Fresh Ink!

I got this for my birthday last month, but it's finally all the way healed up-

Done by Kyle Grover.

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Thrive Social Media

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you guys know Chelsea and I have posted a few new things on our Thrive Social Media blog. I'm trying to make this blog about my stuff, and all the techie, social media stuff is moving over to that blog.

I hope you all check it out!

Here's the link:

http://ThriveSocialMedia.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Thrive is Here!

Our second book, Thrive: How Realtors Can Succeed in a Down Market, was delivered yesterday!I wrote a lot of this one, along with Lon Welsh, Mike Welk, and Bruce Gardner.



We did a ton of research on this one, and found some pretty interesting trends in the industry. Let me know if you want a copy!

Top 5 Cities with Recovering Markets

Thanks to Mel Phipps who just posted this on Facebook.

According to the Today Show's Real Estate Expert, Denver is the number 1 recovering city in the United States. Pretty cool, huh?

Their criteria rated things like education level, weather, job growth, thriving downtown, etc. It's pretty cool that our little ville is viewed as the TOP city to watch.

Watch the video here, it's worth the wait.

http://bit.ly/16bVa9

Until next time...

Best Places Around: Salvegetti

You know what's a drag? Snobby bicyclists. And being a daily bicycle commuter, I have a right ot complain about this.

It's really annoying to get stuck behind some jerk in a Lance Armstrong jersey going 15 mph in the middle of traffic. I AGREE that bicycles should be treated as traffic. But slow traffic gets honked at, flipped off, and passed. So don't be an a-hole about it.

Anyway, it seems that a lot of my bicycling friends (who just so happen to not ride 4 thousand dollar racing bikes) don't like bike snobs either.

Case in point. Try going to the bike shop on Iliff and Colorado Blvd. You can't miss it, it's right where Iliff does that little jig. Try going in there wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Not a particularly nice day, as I did, or a busy day. Just a regular old day being your regular old self.

Now, here's what I look like on the weekends, for those of you who may not know:

I really don't think I'm THAT scary.

I DO, however, look like I'm 15. Or thereabouts.

So back to the point. Try going into said bikeshop on Iliff and Colorado and play "How long until I'm even acknowledged." It's fun.

For me, the answer was "Never." Yes, I was in there for about 15 minutes, trying to look at single speeds and fixies. I tried talking loudly about having questions with the jerks standing around nearby. I tried playing around with the floor models.

Still nothing. So I started taking bikes down off the rack, playing around with them, and left them leaning against the wall.

Jerks.

On Saturday, I had the great PLEASURE of stopping in to Salvagetti on Speer. I was greeted at the door by the owner himself. His name is Scott. He's the man.

So this place is completely awesome. To give you a taste of exactly HOW awesome, here's a quote from their website-

"Sal-va-jet-tee

Salvagetti is simply the english word salvage with T-T-I added at the end to make it sound Italian. The pronunciation is sal-va-jet-tee. The word literally means a bike shop at 1234 Speer Blvd. in Denver, CO. We aren’t making fun of other bike shops with big attitudes. We promise."

Awesome.

Scott helped me find a pretty cool fixie, a Jamis Beatnik 53cm. He knows my pal Robert Koch as well, so that was cool.

It's nice to just talk to people who like to ride bikes. Nobody is going to confuse me with Lance, and that's ok with me. I just like being on 2 wheels. And so do these guys.

So pop on by, their nice. Park in the allyway right before the shop (immediately after you pass 12th) though, because there is no street parking and 13th is one way to the west. So it's a hassel to go around the block. Especially when the Cinco de Mayo parade is going on and 14th is a mess.

Links!

Salvagetti's Site

Denver Post: Best Tea Places Around

My colleague and beloved pal Mike Welk posted this on my Facebook wall this morning. Good stuff, thanks Mike.



http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_12329843

I also read an article over the weekend in the magazine Living Without on the healing properties of tea. Black tea (which I drink religiously) decreases the risk of Parkinson's, Alzheimer, diabetes, heart disease, and a bunch of other cool stuff.

