| Looking for New Clients?Volunteer for the Italian Street Painting Festival |
Frank Howard Allen is a Festival Mentor of the Italian Street Painting Festival to be held in San Rafael June 13 and 14. We will be taking photos of the kids who create masterpieces on Children's Avenue. To participate as a volunteer and meet prospective new clients, contact Karen Foley: kfoley@fhallen.com. |
| Success Stories
from the Field |
We learned of two Success Stories this week that we wanted to share.
An Agent in the Greenbrae office reports getting a legitimate request for a showing from the property-specific website she created for the listing - plus getting 200 hits to the site in a month without the help of any print advertising.
These sites are effective, inexpensive ways to take advantage of the Internet. Be sure to order a domain sign rider for further exposure if your yard sign is in a well-trafficked location.
The second Success Story came from an agent who followed Carole Rodoni's advice and set up a map at her open house showing real estate activity in the neighborhood. Five sets of clients asked the agent for her business card and one has called for an anppointment. To review the tips Carole gave in her seminar, click here. |
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Agents in the News |
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Fred Kusin of the Novato office hosted a free Electronic Waste (e-waste) Collection event on Saturday, May 9, at Petaluma High School. The event generated over $2000 for Petaluma High School Student Activities. The materials were given to the Marin Computer Resource Center who in turn paid per pound for the e-waste, accounting for the $2000 in collection profits.
The Novato Office is a sponsor of the 26th Annual Novato Art, Wine and Music Festival which will take place June 13 and 14 in downtown Novato. Look for their booth near the main stage. For details, click here.
Brent Thomson and Janet Williamson of the Tiburon Office successfully completed the famous Bay-to-Breakers race in San Francisco.
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Blog of the Month |
In this blog, the WSJ.com tracks the housing market with news, tips and analysis. It's fun, interesting, and insightful. |
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Worthy Website |
Did you know that Trulia allows you to send your clients automatic emails with the web stats of their property? Trulia will email them: How many times the clients' listing came up in Trulia search results; How many times it was clicked on for more details; and How many times "more information" was clicked. For instructions on how to set it up, click here. | |
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Greetings!
To reiterate a point we made at the Kick-Off back in January, it's our goal to make your life easier. Read on for tips that will do just that, some Success Stories from your fellow agents, and more worthwhile news. |
The Luxury Marketing Council Holds Third Annual Alpha Agents Seminar - Noreen Smith featured panelist
On Thursday, May 21, the Luxury Marketing Council held one of its special meetings for Realtors only at One Rincon Hill, the new jaw-dropping Condominium tower in San Francisco.
The topic of the meeting was San Francisco Real Estate...Where is it Headed? In the unique, view-from-the-top discussion, the heads of seven leading Bay Area real estate firms delivered hard-hitting opinions, candid assessments and insight about Bay Area real estate and where it's headed.
The panelists were our own President and COO, Noreen Smith; Bob Dadurka, President & CEO of Paragon Real Estate Group; William Drypolcher, CRB, President of Zephyr Real Estate; Avram Goldman, President & CEO of Pacific Union; Larry Knapp, President & COO of Alain Pinel Realtors; Charles Moore, CEO of McGuire Real Estate; and James Nunemacher, Principal of Vanguard Properties in San Francisco.
Frank Howard Allen is a member of the Luxury Marketing Council of San Francisco, which holds free monthly meetings for its members. All our agents are invited to attend if interested. For more information, visit the Council's website, or contact Claudia in Marketing. |
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Tech Tip: Social Networking and Internet Overload
by Jen Masterson
Technology makes our lives easier in many respects, but it also brings complications. For example, many of us have a Facebook page, a Linkedin page, a blog page, several news (local, national, real estate, etc) sites we check daily, in addition to business and personal e-mail accounts. Keeping track of all of those is enough for a full time job. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to put all our critical sites on one page so we could check them all at once?
Good news, there is a way and several sites actually exist to do just that. Click here to view an article on the different options, called social start pages or start portals.
