NAR and Blogging - via Active Rain. And More…
Author: Jay T. - The EditorPosted on October 16, 2007
Filed Under NAR - Standards
There is an interesting discussion thread happening on the NAR and Blogging. The public post is here.
This post was written by what appears to be a Realtor state representative on the NAR’s Professional Standards Committee. So far, 57 81 ActiveRainer’s have commented on her post.
From the post:
… I personally was very worried that NAR and or Big Broker would indeed look at blogging and the liability it generated.
I sit on NAR’s Professional Standards Committee and I know that this issue is slated to come back up in November. I can’t help but wonder in what form.
This week I’ve seen 2 posts referencing concern about big brother (NAR) looking at Blogs. One was Bryant Tutus Ride the Blogging Wave (ed note: this is a “Member’s Only” post) and the other Brain Brady’s Blogger be afraid of Big Bad Broker or (Bank). Both of these posts were featured as they should have been.
This is a pretty important issue for Bloggers and next month I think we’ll see some sort of policy come forth from NAR.
This writer seems to have her head screwed on straight. She posted this to her own blog about an NAR PS Committee meeting in June — where the discussion on real estate blogs was tabled until November.
Then we tabled the Internet-related issues…blogs to name a few until November. The sub committee will be be looking at Article 12 to see if we need a broader more encompassing ethical direction guiding all forms of communication. They will also be looking at
1. A clearer definition of communications
2. REALTOR making anonymous comments on other REALTORS Blogs
3. REALTORS responsibility for monitoring/editing their own Blogs
4. REALTORS responsibility for Blogs run by licensees affiliated with them
5. Disclosure of time lag (hours or days) in posting comments to Blogs. Must the fact that a Blog is not run in “live time” be disclosed?
6. Posting unfavorable/unflattering (but truthful) comments to Blogs
I can’t wait till November to see what the sub committee comes back with. It should be very interesting and being a blogger I have very mixed feelings about some of this.
Let’s hope NAR doesn’t hand down a bunch of Draconian rules they expect real estate bloggers to follow.
“Must the fact that a Blog is not run in “live time” be disclosed?” Huh?? Sure, some chose to moderate comments. But many more do not. Such a statement shows a basic lack of understanding about blogging in general — which helps confirms the authors statement:
One thing I learned while in DC is that there are many-many people who have no clue what blogging is and surprisingly people in important positions who do not see any merit in blogging and will not encourage their sales associates to blog!
Wow. And these are the people in a position to “rule” about how you run your business…
Frightening.
But even more frightening is the statement, “Posting unfavorable/unflattering (but truthful) comments to Blogs” (my emphasis)
That the NAR is even thinking about censoring/outlawing/moderating/regulating TRUTHFUL comments should scare the bejeepers out of everyone….
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Just one clarification… I am not a representative of NAR but I am a REALTOR committee member sitting on NAR’s professional standards committee representing my state. So no way do I speak for NAR.
As a blogger I have concerns as I stated in my post but I feel that NAR will probably make additions to Article 12 covering blogs. Maybe I’ll be wrong…who knows. Next month will tell the story. I’ll post after my meeting on the 14th.
Monika - poor choice of words on my part. When I said, “..a representative on the NAR’s Professional Standards Committee” it was clear in my pea brain that you were a Realtor member. I’ll correct the post to be clearer.
Does each state have a rep on the committee?
Thanks so much for the correction.
Yes each state has a rep and some more than one. Every state rep gets a vote. But the Board of Directors has the final say and they will be voting on Friday the 16th. Every state also has a seat on the BOD and depending on size some states have quite a few seats on the BOD.
(Editor’s note: This comment was originally posted by Frances on another post (Is the NAR Visiting this Site?). I copied it in to here in its entirety since it pertains mostly to this post)
“NAR and Blogging — via Active Rain.” You’re kidding, right? I read the same post at AR but I have a VERY different take on the matter.
My take is this: REALTORS interested in what NAR is doing for bloggers, and what they are offering the industry in terms of technology don’t have to look very far. Perhaps they should spend less time at the ActiveRain water cooler and more time at REALTOR.org.
NAR doesn’t know what the consumer wants? You’re kidding again, right? NAR does an exhaustive series of consumer research studies every year that provides the basis of marketing plans for serious REALTORS and vendors. Haven’t you seen them? They are a “must have” for serious REALTORS.
NAR not up to speed on technology? Take another hour away from that water cooler and read Mark Lesswing’s white paper about Predictive Marketing … listen to to the discussions between NAR’s geeks and Zillow and Google and Trulia. Taka a look at their strategic marketing plan.
