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Let’s go to Chai’s Island Bistro! |
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Today we are headed for Aloha Tower Marketplace for a Mix It Up Hawaii Tweetup at Chai’s Island Bistro.Hosted by @NctrnlBst and @Melissa808, this series visits local business to learn about who they are and what they do and introducing people around the world to the things we love here in Hawaii!
The Marketplace was developed and the Tower was extensively renovated in 1994 and now serves as a main attraction for tourists and locals alike in downtown Honolulu. |
 Aloha Tower Welcomes you! |
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 Chai's Island Bistro |
When the Tower first opened on September 11, 1926, after five years of construction, the seven-ton clock was one of the largest in the United States as well as the biggest in the Territory of Hawaii. At 10 stories and 184 feet tall topped with a 40 foot flag pole, for four decades the Aloha Tower was the tallest structure in Hawaii. Serving as a docking area for the Matson Oceanliners of the era, visitors arrived to the Hawaiian Islands in droves to experience the exotic locale as well as hundreds of thousands of immigrants coming to Honolulu to labor on the plantations.
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| Walking up to Chai’s delightful locale you first see the outdoor dining patio and hear the distinct sounds of the waterfall…you KNOW you are in for a treat. The simply but elegantly appointed open dining room is bright and airy providing a perfect setting to showcase some of the finest food I have had here in Hawaii.@Chef_Chai joined us for a few minutes at the restaurant. We were excited to hear the good news that soon we can enjoy his food on @FlyHawaiian‘s first class international flights! Makes me want to get up and go somewhere just to eat!
Starting off with a tempting array of pupus to get the usual cast of suspects salivating, our intrepid Twitterers had to get the cameras out. We all agree that posing pics of what we are eating is a phenomenon unique to Twitterville, but one that bonds us together as Twits So lets look at the always perfect shots by @PHOTOlulu and @rickyli99 with sets here and here respectively. These guys are good!  Let's eat! @RickNakama is going for the minimalist approach w/ a shot of Ed’s homemade Ohia Blossom honey Waialua chocolate and peanut butter fudge. @johngarcia was one of the smart ones, he was to busy eating to take a lot of pics! @hnlmark was another smart guy focusing on the Duck Carpaccio Lotus Salad! |
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One of the fun things about our Tweetups is it’s always great to meet new twitter pals @dseohonolulu who is one of the founders of @ nonstophonolulu and @burajiru who was visiting from the mainland and found us! Lucky guy, he’s one of us now! And a spiffy photo set from him as well! *BWAHHAHA * |
 Some new unbearable Twitter friends! |
| And Moi? ( @biznaz ) I was clicking away trying to get some pics before the nom-nomming commenced!
Ok, gotta dig in on all this luscious food. Thank You Chef Chai! Aloha, Biz  Gotta go, my ride's here! |
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Tag-Archive for ◊ Social Media ◊
Mission House Tea Parlor is a sweet town side hideaway! |
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I love working in Honolulu. But come time to eat I get a little sick of concrete and outdoor cafes next to the street with cars belching exhaust on my lunch. And oh how relaxing to grab a coffee with a bazillion people rushing past you yelping into their cell phones or running into lamp posts head down while texting…
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So it was delightful to discover the sweet tranquil oasis of the Café Tea Parlor at the Mission House Museum. Nestled on the grounds of the Museum this quaint hide away is a prefect spot for breakfast, lunch and a delightful Saturday High Tea! And you have to love a tea parlor that tweets as @cafeteaparlor !
 Tea Time at the Cafe Tea Parlor
Lunch time and Breakfast fare is hearty and priced well. The Lunch menu features paninis, wraps, salads, Teriyaki Chicken & Steak plates, yummy desserts and a variety of drinks. The Hibiscus Iced Tea has no caffeine but I love it anyway! And you can take everything to go and eat back to your desk. (Please do, as that will free up a table for me to enjoy my meal in this piece of paradise in town!)
 Scones and Clotted Cream and Lemon Curd
What I love is the afternoon tea on a beautiful Hawaii Saturday. Reservations are required so grab a bunch of friends and relax in style! Yummies are baked fresh every day featuring award-winning soft scones, delicious desserts and tea sandwiches. Be sure to try the variety of premium full leaf loose teas from around the world, encased in silken sachet bags. They create their own delicious homemade lemon curd, clotted cream, and the scones are soft and delightful! I ♥ scones and these are some of the best in town!
