I’ve been on a reading spree lately, concentrating on business books that focus on social networking. I have a pretty wide definition of “business” and the first book I’ve included is a work of fiction.

I read “Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow at the recommendation of Daniel Rothamel at Real Estate BarCamp Virginia. This is a work of science fiction, based in a time where death is obsolete and money no longer exists. In place of currency, your net worth is figured in “Whuffie” – and Whuffie is exactly why I’m recommending this as a business book. Oh, it’s a great read on it’s own, but if you’ve looked at “social media” from the outside and wondered what value anyone would see in sites such as Twitter or Facebook, the answer is Whuffie. Whuffie is just a measurement of your social worth, respect or esteem. If you provide something of value to others (in this case, educational links, breaking news, solutions to problems or just simple friendship), their good feelings towards you will increase your Whuffie points and you’ll have a higher net worth. We may not be keeping a numerical score, but Whuffie is out there. You can download this book, in many different formats, for free here.

World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott is about how to create a viral event using the power of social media. I bought the book not for it’s intent but because the book speaks very much to the way consumers view the market today. This book concentrates on advertising through means which cost little to no money, how to reach a large audience (surprisingly, sometimes by starting with very few people) and how not to alienate the very people you’re trying to reach. World Wide Rave suggests turning advertising around to solve your clients’ problems rather than preaching about what you can do. It’s about THEM. (Bonus points to the book because it features my friend Mike Lefebvre. Hi, Mike!)

What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis is kind of a survival handbook for businesses that might need to evolve to better fit in our Googled-up world. (Hint: as an independent contractor, it’s a good idea to know this stuff.) You’ll learn how customer service is the new marketing, how a group of fans on Facebook discussing your product is worth a thousand ads and that when you give over control of the direction of your business to the people you’re trying to service, you ALL win. Get out there and listen to the people you want to work with!

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky explains how groups form, work together and accomplish goals. When you first join a network such as Twitter, you may see what looks like the whole world streaming by and wonder how you’d ever keep up. If you stick with it, you realize that you can follow your friends, family, associates, random interesting people, celebrities and more, and you create a little group all your own. Here Comes Everybody explains how we keep groups to a manageable size for ourselves while still having the power of a much larger community. Members of groups tend to want to help each other, following an unwritten rule of “if I take care of you now, someone will take care of me later.” The easy formation of groups makes it possible to “fail faster” so you can get past it on with the stuff that works.

A funny thing happened after I read What Would Google Do?. I tweeted that I’d just finished WWGD and loved it – what should I read next? My answer came from Jeff Jarvis himself, suggesting I read Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. As you’ve just read, I took his advice and I’m glad I did. If you’d like to follow all four of these authors on Twitter, please do:@doctorow, @dmscott, @jeffjarvis and @cshirky.

And if you’d like to suggest what I should read next and why, please do!

Recently I wrote about Connecting Shows Together as a way to share more detail for your listings. After creating the main Show of the house, you may want to add secondary Shows about whatever features you feel may really help this house sell: a beautiful lot, desirable neighborhood or spotlight a gourmet kitchen or spectacular master suite. (After creating all the Shows, click Connect Shows Together, chose the Shows you want to connect and name them appropriately. At then end of the main Show, the viewer will be asked if they’d like to see more.) Be sure to take loads of pictures of your listings, because the best ideas for a Show often strike after you’ve left.

Drew Fristoe lives and works in historic Fredericksburg, VA and wanted online buyers to really connect with a special property. After creating a main Show, he might have included more photos under the Additional Photos section of the Real Estate Show. Instead, he wanted potential buyers to realize this home is a cut above, so he created and connected new Shows for The Gardens, Unique Features and even Scenes From the Wall Paper in the Living Room. (The Unique Features Show is full of the kind of details that would help me to fall in love with a home, and also makes a great reminder for someone who has already viewed the home.)

I can only imagine that his sellers are THRILLED with the extra care that Drew has given their home. When buyers find this Show, they’re going to know this is not just another listing. A buyer that is particularly attracted to this home is going to thrilled to have so many views inside and out — instant gratification like that is why we put so much information online for buyers in the first place!

