"Stop working as much and let Technology Work for You!"

"Stop working as much and let Technology Work for You!" -- Sam Jackson

I'm all for it and well to be honest I'm hyped after having attended the seminar today presented by Sam Jackson on today the Director of the Long and Foster IS Training. I had a great time. Learning about any technology helps you to apply it to all walks of life.

Sometimes I get so busy I don't stop to take a look at all the tools already available for my use. I attended a great seminar today on the Technology Tools available from Long and Foster. I was excited about having two websites at no cost to me from the day I stepped in the door here. Well as part of the technology tools we also receive other technology tools to help us grow our business.

The lessons learned included:

* VoicePad - how to use it effectively and get quick stats on how well it is working. It is a tool I have not been using but now plan to use it extensively. I think it is really cool a prospect can call the number on the sign rider and receive detailed property information without having to speak directly with me. I can follow-up later if they don't call me direct to see if they are really interested and offer to register them as a buyer on the VoicePad system. What a great idea! Allow buyers to call and receive information on any MLS property listed with Long and Foster here in the Hampton Roads area on any listing listed with any agent. The best part of all is it also automatically sends more detailed information on the property from "yours truly" (me) to their email address. How hard is that? As if that isn't enough, I also get a visual via a hot spot map as to what properties they are calling the service and asking for more information on. Sweet! Technology is helping me analyze what my prospects are interested in.
* Long and Foster Agent Website Portals - how to maximize the use of Featured Listings, how to add widgets, changing website themes (I was wondering how I could get my web page to match the dress in my photo sorry I'm a very special person when it comes to appearance!)
* Market Minute Reports - the use of the Market Minute report tool to keep buyers and sellers abreast of what is happening in their market because consumers want to know all about value. A report generated automatically based on the County you select and then you have the capability to share it on FACEBOOK and several other social networking sites. It helps consumers to know how the current housing values of their County. Keep them up-to-date at least monthly.

Additionally, while sitting there I came up with a great idea and wish I had the programming capabilities to coin it. I think it would be just totally awesome if we had the capability to "Send to FACEBOOK", or "Send to Twitter", or "Send to any of the popular social networking channels the same way we have the "Send to Email" capability on our computers. I figure this can be done by either having the document open or by right clicking on the file from the file directory the same way we can "Send to Email". When I access the Market Minute Reports I could then instantly share with it with my friends on FACEBOOK or my followers on Twitter. I'm sure it may be already in the works but how sweet it would be if I were the one to put it out there. I imagine technology would be working so hard for me I really wouldn't have to work.

This business seems to really have gotten fast paced with the greater emphasis on technology and the different technological tools available. I just have to reiterate Sam's point which was well taken and used as the title of this blog "Stop working as much and let Technology Work for You!" I'm about to put technology to work and making better use of the tools I already have at my disposal.

Great job by Mr. Jackson! I look forward to attending more of his seminars in the future.