The band of usual suspects got together recently for an Episode of Mix it Up Hawaii from @HawaiiIRL and were treated to the rocking Uke skills of instructor Christoffer Salvador (left) and `Ukulele Hale instructor and owner Jody Kamisato (right).
So I’ll leave you to ejnoy the sounds of the “Jumping flea” and some more photos here in paradise. Meanwhile I’ll pour…
 Cream and Sugar? Aloha from the Hawaii Real Estate Biz!
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Hey Kids! Go outside and play! |
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A group of folks I’ve met through Twitter decided to get together, have lunch and do a PhotoWalk through part of downtown Honolulu. One of the key components to Social Media that many people and companies don’t get is the word “SOCIAL”. Yes, it’s all about interacting both online and IRL. (In Real Life) It’s not about pushing information about how great you, your products and your services are… it’s about back and forth communication. And actually getting out from behind the computer and meeting people, whether you are an individual or business entity, is a great way to take it to the next level. |
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| So @rickyli99 organized a Twtvite to create a Tweetup. A Twtvite is an online invitation and RSVP site to create IRL events called Tweetups. These events are key to meeting new friends, creating relationships, and exploring fun things to do. People check out the local Twtvites and chose which events they want to attend. Events can be as simple as a few folks getting together for beers or as elaborate as the Kahala Mall Holiday STOMP event.
Arriving at our Tweetup for the Photowalk, I actually had only met two of the attendees in person before. One I had chatted with on Twitter quite a bit and three of them I had never met. From all sorts of different occupations, these are people I never would have met in my ordinary day-to-day Real Estate life. We came together to enjoy a lunch and explore Merchant Street in Downtown Honolulu on a beautiful Sunday. I’m not Downtown all that much and enjoyed hanging with some guys that knew the area well. After a good lunch at Mini Garden Noodle House we headed down Smith Street to Merchant, one of the main drags through the business district. Slowing down to walk and photograph really makes you aware of little details you just pass by in the hurry and scurry of everyday life. I’ve walked by the Alexander & Baldwin building for twenty years and never looked up to see the gorgeous tiled ceiling at the main entrance! Part of the fun was strolling and chatting, getting to know a new group of people and especially seeing the photos! Amazing what catches the eye of shutterbugs. Looking at every body else’s pics really shows how differently we all can see the same subjects. Here’s a list of the usual suspects and a peek at some of the fun we had: @madmarv is a serious contender! @rsuenaga put some photos up … @billso was the only one besides my self with a wimpy camera, but took GREAT PICS! @electric_bamboo has his Photo set up and he does have a creative way of eating noodles! @michael_choy takes some awesome shots! And moi @biznaz following the school of “Quantity, not Quality”… And my vids…have to work on that smooth walking style So get out there from behind the computer and meet the Tweeple! Find a Tweetup or start one yourself. It really puts the “SOCIAL” into “Social Media”! Aloha from the Hawaii Real Estate Biz! |
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How is your Agent Marketing your Property? |
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I’m going to chat today about marketing your property Mr. & Mrs. Seller. Of course the most important number one thing is to price it to generate offers in today’s market. The second most important thing is to consider what exposure your agent will give your property. (Here is where I am going to get BLASTED by some “traditional agents”…) |
 Dinosaur or Web Warrior? |
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Of course everybody needs a yard sign presence on the property. Am I going to send out postcards to your neighbors? Nope. I will get on the phone and call them telling them we have a home on the market in their neighborhood and ask them who do they know that might want to move in? A nice personal conversation is better than an anonymous postcard that usually gets thrown in the trash. I will also get on the phone and call agents who have registered that they are interested in your property through a program in the local Multiple Listing Service called ”Reverse Prospecting”. The agent specifies they are interested in; say a 3 bedroom, 2 bath Condo in Downtown. When I have a listing that meets their criteria the agent’s name pops up and I get on the phone. Do most agents do this? Nope. I even have called agents who are listed in my reverse prospecting that deny they are in there… Am I going to hold open houses? Not unless the seller absolutely insists on in. Statistically Open Houses don’t sell homes; they are traditionally used by listing agents to find buyers that aren’t represented. I will do a Broker’s Open for the trade, and will show by appointment only. Would you want someone you don’t know cruising through your home possibly casing the joint to rob you? And you DO only want qualified buyers who are ready, willing and able to purchase your home don’t you? Am I going to pull newspaper ads about the property? Nope. I will market heavily online to give my listing international exposure, as that is where 87% of buyers look first.
