It appears the Naples Area Board Of Realtors has catapulted its membership into perhaps the next thing regarding Web 2.0 and real estate marketing! Just today they released a number of new required fields when inputing a listing in our local MLS system. The field most interesting is the "Blogging" field.
The description of this new field reads as follows: - A new required field "Blogging" has been added. This field controls whether blogging or comments regarding the property are allowed. If your seller wants the property to be used in blogs, select Yes. If your seller does not want the property to be used in blogs, select No. The default is No. (Note: This refers to VOWs. Please see the BEAR and Naples MLS Rules on VOWS.).
Without losing my entire audience by posting the entire 5 page description of what a VOW (Virtual Office Website) is and how the rules on VOWS read, I'll simply state what it doesn't say.
It doesn't say anything about how you can blog about another agent's listing. I HAVE TO ASSUME that since we're supposed to COOPERATE FULLY WITH OTHER REALTORS, bashing other agents listings is not only inappropriate but also still against the rules. I might have thought, that little tid bit of information would have been appropriate in the description above but quite frankly, this is just my assumption.
Without going in a completely creepy direction...let's envision how remarkably neat this might be.
First and foremost there are a total of 440 agents in the Naples area who currently have a profile on Active Rain. Now granted, not everybody is still active and yes there are quite a few profiles who are no longer in the business but that's probably the same for all markets. There are approximately 1,622 Realtors active with the Naples Area Board of Realtors. That's a pretty big difference compared to the 5,000 Realtors who shared my market place just a few short years ago but again, no surprise.
That means that just by a quick look before Naples Realtors had a bunch of free stuff to talk about, Active Rain held about 25% of the possible market share of Naples Florida real estate bloggers. Not bad!
Let's take a look at how this changes things! What if only 25% more Naples Realtors start blogging because now they have a ton of new content to write about! Just looking at the first day of this new change, I can write about 24 listings that hit the market today. Granted, that's less than half of the new listings that hit the market today but that's still 24 more properties I can expose to the world. If just 25% more people (around 400 more Naples Realtors) wrote just one blog post about those 24 properties what kind of content would hit the net each day and how could that expose Naples, Florida to the possible buyer prospect base around the world? Now isn't that thinking cooperatively!?! So much for real estate being local!
Crazy...don't you think?
Serving my purpose through content rich informaton about Naples, Florida real estate!
Best Regards!
Shannon Lefevre, PA
Your Naples Smart Girl!
239-595-6223
www.ShannonLefevre.com
“The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of John R. Wood Realtors.”
I can't imagine this in Kentucky. I might be the only Realtor in our town that actively blogs.
My face is blue from talking about blogging. There is a reason why 10% of the agent make 90% of the money in this business.
I can't believe how many of your area realtors blog. Naples must be the blogging capital of the US. In my real estate board of 450 members, there are 10 who have blogs (according to google) and of those there are 4 that have had a post in the past week. 4 Active bloggers (including me) out of 450, less than 1%.
Hi Shannon,
This is so interesting, I'm so surprised that your BOR, seems like you're/they're way ahead of the tech curve.
I'll be speaking to my AOR about the same things.
Shannon, I think that's cool they have a field to ask permission to be blogged about. Very hip!!
Shannon- Even if that came to be here, there would still be no bloggers other than me, myself and I and Oh, one other agent. :) Plus our buyers agent)
That is the best news of the year. Great news! Blogging gets higher Google hits than websites or podcast sites. Just had a phone sales guy pushing pay per click and I told him to google my farm. And you are going to beat that? His only comment was that I have to put time into it.
There are more and more agents getting involved with blogging in my area. I knew it wouldn't last forever:)
LIZETTE: It's apparent blogging is still evolving. It's so curious to see where it's going next!
MICHAEL: That's funny! A colleague of mine came to my office to tell me the news yesterday and I know I was glowing like a Christmas Tree when he was telling me about the new blogging feature. He knew I'd be excited about it!
ROBERT: Seriously, grab on to that with both hands. I remember when I first got started there were people who were blogging ahead of me and it took a long time to get to the top position. Grab your top spot with great content now before the competition becomes so overwhelming!
LYNDA: I couldn't agree with you more and smart thinking on your part to do the same!
GARY: Isn't that SO neat? Very good to see you my friend!
NESTOR AND KATERINA: Your area is WELL represented with just you! :)
TIM: He did have a good point but quite frankly doesn't actually writing the blog make you smarter? It makes me smarter so I'm ok with putting the time in! :)
BILL: But you've been doing it successfully for so long it will be hard to lose your king of the mountain status! :)
It will be interesting to see how this new blogging feature unfolds...keep us posted!
