A Fresh Look for All NAR Blogs

By Todd Carpenter, Social Media Manager, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

While Speaking of Real Estate relaunched last May, today marks the completion of our migration to this fresh new look for the entire group of NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® blogs. Here’s a complete list:

• YPN Lounge – http://ypnlounge.blogs.realtor.org
• Styled, Staged & Sold – http://styledstagedsold.blogs.realtor.org/
• Appraisal Insights – http://appraisalinsight.blogs.realtor.org
• Resort Life – http://resortlife.blogs.realtor.org/
• The Weekly Book Scan – http://theweeklybookscan.blogs.realtor.org/
• The InfoCentral Blog – http://infocentral.blogs.realtor.org/
• Leadership Lab – http://leadershiplab.blogs.realtor.org/
• Voices of Real Estate – http://voicesofrealestate.blogs.realtor.org/

Check ‘em out!

Social Media Best Practices

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor REALTOR® Magazine

Social media should be used to create communities and not to push listings out. You wouldn’t go to church to hand out your listings, and therefore, you shouldn’t do it through your Facebook page.

That was one of the main arguments presented by Ginger Wilcox, GRI, Kelley Koehler, and Mariana Wagner—all experts with the Social Media Marketing Institute—at the Introduction to Social Media session at the 2009 REALTORS® Convention & Expo this morning.

The panel advised real estate pros to think about using social media to connect with people to build relationships that will eventually lead to communities.  Read more

Authenticity and the Social Web

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

In the September issue of REALTOR® magazine, we’re bringing you a cover story on the realities of doing business on the “social Web” — i.e., the vast array of sites that allow people to communicate, collaborate, and network online. Our aim for that article is to help you sift through the constantly changing tools, terms, and techniques in social media and uncover some core characteristics of this extraordinary new virtual world.

One of the more significant bits of advice that I came across in my research and writing was the importance of being genuine. To use social media successfully, you have to be yourself. This sounds easy, but there’s always a temptation to project an image of yourself that overstates your abilities or experience, or perhaps alters your demeanor to fit a potential client’s perception of an ideal real estate professional. Read more

Social Media Tips from NAR’s Todd Carpenter

By Laura Melcher, Manager, Editorial Development, REALTOR.org

At today’s Communications Directors’ Networking Session, NAR Social Media Manager Todd Carpenter described a recent “blogostorm” in which he and other NAR staff entered an Agent Genius blog debate about rules prohibiiting “scraping” of MLS listings on the Web. The original blog posting, by Paula Henry (an Indianapolis REALTOR®), garnered hundreds of comments and generated rapid-fire debate about the distinction between search indexers, such as Google, and site “scrapers,” which steal data. 

Todd presented the Agent Genius discussion thread as a great example of why being engaged in such a debate is vital to remaining relevant in the minds of the social-media savvy, an increasingly large group. In other words, participation in social media should not be seen as optional, either for associations, individual members, or their companies. As he said, a given debate is going to go on regardless of whether or not you are involved, so you might as well get involved and do so in a professional and productive way.  

Read more