That is a lot more eyeballs of potential buyers than a once a week three line ad buried in the Sunday Real Estate section of the local paper. My feed goes out to dozens of Real Estate web sites online including Century21.com, Trulia, Zillow and many more. Among other additional websites I also post to Craigslist as allowed by their terms of use; this cannot be posted every day. Usually 48 hours apart, but sometimes Craigslist holds off for three days between postings.
“350 million – People on Facebook
Every time you turn around you hear the term “Social Media” these days. What is Social Media? It is the next generation of how people use the Internet to convey information and communicate. It’s an interactive “give & take” form of communication. People post content and others comment and respond to the posts. Think it’s just kids playing online? Think again: A full 25% of the users on these sites are aged 35 to 44, which in other words is the age group that dominates the social media sphere. Only 3% are aged 65 or older. Do people 35 to 44 buy homes? You Betcha! Social media:
BUT! (And I have a big Butt!) Real estate sales, no matter where the warm bodies are generated, is and will always be an in-person service business. Pro-active is getting out there in person, networking, calling and meeting people: talking it up! Re-active is printing a few flyers, mailing postcards and praying to the Real Estate Gods that the phone will ring or somebody will walk into the office by chance. So Mr. and Mrs. Seller, do you think it is important in this day and age to hire an agent that has a command of these Internet tools to market your home? As well as being a pro-active agent and getting out there in person and on the phone to promote your home? Or do you want one that is going to just send out postcards and “Hope” somebody will buy your property? Aloha from the Hawaii Real Estate Biz!
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On Friday Night December 26th at 6:45 PM I was sitting on my Lanai (Porch) Watching a spectacular lightning storm dance up the Kooalau Mountain range when the power went out. Not just a little bit out, the whole valley below me was dark. All of Kaneohe! Cable was down too! No Food Network Iorn Chef!!!
I do have some serious APC Back Up Batteries, but didn’t want to use them up… who knows how long this was going to last? So I fired up my emergency lights and cell phone and got online to Twitter via my T-Mobile Dash Smartphone.
Twitter, for those of you who may not be familiar with it, is a social networking site where you can post short messages called Tweets. People follow your tweets and you can follow theirs. So instantly I was in contact with people all over the island and able to find out the extent of the power outage.
The whole Island of Oahu was in the dark. I Tweeted back and forth to find traffic lights were down, people were stuck in elevators and in many areas there was no water! The airport was dark, flights were being cancelled, travelers stranded. Tourists swarmed out of their darkened hotels in Waikiki to fill the streets inquiring what was going on! Twitpics (Pictures posted to Twitter) showed the extent of the mess island wide.
So it happened that our illustrious Mayor Mufi Hanneman’s first order of business was to deliver emergency generators to the 9 million dollar beach front estate on the windward town of Kailua where Barack Obama and his family were vacationing. Uh, Mufi? I pay your salary: can you decide your first order of business is the safety and disseminating information about the situation to your constituents? Guess not. Three generators had already been installed in the vacation home and HECO set up another generator in the neighborhood in case it was needed. But what about MY refrigerator? MY needs? MY warming beer?
By now my fellow Twitterers were on the ball and furiously Tweeting back and forth. We all found out that that Hawaiian Electric thought a lightning strike was responsible or maybe not. We kept tabs on each other throughout the night. By morning some areas had power back on, mostly those closest to the Generating Stations on the leeward side of the island. The only area on the windward side of the island to have power back on Saturday morning was Kailua. (See above ref: Guess who was staying in Kailua?)
My power came back on at 12:45 PM on Saturday, approximately 18 hours after shutting down. Right when my power came back on I saw a huge oily plume of smoke rise up out of the valley . A major fire had erupted close to the Kaneohe Power Plant! I was able to snap it on my phone and Twitpic it: who had any more information? Was everybody safe? Was the power going down again?
Today I’m thankful I live in a safe neighborhood, neighbors are good people. Realized I should have had an extra case of bottled water, kept my old propane BBQ and bought more emergency lights and batteries. So I will put those things on my shopping list in case the next time around I’m in the dark longer. As of today, Sunday afternoon, there are still some areas of Oahu without power . Water is to be conserved island wide. And Twitter is not to be dismissed lightly as a toy, as some will say. It kept our whole community connected and informed when the traditional airwaves and media could not.
Twitter is my friend.
Aloha,