Maria
Shannon, that's a whole lotta blogging goin' on! Here a lot of agents blog on other brokers listing without permission. I always ask first , and they usually say yes, especially if they have any clue about what a blog is!
Were you allowed to do anything with other agents listings before? Other than in IDX or something. We are not. It would be awesome to blog about other listings (such as a great deals of the week etc.) ~Rita
What Bill Gassett said.
I am member of Mid-Florida Regional MLS and Ocala MLS. Both of these also gave this blogging option. I am pretty sure it has to do with the NAR vs. Dept of Justice lawsuit regarding VOWs.
I wish my MLS had this feature. Although other will follow those that are currently blogging will be leading the way while the other try to catch up. This is a great new service that should be taken advantage of.
I've tried to get more realtors in my area to blog on AR. Now, they will have to pay..If you snooze, you lose.!
Very interesting! Your MLS is the first I have heard of to add Blogs to their listing options. Will you know if a seller does NOT want their property on a blog? There are still some sellers out there who might not understand. Just curious!
Hi Shannon~ How cool is that? We have realtors in this area that blog. Our board has had nothing to say about it and there isn't anything about it on our MLS sheets... yet!
I am the only active AR member in 50 miles or more from me and the only blogger and probably will stay that way forever with the pay schedule now. Fine by me.
Hi Shannon, I remember reading last year about some site - Zillow? Zip? - that allowed people to write comments about listings. It weirded me out - who wants people's negative comments attached to their property? A house only has to be right for one buyer and I don't really care that Buyer B doesn't like the carpet, thinks the bedrooms are too small etc. I wondered at the time what could be done to prevent it - across the board or for a particular property (mine or my listing!). Is this related to anything like that?
Liz
Sounds like your area and your mls is pretty innovative! More people around here seem to be getting the "blogging bug".
Just curious. For those agents in your area that don't blog - don't you think they would just mark that choice "No" and/or tell the sellers there is no reason to put "Yes". Many agents don't even know what a blog is or consider that other agents could help get the word out about their listings.
Very interesting indeed ! I like the way you think ! As way as your local MLS ! Very cool.
I blog so therefore I am. I think!!!!
Not a lot of bloggers in my area but I'm sure that will change soon. Heard something about our BOR setting up a blog.
I think that is truly awesome. I hope that will happen in St. Pete soon. Have anyone in the area check out our new site www.stpeteforeclosures.net
Thanks for sharing!
I hope it happens in Metro Detroit. I have to call for permission
That's nuts! I wonder when we'll get that. Who runs your MLS?
Sounds cool! We have some listing without pictures and comments, which drives me crazy. Allowing blogging seems to be a good idea, because if you can say more positive things about the house than the listing agent does, the seller may want to switch to you once the old listing expires! Score one for the hard working fulltime agents!
I'm the only agent in my area blogging (there's an occasional entry from one other guy--hi Jonathan). No competition! I don't think the rest know what blogging is (and don't you tell them).
Jonathan D. Coles, e-PRO, 570-386-5000- Call me! (New Pennsylvania Realty, Inc.)
Score: 7232 New Ringgold
Maybe the NAR should get on this and publish guidelines in regards to blogging and the MLS. Personally, I think it's a fabulous idea, giving a property much more exposure, and isn't that what we all want?
I would think in the future, all boards will jump in, maybe even national "rules" or guidelines...YOur board seems like they are ahead of the curve on this one!
This is interesting to have blogging as an option on the MLS.. Sounds like a great idea
Shannon,
So if the seller doesn't understand your blog that form on promotion is dead?
What if your seller considers posting on Craigslist, etc. blogging instead of an ad?
wow - that is a forwad thingkign approach - not sure more than 5% of our realtors in the area even know what a blog is...
Shannon,
As one of those of those 440 agents with profiles on AR from Naples FL, I applaud you for getting this innovative feature out not only to the Naples area but to the AR Realtor world as well. As you know, our board is very, very engaged. We have some of the best minds from all over the US that have moved here to live (yours included) and all the members can benefit from that if they chose. It's very exciting to see changes made and minds open as we all move forward to do the best job we can for our clients.
The bloggers and the interent savvy will leave the others in the dust
Wow, you guys are progressive. I barely think most realtors even know what a blog is. Then again, we are pretty far away right? Aloha from Kauai
Shannon - That is amazing! 25%? I think we are probably in the 1-3% range here in Austin. I hope you're doing well - we should talk again soon!