Marketing Monday: Dana Moos, Realtor and Twitter Queen

Dana Moos is one of the most useful people I follow on Twitter (@danamoos). I happened to finally meet her in real life at two tweet-ups (that’s a meetup for Twitter users for the non-nerds out there).

Anyone who watches Dana on Twitter or anywhere else sees that she makes great food (usually associated with the hashtag #foodporn), takes gorgeous Maine photos, and otherwise seems to be everywhere at once. I asked if I could pick her brain about how she uses her website, Twitter, Facebook, and other websites and manages to sell real estate.

Dana Moos, Twitter Queen, Maine enthusiast, and interesting person.

First question: Do you ever sleep? If so, how do you manage to do your job, study, be a social media superstar, and have fun?
For the most part, I work from home. So if I’m not out showing property, I am on the computer from the first cup of coffee until it’s time to think about dinner! Then I might be back on the computer after dinner for a little bit.

It takes time, dedication, focus and organization! And it has become part of my routine. Just like exercise (which I don’t do as much as I should!) but the time that it takes hasn’t become a chore for me because I can be so creative with it. Any time I can be creative, I’m happy about what I’m doing. In high school and college I was involved in the Arts, then got away from it and into business, now I’m back. But now I can combine both and I love it.

How did you get into using social media? Did it start out with a blog like it did for me?
That’s exactly how I started. When I was an innkeeper, I learned a great deal about web marketing. So when I got into lodging brokerage, The Swan Agency Sotheby’s International Realty has a beautiful website, but I wanted my own, for my listings, my focus. So in December 2008, I designed a blog through Google Blogger (mainelodgingbroker.com) because I didn’t have the time to have a website designed by a professional. Besides, I wanted to take a stab at eventually designing my own! So after my blog was established, I joined Facebook and Twitter. And I follow my stats very closely. Seeing the impact of just these two social media sites, I expanded my blogging and photo blogging, primarily for business.

Marketing Monday: Making Friends In A New Place

Every Monday, I look at a person or company doing something cool online. Got an idea? Let me know about it!

A couple months ago, I noticed Larry Literal on Twitter. He had recently moved here and I saw he started following a bunch of us Twitter users in the Bar Harbor area. I sent in a few questions to see how social media was helping him settle into a new area. Here’s what he had to say:

“I moved to Bar Harbor slowly, starting in September of last year. My godson visits quite regularly and always spoke of the area fondly. I’d visited in the past but not very recently. My brother-in-law owned a vacation house in the area and I decided to go along with my godson when he invited me last summer. I had recently retired and had a lot of time on my hands. Shortly after my visit, my brother-in-law was offered early retirement. This meant he would have to sell the vacation home. I decided instead to take over the payments, he’d already paid off half of the house, I’d make the rest of the payments and we would share it. Upon another visit in September I decided to make it my permanent home. I spent the next few months living part time in Maine and New York and I only finally moved all my stuff up here a few weeks ago. My beloved wife had loved the area in her youth. I wanted to retrace her steps and live for myself the memories she had shared with me from her childhood.

Before I moved I used Facebook a bit. I tend to keep to myself and my godson set me up with a Facebook account and then my Twitter account to make sure I would keep in touch with everyone. Bar Harbor is very quiet in the winter and I love that about the area.

This Week In Business: Hometown Holidays Edition

Happy Holidays! This is always a fun time of year where books are closing, final bills are going out, and businesses (and individuals come to think of it) are otherwise getting ready to begin again with a clean slate.
Here’s what’s been going on the last two weeks:
I am starting to draw a salary on January 1.
Since the official full time start of my business in May up until this moment, I have been living entirely on savings and income from my part time jobs (the inn this summer and very sporadic French tutoring in the present). I’ve been putting all business money into a business account (DBA) and using this account only on occasion to buy things for my business like web hosting or a new printer.

Weekly Online Twitter Chat: BudgetPulse, Breaking Even, and You

Friend and blogger Craig started a weekly personal finance chat on Twitter with BudgetPulse last week. He was looking for cohosts and since I like Craig and talking about money, I offered to be a part of it.
Each week, the topic is different with the undercurrent of money (sound familiar?). Tonight on the Weekly Personal Finance Chat, we’re talking about dating.
What does personal finance have to do with dating. More than you’d think: Who pays? Is it more expensive to be single or in a relationship? Basically all things love and money will be all over Twitter tonight, and if you have a Twitter account, you can be a part of it!

Need marketing help?

X