In case you’re wondering, you can use these connected Shows in your MLS. If you add the MLS compliant version of the main Show, all of the connecting Shows will automatically be in the same format.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful listing with us, Drew!

Shutter speed is a really versatile setting to experiment with. You should find this setting labeled with Tv or S on your digital camera.

Adjusting the shutter speed is exactly what it sounds like — deciding how long the shutter will stay open, which dramatically changes the look of your picture. A faster shutter speed can freeze the motion of a hummingbird’s wings. A slower shutter speed can create a whole new world of motion and light.

You’ll get better result from a slower shutter speed in most cases by using a tripod or monopod. The slightest movement can blur a photo when you’re using a longer exposure time. (Tip: if you find that even snapping the picture on your camera causes a little wobble, you can get around this using the two second delay timer. You aren’t touching the camera by the time it takes the photo.)

If you’re trying to capture a unique look for a house, one that will stand out in a sea of similar listings, try taking the exterior pictures at dusk. Experiment with exposure times to find one that brings the house to life. You’ll get a sky rich with gradient blues and each light will bloom with a warm golden glow. It’s easy to imagine yourself going home to such a welcoming house after a long day. The fact that it’s obviously a little different from the average listing photo helps an online buyer slow their browsing enough to take a good long look.

The photos in the Real Estate Show below are City Lights and August Nights by Teresa Boardman, Clark County Fair After Dark, Shutter Speed Indoor Test – 1 Second and Shutter speed Indoor Test – No Flash by Dale Chumbley, Long Exposure Fourth of July Fireworks and Long Exposure Fourth of July Fireworks by Jeff Turner and Dancing Lights by Tall One and A Matter of Time by myself to illustrate some of the different looks you can achieve by adjusting the shutter speed on your camera.

Also in this series, see Learning Photography: Light Sources.

I’m always on the lookout for interesting Shows. When I saw the Real Estate Shows Chris Kealing of OwnerWillFinanceHome.com has made, I knew I’d found something great!

Many home buyers have trouble seeing what isn’t there. Chris obviously doesn’t have a problem imagining what could be, and he can make you see it, too. He takes houses in ROUGH condition and transforms them into the beautiful homes they were meant to be!

Real Estate Shows are a great way to showcase your specialty.

Chris can transform an abused house into a beautiful home and he can prove it through his Shows. His work can and does speak for itself. He’s using Real Estate Shows as a very effective way of illustrating his expertise.

[realestateshows]http://www.realestateshows.com/js.php?showid=287014[/realestateshows]

Whatever your specialty (new construction, first time homeowners, commercial, acreage, area, etc.), why not make a Real Estate Show that can be featured on your website or blog to show off your skills? You can even add a link as a part of your signature on your emails.

Please let me know if you give it a try! Thank you for letting me share your Shows, Chris!

One of my friends just subscribed to Real Estate Shows. His name is Dale Chumbley and he co-writes a blog called Clark County Real Estate Guide with Chris Hyde, who is in the mortgage industry. (Dale, along with his Mom, Tracy, and wife, Bridget, make up the Chumbley Team at Prudential Northwest Properties.) Together Dale and Chris cover many issues in the real estate market, but what I really love is when they write about local stuff in their city of Vancouver, Washington.

I wasn’t surprised at all when Dale’s first Show was amazing – fabulous pictures, great titles and an overall feeling of “love of place”. He loves where he lives and it shows!

But what really got me was when they worked together on a post. They visited a new restaurant just before the grand opening. Dale took pictures and whipped up a Show while Chris wrote the text.

And it was WOW!! I read this first thing in the morning and was ready for some Mexican food before breakfast! Click here and read, you’ll see what I mean!

OK, let’s talk about why this is so good. First of all, it’s great to blog about local stuff. People are going to see this new restaurant and want to know more. They look in a search engine and this post pops up. Now they’ve found a couple guys who know all about the area they’re living in – and how about that, they’re real estate guys! If they like the blog and keep coming back, who just became their go-to guys? You guessed it! (Hint: This is why you blog!)