Have you even read NAR’s Tech Blog … or any of their other blogs?
Frances - thanks for stopping by and commenting (and congrats on being named to the Sellsius “Top 12 Women Real Estate Bloggers” list).
I’m unclear as to whether your comment questions are addressing me, the 50,000+ Active Rain members, the author of the post referenced here on AR, or to the 80+ people that commented on the AR post.
But since I can’t speak for anyone but myself, I’ll address your questions as if they were posed to me.
Starting with the easy one:
“Have you even read NAR’s Tech Blog … or any of their other blogs?”
Assuming you are referring to the Center for Realtor Technology Web Log, yes, it’s in my feed reader and I read every post they write. It’s not a bad blog. I just wish they would post more frequently.
As for “their other blogs”, I only other “active” one I am aware of is the “NAR in the News” blog. It’s in my reader too, but it’s useless. It has been posted to a grand total of 4 times since Dec 2006 with the last post being in June 2007. Most people would consider a blog that hasn’t been posted to in four months to be a dead blog.
If there are other NAR blogs out there, I’d love to know. If you can post a link, that would be great (you can put HTML in the comments here)
I won’t really address the “ActiveRain water cooler” comments you made as this blog wasn’t set up to discuss the relative merits of ActiveRain, it is set up to discuss the NAR. Suffice it to say that I was a very early member of AR (before they even had “blogs”). I rarely go there now as it’s become too large, too “cliqueish” and I grow weary of a lot of the dreck posted there in the pursuit of points. But there are some outstanding writers there and it can often be a good place to go to keep your eye on the pulse of the industry from the perspective of industry professionals.
Personally, I do spend a lot of time on realtor.org. There is some good info there, and some lousy info there — as would be expected in a site of the size and scope of realtor.org.
The ActiveRain post you seem to have a problem with was posted by a realtor representative on the NARs Professional Standards committee. You are certainly entitled to disagree with it. My take is if someone who is actually on the NAR PS committee has concerns that the NAR may do something that has a negative impact on real estate bloggers, then I have a concern too.
I think some of the research NAR does is quite valuable. The spin their talking heads put on it is often mind-numbing and winds up making all that data, the NAR itself, and all its members look foolish.
By the way Frances, you are more than welcome to contribute a post here in support of the NAR, how a Realtor could better utilize realtor.org or anything else you’d like along those lines. I would love to have it as I want to present both sides of any discussion. Debate is healthy. You are in a great position to share your wealth of knowledge. I’ll gladly post anything you’d like to send me (email contribute AT NARWisdom DOT com)
Nope. Did not get this via e-mail … will address your other questions in a couple of days …
However, in response to your, “I’m unclear as to whether your comment questions are addressing me, the 50,000+ Active Rain members, the author of the post referenced here on AR, or to the 80+ people that commented on the AR post.”
Since I made that comment on another post here altogether, I am surprised that it was unclear that my comment was addressed to you. However, I am happy to stand by what I say to any audience, and please note that MY NAME is attached to EVERYTHING I say online. My father taught me many years ago, “If something is worth writing, it is worth signing your name to it.”
Have a wonderful day!!! (And that comment is addressed to you, the 50,000+ Active Rain members, the author of the post referenced here on AR, AND to the 80+ people that commented on the AR post. 8-)))
Sorry Frances, I assumed (generally a bad thing to do…) that when your comment started:
you were referring to the original AR post. No biggie, I spend a significant amount of time in a state of confusion.
I am not making any attempt to hide my identity. Had I wanted to do that, I certainly wouldn’t have registered this domain publicly, I would have used a private registration. Nor would I have added this blog to my existing MyBlogLog account (click under the MBL avatars in the footer). Nor would I have used my wifes fairly unique and somewhat known name for the Sitemeter setup (hover over the Sitemeter chicklet and you’ll see “FrancyT” as part of the account name in the browser status bar)
For the record, I am Jay Thompson, owner of the Phoenix Real Estate Guy weblog.
I did intentionally chose to not plaster my name all over this site as this site isn’t for or about me. It is for (hopefully) having an avenue for open discussion about the NAR — the good, the bad, and the ugly. (and yes, there is some good). This site is for everyone — members of the NAR, and anyone else with an interest.
I am simply the one who set it up, pays for the hosting, and maintains it.
I suspect I’ll actually provide little content myself (other than in ridiculously long comments). There is plenty of NAR related content out there in the real estate blogiverse. I just want to “collate” some of that information, provide the occasional editorial comment, and allow others to read, dissect and contribute if they wish.
