Why the NAR Needs a “Social Media Director”
Author: Jay T. - The EditorPosted on February 10, 2008
Filed Under NAR - General
Trevor Smith said in a comment here:
The other thing that drives me nuts about the NAR is that they have never made an effort to become a part of the real estate blogging community. It’s very “Come read my blog and hear the truth my little children.”
People like Drew and David at Zillow, folks from Trulia, and Glenn (Redfin) have done a great job of blogging, commenting, and generally being a part of the community. The NAR has failed to do this.
Athol Kay remarked:
I think thats a good point Trevor.
Unfortunately there is not even a single person at NAR acting as any kind of social media guru. We can’t even say “NAR sucks, but person XYZ at NAR at least seems to be equipped with a brain and operates with a personality”.
They just seem to have a legal department and bipolar “release the hounds” / “we are oblivious” attitude to us blogging.
These guys got me to thinking (happens every once and a while).
The NAR doesn’t really seem to understand blogging, or any aspect of social media / networking. Clearly they are trying to “blog”. They’ve recently rolled out a few blogs. Apparently someone at NAR sees some value in blogging.
But do they “get it”?
Let’s take a quick look. The ”YPN Lounge” (Young Professionals Network) was the first of the new blogs. They’ve got a contributors page that includes 19 young professional Realtors.
I’ve heard of two of them. Now of course I don’t know of every blogging agent out there (though I do know a lot of them). So in an effort to get to know these folks, I took a look at their profiles. I fully intended to subscribe to each and every one of their blogs. Here is what I found:
8 of the 19 have no link to either a web site or blog in their profile.
2 of the 11 remaining actually had a link to their blog. One of those two was an Active Rain blog.
1 link went to the hosts parked search page.
1 link lead to the oblivion of a “server not found” page.
These leaves 7 links out of the 19 contributors to take a peek at…
All 7 lead to static static web sites. Of these 7, only 2 had links to blogs. One of those had a total of 8 posts (the last made over a month ago) and one was started on Jan 30 and has a total of five posts.
The final tally? 19 contributors. Two I already subscribed to. Two more added to the feed reader. 15 with no apparent blog presence other than two on Active Rain.
I am not highlighting these facts to pick on or demean the contributors to the YPN Lounge blog. But given the quantity and quality of prolific (and young) real estate bloggers out there, it simply begs the question — why aren’t these folks contributing to the NARs YPN blog? Has anyone at the NAR asked them to? Has the NAR even attempted to recruit anyone? Are they reaching out and engaging Young Professional bloggers?
I have to think the NAR isn’t doing any of this. Why not? Likely because they don’t understand blogging, and/or they don’t know how to do these things. They simply aren’t actively engaged in the new social media of real estate.
Let’s take a gander at the NAR blogs from another angle…
Almost without exception, the articles are relatively well written. However, I’m going to have to agree with Matt Carter’s take on the Inman Blog yesterday. Matt said, “On the NAR blog, the style is formal and it’s hard to get past the constant use of ® with every mention of REALTORS®.”
The term “REALTORS®” or “REALTOR®” appears 20 times on the home page of the Voices of Real Estate blog. In 7 posts…
(In another telling moment — Inman News, arguably the real estate industries leading “mainstream” source and provider of news, wasn’t even aware these NAR blogs existed..)
“Linkation” is one of the critical components of blogging. How do the NAR blogs look in the link arena?
In the last 10 posts on the YPN Lounge – 1 link. To a NAR survey.
In the Speaking of Real Estate blogs last 10 posts – 9 links. All to realtor.org articles.
In the Voices of Real Estates last 7 posts – 4 links. One to the Code of Ethics, one to the Realtor Action Center, one to NARs new web site and one to a realtor.org article.
In summary, not one single link was made to anything outside of a NAR domain.
This is not taking advantage of the power of social networking. It’s demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of it.
To Trevor’s original point of not seeing the NAR reaching out and becoming a part of the community, I looked at all the new NAR blogs for a significant length of time. I did not see one comment from anyone in the NAR administration/leadership team. No links out to the community and I can’t find any links into any NAR blog posts.
