make sure all your contact information is available and add links to your most popular posts)

17. When time is tight you can always repost a blog you liked by someone else and just give a quick intro about it

18. Invite your referral partners to write for you blog and feature them

20. Community Guideline

21. Terms of Service

22. Filling out the first half of your profile– blog

23. Filling out the second half of your profile– blog

24. Profile Photo Help: goes over how to re-size & upload your photo - blog

25. Everything you need to know about your Settings Page

26. Everything you wanted to know about creating a signature – blog

27. Where to find & use Graphics, Images & Photos - blog please review

28. Video Explanations of Social Media, Blogging & More

29. What is Hit Router & how do I set it up

30. What does your tag cloud look like, in-depth about creating tags– blog

31. Using your tags as virtual folders– blog

32. What are Channels and how do I use them – blog

33. What are the points all about?– blog

34. I just read an amazing blog, how do I suggest it to be featured on the homepage?– blog

35. Help People Connect With You– blog

36. Being apart of the community, joining in the conversation– blog

37. Being apart of the community and following up on your comments– blog

38. Being apart of the community, subscribing & what to do after you’ve subscribed– blog

40. How to Insert a Youtube Video into your profile– blog

41. Everything you wanted to know about graphics– blog

42. How to Set-up Twitter auto-feds for your ActiveRain blog posts

43. Overview on how to set-up auto facebook and twitter auto-feds– blog

44. Setting it up to import your ActiveRain Blogs to WordPress - A WordpressPlugin To Import Your ActiveRain Posts

45. How to backup & export your ActiveRain blogs– blog

46. How to create & use IFrames & Tables in your blogs– blog

47. ActiveRain food for thought, what’s your branding?– blog

48. Setting Up Your Outside Blog– blog

49. How to Create & Maximize your Outside Blog– blog

50. ActiveRain approved Widgets & Script Codes – blog

51. How to Set-Up a Community Sponsorship- blog

52. How to set-up Side-bar Links– blog

54. Wellington Homes and More...

55. Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com in Maryland and Virginia

56. All About Grand Rapids, MI Real Estate Blog

57. Russel's corner of the world

58. The Naked Blogger - Keepin' it Real

59. It's Raining......ActiveRain