By BILL RISSER
Editor’s note: Bill Risser is an assistant vice president and branch manager for Chicago Title in Phoenix.
I’m sure most of us have attended online meetings or webinars. The most popular product I’ve seen is GoToMeeting. I’ve never had the joy of setting up an online meeting, but I know from personal experience that joining them can be a royal pain.
The other day, I saw a blurb from Reggie Nicolay about an online meeting site called Join.me. Being the curious type, I instantly downloaded and installed the software, and tested it with a couple agents. It worked flawlessly. Most important was the ease of joining the meeting for the people I invited. No software to load, and no ID numbers to copy and paste — just a simple link to click.
Once they joined the meeting, they had the ability to enter their name, participate in a chat, make a conference call with a provided number, and even get control of the presenter’s screen. Another great feature is the Join.me blog, which has great tips and tricks for the product. They even hold a "Coffee Break" contest on their Facebook Page for more engagement. In a word, Join.me is awesome!
The LogMeIn people are responsible for Join.me. LogMeIn allows users to remotely access their home or work computers. It is the bread and butter product of the company. Quite a few agents I know use LogMeIn from their laptops when they need to access a file on their home computer.
Join.me is just a couple months old, and I love the attitude of the company. Here’s what chief technology officer Marton Anka said about Join.me this past October.
"It’s a super-simple yet super-reliable and secure tool that lets your peers take a look at your screen no matter where they are. For now, that’s it."
I love the simplicity of the application. Oh yeah, before I forget, it works on Macs too! I now have a desktop shortcut that instantly starts up Join.me so all I need to do is invite guests.
In the real estate space, Join.me can be an invaluable tool for agents that can’t physically get together with their clients. An agent could invite a client to their screen and then search the multiple listing service. This way, the clients could participate in the search. If an agent was preparing a contract, the buyers could join in via Join.me while the agent explained the purchase contract.
From the brokerage point of view, why not hold Join.me meetings when introducing changes in the company website, new required documents, or the latest market data? There are many ways real estate companies could implement an online meeting strategy to save time and streamline business.
I will be using Join.me when agents that have attended my workshops have questions about Facebook, HootSuite, Google or anything else we’ve covered. Now, instead of finding a common time and place to meet, I simply have them download Join.me, invite me to their screen, and request control of their mouse remotely. I can now answer their questions as I show them on their screen. Many information technology professionals are using Join.me this way too, as a tool for remote access when they do not have other options in place.
What are some other ways Join.me can be used in the real estate world? I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below with your idea for using this simple yet sophisticated screen-sharing tool.
Future of Real Estate Marketing is a part of Inman News.
