I Completed My Homework

Editor’s Note: I am pleased to present this contribution to NARWisdom.com from Dale Stinton. Dale is the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Realtors.

Well, here I am again. I wanted to take a moment of everyone’s valuable time to thank Deborah Burns for referring me to the Book – “The New Influences” by Paul Gillin. I just finished it and (yes, I’m a slow reader) found it fascinating and insightful. I just purchased a copy for every Past President and every member of the Leadership Team, as well as every Staff Vice President of NAR. Deborah, I owe you a Starbucks certificate - send me your address and it will be on its’ way to you.

My favorite chapter was “The Talkers” and I was particularly interested in the cross-over analysis of podcasting and blogs. (By the way, President Dick Gaylord just sent a little video podcast to over 900,000 REALTOR® email addresses). Here’s the salient paragraphs I took much heart from:

Chapter on “The Talkers”

Podcasting is perhaps the purest form of consumer generated media. It’s real people talking about stuff that excites them. People podcast for the same reason that they blog: It’s a cheap, flexible form of self expression, a way to share one’s thoughts and opinions with a like minded audience.

Educate the Consumer - This is an important point. In the best practice of social media, podcasts should be educational and actionable, but never overtly promotional.

‘real people talking’, ‘self-expression’, ‘thoughts and opinions’, ‘educational’, ‘actionable’ – sounds a lot like the tenets that this great country was founded on (short pause to put hand over heart).

So I say ‘fire away’ as if you had a duty to express yourself and let each and every reader decide who and what to give credence to – this is the future, you are the future – born out of a little skirmish started in 1776.

And in the words of the immortal Ricky Gervais from his latest hit show ‘Extras’ – are you havin’ a laff?

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