I’ve always wanted to be an editor, so I think I’ll change my user ID from “admin” to “The Editor”.
But it’s still just little old JT behind the keyboard.
Looking forward to a contribution from you when you can free up some time.
“Have a wonderful day!!!”
Likewise!
Signed,
The Editor.
I usually don’t go too deep into issues like this preferring to focus on my business. But allow me to say this:
1. No doubt NAR does some good. But they have a PR problem within the ranks of the people they collect dues from.
2. The NAR needs to concern itself with many things. How I choose to market myself is NOT one of them. As far as I can tell the 1st Amendment allows me the freedom to discuss things I like, am neutral on or dislike. If they don’t like what I say on a blog is their next course of action to start monitoring my mailings? Get real. I never comment anonymously and if I did how would you know? You think NAR can stop anon comments?
3. NAR loses all credibility with me on the technology issue specifically because of Realtor.com. To use it I have to pay many, many hundreds of dollars. I pay my dues, provide a good business model that should inspire envy and then I have to pay even more? Give me a break. Then the SEO on it is not that great, anyway. IMO
4. How can any organization of 1.2 million people not have a health care alternative worth a darn? Get in touch. You are working with IC’s who may or may not have spouses with access to employer provided health insurance. Pay attention. It’s a big deal to the ICs.
5. To solve many of the problems our industry has with the public’s image of us the NAR should focus more on professional standards and state education requirements. (Read Jay’s blog on learning incorrect tidbits or facts that are not releveant.) There is a topic you should concern yourself with in November.
[…] too quickly for the National Association of Realtors to regulate it. Good luck to them if they have any thought that this might fly - 6. Posting unfavorable/unflattering (but truthful) comments to […]
If Frances was talking about me, I’d like to suggest reading my post again. I in no way suggested that NAR was going to shut down blogs or try and require one platform (as I’ve read elsewhere) but simply that the committee will be looking at blogs again in a few weeks. The list I posted back in June came from my committee notes and are accurate. Until the agenda comes out I have no way of knowing what specifically will be discussed or presented about blogs. I do know the subcommittee will report their findings.
NAR committee meetings are open to members and during the forum, usually the 1st hour of the meeting, member participation is recommended and appreciated.
It’s new… therefore it’s scary!!! (I know it’s not really new - I was posting on bulletin board 15 years ago) Ok, sarcasm aside, as a Managing Broker, Ethics Instructor and Professional Standards member I see that there are some minor concerns. As usual Brokers and Associations are trying to curtail the least common denominator of agents by making blanket comments or policies to keep the REALTOR from stepping over the line. Where is the line? Well, REALTORS should shy away from giving advise that could be considered legal or financial advise. Can we expect this of REALTORS? OF COURSE!!!!! It’s what I have to trust my agents to do when they are interacting with clients anyway. So what’s the issue? It’s new…therefore we must be scared. What’s next burning all the books that aren’t sponsored by the Association? I am a wild supporter of my state (Virginia) and local association of REALTORS. I think we are spending just a little too much time on topics that may have just been introduced in a conversation and may not go any further than that. Find out who sits on the work groups from your state association office (they will have the list) and e-mail them your concerns. From a professional standards standpoint…I would hope that a hearing panel would realize that even NAR can’t write policy that takes away our 1st amendment rights.
However, whereas I don’t think it’s the NAR’s position to tell me what to say - negative comments about other REALTORS will usually linger longer than the recall of who said it! Each time we publically post our dislike for another agent, we’re just hurting ourselves.
I love working for a company who is encouraging blogging. Are they encouraging “anything goes” see what you can get away with behavior? No….
I did not ask when I started blogging in August 2005 but my manager found my blog pretty quickly. I was afraid he would ask “what’s a blog?”
Monika it is funny to see the stuff that says NAR is trying to restrict blogging to a particular platform but you can see those bloggers who suggest it are getting traffic. I had to go back and read what you wrote on ActiveRain a couple of times to get my bearings.
Maureen…Thanks for re-reading it. It is frustrating to see words put in my mouth that I never said or typed:)
Have I missed Frances Flynn Thorsen’s “will address your other questions in a couple of days …” on 10-17 ???
Is it here on one of the other entries?
MM - you didn’t miss it. I know Frances has been very busy. She mentioned to me that she would work up a “contribution” post here when she could. Hopefully she’s still subscribed to these comments and will see we want to hear from her!
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
I heard from Idetorce… same comment so I don’t think it is sincere.
I am still waiting for Frances Flynn Thorsen’s return to address the questions in a few days.