I read a tremendous amount of real estate and industry blogs, and I can’t recall a single instance of anyone in any position inside the NAR ever commenting on a blog. Never seen them on Facebook. Active Rain? Nope (though I haven’t been there in quite some time). What about YouTube? Other than some NAR commercial clips (the posting of which clearly violates the NARS Terms Of Service) I can’t find any NAR presence. MySpace? Twitter? LinkedIn? I don’t think I even have to look. If they aren’t on these “primary” social networks, you can bet they aren’t on any secondary ones.
Does the NAR “get” blogging and other aspects of social media? I believe the answer is clearly no.
So why should the NAR hire a “Social Media Director”? (Director, Guru, Advocate, Manager – pick a title, any title.)
To help bring them into the 21st century.
To improve their brand recognition.
To improve their brand reputation.
To accelerate their learning curve on the implementation of all aspects of social media.
To take advantage of all social media has to offer.
To engage the “RE.net” to help turn some into advocates for the NAR.
To develop and provide training and systems for the NAR membership to take advantage of social media.
To provide an active conduit between the membership and leadership.
You tell me, what else could a NAR Social Media director do? I’ve been racking my brains trying to come up with a disadvantage. No can do.
The Internet and social media can be incredibly powerful tools if they are used properly. With a good Social Media Director, the NAR could trim hundreds of labor hours from the learning curve and use the power of social media marketing and networking to reach out to not just its membership, but the general public as well.
Believe it or not, I’d take that job in a heartbeat. And I bet there are others out there that would too. Despite what I often write here, I want the NAR to succeed. The power of social media / networking is too great not to be taken advantage of.
.
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50 Responses to “Why the NAR Needs a “Social Media Director””
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Hi Jay!
Your right on point. The NAR needs a voice of the people. I say you’d do a heck of a job! You get my vote.
Rudy
Social Media Guru @ Trulia
I agree but there are so many that do not understand blogging and social media. NAR doesn’t even understand technology yet, neither do any of the real estate companies.
I’d vote for you too.
Realtor.com had Dustin, so at least there was some understanding further down the line from Realtor.org…
I think Rudy’s tag line…
“Hi! I’m Rudy from Trulia. Nice to meet you…”
…sums up exactly what NAR is lacking.
I think the turning of RE.net NAR complainers into NAR advocates is pretty simple. NAR needs to suck less. The RE.net is vocal but also pretty honest.
I think Jay would be a fine addition in that sort of a role too. I’ve remarked a number of times that Jay has a real gift of being able to take a contray position on an issue and still remaining likeable and respectable in the process.
Well thanks for all the support folks, I’m humbled and honored. Just for the record, I didn’t write this to campaign for a job, I wrote it hoping someone, anyone, from the NAR that might have any sort of influence would read it and think, “Hmmmm, that’s not a bad idea….”
Baby steps…
I’m convinced it would work. Look at what David Gibbons does for Zillow, Dustin for Move, what Rudy will do for Trulia. Heck, look at what Robert Scoble did for Microsoft, Matt Cutts for Google. There are lots of examples.
I am becoming fond of saying that associations like NAR “get the ‘media’ part of social media, but they don’t get the ’social’ part.”
Oh, but you do have to give props to CRT’s blog.
Jay, Jay, Jay… Just by posting this, I’m proving you partly wrong. And I know you know we exist since we (too) briefly spoke in New York.
CRT has done many, if not all, of the items you suggest should be done. While we aren’t the entirety of NAR, we try to do what we can from and education and advocacy standpoint. Your voice (and others) are being read and shared.
(After this line, I’m no longer speaking as my employer.)
Here’s an open secret: if you really want to change your organization, get involved in committees and leadership. Or lobby the same. However, being part of it is more powerful.
Keith makes a two good points. I tried to make the first point for him yesterday, but maybe WP doesn’t allow two comments in rapid succession.
Keith, Keith, Keith
Thanks for commenting. I could have sworn I mentioned CRT as a good thing in this post. But it must have been a thought in my head that didn’t make it to the keyboard. Sorry. I do think CRT “gets it”. (though I think you all need to do more to spread the word of your existence. I suspect there are many that aren’t aware of what you’re doing)
But something is getting lost in the translation between you guys, and the rest of the NAR blogs.
