Author: Tracy Thrower Conyers

Tracy Thrower Conyers is a long-time resident of Westchester 90045. Tracy closely follows local politics, political players and social chatter relevant to Westchester. You’ll frequently find her at Neighborhood Council meetings, as well as on all the social platforms where 90045 peeps hang out. Tracy loves a good conversation about our community, so don't be shy about leaving comments. 😊

Setting Up Your Social Media Base Camp

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in October 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

———————————-

Every effective multi-faceted social media strategy starts with a base camp.  Think of it as the hub from which all spokes emanate.

While it might be theoretically possible to use another platform like Facebook or LinkedIn as your base camp (at least from the “hub” perspective), the best base camp is your blog or CMS.  Why?  Your own blog/website/CMS is your little piece of digital real estate that you control, to the extent that you can control anything out on the wild wild web.  Facebook and other third party providers can and will change their terms of service at the drop of a hat, change their revenue model or worse, go out of business altogether, and your base camp could become untenable or wiped out.  Oh no, it’s way too risky to put your valuable base camp in the hands of a third party. Continue reading “Setting Up Your Social Media Base Camp” →

Wrapping Your Lawyer Brain Around Blogging

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in September 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

———————————-

Having a hard time wrapping your lawyer brain around the idea of blogging?  I ran into a very lawyerly white paper called Blogging For Laywers, complete with footnotes!

Back in the day, I wrote long briefs and footnotes were one of my particular talents.  My brain doesn’t think in footnotes anymore.  My brain thinks in links these days.  Nevertheless, I still recognize beautiful footnotes when I see them, and this article struck me as a nice bridge for lawyers who don’t yet think in links.

While you’re at it, check out the author’s blog at Delaware Litigation.  He writes a beautiful, classic lawyerly blog on the topic of what else?  Delaware Litigation, of course.  Not a topic that I personally could write passionately about day after day, but Francis does a beautiful job and has been recognized for his efforts by LexisNexis.

Getting Your Core Content Circulated

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in September 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

———————————-

Every expert with a blog/CMS has core content.  Some gurus call it “cornerstone content,” some call it “flagship content” and some call it “pillar content.”  It’s the tutorial-style content that you share on your site that demonstrates why you are the authority in your space.

This content has other purposes as well, but today, I’m talking about core content as in the stuff you strut to show that you’re the expert — the white papers, the case studies, the best practices guides, the eBooks, etc.

Because this is the content that demonstrates your expertise, and because the whole point of writing this content in the first place is to raise your profile, you want to make it darned easy for people to share the content with as many other Continue reading “Getting Your Core Content Circulated” →

Attention Realtors, Small Business Owners And Community Thought Leaders

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in January 2008 for Living90045.com, a community blog featuring news, views, tips & chatter from Westchester, CA.

——————————-

Websites and blogs like Living90045.com dominate search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN because they provide regularly updated web content focused on a particular topic, such as living in Westchester. Blogs are also technically structured in ways the search engines favor. If you have a service business or other message to get out to the world, blogs rock with the search engines!

Why are the search engines important? Because search engines are the first place consumers sit down to find more information on a particular topic. It’s no coincidence that the word “google” has become a common verb in everyday usage. Whenever my six year old wants to know about a topic I don’t know much about, I tell her, “let’s check the Internet.” The first place I start is Google.

Google is also the first place journalists look these days for experts to quote in news articles. What could that kind of exposure do for your business??? Continue reading “Attention Realtors, Small Business Owners And Community Thought Leaders” →

Our Preemie Success Story — Our 27-Week Baby Has Grown Into A Happy, Thriving 7 Year Old

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in March 2008 for Living90045.com, a community blog featuring news, views, tips & chatter from Westchester, CA.

——————————-

For reasons that have never been fully explained to us, our daughter, Zoe, was born 13 weeks early.

Many people along the way have said to us some variation of “gee, that must have been really hard [or scary].” The truth is, we were first time parents and didn’t know any different. Didn’t all parents give birth to babies as small as their hand, only to see the baby whisked off to the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (“NICU”) to be laid out like a dead chicken under a heat lamp and plugged into a ventilator??? What did we know?

Fortunately, our naiveté knew no bounds and we give it much credit for our happy ending. We didn’t focus on how things “should have” looked, because we didn’t know what that looked like. We focused on our blessings. Maybe mind-numbing exhaustion helped.

We set out immediately to do everything in our power to support this little Continue reading “Our Preemie Success Story — Our 27-Week Baby Has Grown Into A Happy, Thriving 7 Year Old” →

U2? Us Too.

