Social Media Symphony: a RE BarCamp tale

I am still in Orlando absorbing the wealth of knowledge, friendship and love that was bestowed upon me while here for RE BarCamp Orlando and the Florida Association of REALTORS state convention this week.

If you have never attended an unconference camp (BarCamp, PodCamp) then you really need to find one in your area as soon as possible. There is a unique synergy to these events that I have never experienced anywhere else; a heightened level of excitement as peers come together to share their knowledge and learn from each other.

As Morriss and I left Massachusetts the other day, I was especially excited because I knew that I would be meeting some people who are very dear to me for the first time face to face. The first on this list was Debbie Kirkland, a woman who is like a sister to me and was one of the first #twitterqueens. She is the reason I flew down to Florida and our first meeting was a moment of sheer loving joy. This woman is a powerhouse of energy, knowledge and execution. Her heart is open almost as wide as her mind and she loves to share and be surrounded by “her people”. Hugging Debbie was like coming home, even though it was the first official meeting.

This special greeting was followed in quick succession by a tweet up where I got to meet Mike Mueller, Susie Blackmon, Chris Griffith, Kathleen Herron, Cyndee Haydon and re-uniting with people I hadn’t seen in awhile like Kathy and Bill Bell, Deb Madey, Bobby Carroll, Jeremy Blanton, and Matt Fagioli.

The next day was RE BarCamp Orlando, and the event was PACKED. I put myself down for “20 Social Media Action Tips you can Implement TODAY” while Morriss decided to share his knowledge with the re.net crowd with “Geolocation, Geolocation, Geolocation”. Now it was time to go listen to the other volunteers and see what everyone had to share.

I started with a session led by Shannon King that focused on branding and using that brand to drive an online PR campaign. I gleaned some fabulous ideas from Shannon and was super-impressed by her youthful energy, enthusiasm and downright brilliant execution. As I listened to her business model I thought, “YES. That is how I want to operate, too.”

After Shannon’s session I sat in to listen to my love, Morriss, who is a BarCamp veteran (he has attended 11 over the last 3 years all around the country) present his thoughts on things like Gowalla, 4Square and Facebook Places and how a real estate agent can integrate these geolocation tools into their social media marketing plan. He also discussed QR Codes and their integration into marketing real estate. He posted his slides on slideshare.net where they were chosen to be featured on their front page, and of this writing, has 589 views.

Next up after lunch was my session. I got very nervous to lead this session for some reason, but once we began I had a lot of fun. The room was full and my 20 Action Tips served as great talking points. The participants had fabulous questions and suggestions and the session was a true barcamp brain bash…my favorite kind! I was flattered to have many people approach me later to let me know that they found the concise and simple format of my suggestions to be easy to understand and implement. That was my entire goal, so I was thrilled. As I told the room before we began, I am not Little Miss Know-it-All. I am Little Miss Know-a-Little, but I like to share! I was flattered to see one of my quotes blasted out to Twitter and re-tweeted a few times: RT @respres: RT @mmpartee: “You don’t have to be a writer to blog, just try not to be a mess” -@LesleyLambert #REBCORL [Nice. 🙂 ]

The rest of the afternoon I wandered through the other sessions picking up inspiration and ideas. Chris Brown‘s session gave me the final kick in the pants to hire a virtual assistant as he passionately spoke about regaining control of your time and only working on things that you love to do.

As the afternoon progressed, I got to meet Paul Chaney, which was very exciting as I truly enjoyed reading his book The Digital Handshake.

Social time at these events is always fun and it is hard to express how special it was for me to have the opportunity to chat with my amazing friends, old and new.

The following day, we attended the Florida Realtors’ annual conference, where I was blessed to participate on a social media panel with Susie Blackmon, Matt Fagioli, Mike Mueller and Chris Griffith. After introductions and a few panel questions, we broke out into training groups where I was helping to explain Twitter. It was exciting to be able to sit with these curious agents and help explain how I use twitter and to answer their questions. I love that moment when my explanation clicks for someone and I know I have helped them in some small way.

Following this session, we all went to listen to Paul Chaney present and he was wonderful. As a speaker Paul is incredibly energized and authentic. He is sharing something he believes in, and his demeanor expresses that implicitly. As I listened to Paul speak, a few things started resonating with me and then I experienced a moment of joy….we were all on the same page! All the things that I had heard at BarCamp and the Social Media panel, all the things that I had shared were in total sync with Paul’s message. It is so exciting to be on the same wave length with such rock stars!

After I had the pleasure of a long chat with Paul where music became integrated in the conversation. Along the way I announced, “That is what we are: a Social Media Symphony!”

I love playing alongside these amazing people. We make some kick-ass music together and I hope that the others feel the same way. Paul ended his presentation with a dance analogy and this video which I loved. I am over here dancing, hope you are dancing with me!