By the way, you’re on the record as being the first comment I’ve ever seen by an NAR “insider” (doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened before, just the first I’ve seen).
Keep up the great work at CRT!
Ben - Your “props” comment was tagged as spam (likely due to short time between comments). I “rescued” it and it’s in it’s rightful place.
And you’re right.
Hooray! CRT lovefest!
By the way, my first paragraph in my last comment had an implied smiley. I should have done explicit.
In any case, for my part, I’m doing what I can within the system.
But you’re right, our visibility (c|s)ould be better.
Keith, Jay is being part of the organization by hosting this blog. This may not be the traditional way members have been involved, but it is involvement. I consider a member involved ANYTIME they so much as think about the association. Jay obviously thinks about often. Thue, he is more involved than 95% of the membership. NAR should hire Jay or at least make him chair of the social media committee.
[...] was a bit remiss in my recent post, “Why the NAR Needs a Social Media Director“. While I firmly believe the NAR needs a social media guru as spelled out in that post, there [...]
Thanks Dave. I think you make a valid point on “involvement”. There’s more than one way to be involved — and some of those ways are different than standard “traditional” methods…
I had to actually click through to even find out what “CRT” stood for.
Athol wrote: “I had to actually click through to even find out what “CRT” stood for.”
I wrote: “(though I think you all need to do more to spread the word of your existence. I suspect there are many that aren’t aware of what you’re doing)”
’nuff said….
[...] Why the NAR Needs a “Social Media Director”, by Jay Thompson. [...]
Jay, a thoughtful discussion here on NAR’s blogging efforts — certainly more thoughtful than what I wrote last week on the Inman Blog about Voices of Real Estate and NAR Wisdom.
But I don’t think it’s fair to say that “Inman News, arguably the real estate industries leading ‘mainstream’ source and provider of news, wasn’t even aware these NAR blogs existed.”
I mostly cover mortgage lending and title insurance for Inman, so I hadn’t stumbled across the blogs before. But I don’t speak for Inman News.
If you want to say, “Matt Carter, arguably the source of the most riveting, breathtaking and astounding media coverage of the mortgage lending and title insurance industries to be found anywhere on Earth today, wasn’t even aware these NAR blogs existed,” that would be OK with me.
Matt -
Your Inman blog post didn’t bother me. Believe me, I’ve heard much worse. Have you seen what some the “bubbleheads” can do to a post/blog? One needs a thick skin in this venue, as I’m sure you’re aware.
You make an excellent point. I shouldn’t have lumped all of “Inman News” into that statement.
Thanks for your continued riveting and breathtaking work on Inman.
And seriously, you do great work. All the Inman writers do, IMHO.
Oh, and I should have thanked you for the traffic Matt!
[...] too sexy for my blog.”Major upgrades might not be worthwhile, expert says” [Hey, that expert is me!]Why the NAR Needs a “Social Media Director”Flying under the radar with the stealthy SecondSpaceGateway To NowhereDear NAR, In case you haven’t [...]
Jay you make an excellent point. A point that more organizations than just NAR need to embrace.
Have you heard back from anyone at NAR? Please let us know if you do. If not..
Maybe we can be proactive in getting this idea placed in the right hands at NAR. Your reasons are compelling.
If you like that idea you could ask your various audiences if they have an appropriate (I’m guessing high level) contact at NAR to bring forward this case.
Congrats on your nomination!
Raymond! Long time no talk to. (I used to play on the MMF a *long* time ago…)
Nah, I’ve heard from no one from the NAR. Never really expected to. I’d love it if someone with “connections” would float the idea past someone that matters.
I think just about any business (and the NAR is a business in many ways) that is involved in marketing and/or technology could use a “social media director”.
I have been reading a lot of blogger comments about social media lately that suggest NAR is late to the blogosphere party. I guess the way I see it, we’ve actually been going to a lot of consumer and communication parties lately – but the bottom line is: most of these folks’ observations about our participation in blogs (no matter how kind or unflattering) are right!
We need to engage in the real estate conversation everywhere, not so much to convince, but to show we give a hoot. While blogging as a genre is hardly mainstream yet, especially to us more traditional communicators, we need to encourage and participate in all media. The old axiom - “the medium is the message” couldn’t be more apropos.
