The Voice of Orange County...Michael A. Caruso's Blog

We blog to share information, build relationships, network, and do more business. And a lot of us blog to get points. Those precious Active Rain points. 

So, given that you get all the points your supposed to and there are no technical difficulties, can you guess what’s the most points a person can get in a year for basic blogging?

(Not including comments received on your blogs, featured posts, invitation points, contests, spam reporting, and staff awarded bonus points as that can be almost infinite.)

a. 405,600

b. 352,000

c. 257,400 

I will post the answer later! Good luck.

And thank you for making me Your Orange County Real Estate Connection!

Best Regards,

Michael Caruso, Broker ABR ABRM CRB CRS GRI GREEN

2007 President Orange County Association of Realtors

www.michaelcarusorealestate.com

Become a better Tweeter! These tips come straight from Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey.

-Send regular tweets. Try to do one a day, this will increase the likelihood someone will find and follow you.

-Be Public. Placing a # (hash tag) in front of key words will make you searchable in  Twitter’s public search. Otherwise, only your followers will see your updates.

-Share valuable information. Say something that is worthwhile rather than “I just ate lunch.”

-Watch for typos. Twitter has no spell-check so be careful!

-Be Friendly. Read your followers tweets, comment on their posts, get your name out!

-Manage your Twitter. Get the free interface TweetDeck ( HYPERLINK "http://tweetdeck.com" http://tweetdeck.com) to manage your account on your phone or desktop.

-Retweet. Wondering what the RT means? Share news this way by sending someone else’s tweet to your followers. Placing a RT in front of the messages says it’s a retweet.

I’m sure most of you have a Twitter by now, but hopefully these tips will make you beneficial to others by providing them with information or fulfilling a need.

And thank you for making me Your Orange County Real Estate Connection.     

www.MichaelCarusoRealEstate.com

Best regards.                                                                                                               

Michael Caruso, Broker ABR ABRM CRB CRS GREEN GRI                                   

2007 President, Orange County Association of Realtors  

(949) 753-7900

Do you ever wonder how you compare to other Realtors? Every year the NAR Member Profile breaks down realtors economically, demographically, by tenure, and more.

With technology being a hot topic, I found some of these statistics from both the 2009 NAR Member Profile and the 2009 Realtor Technology report interesting...

-60% of us have had a website that is an average of 5 years old

-The most common information we put on our sites is our own listings

-Over 30% of Realtors use social media

-Of the ones using social media, 76% use Facebook, 58% use LinkedIn, and 35% use Active Rain

-32% say the Blackberry is their primary mobile device, 14% use a Palm Treo, and 10% use an iPhone

See how you compare or take a look at the entire report here:

NAR Member Profile

Realtor Technology Report

And thank you for making me Your Orange County Real Estate Connection.     

www.MichaelCarusoRealEstate.com

Best regards.                                                                                                               

Michael Caruso, Broker ABR ABRM CRB CRS GREEN GRI                                   

2007 President, Orange County Association of Realtors  

(949) 753-7900

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace. These, and other social media sites, have become part of our daily lives. Could you imagine not having access to them?

Well, an article on Wired.com by Noah Shachtman announced that these sites will no longer be a part of the U.S. Marine Corps lives. These sites have been banned by the Marines for security purposes for one year. Security risks include information exposure and malicious targeting. This will reduce exposure and possible threats, but it will make it more difficult for members to keep in touch with family while away.

Social Network Sites create a large window for attack and make information leak possible. They are more prone to viruses like Trojans and worms and don't contain security and filtering measures.

The Marines will continue this ban, but will it extend to all areas of government? The Pentagon wants to keep the web open, many of its highest ranks are followed on twitter, U.S army bases have Facebook, and generals are blogging from the battlefield (Shachtman, 2009). You can even follow our President @ http://twitter.com/BarackObama.

Social network potential for the government is huge. Maybe creators will develop a more secure social network in the future. To read this article go to: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/04/marines.social.media.ban/index.html

And thank you for making me Your Orange County Real Estate Connection.     

www.MichaelCarusoRealEstate.com

Best regards.                                                                                                               

Michael Caruso, Broker ABR ABRM CRB CRS GREEN GRI                                   

2007 President, Orange County Association of Realtors  

(949) 753-7900

Pretend that you and some colleagues were wondering who threw the winning pitch in the 1990 World Series. Who would you ask? These days, one of you would probably say, "Let's Google it."

Ladies and gentleman, I have an even better search engine for you....

Next time, "Blackle" it. A Blackle search is a small step we can take to save energy in our everyday lives. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search so you will be getting relatively the same results.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. It requires more power for a computer to display a white or light screen than a dark or black one. So by searching though Blackle, you are essentially helping our environment. Small energy savings will eventually add up.

That being said, is your website "green"? Mine is! Try changing the backgrounds of your websites or blogs to a darker color and save wattage energy.

"Blackle.com - Saving energy one search at a time"

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And thank you for making me Your First GREEN Real Estate Connection in Orange County

www.MichaelCarusoRealEstate.com

Best Regards,

Michael Caruso, Broker ABR ABRM CRB CRS GREEN GRI

2007 President, Orange County Association of Realtors