Both ActiveRain and RealTown have reached that magical six figure membership number - 100,000. Congratulations!!
Add to these two frontrunners the re-engineered of Inman News that now includes an online real estate community and the rapid expansion of the real estate side of LinkedIn and the evidence supports that social networking and community has officially taken hold of real estate. It is here to stay and is on the short list of major contributors to shape the residential real estate industry.
Granted that some of the one hundred thousand participants are vendors, technology nerds, people with duplicate accounts and even others that may visit their online accounts infrequently, but the critical mass is there and they are generating sufficient buzz. Topics are being posted as frequently as on any online news service and the responses are frequent and increasing in number.
Stories or posts as they are usually referred to sometimes break on a news service only to find a part of the whole story analyzed and dissected on a blog where RSS subscribers receive immediate notification. And very quickly within the 7 degrees of separation comments bounce from yonder to form a thread of discussion.
This is truly a new marvel for real estate - open discussion between many agents. Agents now have an outlet to immediately express their opinion (pro or con) concerning a wide range of topics and products as well as their broker or Realtor(r) Association.
Now it's true that some of the comments are not always polite, politically correct and can even still be a little too sleazy. But more often than not they are well thought through and overall real estate is doing well at this early developmental stage of "almost anonymous" debate.
This online conversation is slowly but surely creating an influence - an influence that needs to be heard, managed and respected. The question is how much of it is "pointless chatter" and how much is "quality commentary" and how do we distinguish between the two.
In the end it's the substance (quality commentary), the diamonds in the rough, that will become the foundation for the continued re-engineering of the real estate business process.
To those who are already participating - good for you. To those who are not yet, grab a keyboard and join in - whether you know and can share, or need to learn and grow - there is much to say and so much more to still do. |
