I’ve been playing pretty hard with Facebook streaming video this week… including an interesting movie promotion. However, because I’m playing with a new Facebook chat feature through RCG’s Facebook Connect, I decided to post about it over there, so please check out this post on RCG: Live Video Streams on RCG? With Facebook Chat?
Inspired by my desire to redo the RCG theme, I recently gave 4realz.net a makeover… If you want to see what I did and why, check out my post on Rain City Guide:
And no doubt about it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the redesign!
If you’ve ever been to one of my presentations, you probably know that one of my passions is educating audiences. I simply love everything about a presentation… and the bigger the audience, the more fun I have! I’ve been pretty fortunate to land some amazing opportunities including speaking at all recent Annual NAR events, all recent Real Estate Connect events and more than a few regional and brokerage events.
Probably the only thing I haven’t done well with my speaking is spend time reaching out to regional and state REALTOR organizations to let them know about my experience speaking about social media and blogging activities that generates business. That’s where you come help!
If you know someone looking for an experienced speaker to engage an audience around social media and/or blogging topics, please don’t hesitate to send them my way. If they want more information, you can send them directly to my speaker’s page or my speaker’s bio that summarizes my experience in a more print-friendly form.
No surprise that my presentations have evolved over the years (anyone else remember the bloginars I used to give with Russ Cofano in the summer of ‘06???). My current favorite to give is a three-part presentation that discusses how agents can (part 1) engage on social networks, (part 2) create a local website or “hub”, and (part 3) use their social networking activity to drive traffic to conversion points within their hub…
By the way, just a few of the speaking gigs lined up in my near future include:
If you’re going to be at any of these, I’d love to connect!
Hi Dustin,
I am quite new to this whole “using the internet to generate more business”. I didn’t know what I am using for fun, Web 2.0, could help me in my real estate practice. Thank God for your site. I’ll go ahead and seep all information in here, if you don’t mind. Would love to hear you speak as well in the future.
Cheers,
Nicole
Thanks Nicole… Feel free to reach out any time! 
We are addicted to ghettoes, and in so doing refuse the antagonism of ‘the political’. Where is the enemy? Not on Facebook, where you can only have ‘friends’. What Web 2.0 lacks is the technique of antagonistic linkage. Instead, we are confronted with the Tyranny of Positive Energy. Life only consists of uplifting experiences. Depression is not a design principle. Wikipedia’s reliance on ‘good faith’ and its policing of protocols quite frequently make for a depressing experience in the face of an absence of singular style. There ain’t no ‘neutral point of view’. This software design principle merely reproduces the One Belief System. Formats need to be transformed if they are going to accommodate the plurality of expression of networked life.
I am always looking to increase my social networking. I have been an active member of ActiveRain. It connects Realtors from all around the country as well as posting blogs. I came across this site and found it to be very informative and hope to continue the friendship.
Big Sur is an amazing coast with so many wonderful places to visit… So when the folks at Ford offered me a chance to test drive a Mercery Mariner Hybrid, my first impulse was to take a roadtrip down the Big Sur coast!
Thanks to the Ford team, good timing with WordCampSF and the help of some friends (@ribeezie and @dingman), we got to make the Big Sur trip a reality!
[By the way, if you want to skip directly to the photos, consider checking out this photoset that Jonathan Dingman created. I'm gonna use more than a few of his photos below, but there's nothing like seeing the whole set!]
The trip down the coast started on Sunday afternoon when we left San Francisco… We stopped off in Santa Cruz, where we took a walk through downtown and to the pier where we saw all kinds of great stuff like nesting birds and relaxing sea lions…
From Santa Cruz, we headed to Asilomar, which I’m tempted to not even mention because it’s simply my favorite place to stay in the Big Sur area and I’d hate to see it get crowded! It’s a conference center in a State Park on the beach with reasonable prices (sounds impossible, huh?). If you’re planning to stay in the area, then Asilomar is only a hop, skip and a jump from attractions like Pebble Beach Golf Course and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The most memorable moment from our stay came during an evening stroll along the beach when we found a stranded baby sea lion late… (the photo is blurry because it was taken at night with my blackberry, but it’s the best photo I’ve got!)
