ActiveBrad just called, KIM! Join the radio show today! When? Soon! Ok! When Brad speaks, I listen!!!

No time to go into great detail.... but TWITTER GONE WILD... here we come!

Today, Thursday, November 20th
2:00-2:30 pm Eastern Time

CLICK HERE FOR RADIO LINK  You can call in or use the chat program.

Jeremy started a video discussion.... I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into.... SEESMIC VIDEO DISCUSSION

Join:

Paul Cheney

Brad Andersohn

Rich Jacobson

Jeremy Blanton

and myself    (CRAP! ME and all those guys??? In a Twitter Gone WILD ???  I just noticed... help me!!!!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RESPRES,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JEFF,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FRIEND,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Yah, I'm not the best poet out there..... but so many words come to mind when I think of Jeff.....

GENUINE
ADMIRABLE
RESPECTABLE
CONSIDERATE
APPRECIATIVE
GENEROUS
TRUSTWORTHY
HONORABLE
PROTECTOR
HUSBAND
FATHER
HUMBLE
FOXY (#FFFFF)
CREATIVE
GENIUS

I could go on and on and on.... but instead I welcome ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE JEFF comments below. Have fun.....  Let's rack them up.  Be true, only use words that you feel for him (I'm sure even if you haven't had the great pleasure of being around him, you still have a word!!  :) ..... Let's give him a BANG of a birthday wish!!!

I overheard on Twitter last night someone admit he has a ManCrush on @respres.... think he'll fess up to it here?

Jeff.... you are amazing......... Happy, Happy Birthday! I'm so grateful I get to call you and your family FRIENDS..... Fun times shared....  Look what I made for ya..... :)

You can pick your own with over 200 acres of crops !  LittleOne5 has had two field trips here, and they are really good to the kids in the school groups. They have a learning station where they get to see inside a large refrigerator, have a treat of Apple Cider and the famous Apple Cider Donut, and get to press apples into cider themselves!

They also went on a hayride into the rows of Apple Trees and got to chose their very own three apples from the tree! "Find the right one. Hold it tight and twist three times until it comes off with a small pull."

I remember going here as a child with my grandmother, DeeDee who lived down the road. It was always a treat to come and pick out some penny candy.

"I would really love to be able to write with Agent Genius," I told my friend Missy of Ann Arbor, MI on her back deck in September.
"Kim! I would too," Missy answered.

(You remember who Missy is right? The Caulk Wood | Bonding for Success team with Makeover2Takeover on AR ?? That was us !!)

Just a few weeks after that conversation I received a SKYPE message asking if I would like to join the ranks of Geniusness and be a writer at Agent Genius, a national community of Real Estate Industry leaders. I was honored to be asked to join such a highly respectable group of people. Not only was I able to ::clink:: to myself, but Missy was also asked at the same time! Benn & Lani of A.G. had no clue of our conversation - so it was one of those "meant to be things".

Chester County, PA is now represented among the writers, readers, and fans of Agent Genius. If you have any interest in the real estate industry - or you wanna be a fan for other reasons - come read, we'd love to have you! And leave your comment now and then so we get some fuel to keep writing!

Original Post on West of Philly Burbs

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month - which I have renamed Cancer Awareness month. Many people have gone "pink" with their avatars to raise awareness and remind followers of the importance of the fight.

Join in here on ActiveRain !

My daughter, AChrome, got some of the gals in the family to join in and walk for the American Cancer Society 5-mile walk in Philadelphia this past weekend. She and her friend even made us all t-shirts to wear for the team, "Save the Ta-Tas". The walk was filled with different emotions - my thoughts heavy for two friends who lost their fathers last year, a friend who is a survivor, a friend fighting the fight - and also for so many that I don't personally know with stories.

Original Post on West of Philly Burbs

How to Twitter - Part One : Why Twitter? Get signed up
How to Twitter - Part Two : Setting up your Profile
How to Twitter - Part Three: Follow and Get Followed
How to Twitter - Part Four: Replies, Direct Messages

In this part we'll discuss a few of the other things you can do on Twitter Web.
Part Six - Third Party Twitter Applications

It's been so much fun seeing the people come from this ActiveRain tutorial to the wild world of Twitter... and jump right in! Makes me proud :)  It gives me the fuel to keep the tutorial going, that's for sure.

FAVORITES:

You can favor a tweet by clicking on the star. It will be saved in your "favorite" tab/page.  You can access your favorites directly by going to http://Twitter.com/favorites (after you are logged in).

Here are mine (I should use it more) -

(Yes, you can earn a twit designation from @LindaDavis, lol)

RETWEETING:

As you can see above, @FresYes thought @SarahWV said something good enough to be "retweeted" so he put "RT" (you can also spell out RETWEET)  before sending it again. 