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in March 2008 for Living90045.com, a community blog featuring news, views, tips & chatter from Westchester, CA.

——————————-

My husband headed home early recently and I tore myself away from my computer to catch the U2 3D movie at the Bridge Theater on its IMAX screen over at the Howard Hughes Promenade. Seeing the movie was my husband’s idea, based on a story that he heard on NPR. I’m a casual fan of the band’s music and huge supporter of their humanistic message, and the movie sounded like a fun diversion for a rainy Friday afternoon. I had no idea what was in store for me and I was in for a pleasant surprise.

The film was shot at nine concerts during U2’s Vertigo Tour in 2005/06 to promote the group’s 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Footage from the tour was shot mostly in South America where Continue reading “U2? Us Too.” →

The “X” In LAX And Other Westchester Historical Trivia

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in March 2008 for Living90045.com, a community blog featuring news, views, tips & chatter from Westchester, CA.

——————————-

Like most of the rest of southern LA County, Westchester began the 20th century as an agricultural area. Rapid development of the aerospace industry near Mines Field (as LAX was originally called, reportedly named for the real estate agent who pitched the location in 1928 to the City Council) and overall population growth in LA created a demand for housing in the area. In mid-1930, the Los Angeles Municipal Airport was dedicated.

Real estate magnate Fritz Burns developed a tract of inexpensive prefabricated single-family homes on the site of a former hog farm at the intersection of Manchester & Sepulveda Boulevards. The community, dubbed “Westchester,” grew as the aerospace industry boomed in World War II and after. It’s surprising we didn’t end up with Burnschester or Continue reading “The “X” In LAX And Other Westchester Historical Trivia” →

IDX — What Does It Mean In Real Estate Speak?

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally posted on Active Rain in August 2007.

———————————————–

Fellow rainer Angie Vandenbergh recently put up a couple of posts debating whether IDX is a database, a technology or a policy.  Below is my take on the distinctions after five years of developing and selling IDX solutions.

First Up — The Basics

Quite literally, IDX stands for “Internet Data Exchange.”  More loosely, it translates to “serving up databases to websites.”  In the case of real estate, that means bringing listings databases from MLS’s to agent and company websites.

Despite what you’ll see on Wikipedia, IDX is not a real estate industry-specific term, as you can see with a simple Google search.  But then, Wikipedia is not an objective research tool.  Anybody can edit a Wikipedia entry.  Prospective editors don’t even have to log in to edit articles.

While the term “IDX” is heavily associated with the real estate industry, I’ve also seen it in relation to the healthcare industry.  I haven’t researched the healthcare angle extensively, but from what I’ve seen, IDX in the healthcare context relates Continue reading “IDX — What Does It Mean In Real Estate Speak?” →

What Has Your IDX Done For You Lately?

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally posted on Active Rain in August 2007.

———————————————-

By now most agents and brokers understand and agree that there is little point to having a website if they don’t have IDX listings on it.  Consumers seek out real estate websites specifically for listings and the easiest source of listings for websites is IDX.

But is your MLS’s free or low-cost IDX solution enough?  For at least six reasons I submit that free IDX solutions do not serve your ultimate marketing goal — meeting and developing new client relationships.

1. Most free solutions offer no lead capturing at all. Free or cheap IDX solutions offer a one-way stream of listings data, with nothing except your phone number and maybe an email link for contact information.  Recognizing that this is an incredible waste of good content, most website vendors suggest that agents put a guestbook over the solution.  That is just plain nuts!  When was the last time you greeted potential clients at your office’s front door with Continue reading “What Has Your IDX Done For You Lately?” →

Don’t Get Mad — Get Valium (Or Lessons I’ve Learned From Spam)

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally posted on Active Rain in August 2007.

———————————————–

Almost everybody I talk to HATES spam and will go to any lengths to keep it out of their mailbox, including setting up incredibly restrictive filters.  The other night I asked my husband what had him so engrossed at his computer, and he replied that he was setting up rules in Outlook to quarantine spam.  I love my husband, but I couldn’t help smirking.  Can anybody really come up with “rules” fast enough to keep spam out?  Yes, a few four letter words and body part descriptions might help, but what agent wants to block anything that mentions money, or even bank accounts?  And define one body part today and tomorrow it starts showing up Continue reading “Don’t Get Mad — Get Valium (Or Lessons I’ve Learned From Spam)” →