REALTOR Strangelove, or: How I quit worrying and love REBarcamp DC

I went to REBCDC because I knew I had forgotten, lost touch with my social media roots and become a leaf without a tree.  Luckily I only screwed around for 6 months in the social media world before my first RE Barcamp, which was RE Barcamp VA in Fredericksburg.  My mistakes had not yet become habits simply because I was changing everything weekly!  REBCVA set me straight on a number of things, but most importantly it helped me understand it was about community and connection.

For example, at REBCVA I was told by @respres that it isn’t about the quantity of connections, but the quality of the relationships those connections signify.  That was powerful, and helped guide me in my interactions.  However, as time went by I lost sight of that, gaining followers on twitter until my stream looked like the Potomac and made me leery of any fish I caught.  Finally I stopped paying attention to twitter altogether, took a hiatus on blogging and spent some time refocusing my efforts.

Enter REBCDC.  I knew I needed immersion to get started again, and Barcamps are immersive.  I literally felt like I was swimming in information starting in the first class with @billlublin.  He helped to reawaken that connection concept, and thankfully used excessively large and complicated words to explain it.  What can I say, I prefer my orators prolix rather than brief.

Cut to the twitterqueens, and how to “find your voice.”  I have never had a problem finding my voice F2F.  Digitally, as @mayaREguru pointed out, people do not always understand nuance, shades of meaning or sarcasm.  Tone is hard to read, and people often get the wrong idea based on an independent line of text.  However, if I have a clear vision of how I want my online presence to be interpreted I will have a better chance of connecting.

The workshops I attended were great, but I feel like I missed twice as much as I learned!  (Technically correct because there were 3 classrooms.)  Still, the joy of an unconference is in the choices, and we had plenty.  Every speaker added value to the day, and by the time we played Lynchburg Squares at the end my cup ran over.  I had a new google document full of tips, ideas, concepts and most of all, motivation.

I have blogged every day since then and storyboarded at least 4 video ideas.  I trimmed the folks I follow on twitter from over 1000 down to about 700, and I’ll be trimming more every day.  If you don’t connect with me you don’t get to share my space.  However, if you truly connect with me I will do anything to help you succeed.  Quality beats quantity every time.

Thanks REBCDC for keeping me real and getting me back to my roots.