Philadelphia Social Media Bowls Over Charity

I don't usually write about social media on this blog. I reserve it for my Blog at the Social Media Marketing Institute, or BuzzBuilderz, or REreflections. But people in Philadelphia are working hard to make things in our city better and they're using social media accomplish these changes.

Local Social Media personalities like Gloria Bell of Red Stapler Consulting worked hard to hold a local event at Lucky Strike Lanes on Chestnut Street called Twestival Philadelphia. This event was only one of a number of events held around the world , all to benefit local charities.

A Twestival or Twitter-Festival is a global series of events organized by volunteers around the world under short timescales, which bring people offline for a great cause. Twestival is run 100% by volunteers and independently from any not-for-profit; although the organizing teams do work closely to outline an achievable and measurable fundraising target.

In Philadelphia volunteers sold tickets and sponsors donated raffle prizes all to benefit Gift of Life Family House, The house is a non-profit organization that provides temporary lodging and supportive services to transplant patients and families seeking transplant treatment at Philadelphia transplant centers. During the event members of the organization, and even individuals who had received the gift of transplants participated together to make our community stronger.

As of last week local Twestivals had raised $233,960 and that does not include 40+ cities whose tallies are still not collected. Congratulations to all of those who donated time or prizes for all of these worthy causes, who proved that twitter, and facebook, and the people who populate them are more then a passing fad, and that social media has a place in the communities of the city of brotherly love.

I can't Blog about Hank Baskett

Image by reeltor99 via Flickr

In a classroom today I was speaking with Kim Wood, who told me that she had just completed a post on her blog about Hank Baskett leaving Philadelphia for the Colts.

During our class on Social Media, I needed to write a blog post and was going to use that when the strict, and authoritarian Ms. Wood said I was not allowed.

Therefore this post is now over.

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Long Term Trends Indicate Good News for Housing

It seems that this may be another in what is appearing to be a string of articles about the possibly recovering housing market. After years of continuous bad news, the housing market continues to surprise. Last week, the latest good news came in the form of the monthly Existing Home Sales report.

An "existing home" is a home sold by an existing owner as opposed to a developer. It's non-new construction property, and in our market in Philadelphia and New Jersey, it is overwhelmingly the largest portion of the housing stock

The data on Existing Home Sales was noteworthy for its trends:

1. Sales volume rose over four straight months for the first time in 5 years


2. Sales volume rose year-to-year for the first time in 4 years


3. Median home prices fell for the first time since April

Furthermore, first-time home buyers and buyers of "distressed" homes accounted for nearly one-third of the market activity each.

But, before we declare a bottom in housing, it's important that we remember the First Rule of Real Estate -- All Real Estate Is Local, and Philadelphia and the surrounding areas have always been more resilient than most markets throughout the country.

The Existing Home Sales report is not neighborhood-specific. It lumps cities like San Diego and Saint Paul into a giant sample set and fails to account for regional differences in real estate, let alone neighborhood ones.

This is the primary reason why on-the-ground real estate agents are better sources for a market pulse versus a report from a national trade group. The national group can't know the happenings of every street and every home in a market, and our market has not had some of the issues wuth fraud found in other states, nor the huge amount of speculative building that was part of the market problems in others.

That said, however, the national data isn't completely useless.

Looking a

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

t the long-term patterns in the Existing Home Sales report, we can infer that ample supplies, low mortgage rates and tax credits are spurring home sales in a lot of U.S. markets. As a result, our offices are seeing more activity, both from our agencies and other firms, and we see properties going under agreement more rapidly, with multiple offer situations again being created.

Eventually, this will lead home prices higher.

Related articles

• Shrinking Inventory May Indicate Housing Recovery Start (movephilly.blogspot.com)


• July Home Sales Soar to Largest Monthly Increase in 10 Years (abcnews.go.com)

Teaching Social Media In Cincinnati

Image by reeltor99 via Flickr

Here we are on the second day of the CSM designation course sponsored by the Cincinnati Area Board of REALTORS.

The class so far has been fun and we're just learning how to make a quick blog post. The participants have learned about Social Capital, Ethics of Blogging, how to use permission based marketing, and how to engage in the conversation.

At the end of the first day the class has a firm grounding in the social basis of social media. Now we're on to the second day and we all are pretty excited about the possibilities!

A Cool Project: Building Invisible Shelves

If you're looking to add invisible shelves in your home or workplace, you can either buy them on Amazon.com for $14 a piece, or you can build them yourself with a just a few simple tools.

In this 3-minute video, life-help website VideoJug shows how to install invisible shelves in an easy-to-understand, anyone-can-do-it fashion. The acting is a little goofy, but the instruction is right on.

Invisible shelves can be used to store and display books, clocks, knick-knacks and photos. They're called "invisible" because objects appear to float on the walls on which they're shelved.