So check out the places on this list. I know I will. In the meantime, buy your own up at Urbanistic Tea and Bike (see previous posts). Their Earl Grey is absolutely superb.


Cheers.

Found my College Portfolio...

For what it's worth, Colorado State University wasn't completely a waste of time. I did get to color. Good old Landscape Architecture.







And some Photoshop and SketchUp renderings...


Comments, as always, are welcome.

Denver Highlands and Such

Just thought I'd slap up some pictures of our outing on Sunday.


Me (@drewshope) and Chelsea Willis (@weddinggal) in Confluence Park, Right by the REI.


Confluence Park, with the high rises on Little Raven Blvd in the background. That bridge on the left is 15th Street.


Confluence Park. REI is to the right.


I didn't know International Harvester had a place in Denver. I knew about the Willys Overland plant on Broadway, but not this. It seems Denver was kind of a hub for 4 wheel drive manufacturing. Hmm.

And a little further up the road, we headed to Highlands-

Sorry I'm such a nerd.


Right outside Urbanistic Tea and Bike (see previous post)


32nd and Lowell.

More from 32nd and Lowell.

And on the way back home we stopped by Buffalo Exchange on 13th Ave. and Grant St. I just thought the view of the Denver Art Museum was nifty...


Hope everyone enjoys some random pictures from around Denver.

Until next time.

My first Twittargument!

So the morning of Monday, May 4th, something strange and wonderful happened. I got into my first Twitter Argument, or Twittargument for, er, short.

It all started when the user @monkmusic posted, 5 or 6 times an hour, things like:

"My music sounds like Kurt Cobain and Timbaland in the boxing ring. Check it out www.monk-music-monk.com"

(we'll save the debate over what Kurt Cobain and Timbaland would actually sound like in a boxing ring for another time).

and

"I have a new website with free downloads. Check it out. www.monk-music-monk.com"

Over. And over. And over.

And over.

So, I doing my Twitterly duty, thought I would send a discrete direct message:

"D monkmusic: your shameless self promotion is getting old."

A little harsh? Probably. But I didn't call names or use too many big words or anything.

A little while later, he replied:

Whoa! My favorite one is:

"@drewshope and why didnt [sic] you have the balls to write that as a @ ? Could it be that you faer [sic] my followers?"

To which I kindly replied:

"@monkmusic wow man. touchy? I thought I'd let you know WHY you are losing followers. It's tiresome to hear ads all day."

So yes, you can do nothing but tweet about your business all day. But it gets really old. I tell my clients to tweet 5 or 10 things about others for every 1 about themselves.

I just thought I'd take this opportunity to share a little something about the greatness of Social Media.

It's user controlled!

Now, could I have just stopped following him? Of course. I unfollow around 10 or 15 people a day, just trying to thin out crap from the valuable stuff.

I honestly was just trying to give some feedback. Tactful? No.

But I want to use this to show everyone the really cool thing about social media. If you don't want spam, you don't have to.

So don't be spam!

I know, right?

Hope this inspires.

An Interview- Urbanistic Tea and Bike

This is my first 'interview' for this blog. I have to admit, I felt a little strange asking the poor guy running the place if it was cool for me to snap some pictures.

I stopped in to Urbanistic Tea and Bike at 32nd an Lowell on Sunday afternoon. Partly because I wanted to get some different Earl Grey (Sorry Twinnings, you have just started to get stale) and partly because it was nice out and I'm pining for my new bike.

Ethan, the owner, is a pretty cool dude. He wasn't put off at all by my nonchalant inquiries on Surly frames, custom wheels, and tea stuff.

Here's the fine fellow...

He was working on a bike, as he was the last two times I stopped in.