LINKING:

First, a small soap-box chat, do not only link up your own stuff if you want people to read it. Chris Brogan, aka Mr. Social Media, suggests you link up other people 12 times more than your own stuff.  Because you are only allowed 140 characters, it's helpful to use URL shortening services like Tiny URL, Snurl, is.gd etc.

BUTTONS:

Ok... you're ready for a couple shortcuts now that you know your way around the long way (sorry I think it's important to know the long way first :) 
REPLY- When you are at the twitter home page, if you mouse over to the right of a tweet, you will notice the STAR and an ARROW. If you click on the arrow, twitter will fill in the @reply for you.
TRASH- If you go to your archive (click on your picture or name) - when you mouseover you will notice a TRASH CAN, I'm sure you can figure out what that's for.

Stay tuned for Part Six.

How to Twitter - Part One : Why Twitter? Get signed up
How to Twitter - Part Two : Setting up your Profile
How to Twitter - Part Three: Follow and Get Followed

Today... Part Four will address The Conversation.

After you have accumulated some people that you follow, you will see them talking.  Time to join in!!  Twitter is only a good thing if you use it! 

I have some tips to share with you when you are thinking about what to write:

1. Be yourself.
2. Don't be a Salesy Real Estate Agent or other. Don't constantly ask, "Who wants to buy a home in Timbucktu?"
3. Don't be Link Happy with your own posts.  Link up other posts that you have enjoyed reading - and most of the time, don't link at all.
4. You aren't limited to "What are you Doing?" You can use "What are you thinking?" "What's for lunch?" "Here is my question for you" etc.  No rules!
5. Don't use it like a chat room.  (I can be too chatty ::guilt face::)  If you continue one-on-one conversation - take it outside of twitter to a chat program, email, or phone call!

Now onto The Conversation.

To send a general message just type 140 characters or less into the box and enter:

Trying to decide whether to work on Inbox Zero, convert paper to .pdf files, or Twitter some more!

To direct your conversation to someone:(keep in mind, others can see your conversation)

@KimWood Congrats on your news of the day!! You are going to write for Mothers Fighting for Others !!

I just heard that @KimWood is a new writer at Mothers Fighting for Others !!! 
(The 1st suggestion is better, it is easier to view your replies if the name is at the beginning of the sentence)

To direct your conversation to more than one person:

@KimWood @HeadMutha @Respres Yay for the new Mothers Fighting for Others gig!

A new writer at Mother's Fighting for Others @KimWood @headmutha @respres yay!
or
@KimWood Congrats, that is great news!!!  @SarahWV You write for Mothers Fighting for Others, don't you?
(see the above example - better to put @names at the beginning of a sentence)

To send a private, direct message:  (the person you are sending the message to must follow you in order to DM them - but you can @reply)

d KimWood No wonder you were bursting at the seams to tell us.
D [SPACE] name then your message.

* What happens on the internet stays on the internet - just a quick reminder. Be careful with DMs.  What happens if you forget the space - or twitter has a hiccup?  (haha remembering VAR convo at breakfast and my DMs)

Most of all ... have fun!!!  Remember it gets more and more difficult to keep up the conversation after you have more and more followers.

Part Five - Extras on Twitter Web

So I've been talking about it for a while, and with the new option of feeds from ActiveRain (mostly I'm *yay* for this) - I want to share the right way to use Twitter.

You've heard about it if you've been listening to the national and local TV stations, politicians, bloggers, radio, newspapers, etc. 

Here is why I continue to use Twitter, almost daily:

• Friendships & Connections
• Up-to-the-minute news that is happening where all of my twitbuds (people I follow) live
• Links shared to articles people have read and enjoy (I like it when these come from others vs. writer)
• Great place to ask questions and receive answers (after you have followers)
• Connection with Locals   - and last but not least -
  
• Business !!  (Yes, business. Closed sales)

The hard part about Twitter is that it is really hard to understand until you use it. But it's also hard to know exactly what to do once you are there.

Here kicks off my How to Twitter series...

Let's get you started...... Go get yourself a user name. I started with @RealtorKimWood, but I felt that was too long after I started using Twitter for a while. Now I'm just @KimWood.  (I have my reasons :) 

When choosing your name, do not put @before it - it's just "twittertalk" which you'll learn later.  Just: KimWood is what I would select :)

You'll also see some other variations:

Realtor+Name= @RealtorToby 
Real Estate Related=@RealEstateChick
Area Branding Related=@FresYes
Name+Area= @SandyPA
BrandName= @ActiveRich

Decide who you would like to be.  You can change this later, but like most things, it is a whole lot easier if you think ahead then act.

Let's get to it!!  Go to http://Twitter.com (You can click there -it will open in another window and you can still look at this if you need to).

