On Tuesday, I attended RE Barcamp DC, in Herndon, VA. Industry professionals came from all over to gather at the latest installment of RE Barcamp.
I know that I had a great time, and I'm sure a great time was had by all. There was a lot of sharing, a lot of learning, and plenty of fun had throughout the day.
One the great things about attending RE Barcamps as the Inman Community Manager is that I get the opporunity to give away great prizes. This time, the prize was a Free Pass to Connect NYC '10 in January. Needless to say, it was a coveted prize. That makes me kinda like Santa Claus. It's a good gig.
In order to win the prize, I asked the attendees to write a blog post reviewing their experience at RE Barcamp. Everyone who wrote a post then sent me a link, and the writer of the best blog post would win the free pass. As I told the attendees, it is a highly subjective contest, so they needed to bring their "A" game.
Boy did they.
Below is a run-down of all the RE Barcamp DC blogposts that were submitted. At the end, the winner is revealed. Let's take a look, shall we:
2) The next entry comes from Esther Kelly, of Northern Virginia, who came away realizing that RE Barcamps have a vibe of sharing and cooperation that is sometimes missing from the real estate industry.
8) D'Ann Faught recently broke her ankle skydiving. This did not dampen her spirits for RE Barcamp DC, however. She obviously had a great time "hopping around".
12) Nannette Saunders shares with us an explanation of Lynchburg Squares, an uproariously fun game that everyone enjoyed. I gotta admit, I'm a pit partial towards the picture she chose for her post. ;-)
And the winner is. . .
Of all the great blog post wrap-ups that were submitted, there was one very clear winner. One attendee that answered the call, and brought her "A" game. Part of my promise was that the winner would be reposted here.
So, with out further ado, I present to you the RE Barcamp DC wrap-up, er, I mean, "rap-up." It is an original work (of course), performed by Arlington real estate agent, Jennifer Klaussen. Enjoy!
These Inman News columnists will meet with attendees during a "Meet the Inman Writers" session at the Inman News Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco this week. The session will run from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6, in the Palace Hotel's Ralston Room.
Editor's note: Don't forget to use the #icsf hashtag in your blog and social networking posts, and with online photos and videos to feature them on Inman's live social media site: http://inman.socialapproach.com.
Some of what's going on in the world of real estate today, as seen through the window of Twitter:
Within 40 minutes of landing in Washington, D.C., Phoenix-based broker-owner Jay Thompson has remarked twice about the horrible traffic and then declared "apparently I am now in Maryland."
NAR has paid Thompson's way to the midyear conference in order to provide feedback on the trade group's IDX policy -- which according to the latest staff interpretation, allows MLSs to require that brokers block search engines from indexing other brokers' listings (see story).
1000Watt Consulting's Marc Davison fumes that "The next broker who complains they don't have $25,000 2 develop an app then takes a month off 2 cruise Mediterranean, why return?"
For additional context, check out Davison's Inman News column today (welcome back Marc).
Davison writes about his frustration with what he sees as the failure of some in the real estate industry to recognize the potential of the iPhone, which runs an operating system that makes it possible for companies to develop customized applications. Trulia and Zillow are among those who have seen the light -- Davison reports that Zillow's Spencer Rascoff says Zillow's new iPhone app was downloaded 150,000 times in eight days and generated 25 percent of the site's searches last week.
Another Inman News columnist, Bernice Ross -- CEO of RealEstateCoach.com -- tweets that "I am conducting a training class on Twitter at Long & Foster in McLean Virginia -- all but 2 people are new to Twitter."
If any of this sounds interesting and you are not Twittering, here's a recent post that can get you started. It includes links to a list of real estate profesionals using Twitter, and blog posts by Gahlord Dewald on using Twitter for lead generation, customer service, trend spotting and reputation management.
That's right, there is another new social network on the block -- The Loof Network.
Still in private beta, the Loof Network promises to be "a one-stop source for real estate professionals to hang their social-media shingle," according to a recent press release. I know what you are probably thinking: "Do we really need another social network?" According to Loof, the answer is an emphatic "YES!"
The developers at Loof Network say they feel strongly about their chances for success, addressing social-media saturation in their press release: "We know that real estate professionals have a lot of options when it comes to social networks. We also know that none of these options gives them everything they want, all in one place. There is no No. 1 out there in the social networking market. We aim to be No. 1."
As far as a feature list goes, it would appear that Loof Network (not to be confused with Loof.com) plans to integrate all of the features found on disparate social networks into one platform specifically for real estate professionals: "Your Loof Network homepage will allow you to upload and share pictures, connect with friends, send private messages and even promote your listings as a means of generating referral business."
One of the more interesting aspects of the Loof plan seems to be the awareness of the perception of real estate professionals on social networks: "We are very aware of the frustration that real estate professionals experience when they try to promote themselves and their business on social networks. The public often misunderstands the nature of the real estate professional as a sales professional, and this misunderstanding leads to discomfort amongst real estate professionals. We want to offer an environment where the real estate professional can feel comfortable making pitches and selling whenever the opportunity presents itself."
As far-fetched as the idea might sound, it reportedly already has financial backing and promotional support from a worldwide trade organization, the League of International Real Property Agents (based in Poisson d'avril, France, and also known as "Ligue Internationale des Agents Immobiliers"). The board of directors for LIRPA released a statement in conjunction with the Loof Network press release that read, in part, "LIRPA is proud to partner with Loof in order to bring to the international community of real estate professionals this valuable tool. Real estate professionals who have yet to discover the power of social networking, and those who have experienced it first hand, will now have a place where they can congregate productively."
