The Question

Yesterday I was teaching a “Social Media in Real Estate” class in Denver. At the end of the class, one of the participants asked why some people (like myself) use the “@” symbol in front of people’s names when addressing them on social networks that are NOT Twitter. She wondered how these social networks were interconnected and how that “@” symbol on ONE network affected that person on another network.

I told her that it didn’t.

“Then WHY would someone use that, if there was no connection?” Good Question.

Simply put, the connection is PEOPLE – All the PEOPLE who are using all these different social networks … But it got me thinking (which can be dangerous if you know me …).

I recalled the fact that I use the “@” symbol when addressing people on Facebook, and even in emails.

I recalled the fact that I have an inner 140-character-Twitter- limit sensor that usurps the 160-character-texting-limit in my mind.

I recalled the fact that, when hanging out with other Twitter users IRL, I will actually SAY “Hashtag [insert witty phrase here]” to emphasize/categorize something I just said. Dorky? Yes. Absolutely. But all my Twitter friends “get” it and that makes it fun …. and relevant to our conversation.

I recalled the fact that when I turn on my computer or pick up my phone, I tend to check Twitter before any other social network.

People are the connections between all these different social networks … But like in the OFFLINE world, we all communicate slightly different, based on where we are from … our HOMES … thus reflecting a different DIALECT.

Social Media Dialects

Everyone who participates in online communities generally has ONE community where they feel more at HOME – the place where they tend to gravitate … spend more time.Yes, many of us can be found in many networks, but there is usually that “one” place where we call HOME.

Because of this, we tend to integrate the social norms of that community into who we are and those tendencies, those Social Media Cultural differences tend to leak into our other activities… and our other social network interactions.

So I started paying a bit more attention to the social media dialects of my friends.

• One friend speaks in third person. On Twitter, they tend to ineffectively keep their comments to less than 140 characters. They have a lot to say about what everyone else is saying. They love online games and quizzes. They use the term “friend me” when asking to connect with someone… regardless of the network.
  These are all traits of a person who speaks with a Facebook dialect.
• Another friend is always sharing videos. On Facebook, many of their messages are in the form of an actual video – personal or shared.
  These are traits of someone who speaks in a YouTube dialect.
• There is my friend who t@lk$ l!k3 +h!$ and has an infatuation with sharing internet bumper stickers and animated GIF’s.
  These are the traits of someone who speaks with a MySpace dialect.
• Then there is my friend who LOVES to share photos. They upload and link all kinds of photos for any occassion. They are the first ones to respond whenever I also post a picture.
  These are the traits of someone who speaks with a Flickr dialect.
• And of course, there are the people like me: We have become quite effective at sharing a HUGE idea with very little verbiage. We use “#” (hashtags) for emphasis, side comments and categorization. We insert the “@” symbol in front of a person’s name to indicate we are addressing them. We are forever fearful of platform-specific Direct Message options (DMFail). We use the term “follow me” when wanting to connect with someone… regardless of the platform. We are also the ones who know each other BETTER by our Twitter names than our “regular” names. [I am @mizzle]
  We are the people who speak with a Twitter dialect.

And the interesting thing is that these traits transcend the community they come from and become a part of all the communities each person participates in.

Interesting Read: Seth Godin Asks “What Sort of Accent do You Have?“

That is Entertaining and All, But Who Cares?

Like offline, if you know where someone is coming from, you can have a much better understanding if who they are, what is important to them and how to effectively interact with them.

• If I befriend someone who has a Facebook dialect, I may want to make sure that I write on their wall and “like” one of their updates on Facebook.
• If I befriend someone who has a Flickr dialect, I could totally strengthen our friendship by acknowledging and favoriting some of their pictures on Flickr.
• If I become friends with someone with a YouTube dialect, leaving video comments on their Facebook wall and sharing their YouTube videos with my other friends may be a great idea.

Basically, understanding the different social media dialects gives you the opportunity to consciously connect with other people on their turf  – taking an interest in where THEY call HOME.

In the land of ever-increasing social media popularity, understanding the different dialects can be a crucial part of your effective online interaction… and a great way to better the friendships that you already have.

I speak Twitter … You?

Links are a very important part of your real estate blog post – right up there with quality, targeted content. When you appropriately link to your real estate website from your blog, you are telling your readers and search engines that the words that you are linking are relevant to the site you are linking them to.

You want to make sure that both readers AND search engines are able to bounce from one blog post to another EASILY through links in each post you write.

