Western Montana & Missoula Real Estate Blog & Area Information

Today's Twitter Basics For Business Class - A Great Experience!

We taught our first social media class in Missoula today on Twitter Basics for Business. It was a Free class at the Missoula Public Library meeting room. We ended up with a good turnout, made new friends, and had a great time. We also were given the opportunity for an interview at a local radio station because of the event.

Read about it and hear the interview here: We Ended Up on the Radio Today Thanks to Twitter!

Our daughter Kelsey was allowed to take the day off from school and helped sign people in to the class and took some video. We'll post video of the event later. We just started using our new Flip video camera so it needs some editing first.

Our friend from Twitter and ActiveRain Blogs - Clint Miller from Real Estate Client Referrals was gracious enough to join us for this event. We've known Clint online for close to two years but this was our first face-to-face meeting. Clint @RECR has more than 17,000 tweets on Twitter. He spoke about building relationships using Twitter for business.

For more information on upcoming Twitter Events around Missoula Montana - including a Tweetup on May 22nd, visit www.MissoulaTweetup.com.

The slide show from today's presentation is also available at MissoulaTweetup.

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Kevin and Monica Ray are Missoula Real Estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. We provide services in, but not limited to: Missoula, Superior, Alberton, Saint Regis, Lolo, Clinton, Turah, Potomac, Florence, Corvallis, and Hamilton

Kevin & Monica Ray are real estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. For more information on Missoula Real Estate or surrounding areas, they can be reached at 406-207-1185 or online at www.YourMT.com.

By TwitterButtons.com

We Ended Up On the Radio Today - Thanks to Twitter - and Our Friend from ActiveRain!

After talking to several people we know who are confused about Twitter and wondering if there is any value to using it if business, we decided to host a free class on Twitter Basics for Business.

We've had a lot of success using Twitter for real estate and have met some amazing people in our community on the site. Our friend from ActiveRain and Twitter, Clint Miller of Real Estate Client Referrals is also in Missoula. He's made more than 17,000 tweets - an amazing feat by any standard. So of course, we had to have Clint Miller as a guest at our training. We've talked to Clint through our ActiveRain Blog and on Twitter for close to two years now but today was our first time to meet in person.

On the way to teach the class, we had a Tweet from @Energy1075 - a local radio station asking us to come by the studio after the class. We've had conversations with Aaron Traylor - the world's tallest DJ on Twitter and Facebook so jumped at the opportunity. We were on during the Lunch Rush and even got a tour of the studio.

Our daughter Kelsey who is about to turn 15 was allowed to miss school to help us with the Twitter Training. Her favorite radio station is 107.5 and her favorite DJ is Aaron Traylor which made this even more fun. Kelsey is taking the photo.

Here's Our Interviews - I think I need to keep my day job in real estate and poor Kevin has a cold and is losing his voice! Clint has the benefit of being a DJ in college and is natural behind the mike.

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Kevin and Monica Ray are Missoula Real Estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. We provide services in, but not limited to: Missoula, Superior, Alberton, Saint Regis, Lolo, Clinton, Turah, Potomac, Florence, Corvallis, and Hamilton

Kevin & Monica Ray are real estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. For more information on Missoula Real Estate or surrounding areas, they can be reached at 406-207-1185 or online at www.YourMT.com.

By TwitterButtons.com

 Twitter Basics for Business
April 29th - 11:00 a.m.  
Free Class at the Missoula Public Library

Twitter is the Internet's fastest growing social media networking site. Learn how to utilize this tool to:

• Promote Your Business
• Meet Other Local Twitter Users
• Find Out About Local Events and Breaking Stories

We'll provide information to help you:

• Learn What to "Tweet About"
• Identify Twitter Tools to make using Twitter easy & fun
• Develop a Twitter Strategy
• Find out how others are using Twitter

With Special Guest - Clint Miller @RECR - one of Missoula's most popular Tweeple. Clint will share how he uses Twitter to get in front of potential customers and make sales!

The class is Free but seats are limited so register early. For more information, visit Missoula Tweetup.

Register for the 11:00 a.m. Class

Sponsored by

Where Service Meets Technology
Kevin and Monica Ray, Access Realty,
406-207-1185 or 406-544-3098
Real Estate Internet Sales and Marketing Specialists
Serving All of Western Montana
www.AccessRealty.net

The Twouble with Twitter - A Little Monday Fun

Happy Monday!

Whether you're new to Twitter or an old pro, I think you'll like this cute video.

Kevin and Monica Ray are Missoula Real Estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. We provide services in, but not limited to: Missoula, Superior, Alberton, Saint Regis, Lolo, Clinton, Turah, Potomac, Florence, Corvallis, and Hamilton.

Kevin & Monica Ray are real estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. For more information on Missoula Real Estate or surrounding areas, they can be reached at 406-207-1185 or online at www.YourMT.com.

By TwitterButtons.com

Have you adopted Twitter yet? If not, is it because you don't see how it could be useful? Or are you just not using Twitter to its full capability? There are hundreds and possibly thousands of applications that you can use with Twitter to help you on this list

comprehensive list of Twitter applications that helps you:

Analyze Twitter - who is following you, who you should follow, and what is your Twitter Influence

Gather Information - Get alerts about Key Words, Monitor News, Weather, What's Hot, What's Not

Build a Network - Meet locals on Twitter, Others in Your Industry or Hobby, Organize a Tweetup

Manage Your Network - Who is nearby, How much effort would it take to follow a person

Promote Your Business - Share your company information, virtual tours, photos, etc.