Also, they wrote just in time for Cinco de Mayo and people might be looking for local stuff in connection with that, too. Give people what they want – they like that! Keeping up with events as they happen in your community can lead readers right to the welcome mat on your blog. (Dale does not seem to have a problem testing out restaurants and showing them off, as evidenced here.)

And the Show, this part is magic, too! In the place of one picture, they now have nine. This gives their readers a little power, if they want to see more pictures, they can push that little arrow button. If not, they don’t have to. People like to have choices … and they’re curious so I bet they push the button! RES Shows great way to show more of something without overwhelming your words or creating a post that looks so long it scares off a casual reader.

They’ve realized right from the start that Real Estate Shows are for much more than just showcasing listings – they can help illustrate nearly anything you want to say. If you have a website or a blog (and you should) RES may turn out to be your favorite tool.

Thanks to Dale and Chris, I look forward to seeing what you do with your Real Estate Shows next!

Cathy Tishhouse is a new Real Estate Shows client. And she asked the following question in the comment section of a blog post on ActiveRain:

I subscribed to Real Estate Shows a few weeks ago after seeing some posted by Missy Caulk and my seller’s love them – really adds to my listing presentation. Just when I was doing the trial run, I found out that RE/MAX has a similar tool in their design center but liked this one better… I have noticed that the pictures on the Real Estate Shows end up zooming into a particular spot that I might not have chosen – is there a tutorial to say what angle is best to take the pictures in the future – don’t want to go back and retake them all. Thanks for your help.

Well, we did have a tutorial on camera movement that I could have sent her to view, but I wanted to test a brand new piece of software, ScreenFlow, so I made the following video to answer her question.

ScreenFlow: Editing Camera Movement in Real Estate Shows from respres on Vimeo.

I sent the video to her via email and this was her response:

It worked great – thanks so much – I have changed my shows and very quickly. I am having trouble with the sound on my lap top – very faint and volume is turned up the highest. So, I could hardly hear but the visuals were enough to do this quickly. I love that I don’t have to watch the way I take the picture but can adjust the focus here. Great idea – this is why I chose yours over the free version that RE/MAX offers J and Thanks for the quick response!!

It was, of course, my pleasure. I was asked twice last week why someone would choose to pay for Real Estate Shows instead of opting for some other “free” option. I’ve been asked that question many times. But I’ve never had anyone ask me that question who had actually given Real Estate Shows a try.

There’s an old adage, “free is usually worth what you pay for it.”

Success and mastery are always about the subtleties. Many presentations look the same until you examine them more closely. Then the details emerge, details that mark the difference between successful presentations and those that just go through the motions but don’t deliver great results.

You are in business to get results and earn a living. We’re in business to help you do that.

There have been several times when I’ve thought to myself, “That is the best, most original use for a Real Estate Show I have ever seen!” It has happened again, and this one is truly going to be hard to top. I just don’t see how it could happen. (But please, you guys go on and try!)

Shortly before Christmas, Monika McGillicuddy of Prudential Verani Realty/Hampstead woke up from a very vivid dream that she’d written to her husband’s unknown birth mother. The dream was so real that she felt a need to go ahead and write that letter, and like a the fabulous blogger that she is, the letter came out in the form of a post.

Monika thanked Jay’s birth mother, and spoke as one woman to another about the love they share for him. It’s one of the most touching, personal posts I have ever read.

And at the end of her post, Monika made a Real Estate Show of Jay growing up before our eyes. What an absolute treasure that must have been for his mother!

Because yes, thanks to Monika’s post, Jay DID find his birth mother – and siblings! He wrote about it on his blog.

This is one of the more amazing blogging stories I’ve heard, and I wanted to share it with you. Here’s Monika’s Show. I’m sure that even if you don’t know Jay, you’ll understand what a gift this must have been for his newly found family.

Monika and Jay, thanks from me, too — just because you let us share in the journey.

