Working the expired or for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) market can be a challenge when trying to stand out from the sea of thirsty agents trying to gain the attention of the sellers. Postagram offers an elegant option to show that you are head and shoulders more creative, professional and savvy than the rest.

Armed with your list of owner names and addresses, head out and snap front views of the homes you have targeted. With the unlimited photo editing apps now available, “filter it up” to create a beautiful work of art from the pic, then load the Instagram image into Postagram. Before setting out, create your message, as you are limited to 180 characters, and save it in your notes app for easy access. … For chances of even higher impact, create a “why list with me” page on your website or blog and use a URL-shortening app to shorten the link, and include this in your message.

The entire theme behind your Postagram message is that you see their property as unique and will work harder and more resourcefully than the rest. Encourage them to go to the URL to learn more about what you have to offer. You are allowed 180 characters in your message space, so brevity and relevancy are key!

If you make it a point to go out and do a few homes a day, your listing inventory will begin to grow. I did the research in my area and found that if the sellers of an expired listing relisted in the first 10 days, they were most likely to list with their existing agents, but if they relisted after the first 10 days, all the way up to six months later, they listed with a new agent. The likelihood of them relisting at all dropped significantly after six months. So the sweet spot in timing would be to go after those most likely to relist with a new agent. Run the report and see when that is for your market.

You do not need to have an Instagram account, but filtering the pictures is part of what makes them stand out so much. Make them a mini work of art. The picture itself is perforated in the postcard, so they can still pop the picture out and keep it, likely stuck on the refrigerator, another reminder to them of that real estate agent who went the extra mile. …

Stand out from the rest! Be unique, awe them!

More on Instagram and iPhonography here.

Think of this akin to when your mind wanders while you are driving, and suddenly you snap back to attention not remembering the last mile driven. You lost yourself in your thoughts, and your consciousness was transported somewhere not connected to your physical being.

Photo by Will Clayton

Wikipedia describes metaphysics as “the branch of philosophy dealing with theories of existence and knowledge.”This branch of philosophy is very wide and explores many topics of “being,” including the link between our essence (some might say “soul”) and our physical bodies.

Social media allows us, in many ways, to immerse ourselves so much into our online experience, along with the other people on the same platform at the same time, that we can basically tune out (consciously or not) what is going on around us in our real, physical world. In a way, it is like space-time travel.

You are physically in your desk chair or couch, but in all other aspects, you are in the “Twitterverse,” engaging in conversations and connecting with other “Twittersonians” (or “LinkedInians,” “Facebookardians,” etc).

Have you found yourself thinking, “I wonder if I’ll run into @MaryC this morning on Twitter,” or “I’m going to make my status on Facebook invisible to my boss, ex, stalker, whomever doesn’t know I’m currently online”? Then you already have experienced the concept of placing yourself “in” the chosen social media platform. The various platforms become your “Social Media Village.”

You know that at a certain time of day this or that person will be on Twitter or Facebook, or whatever your platforms of choice happen to be. You might find yourself taking advantage of that to connect with someone who has been hard to catch up with. You might — gasp — try to track where the person is at the moment (in the offline and online world).

I’m not talking about losing yourself in one-way media — such as a movie or a static website, as in an escape — but rather where your consciousness has been transported to another realm where you connect on the same plane with many other real people who have done, for that period of time, the same exact thing.

This becomes even more exciting when you see that this allows you to connect with people all over the globe, minimizing the time differences that often keep us disconnected. Early morning on Twitter for me allows me to connect with both people in Europe as well as West Coast night-owl friends.

The connections made, and broken, within the confines of social media are just as real as those in real life. Facebook has been credited with anywhere from 1 in 5 to 1 in 3 marriages, by various sources.

Those are real-life outcomes to online connections. By understanding just how much we transport the essence of ourselves into our Social Media Village, we can understand how important those connections we make are to us, and to those we have connected with.

There was a time when we disregarded anything online as being fake or somehow unreal, and hence open for all kinds of behaviors. Yet the metaphysics of social media helps us to realize just how real social media is.

So engage with the understanding that these relationships we have created and nurtured are just as real as the ones with our neighbors, club members and classmates, and treat and honor them accordingly.