The place has been open for about a year, says Ethan. I asked why the choice to combine Tea and Bike-

"I have been a bike mechanic forever, and we have been selling teas for a while, so we just thought we'd combine the two."

Well said, sir. Well said.

The cool thing is that they accomplish the two incredibly well. Their selection of teas is pretty darn complete. I counted 4 different kinds of Earl Grey (!).


They have a good selection of kettles and pots as well, and everything was very reasonably priced.

To the left of the store is the bike accessories wall.


A couple things on this wall-

First, the wood-grained rims are awesome. Secondly, the seats they sell here are awesome. Double awesome.

So planning my custom bike, I'm thinking a black Surly frame with a drop handlebar and wood grain rims and a brown leather seat. Just so you guys know.

Stop by, check it out. Let me know what you think.

Links!

Urbanistic's Blog

Coolest Places Around - Urbanistic Tea and Bike

One of the things I really enjoy doing on my weekends is cruising around town and trying new indie coffee shops. After years of Suburban Starbucks, now is my time to live a little.

I have my favorites around- My top three would be, in no particular order:



Kaladi Bros. Coffee on Evans and Gilpin
Cafe Europa on Pennsylvania and Bayaud
Paris on the Platte on Platte St between 15th and the pedestrian bridge over I-25.

Other favorites include Stella's Coffee Haus on Old South Pearl. Decent drinks, kind of nice atmosphere, but tends to be a little crowded. Another runner-up would be the Dazbog Coffee on 17th and Downing (chain, yes. But awesome coffee). I actually did a Summer internship for Lifescape Associates up the street from this place, the Summer BEFORE it went in, so I was forced to drink Starbucks. Common Grounds on 32nd and Lowell and The Tattered Cover Coffee Shop deserve mention as well.

I definitely like riding my homely old Diamondback over to Kaladi or Stella's to get something on Saturday mornings. There are cool bike shop's right by each of them as well, so it's fun to go get some tea and look at the bike's I can't afford.

But at long last someone has come up with the AMAZING idea of combining the two.

I present to you, my humble followers:
Urbanistic Tea and Bike

This place is the combination of 2 of my top 3 loves; Bikes and Tea.

I know.

Take a minute to breath.

This place, while not serving tea, has an incredible selection of teas too choose from. Rare stuff. Exotic stuff.

The thing that I really love is you walk into this tiny place, and you basically have 3 options of where to look- the wall displaying bike parts, the wall displaying teas, or the stand where the owner, Ethan, is working on some bike up on the stand.

That's it.

Seriously, how cool is that?

It's on Lowell just down from the intersection at 32nd (right across Lowell from the Pizza place in Highlands Square).

Go check it out. I'll be doing an interview with Ethan soon (hopefully this weekend) with more pics and more info, but trust me; this place is awesome.

Links!
Urbanistic's Blog
Kaladi Bros. Coffee
Stella's Coffee Haus

My Favorite Twitter Applications

I know I go over this stuff really fast in class, so I wanted to put these down in one spot where they would be easy to find. So without further adieu...

1. TweetDeck.

TweetDeck puts everything in 1 spot for you. It defaults with a column for a feed from all the people you are following, a column for your @replies, a column for you Direct Messages, and a column for you Facebook Friends' Status. You can also shorten URLs (handy) and it has a TwitPic plugin (see below).



I like it mostly because using Twitter.com to do this can be a total drag. Nothing like a celebrity plastering their mug all over a site to really slow it down. Thanks guys.

It is a download, but I'd highly recommend it. It also minimizes to you toolbar so you can leave it up without giving away (to your boss-types) that you are on Twitter.

www.TweetDeck.com



2. TwitterGrader.

Knowing where you stand is the only way to know where you're going. Twitter Grader is a website that allows you to put in any Twitter username and see where you fall on their scale. As of this post I'm ranked somewhere in the 60k's. Not bad, but not spectacular. That's out of 2 million TwitterGrader users, by the way.