From Asilomar, we headed south and stopped off many, many times to take photos of the coastal views…
We also took a short hike to McWay Waterfall, and while the waterfall’s size was a bit disappointing, the colors of the water and surrounding mountains were amazing!
Another great detour was our hike to the bottom of the Ragged Point Beach… If you look REALLY closely, you can see @ribeezie and me on the beach in this photo. (or check out this zoomed in version)
We ended our adventure along the coast with a stop off to see the elephant seals at a beach near San Simeon. These animals are HUGE and so darn awkward on the land… and yet so much fun to observe.
For those of you who are map-inclined, here’s a map where I identified some of the highlights:
View Big Sur Trip in a larger map
And finally, for those of you curious how the Mariner Hybrid held up… it was awesome! It was an extremely smooth ride, got great gas milage and gave us no issues whatsoever. The only funny parts of the car had to do with me getting used to a hybrid… Things like the engine revving up to high RPMs when heading up hills and turning off when stopped/going slow surprised me at first…
Overall, I’d like to think we pushed the car a bit by taking it down the Big Sur coast and the whole experience rocked. Thanks again to@ribeezie, @dingman and the people at Ford who helped make this trip happen! I had a blast!
Wow… beautiful photos!!!! What a trip!!!
Anonymous and 2 others are discussing. 
Tony Fantis 3:03 pm on June 12, 2009 Permalink |
Hey Dustin…lookin’ good! I agree with your wife. The new design is easier on the eyes, has a little more white sapce, and makes it easier to find things.
I’d be curious to see how your Facebook Connect panel would do on a different page. While fewer people would see it, perhaps they would have enough reason by then to feel compelled. Just a thought. It seems the “Recent Comments” is of more interest, at first. I think you suggested you might make that change. Could be interesting!
The new colors are a little colder, but look serious and official.
Looks good!
Tony Fantis
Saltyhomes.com
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dustin 3:11 pm on June 12, 2009 Permalink |
Great idea… I’m not ready to remove the FB Connect from the sidepanel but I like the idea of bringing the comments above it… done!
Ricardo Bueno 1:54 am on June 13, 2009 Permalink |
Only cuz you asked (sorta), here are my thoughts on the redesign:
I think I liked the old header better. But the navigation bar on this one is totally awesome and functional.
I like the “Recent Comments” displayed on the right sidebar.
I totally like the threaded comments feature!
Anyway, just a few things I took notice on and thought I’d share… All in all, great redesign!
Dustin 10:25 am on June 13, 2009 Permalink |
threaded comments are fun, huh?
Thanks for the feedback!
jf.sellsius.theclozing 7:16 am on June 13, 2009 Permalink |
Love it. Like a well staged home, you get a sense of spaciousness.
Dustin 10:28 am on June 13, 2009 Permalink |
You rock!
Really liking the closing by the way. It’s become a great place to head when I’m looking for some interesting real estate news…
Dean Ouellette 10:58 pm on June 14, 2009 Permalink |
Dustin, it really looks great!!! Good job with the new look
Dustin 11:32 pm on June 14, 2009 Permalink |
Thanks! The feedback has been pretty good so far, so I’m thinking it’s a good change so far!
Charles Richey 2:20 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
I like the redesign. Makes scanning the site easier imo. You have some wasted space in the left hand column when you are viewing a post. Any chance you could move one of the columns over from the right side?
Dustin 3:35 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
Great call on the “right panel”. I had two ads up there, but earlier today, they stopped showing and it almost definitely had something to do with an upgrade to a flash plugin. I’m gonna have to look into that!
Dale Monroe 7:44 am on July 28, 2009 Permalink |
Congratulations on the website redesign. It looks much easier to scan key content and pleasant to the eye. Another good move. Kudos Dustin!