“I suppose you are real?” said the rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.” –From “The Velveteen Rabbit,” by Margery Williams.

photo by Dierk Schefer

“No man can become a permanent success without taking others along with him.” –Napoleon Hill

A Mastermind group is a small group of people (I find four to six optimal) who meet regularly to brainstorm together, hold each other accountable regarding personal goals and commitments, hash out ideas and support each other’s business goals. For the tech-savvy real estate agent, nothing could be more useful to sort through all of the business development ideas, new tech platforms and general business planning than a close-knit, committed Mastermind group.

Those who embrace technology in their business can become overwhelmed by the sheer depth and breadth of technology, social media, gadgets and tools available to us these days. It is impossible to investigate and evaluate everything if you are working on your own, but with a Mastermind group of like-minded agents, you can crowdsource to glean the best of the best.

I’ve participated in a Mastermind group for well over a year with three other Florida Realtors and have found it to be tremendously beneficial. I have met with Debbie Kirkland (@FloridaSunSales) from Tallahassee; Cyndee Haydon (@CyndeeHaydon) from Clearwater Beach; and Chris Griffith (my personal favorite Twitter name, @Twitterzilla, from Bonita Springs) almost every Monday for over a year (using Fuze Meeting) to discuss what’s new, our own business goals, and to share what we have learned at various conferences and seminars that we’ve each attended. From this alliance, we’ve given each other leads, made lifelong friendships, spoken at several conferences together and even landed on the inside cover of Florida Realtors Magazine (page 22).

Top 10 tips to create your own wildly successful Mastermind group

1. Choose a small, but committed, group of people. Too many and you lose the tight-knit dynamic. Too few and you really miss just one person not making a meeting. I find four to six is ideal. Discuss expectations of the group before finalizing it so that everyone is on board with the same goals and availability regarding their participation in the group.

2. Choose people with the same commitment to the group as you have. The success of Mastermind groups depends on the collective participation of each individual.

3. Meet frequently. I’d suggest once a week but not less often than every two weeks. This keeps everything fresh and the momentum going forward.

4. Set an agenda of “hot topics” that you’d each like to learn about and/or discuss. Since it’s the beginning of the year, start out with 2012 business goals for each member. For future topics, create a Google doc for “haves and wants” of discussion topics and use a Google calendar to pencil those topics in advance.

5. Set up the technology for your meetings. We use Fuze Meeting, but you could also use GoToMeeting or any other platform that allows screen sharing for the number of participants you plan to have. Since you will be sharing “tutorials” of certain technologies, screen sharing is a must.

6. Create a Facebook secret group to stay in touch between meetings, bounce ideas off of each other, share links, etc. This is a key to keeping the group closely knit and engaged.

7. Create an agenda on how your meetings will be organized. We meet for an hour and try to use the first half to catch up, brainstorm and share, and the second half for the preplanned presentation/tutorial from one of the group members.

8. Create an “easy-out” pla in case one of the members feels like they are no longer able to participate in the manner expected. Since the group is small, it is highly dependent on each person’s participation. If one person is struggling, let them know up front that it’s OK, but they should let the group know. By discussing this in the beginning, it makes that touchy subject much easier should the need arise.

9. Make the commitment to each other to meet on time, as scheduled. In real estate, there is ALWAYS something to do, a property to show or a contract to write. Make the commitment to each other to put the group first unless absolutely necessary otherwise. Set a time, either early in the morning or late in the evening, when you will be less likely to have to skip a meeting due to unavoidable schedule conflicts.

10. Have fun with it. I’ve never laughed as hard as I do with my Mastermind group. We are truly bonded together …

If you have a Mastermind group or plan to start one, we’d love to hear comments on what has worked for you (or hasn’t worked) in the comment section below.

“A resounding, YES!”

Before I do, here is a quick run down of what the additional $200 actually comes with:

1. 12 Month Subscription to Inman News® ($99 value) ** Including REmessenger.com
2. Ticket to Agent Reboot ($49 value)
3. PremiumPlus Lounge at Inman’s Real Estate Connect

Let’s break these three items down a little further:

1). 12 Month Subscription to Inman News Premium Package

If you weren’t aware, not only does Inman’s Premium Package come with special Premium Newsletters and  it now comes with REmessenger.com – an extremely robust direct email program that allows you to upload your contacts, use Inman content to email your data base in your own branded presentation as well as very specific open tracking technology.  At $99/year, this alone is an amazing value.  Read more about REmessenger.com here.  If you already are an Inman Premium member, your subscription will be extended by twelve months.