Proper linking TO your blog and WITHIN your blog will help potential clients and search engines:
FIND your blog  -  STAY on your blog  -  RETURN to your blog

• Internal Linking is the act art of interlinking the different pages of your blog and keeps readers and search engines on your blog.
  • Read More: How to be search stupid: Working hard to hardly rank in Google with orphan and dead end pages
• External/Outbound Linking is the practice of linking FROM your blog TO other blogs and websites.
• Inbound Link = Backlink (A link on another site that LINKS BACK to your site) – Inbound links tell Google that your site is important or relevant to another site. Choose your inbound links carefully. Read More:
  • Over 125 Legitimate Link Building Strategies
  • Ultimate Guide to Building Backlinks

How to Link: When hyper-linking to your blog or website, or when linking to another blog, use keywords as anchor-text.

Read Also:  3 Simple Truths About Blogging and Keywords

Knowing how to effectively link TO and WITHIN  and FROM your real estate blog will get you more traffic, help you rank in search engines, and eventually get you more business.

There are a billion different sites out there that will teach the fine tuned skills of proper keyword usage in blogging. But after all that dust settles, here are the 3 simple truths that I have found.

1. If you want to rank in the search engines for a certain keyword or keyword phrase … USE that keyword phrase in your blog titles, posts and linked text.
2. Remember: You are writing FIRST for humans and second for search engines. Make your blog posts appeal to Google ONLY AFTER you are certain that they are also pleasing to the human eye. So, do not flood your posts with keywords.
3. Don’t forget the longtail. Showing up in the search engines for 217 “niche” keywords (and therefore showing up as the expert in those niches) is much better than NOT showing up in the search engines for major search terms. It’s the whole “Big fish. Small pond.” concept. Consistently writing, naturally, for what you do (real estate) will give you this opportunity.

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream. – Chris Anderson WIRED.com

Read Also:  How To Get More Clients From Your Real Estate Blog

Register Today!

RE Blog World 2009 Speakers Include:

• Ian Lurie
• Allie Herzog
• Ginger Wilcox
• Jack Miller
• Jason Benesch
• Jay Thompson
• Rhonda Porter
• Derek Overbey
• Heather Elias
• Reggie Nicoloay
• Gahlord Dewald
• Matt Fagioli
• Ricardo Bueno
• Jim Marks
• Jeff Turner
• Dave Smith
• Robert Hahn
• Jason Berman
• Brad Carroll
• Todd Carpenter
• Nicole Nicolay
• Dan Green

This is going to be a FABULOUS Event!!!
Register for RE BlogWrold Today!

David Knox is a real estate speaker that we saw speak at a conference last year. He does a LOT of different videos … Here is a good one:

Real Estate Blogging – It is more than a “fad” – It is a proven way to attract more business and make more money … regardless of the current market.

Join us for a FREE webinar on real estate blogging where we will debunk some common myths and share some industry tips and secrets from some of the nation’s top real estate bloggers.

MAPS FREE Blogging Webinar

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM CDT

OPEN TO EVERYONE!

Do you own a URL version of your name?

If not, get one … Even if the .com version is taken, consider a .info or a .me version …

I happen to own MarianaWagner.com and MarianaWagner.me and did not know what to do with them. See, I don’t use my name URL’s for real estate … (maybe because I am more than just what I do to pay the bills… ?), but I didn’t want anyone else owning those domains.

Until recently, I had no idea what to DO with these URL’s … until my friend, Kelley Koehler (aka @housechick) gave me a GREAT IDEA!

I gathered up all the different social media profiles and blogs that I write for and corralled them into one, clean and tidy location:

www.MarianaWagner.com

Now, instead of trying to remember all the different “handles” (or user names) for all the different sites I belong to, I just have to tell people, “Just visit MarianaWagner.com and you can find me anywhere!” and direct them to your vanity site.

This site has:

• An about me page that details my roles as a Realtor®, trainer and coach.
• Links to all my blogs and websites
• Links to the profile pages on all the social media sites I belong to
• RSS Feeds from 2 of my main blogs

I used a FREE WordPress.com blog, with the DePo Masthead by Derek Powazek theme.

This is a super easy way to connect with other social media types in any setting, and I have even added it to my business card!

Other URL’s that I have forwarded to this site: MarianaWagner.me and Mizzle.me

I was a part of ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. One assignment was to go to the mall…

ugh.

But, this is actually a very good idea! You can learn a lot from just a couple hours at the mall.

Check Out what Darren learned  …

10 Lessons in Blogging Learned on a Shopping Expedition

He does a great job at gleaning great blog tips out of everyday shopping …