The advantage to us is we probably have more information on almost any aspect of the real estate business or marketplace than any other single entity – it seems pretty darn short-sided not to be making it available to those that care enough to enter the blogging fray. The worst possible reason not to actively participate is that we might get our feelings hurt. I’ll gladly take that chance if we learn something from it.
So this is an early valentine to all of those out there who ‘lead by blogging’ – congrats to you for your passion - whether there’s one or one hundred or one thousand other voices out there in the wilderness, at least you are engaged. My pledge to you is simply that we will do better, make more of an effort to be good ‘blogging’ citizens, and engage our members and the consuming public we so zealously claim to serve, in a more hearty debate and sharing of ideas.
My apologies if my grammar may not be the best, but I own it – in the words of the immortal Dr. Frasier Crane - I’m listening!
Mr. Stinton -
Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving your candid thoughts!
(For those not aware, Dale Stinton is the Executive VP and CEO of the NAR)
“While blogging as a genre is hardly mainstream yet..”
It may be closer to mainstream than many people realize. Technorati reported in April 2007 they were tracking over 70 million weblogs with 120,000 created each day — resulting in exponential growth in weblogging.
“My pledge to you is simply that we will do better, make more of an effort to be good ‘blogging’ citizens, and engage our members and the consuming public we so zealously claim to serve, in a more hearty debate and sharing of ideas.”
Fabulous! You know of course, we’re going to hold you to that!
Thanks again for taking the time to comment. Please don’t be a stranger!
[...] Association of Realtors, Dale Stinton, dropped by our little corner of the blogiverse and left a lovely comment on the “Why the NAR Needs a Social Media Director” [...]
Hi Dale,
Your post is encouraging and obviously a step in the right direction. If you have a moment to stop by again I think this community (one of the most popular in the real estate community) would love to see more specifics on what NAR is doing to A.) become more engaged in blogging (see Jay’s concerns); B. provide more training for practitioners to understand what this technology means for their own businesses.
The blogs on the NAR site seem one-sided and non-conversational. Like Jay says, the format suggestions a take our great info or leave it attitude, ‘we don’t want to hear what you think about it or how you can add to it.’
As a relative newcomer to the world of blogging from a corporate perspective, I can tell you it is a whole different mindset. Like thinking the grammar has to be perfect and the message perfectly aligned with corporate values. This blogging thing is more like quick hallway conversations in the office were you only have a few seconds to tell your story.
As one of my blogging mentors, Bob Stewart over at ActiveRain says, “kill the corporate-speak.” AHHHH, you mean I can just say what I think and be personal about it. For me this is a definite learning process that bloggers are more than happy to help us understand.
Embracing blogging means to a whole new, much faster process for change. Someone ‘out there’ has a better idea.
Thank you again for stopping by and sharing your insights on the subject. I’m sure many others are equally impressed as I am with your actions.
–Raymond
[...] 15, 2008 by Dustin …in the RE.net. “We need to engage in the real estate conversation everywhere, not so much to convince, but [...]
Jay, et. al., I’m really enjoying the conversation and the power of ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’.
Raymond, with regards to your question about providing more training for practitioners, you’re right on.
The most popular topic for the Center for REALTOR® Technology at state and local conventions has been on the many aspects of new media, chief among them blogging and podcasting. Also, at NAR’s annual convention for the past two years there have been sessions on blogging. Last year one of the most popular featured Dustin Luther of 4realz as the speaker. He was so well received we’ll be inviting him back again this year.
We’ve also explored this topic in print. REALTOR® Magazine has done many articles on blogging. In fact, you’ll be happy to know the cover story for the March issue will be Web 2.0 with extensive coverage of blogs.
Can we do better? Always. As a start, we will be asking our e-Pro partner to include all aspects of social media into the program. We’re also investigating what we can do with video on realtor.org as a training tool in these areas. We will continue to include sessions on these topics at our
conventions and continue to make the CRT folks available to speak on these topics at state and local meetings. Maybe some of you can help us, too.
Currently, we’re conducting a comprehensive review of what hasn’t worked in the past. It’s clear we’re not being as effective as we’d like. Our current thirst to understand includes items such as: demographics of readers, how we publicize our blogs, how we cross-link and interact with other blogs, the social mores and expectations of other bloggers and readers, and, most importantly, where our members want us to go with all this.