2). Ticket to Agent Reboot

Agent Reboot is a one day separate event held the day prior to Inman Connect.  Agent Reboot is a meaty day of cutting edge content directed toward agents specifically.  Always fresh and new, Inman brings the latest and greatest technologies to you to give you the competitive advantage.

3). PremiumPlus Lounge Access

Hands down, if the first two items above don’t convince you, this will.  With over 1,200 attendees, a room to escape and rest on comfy couches or work at roomy tables, is priceless.  Not only to you have a place to rest and network, but it is kept stocked with drinks and snacks, has power outlets to recharge and as well as the general session streamed in so you won’t miss a beat.  The Premium Plus Lounge was a life saver every single day for me. Three days of content rich conferencing is exciting, but having a place to just sit, chill, grab a refreshment, get a massage, make a few calls and or recharge my phone was absolutely priceless!

The PremiumPlus Package gives you, the decision to upgrade becomes a no brainer and doesn’t last just for the conference (although I cannot stress how much I LOVED the PremiumPlus escape Lounge) but for the entire next twelve months with your Inman News and RE Messenger benefits.

If all of the above weren’t enough, you can receive the Early Bird Special for $649 if you register before February 17th, a $450 savings!!

I look forward to seeing you in the PremiumPlus Lounge at the next Inman Connect.  You’ll find me chilling between sessions drinking a coffee, charging my phone and sitting back on the plus couch in the back, smiling like a mad woman.

Top 6 Steps to Implementing the best Take-Aways (for YOU) from ICNY

6.  Make a list of the areas in your business where you could benefit most from improvement.  For some, this might be lead generation, for others it may be conversion and for others, it may be kicking off a social media strategy.  Jott down all the places where you are feeling weak and then circle the three most important ones that will affect your bottom line the quickest.

5. Go back through your ICNY notes, the tweets via the #ICNY hashtag on Twitter and the live blog and video available on www.next.inman.com and make special note when the info shared will help impact your top three areas needing immediate improvement. 

4.  Reach out to a friend or two who attended ICNY and see if they would like to do the same and then spend some time via chat, skype, phone etc. going over both your top three areas and the take-aways that you feel will help you the most.  Just having that second set of eyes and ears might help bubble to the surface a few more apps, suggestions or tips from ICNY that you may have missed (either because you were taking mad notes or because they were in a different breakout session than you were)

3.  Make an implementation game plan for the next four weeks where you will spend time researching and implementing the action areas and the tools you learned at ICNY you have matched with them.  If you are masterminding with a fellow ICNY attendee, share your plan with them and see if they think it is reasonable.  Implementation of new ideas is like a weight loss plan, if you are too ambitious, you may become discouraged and give up.  Be bold but be reasonable with your plan.

2.  Carve out time each week on your calendar to actually put your plan into action.  Do this at the time of day when you are most fresh and sharp as well as have fewer distractions.  For some this is early in the day and for others this will be late at night.

1.   Just do it!  Get going by putting those few key steps to work, once you feel like you’ve had some success, you’ll be more encouraged to keep at it.  Don’t get sidetracked by every shiny new object that you learned about, stick to your three hot areas and the best tools to get them running smoothly.

If, and only if, you implement the money maker tools of your plan should you allow yourself to move on to the fun, ancillary apps, sites and ideas.  Think of them as dessert, which you are only allowed after you have had your full meal, including your vegetables.  Stay focused on what will actually impact your business the most, and the fastest, and not what may just be cool or fun.

Implementing the best take-aways you learned at ICNY is like eating an elephant, you do it one bite at a time [and you do it with an action plan].  (Tweet This)

Also Read/Look at:
Check out some of other amazing Instagram photos  from Connect NYC 
ICNY 2012 | Techs in the City
Live-Blogging from Connect NYC
The conference as an environment
Diving into the Mind of Today’s “Free Agent” [FIRST LOOK AT EXPLOSIVE DATA]

What were your takeaways?  Tell us what and how you’ll execute in the comments below.