Go ahead..... just do it now!  It'll only take about 5 minutes to complete signing in.

We'll get you started in what to do after you have your user name in How to Twitter - Part Two. (If you are really anxious - go ahead and play around with your profile - add your picture, bio, etc.)

Questions are welcomed.......... I'll do my best to answer them all in a comment or in the series!

How to Twitter - Part Two Setting up your Profile

How to Twitter - Part One Why Twitter ? Get signed up.
How to Twitter - Part Two Setting up your Profile

Part Three is time to start getting some people to listen to (Following) and people who want to listen to you (Followers).

Just jump in here, ok? It's very hard to comprehend the madness until you just jump in.  It'll all make a little more sense once you get going with it.

Sign into your Twitter account.

I'll be your Guinea Pig and hostess..... Go to my Twitter Webpage: http://Twitter.com/KimWood.  Click FOLLOW. (I apologize in advance if I'm not quick to refollow, but I will, it's been madness lately).

In the sidebar, you'll see the Following box with a bunch of mugshots... look below my beautiful friends and click View All. That will take you to a list of the people I follow.

Look through the list and you'll be bound to find some familiar names that you know from the Real Estate Industry and/or ActiveRain.  Be selective. It's not all about the numbers!!!  (Although Bob Carney & Linda Davis came up with an e-twit certification for people with 100 followers and 1000 updates.)  Don't follow everyone I follow (you don't want to - trust me :).  Click on their username to be taken to their main page, you will see what types of things they talk about and you can read their bio. If you like what you see, click Follow. If not - keep looking :)

Some people if you follow them will shout out a "Hello and Welcome!" - some won't. There isn't a right or wrong way to that.

You can also click on the names in my conversation stream which is shown right below the "What are you Doing" box.  

Another way to find people is to search for them. If you've seen them mention Twitter- go search for them on the Twitter website! Or randomly enter some names in the search box.

I recommend you chose 25 active follows to start with. (Active means they've said something in the last couple of days).  Don't start with too many, it gets very overwhelming - trust me.

Once you have your list of about 25 people to follow - they'll start to look at your profile and quite possibly will start to follow you. They'll want to see some conversation - so guess what it's time for?

Use the "What are you Doing" box!!! 

The only restriction is that it has to be 140 characters or less. That's it!  Here are some samples:

• I'm not sure what I'm doing, but trying to learn Twitter.
• Time for lunch..... what to have?
• What do you think of my new profile picture?
• Hello, hello? Anyone out here?
• Are there any other Real Estate Agents on Twitter?

See? You can say whatever..... the only tip I will give you is don't shout out a salesy pitch if you want to make connections, or throw out a URL address yet.

More about following/followers:
People will try to follow you that you do not want or care about what they have to say. If they are painless (no spam) I usually leave them. They can't hurt me by watching what I say. If they are spam, you'll see a "block" or "remove" when you look at their profile if you are signed in.
Most of us that are experienced on twitter will not follow someone if they have a gazillion more Follows then Followers. Why aren't people following them? Must be a reason.

Part Four - How to converse, reply, direct (private) message.

How to Twitter - Part One gave a brief overview of Twitter, why I use it, and how to get signed up.

In Part Two, we'll move onto setting up your profile. This is important as people look to see if they want to follow you. If you do not have a bio, picture, website etc. I hesitate - so do others. We need to know a little bit first.

So.... you have your username... if you are continuing from sign up, the next screen you will see looks like this:

I personally, never like to use these. I don't like my friends to have to get the notifications :)  However, follow the directions if you chose to. It will search for people in your address book.

So moving right along....

What are you doing? If you are going to listen to me... you won't do anything yet. However, I know some of you will want to - so go ahead and type something in there if you want. (No one will really read it - cause you aren't following/followed yet - but go ahead if you have to).

Let's click on Settings. Most of the learning I have found on the computer is by "playing" so go ahead and play with all of those tabs in there. After completing each tab, be sure and click SAVE at the bottom.

At the least, set these up:

• Account Tab: One line bio, location (you can be general), More info URL (if you have a blog - link it up! If not, use another website you have - even ActiveRain).  Note: There is a box called "Protect my Updates" where you will be locked. I have been locked and unlocked. For the beginning, I recommend you are unlocked - people hesitate following people who are blocked because they can not see anything - and you have to approve them. Of course, when you are unlocked - you will have some people request to follow that you will follow up and block later (I'll address this).
• Device Tab: I highly recommend you do not set this up at this time.
• Notices Tab: While you are getting started, change the drop-down menu to "All @ replies"
• Picture Tab: Duh! It does have to be 700K or less, and square is best. (Picnik is awesome for this).  Some people use a picture of themself, others use logos, pets, etc.

You're all set up!  How to Twitter - Part Three is up where you can start learning how to follow and get followed.