We also plan on educating key staff and leadership about this new world of the blogosphere that they haven’t yet been exposed to. In fact, it’s on our agenda for the next Leadership Team Meeting. I think our communication style has probably been too unidirectional in the past, and to the ears of
many have sounded like the WAH WAH talking of adults in Charlie Brown’s world.
A position as Jay described in his post could be instrumental in organizing and leading these efforts, acting in concert with the CRT as a sort of liaison to this digital world.
Thanks for your comments on corporate-speak and mindset. Those are both definitely one of those social expectation issues that I was talking about and your input is greatly appreciated.
–Dale
[...] might explain why I am mystified about this story: Does the NAR “get” blogging and other aspects of social media? I believe the answer is clearly [...]
Dale wrote: “Maybe some of you can help us, too.”
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ll help however I can.
“A position as Jay described in his post could be instrumental in organizing and leading these efforts, acting in concert with the CRT as a sort of liaison to this digital world.”
Where’s the NAR “help wanted” page?
Thanks Dale (again) for taking the time to stop by and post your thoughts. I find it very encouraging!
PS: Dale - sorry about your comments going into moderation. I think my spam catcher is picking them up because they include multiple links. I’ve certainly got no problem approving them, I just can’t always get to it right away.
I’d just like to point out that I’d be the NAR social media guru cheaper than Jay would.
[...] second BOOM! comes from Jay Thompson posting at NAR Wisdom on Why the NAR Needs a “Social Media Director”. The goodies are in the post and all the way deep into the comments as NAR CEO Dale Stinton shows [...]
I would like to recommend a very good book for Dale to read, particularly since part of it addresses the corporate fear of blogging and its’ unawareness of the importance of Social Media and the Blogosphere.
The book is “The New Influencers” by Paul Gillin. I hope you check it out, I think it will help to give you a crash course in the WHY of blogging.
I wrote a post about on my ActiveRain blog a few weeks ago.
With so much pressure on the NAR to be modern and with-it, social media provides a glorious opportunity to bring real estate to the new age. If your local stat or national assoc’s provided more assistance/info, wouldn’t you be more inclined to utilize the blogosphere?
Thanks for the book recommendation Deborah. More can be found out here: http://www.newinfluencers.com/
You’re welcome! Thanks for putting in the link, I wasn’t sure about doing so.
Jay- I do remember your days on the MasterMind Forum. Whole different crowd now. I’m really enjoying your blogs and the wisdom you share. Thank you.
Dale- We are seeing demand from our members for training content about blogging and the social media phenomenon. Can’t wait to see the magazine article. You guys seem to be on the right path for positioning NAR as a Web 2.0 leader.
It would be interesting to see a NAR forum/blog. The great part about a blog is the interaciton and the ability to see personality. I wonder what the NAR personality would be like.
Glad to see you chime in Mr. Stinton.
This to me is THE single most important point. The data NAR has is unprecedented. Not only just the housing stuff we see published regularly, but the info about legislation, its impact and consequences. The greatest value of NAR is its advocacy on behalf of the US homeowner. There is enough info there to fill a thousand blogs.
The worst possible reason is because withholding knowledge that can help people is wrong.
I found something published by CAR that was of benefit to the California homeowner. I asked permission to republish it and was told by two different CAR legal folks that I couldn’t because it was for the benefit of the agent - not the homeowner. What they missed is that a consumer empowered by knowledge is a tremendous benefit to the agent. CAR then took steps to have agents who had published this valuable info online, complete with full cite and link to CAR, remove it.
NAR has the ability to be the ultimate housing wiki - a source of info that rivals the Feds. Quit worrying about how someone uses the letters MLS and tackle the bigger picture.
One last point - retire the NAR economist position. It is a self-serving position and has caused more loss of credibility to NAR than anything else.
Bob makes some good points. It seems that the NAR is in an adversarial position with its members on quite a few issues. Giving members the tools they need would come a long way in helping to restore some credibility.
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[...] might explain why I am mystified about this story: Does the NAR “get” blogging and other aspects of social media? I believe the answer is clearly [...]