The magic of Instagram is twofold…

First, photos often have the ability to prompt a visceral reaction from the viewer, touching them deeply and often unexpectedly.  Second, IG brings out a creativity that many didn’t even know they had.  Simultaneously you touch something in yourself and something in others that neither knew was even there.

The difference between iPhonography and regular photography is that you have your phone with you all of time, allowing you to capture extraordinary sights and images in your everyday life without the cumbersome process of grabbing and shooting from a camera then uploading, etc. before you can share it.  This ease of capturing and sharing allows you to share much more of yourself and your community.  A stranger’s glance, a flying bird, a reflection in a store window as you pass by can all become amazing shots to share with your community.  These everyday snippets become a captured moment of beauty that would have otherwise been gone forever.

People have commented or told me about the many ways my IG photos have touched them,

“I wake up excited to see what you’ve posted.”
“Your photos always make me smile.”
“My husband proposed to me on that island.”
“I grew up there and haven’t see that place since I was a child.”

The pictures move them, they remember them and they look forward to them.  What more could you want in a social media platform?

The results…

I would very honestly say that I have generated more engagement and response and YES, business, from Instagram, than I have from my other social networks yet the number of people I am connected to on Instagram is far fewer.  The name of the game is, quality verses quantity.

I rarely just snap and share.

Most of my pictures are run through a series of filters to create a work of “iPhone art”, sometimes resulting in a very different image.  It is this process, I believe, that also makes the photos so memorable.  They are not just photos of trees or ice cubes or sunsets, they become mini works of creativity and inspiration.  (See www.IphoneArt.com for truly inspirational artists’ works.)

I normally take as many pictures as I can in a day, often ten or twenty of the same thing from various angles, lighting, focus settings, etc.  Then later, when I have a bit of down time, I edit them with my mass collection of fifty plus iPhone photo filters.  (You can do the majority of the edits I do with ten or so apps.  Getting the new iPhone photo editing apps is just a small addiction I have.)  Most pictures will be run through no fewer than five or six filters for edits, and require approximately five to twenty minutes to complete.

Of course I have my occasional #nofilter photos, but they are the exception, not the rule.  I’ll then try to post a bit of information, quote or other text that ties in to the picture to explain the history or thought behind it.  There are many iPhone artists who just have a natural eye and don’t need to filter, but it has become my “style”, something any Instagrammer works on for themselves.

A New World

Instagram has quite literally caused me to look at the world differently.  I look at small details, the sky, everyday items, objects and scenes with a much more aware eye than I ever have before.

Just like any social media platform you might consider using for business, to use it without a plan will become a giant time-suck. Consciously think about how you can use it to engage with and a build an IG Community for yourself.

IG Insight

Here are a few tips and tricks to using Instagram in your real estate business that I have found helpful.

Find IGers geographically around you by using such sites and apps as Cartagr.am, App.bg or Instabam and or by searching tags (I.e. #Miami).  This will allow you to connect with both locals living and sharing in your immediate area, as well visitors enjoying your city.

Share pictures that you’ve taken via your social web such as Twitter and Facebook, then create a photoblog using Posterous or similar. If you took picture while you were out with your clients, email them or send a postcard, using a super simple service like Instapost or Postagram.

Create a photo-book to share with clients and potential clients, insert a blurb or use MyPublisher.com. You can also create and print calendars, stickers, magnets, and anything that will print.  A canvas printed and mounted picture of the facade or view from the new home could be a great closing gift.

Target Expired Listings by taking a picture of their home “Instagramming it up” and send them a postcard using Postagram with a link back to a short “why list with me video or blog post”.  I prefer Postagram over the other postcard services as the photo is actually perforated in the postcard and can be popped out, thereby encouraging them to keep it longer than a postcard.

Join the local IG community, either locally via Instagrammers.com and or IG meetups.

Host a IG Challenge about your community.

I’ve created a large resource list (as well as screenshots of all my apps) on Evernote here.

It’s not about a large following, it’s about an engaged one.  (Tweet This)

Instagram, for me, has created that, and more.

I’m super excited to be an Inman Ambassador for Real Estate Connect this January in NYC, where I will be taking Instagram-type photos throughout the event.  You can follow my work on Twitter using this hashtag: #ICNYig.