Share Photos - Share your business and just for fun photos

Organize Your Life - Organize your notes, save you to do list, grocery lists

Make Yourself More Productive - Use Twitter for Project Management, Set Alerts

Work on Relationships - Connect your group or organization, Stay in touch with friends

Life Track - Track your mileage, daily goals, your dreams

Improve Your Finances - Raise funds on Twitter, track your expenses, monitor the stock market

Improve Your Health - Quit smoking, track sugar, have a food log

Improve Your Blog - Allow others to Twit your posts, gain traffic.

Here are a few of my new favorite applications for Twitter:

• TwitterNotes: Organize your notes using Twitter with TwitterNotes.
• Remember the Milk: Use Remember the Milk on Twitter to update your to do list.
• TweetNews: TweetNews ranks stories based on the amount of related tweets.
• Twitthis - TwitThis is an easy way for people to send Twitter messages about your blog post or website.
• TweetWheel: TweetWheel will help you discover which of your Twitter friends know each other.
• MyTwitter  Wordpress Plugin- Lets you add your Tweets to your wordpress Blog.]
• Twitterfeed - feed your blog to twitter, identi.ca, HelloTxt or Ping.fm
• Tweetdeck - a must have to use Twitter, unless you use another similar application

From AR Community Builder, Jeremy Blanton: Send Your ActiveRain Blog Posts to Twitter Instantly

One of Our Earlier Posts on Twitter: Twittering in Missoula Montana, What Is That Anyway?

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Kevin and Monica Ray are Missoula Real Estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. We provide services in, but not limited to: Missoula, Superior, Alberton, Saint Regis, Lolo, Clinton, Turah, Potomac, Florence, Corvallis, and Hamilton

For more information on Kevin and Monica Ray or Western Montana Real Estate, they can be reached at 406-207-1185 or online at www.YourMT.com.

I read somewhere that with Twitter, people either love it or they don't get it. There are a few brave souls in Missoula on Twitter but we haven't reached the numbers you see in other areas yet.

I didn't "get" Twitter at first but realized I was hooked last week when I sent my husband the following email on our anniversary to get him to check his Twitter account:

I tweeted at you from the Tweetdeck and blipped you some songs :)

So what is Twitter and Why do you Care?

Simply put, Twitter is a Social Networking and a Microblogging tool. It allows you to send status updates - similar to Facebook, and read others status updates - called "Tweets". Tweets can be up to 140 characters and are more "real time" than what you find on Facebook or other Social Networking sites.

According to Wikipedia, "In November 2008, Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research estimated that Twitter had 4-5 million users.^[2] A February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranks Twitter as the third largest social network (behind Facebook and MySpace), and puts the number of users at roughly 6 million and the number of monthly visitors at 55 million.^[3]"

The site Twitter is not overly impressive but they have written the software in a way that others can develop applications to use with Twitter. This is where it gets interesting as there are hundreds, and possibly thousands of application you can use for Twitter - including Tweetdeck, Twitterberry (for Blackberry), Tweetie (for iphones), Twitterific, and Tweetbeep.

A few of my favorites include -

• Tweetdeck (use on your desk top to better organize Twitter)
• Twellowhood (find out who is using Twitter in your area)

It's also helpful to be able to search Twitter at www.search.twitter.com.

Twitter is a great tool to stay in touch with friends, family, business partners, and is also a tool to network with potential clients and others in your industry. It's also a great way to organize Tweet Ups (meetups in Twitterease) and fundraisers. A fundraiser we attended in Seattle was Twestival that raised $3787 for Charity Water.

You can follow events or topics if a hash tag # is set up such as #twestival for Twestival and #Rebcsea for RE Bar Camp Seattle.

Twitter is a powerful business tool once you understand it - just ask @Raillife's Nick Bastian, a brilliant marketer who is able to use Twitter to update the community about its new LightRail system, and sell real estate.

Photo: Seattle Twestival - Stacey Harmon, Mike Simonsen, Andy Kaufman, Nick Bastian

Oh, and once last thing, I blipped my husband two songs for our anniversary using Blip.fm where you can be your own DJ and send your Blips across Twitter, but that's another post.

Some of my favorite Missoula Twits:

Clint Miller - Real Estate Client Referrals

Missoula Freecycle

Missoulian

Missoula Sustainable Business Council

Kenny Dow from The Grizzlies

Judy H. Wright - Author, Speaker

Are you in the Missoula Area and on Twitter? If so, post below.

Helpful Posts About Twitter

Tweet It Forward, Building a Twitter Community

How to Use Twitter for Lead Generation

So You Think You're Using Twitter, No You're Not

ActiveRain's Twitter Feature

Kevin and Monica Ray are Missoula Real Estate sales and marketing professionals for Access Realty in beautiful Western Montana. For more information on Western Montana, they can be reached at 406-207-1185 or online at www.YourMT.com.