The really cool feature of this site is to view the Twitter Elite (top right-ish tab) which will show the top 50 worldwide users. Here's a free tip- FOLLOW THEM. Simply following the top users in the Twitter Elite section, and some of the top users by location will boost your follower count. Which is a good place to start (more on when to knock that technique off later).

http://twitter.grader.com



3. TwitPic.

So you want to tweet some pictures, eh? Go to TwitPic and you can upload a picture, write a little something about it, and tweet it to the world. Very cool.

www.twitpic.com



4. TwitterCounter.

A kind of baby version of analytics for your follower count. Not a big application except to see where you are and where you are predicted to go, but kind of neat. It tends to be a little slow though, but worth knowing about.


Give them a shot and let me know what you think.

Linking Twitter to Facebook and Blogger...

This is super easy and I get this question a lot in my classes, so here you all go. Now I can just say "read my blog."


So you have a blog, a LinkedIn account, a Facebook page, and you’re tweeting away. You’re spending some time each week to update each one, and you start to think that there has to be an easier way to take care of everything at once.

Twitter’s tiny little 140 character tweets can show up in a lot of places, which is a fantastic way to get noticed.

First, we will show you how to link Twitter to your blog and to Facebook.

Go to your Twitter account and sign in. At the bottom of the screen, you will see a link named “Apps.” Clicking here will lead you to this page:



You can scroll through the list and pick some that sound interesting to you, but for now we are going to stick to the “Widgets” application.


Once that is open, select the Facebook tab and click “continue” in the bottom right corner.

Click on the “Install Twitter in Facebook” button in the middle of the page.


Click “Allow,” and enter your Twitter login and password. Now anything you text to your Twitter account will be displayed as your Facebook status. Two birds with one digital stone.

Go back to the Apps link on Twitter. This time, click on the “Blogger” link, and then click “Continue” at the bottom to navigate here:

You can tweak the settings as much as you’d like, then click the “Add to Blogger” button. It will ask you to sign in to your account, much like Facebook.


Click the “Add Widget” button and you are up and running. This link brings you to a page that will let you finesse your blog’s layout. Spend some time here, as this will likely be the place a prospective client will end up on, and you want them to get a good idea of who you are and what you do.

Click “Save” when you’re all done.

If you need to get back to that page, it is the “Page Elements” tab under the “Layout” tab.

Hope that helps, leave a comment if you have any questions.

Links!

Twitter Apps
Facebook Apps

SEO, SMO, and why you shouldn't care

So I'm assuming that most people have a general idea of what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is, and the basic concepts of how to use it.

For those of you who don't know, SEO is a tactic that a company or individual will use when building a website to ensure the site shows up in Google results. Which is good.

SMO is Social Media Optimization, which is a little different, but basically the same idea; you want to show up in Social Media results easily.

I do a lot of consulting for Realtors and other small businesses, and the thing they always want to know is, "how can we increase our SEO?"

And I always say, "It's not all about your Google standing!"

The most difficult part of what I do is not explaining how to Tweet or how to link everything together, although that is usually what people are most interested in at first (probably because they think it will help their SEO). The most difficult thing is trying to help people wrap their heads around the concept that "Push Marketing" just doesn't work anymore.

The power is no longer in the hands of the marketer like it was in the 50's, or even the hands of the channel like it was in the 80's and 90's. It's in the hands of the consumer. The consumer is all knowing, all powerful, and they are all talking to each other.

This always scares the people in my classes, but it's not a bad thing. This will make the products higher quality because the poorer quality products will be ripped apart in the blogosphere. Good.

Companies and Marketers need to understand that they are no longer able to put a spin on things that make them look new and shiny. They need to engage in a conversation with their consumers, and trust that the loss of control will result in the gain of momentum.

Thoughts?

Social Media for Small Business!

Our 1st SocMed class is coming up!



Gimme a shout for details.