[realestateshows]http://www.realestateshows.com/js.php?showid=238966[/realestateshows]

Are things a little tighter in your real estate market lately? Wondering how you can set yourself apart from the competition?

Let me tell you a little secret. The things you are doing already are probably wonderful, fabulous things that would make any client proud to choose you. But unless you can show them what you’re doing and how that is a benefit to them, you might as well not even be doing them.

As an example let’s look at Bob Carney of Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Bob recently posted on his Focus On Frederick blog about caravan tours. His company still does the “old fashioned” caravan tour once or twice a month to view the new listings. A client might wonder how this is any better than just looking at the pictures of the house, as many offices do now that technology makes this so easy.

There is nothing like being in a house to see how it feels. Even our wonderful Real Estate Shows is not meant to take the place of actually walking around in a house, but hopefully it shows you the house in such a way that you want to see more. (And maybe are even pre-disposed to fall in love with the house.)

Bob explains that having a bunch of agents view your home in person is something you would very much want to happen. If you are a seller, you will gain a lot of useful information from the tour. These trained, experienced agents are going to let you know exactly what might get in the way of a sale. They are also actively working with buyers, and once they see your house they may realize they have a buyer who will LOVE it.

After listing your house with Bob Carney or one of his coworkers, you now have a whole team of agents who have seen your home, know it’s condition, are familiar with the neighborhood and will keep it in mind to see if it fits the needs of their clients.

In Bob’s post and Real Estate Show, he takes us along for the ride and lets us experience the tour for ourselves. We see the advantage because we feel like we’ve been there, done that for ourselves.

If you’re an agent looking for a way to set yourself apart, maybe you don’t have to do anything different. Maybe you just have to find a way to show what you’re already doing.

*Ahem*. I’ve heard Real Estate Shows are a great way to do that.

[realestateshows]http://www.realestateshows.com/js.php?showid=236645[/realestateshows]

I regularly scrub through the unique visitor data on our server logs. I need to get a life, I know. But you can learn some interesting things late at night.

One of the things I learn is which Real Estate Shows get the most visits in any given period of time. The number represent a kind of success. So, I thought I’d begin sharing the numbers from these success stories.

July’s Most Viewed Real Estate Show

Mark Malcolm II created both the number 1 and number 2 most viewed Shows in July. Beautiful Year Round Home received 3010 visits. That’s a lot of views, way more than the average, but Mark is getting a lot of attention. His Lakeside Home with Beach House received 2915 visits for number 2 in July. Both of these homes are in Keuka Lake. Mark has the top sponsored link on Google for Keuka Lake, so that may have something to do with his success in attracting visits to his Shows.

But there also must be something in the water up there in Keuka Lake. Bonnie Curbeau came in third with 2348 visits to Elegant and Gracious Keuka Lake Home. That’s still a very large number.

Congratulations to both Mark and Bonnie. Keuka lake must be one amazing place!

Cyndee and Jack Haydon, Clearwater Area Real Estate Experts with Belloise Realty have a knack for relating to people. I can only imagine that their clients feel like the most pampered people on earth!

Recently, they helped a client buy her first home. Her family is out of town but this was a big day for all of them, and they wanted to feel like they were a part of it. Cyndee’s a lot like me, if you want to share something — make an emotionally compelling Real Estate Show! She did, and it was amazing.

In addition to the celebration Show you can see below, they also made a Show introducing their client’s friends and family to her new home. They included her new address, which is a very nice way to pass the news quickly. Isn’t that better than waiting for a postcard? And they got to feel like they visited her already!

Thanks to Real Estate Shows, their client’s family got to experience her joy as if they were there with her. Cyndee says these Shows had 55 viewings within the first 24 hours! (That’s a lot of people feeling good about your services. Think about it!) You might also want to visit Cyndee’s blog on Active Rain for a little more on client care. If I move to Clearwater, Florida, I know who I’m calling!

Please watch the Show below and pay attention, I bet you could make a similar Show soon, couldn’t you?