The press release makes no mention of any business plan or plan for revenue generation, other than to say, "After the private beta period is over, we will, of course, make membership in the Loof Network completely free to any real estate professional who wants to join. We expect membership to grow exponentially, at which time we will explore revenue opportunities."
Time will tell if the Loof Network can succeed in what is already a very crowded market for social-media tools. If it does, perhaps this time next year, we will all be asking each other, "Hey, just Loof me," or, "are you a-Loof?"
And as funny as the LIRPA-Loof network might sound, it kinda has a ring to it, especially when you roll it backwards ...
A few months ago, the National Association of REALTORS announced that it had begun the search to find a Social Media Manger for what is America's largest trade organization.
The search has come to an end. Today, NAR announced that they have hired Todd Carpenter to the organization's first Social Media Manager. In a very Web 2.0 manner, the announcement was made by REALTOR.org's Managing Editor, Hilary Marsh, on AgentGenius.
Todd's first appearance in his new role will be at RE Barcamp Virginia, next week. I'll be there, and I'll be interviewing Todd live from the event.
As a community manager, myself, I think I might have an idea of what Todd might be able to expect in his new role. On the other hand, I am sure that he will be presented with challenges that he never even considered.
Phoenix real estate broker Jay Thompson tweets that he's getting a lot out of a podcast interview with WineLibrary.com's Gary Vaynerchuk that Michael Price has posted to his MLPodcast.com blog. Vaynerchuk takes 30 minutes to expound on his Inman Connect NYC keynote speech.
"Don't think he applies to real estate? Listen!" says Thompson, who's PhxREguy on Twitter.
Connect NYC 2009 sessions are now available as MP3s, and videos of general sessions are being added to the site. Check out other Inman News podcasts here.
As you can probably guess, I am a little partial towards Community Managers; which is why I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Trulia has brought on Frances Flynn Thorsen as their Trulia Voices Community Manager. If Frances sounds familiar, that is probably because you've seen her around Inman.com leaving comments, participating in the groups, attending Connect, and being an all-around fabulous Inman Member.
I know that a lot of you maintain a presence on a lot of different social media sites. You probably can't fit links to all of your profiles in your email signature, or easily on your blog or website. That's where retaggr comes in.
Retaggr is a site that allows you to enter the information for all of your online profiles in one place. The best part is that retaggr uses the information you input to generate an "interactive Web 2.0 social and business card." You can then embed the card on your blog, website, or email, and then when people view it, they can click on the icons and be taken instantly to the site of their choice, where they will land on your profile.
Ok, but here is the BEST part. If you have an Inman.com profile (you do have one, don't you?), you can enter the information into retaggr for inclusion on your profile card. How cool is that?
Click on the "customise profile card" tab, and then start entering in your personal and business information (you can include a photo, too).
Be sure to visit "websites you use." This is where you enter all of the information for the sites on which you maintain a profile.
Included in the list of sites is a classification for "real estate." The list will look like this:
In the box for Inman.com, you will need to enter your Inman username. This is where I had some difficulty. In order to find out exactly how to enter the information, go to http://www.inman.com/community/members and do a search for yourself. When you click on the link, the URL of your profile will be revealed. It will look something like this: http://www.inman.com/community/members/daniel-rothamel-inman-community-manager
You just want to enter everything after the "members/" classification into the Inman box on retaggr. I had to enter "daniel-rothamel-inman-community-manager" Sounds funny, but that is the way it works.
Once you have put in all of the information, you can save it, and take a look at your profile card. It will look something like this:
There are then instructions for embedding the card on your website, blog, or even including it in your email signature. The whole card wouldn't fit in the sidebar of my blog, so I opted to embed the retaggr badge, which looks like this:
When people click on it, my profile card comes up, and people can connect to me through there.
Overall, retaggr is a pretty cool service. It certainly makes it easier to point people to one place that shows all of your social networking participation. And now, it makes it easier to show people that you are one of the dedicated real estate industry professionals that participates in the Inman Community.
For everyone tweeting and blogging about Connect, make sure that you tag all your posts, pictures, etc. with the official tag for Connect: ConnectSF08. When you tweet, be sure to use the hashtag #ConnectSF08. When you do, all of the tweets will be aggregated and we will be displaying the stream of Connect-related tweets in the Connect SF '08 Community group. If you joing the group, you can even comment on what is going on.
The Connect SF '08 Twitterstream is updated hourly, and it is sure to be filled with all kinds of interesting tweets and comments from attendees and members alike. Check it out!
The live drawing of the winner was well-attended, and a fun time was had by all. I thought that I had recorded it so that I could share it with you all here, but alas. . .
Basically, we started with 140 ping-pong balls (one for each contestant):
After a few shuffles of the balls, a winning ball was drawn:
The winning #20 ball belongs to Jason. There wasn't any confetti, but I'm sure he will appreciate his free ticket to Inman Connect SF '08 just the same.
To all of those who signed up to follow Inman News on Twitter, and entered the contest, THANK YOU! Keep your eyes on the @InmanNews tweets, because I plan to make it more interesting going forward. You can also use Twitter as a way of sending me feedback or asking questions about the site, too.
Once again, thanks to everyone who played, and if you haven't already registered for an Inman.com account, what are you waiting for?
These Inman News columnists will meet with attendees during a "Meet the Inman Writers" session at the Inman News 
NAR has paid Thompson's way to the midyear conference in order to provide feedback on the trade group's IDX policy -- which according to the latest staff interpretation, allows MLSs to require that brokers block search engines from indexing other brokers' listings (
Facebook. MySpace. Flickr. Twitter. Loof Network.
I know that a lot of you maintain a presence on a lot of different social media sites. You probably can't fit links to all of your profiles in your email signature, or easily on your blog or website. That's where 