Recently I checked out the top five of these start pages and set up accounts on the top two: www.netvibes.com and www.igoogle.com. I found that I preferred Netvibes, but both worked beautifully. On Netvibes I set up an account, then set up four tabs: One for Social Networking (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Blogs, and Flickr/Picasa); one for all my news sites (CNN, BBC News, MarinIJ, Press Demo, People); one for all my real estate news and blogs (Inman, 1000Watt Blog, RIS Media); and finally one for my email accounts. Now each morning I can just go to Netvibes and see everything in one shot. No logging in to multiple accounts, no typing addresses - it's all right there.
There is a lot more you can do with these start pages. You can get at-a-glance info for the weather, stocks, a variety of email providers (Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, etc.), movie show times, etc. You can also customize the look by choosing from among the hundreds of design themes available.
To get started, go to www.netvibes.com; it will walk you through the process with a wizard. If you don't find everything at first, go to Add Content on the upper right hand corner once your page is setup. Click here for our Tech Tip Guide.
There's also a way to create a start page for your iPhone. Go to www.zensify.com/ which will combine Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media features into one app on your phone. It's not as robust as Netvibes but to be fair, your iPhone isn't a full-on computer. |
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Property Lines - The Frank Howard Allen E-Newsletter for Clients
We're now preparing our fourth issue of Property Lines, the Frank Howard Allen monthly e-newsletter that you can forward to clients. Whereas this newsletter, Frankly Speaking, is meant just for our agents and staff, Property Lines is targeted to the public and addresses current market news and stats - and doesn't cost you a dime to send. Property Lines is sent to your e-mail about mid-month and is created using the e-mail marketing vendor called Constant Contact. If you have a Constant Contact account, we can arrange for you to send Property Lines directly to your clients, which will allow you to get valuable data as to how many clients opened the newsletter, what links they clicked on, and more. If you don't have an account, all you need to do when Property Lines arrives in your e-mail in-box is hit Forward, delete the Forward details, add your own message and signature at the top of the e-mail, and then send it off. To send Property Lines to your clients using Constant Contact, e-mail Claudia in Marketing: ccoury@fhallen.com |
Xpressdocs - Four New Designs Posted to Site; More Coming Soon
Our templates on Xpressdocs are ever-evolving and we are happy to announce that - due to popular demand - we've added four new templates: two luxury brochures with space for more/larger photos, a Market Update postcard and a Home Alert informational postcard, the last two of which work very well for self-promo mailers or to have on hand at your open houses.
Flyers start at .39 cents a piece and postcards start at .48 cents a piece (including postage). To learn more about Xpressdocs, click here. You can also access the site directly through myFHAllen / Marketing / NEW Cards & Brochures. If it is your first time logging in to the site, you will need to create a user account.
Please contact Claudia - 415.898.2545 x110 or ccoury@fhallen.com - with any questions or comments. Also, if there is a template you'd like to see added, just let her know.Xpressdocs' Green Initiative
Xpressdocs is a print-based company but they are also committed to a Green Initiative. According to their site, "That's why we do everything we can to make Xpressdocs one of the most efficient and environmentally responsible print operations there is. While our plan incorporates recycled papers and environmentally friendly inks, we are inspecting every aspect of our business-from energy use to roof coatings-so we can remain on the leading edge of environmentally responsible business." Learn more about the Green Initiative here: http://www.xpressdocs.com/about/green_initiative.php |
Special Training Added: Agent Websites
There have been several requests for training on how to set up Agent Websites. If you're interested, join Jen for a Lunch n' Learn in the San Rafael office on Wednesday, June 17, from 12-1. BYO Lunch. To RSVP, e-mail Jen: jmasterson@fhallen.com
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| A Warm Welcome To Our Newest Agents
Novato Office: Joan Busby and Mike Ward
Joe Del Buono & Claudia (Morshead) Heyde
Santa Rosa Office: Craig Sheffer
Tiburon Office: Scott Woods | |
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We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future issues.
Write to us at: pr@fhallen.com
Sincerely,
Your Marketing Team |
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