Podcast: Interview with Paul Chaney, President of International Blogging and New Media Association

Do bloggers and podcasters need a trade association? Paul Chaney thinks so. I like the idea too, with one caveat. I think it has to be an organization with a deliberate purpose. I've had a great deal of involvement with trade groups and associations in the past and I've seen first hand how quickly they can lose sight of their orignal charter.

The International Blogging and New Media Association was formed about year ago. The concept is to provide a platform and voice to those involved with any aspect of blogging, podcasting, web media and social media. When I heard Paul had been tapped to take over the leadership as the new President, I didn't think twice about joining. Paul is the kind of "go to" guy that works hard to get things done and goes about it with the realization that you have to surround yourself with great people to get it done. With a long list of blogging luminaries at the helm of the executive and advisory boards, the opportunity for IBNMA to become a tremendous resource for training, certification, standards and much more. I had the opportunity to participate in a general membership meeting during BlogWorld last week and I was very impressed with the leadership's candor and passion.

In our interview Paul goes into great detail about the history of the association, plans for the future and his vision for getting things done. If you're involved with blogging or new media in any way, you really should consider becoming a member and adding your voice to the development of IBNMA, at $25 per year, it's kind of a no-brainer. Click here to get started.

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Updates: Hurricanes, BlogWorld & Real Estate Barcamp Houston

Ike Update: Oak Ridge North Gets Smacked Around
The past 12 days or so have been about as action packed as they can get. Hurricane Ike decided to treat my little town of Oak Ridge North and southern Montgomery county Texas harder than any area not directly on the coast. We are still without power and I am crafting these 0's and 1's to you via a generator generously loaned to us by future in-laws. Our home suffered no major damage at all and as luck would have it, I had business trip to Las Vegas scheduled right in the middle of these days of recovery. If you're an MLBroadcast client, please accept our thanks for your patience in the delays that have resulted in production. We are working hard to get back on track and should be caught up soon. Call me directly if you have a concern or issue 832-331-4846.

REBlogWorld
Last Thursday through Sunday was spent at the Real Estate Blog World and Blog World conference. Todd and Jason should take great pride in successful first time event with REBlogworld. The sessions were great, the preparation and execution stellar and the overall experience definitely a worthwhile one. I highly recommend this event to any real estate professional or company interested in blogging and new media as a part of their strategy. We are proud to be a sponsor of the event and look forward to getting involved with the event in a big way again next year. Stay tuned for information regarding videos that were captured for each session at the event.


BlogWord Expo
The BlogWorld Expo was amazing. I've either been involved in the planning of or in attendance at more expos and conferences than I can remember and I believe this event was as well done both in execution and content as any I have attended before. It's only the second year for this event, but I can already see it becoming one of the larger and more well attended "digerati" events in the future. It covered much, much more than blogging, in fact, if it had to do with new media of any kind, it was addressed in some way. I enjoyed speaking with my old pal Paul Cheney who is now the president of the International Blogging and New Media Association, we became members because Paul is at the helm and I had a chance to find out more about their charter and see how I can become involved. Look for a podcast interview with Paul in the coming days. The highlight for me personally was being able to network with folks in the speaker ready room. I had a chance to talk to the social and new media folks with Wal-mart and get a preview of their cool new iPhone app being released this week. It's pretty cool to hang out with people like Guy Kawasaki. Most of the people in this industry, not matter what their celebrity status, are very approachable and that carried through to the sessions and the expo floor. Keep in mind for next year that by attending REBlogworld you are also able to attend the entire BlogWorld event. As Jeff Turner put it during a conversation we had, BlogWorld has been very "mind expanding". After all, isn't that why we go to these things? Oh wait, it was in Vegas, let me rephrase that, "Isn't that one of the reasons we go to these things?"

REBarcamp Houston Is Still On
I had a few conversations with some of my REBCH cohorts prior to my departure about whether we should postpone Real Estate Bar Camp Houston. The overwhelming consensus was to stick with the original date and plan. With all that will be taking place afterward like NAR's expo etc., it just makes sense to push forward. We will need as much help as possible from volunteers. Rich Jacobson of Active Rain being the awesome human being he is, has offered to come in a day early and help set up. We need sponsors! It's only $250 to be a sponsor of the event, so if you know of a person or company that wants the extra exposure and overall warm fuzzy that comes from being a part of a cool grass roots effort like a barcamp, have them get in touch with me.

Podcast Interview - CREST - Center For Real Estate and Social Technology

Ben Martin, the communications and new media director for the Virginia Association of Realtors recently contacted me regarding a new initiative being backed by VAR. It's called CREST, The Center for Real Estate and Social Technology. The center is being billed as a research effort designed to help real estate professionals enter into or improve upon their efforts in blogging and social media. (CREST's efforts are not limited to the Virginia area.)

The first effort is a 14 question survey on blogging. The results will be announced at REBarcamp on 7/22. I had the opportunity to do a podcast call with Ben and Danilo Bogdanovic, a blogger in Virginia that is helping with the launch of the Center.

I think the idea behind CREST could go a long way toward helping real estate professionals create the best mix of social media and blogging tools and look forward to the results of their data mining efforts. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and help CREST meet their goal of 100+ responses to their first effort.

< Click To Liten To The CREST Podcast Interview.


< Click to subcribe to the Mike's Corner Podcast Feed.

Featured REALTOR® Blog

It's been a while since I've picked a featured Realtor® blog. I haven't been slacking. Truth told, there haven't been any I have seen recently that fit the bill. That changed during my trip to the NAR Expo. I had the opportunity to meet quite a few bloggers that ranged in the stage from newbie to seasoned veteran. One of the bloggers I met that considers herself a "blogging novice" is Dru Bloomfield from the epicenter of real estate blogging, Arizona. AtHomeInScottsdale.com is Dru's 3 month old effort and after spending some time at the site, it's clear that it fits the bill for almost all of the criteria of a great real estate blog. The content is focused, well written, visual and completely nails the concept of what consumers are looking for when it comes to relevant real estate blog content.

Dru spent almost the entire day at the "Meet The Bloggers" event and asked the best questions of anyone during the day. It's safe to say that Dru can drop the moniker "novice" from her description of herself as a blogger. She's already been interviewed by her local media (twice to be exact) and has been able to close business as a direct result of the blog. If you're a "novice" blogger looking for a great example of how to create and deliver great local blogging content, AtHomeInScottsdale.com is a great place to start. Congratulations Dru on being our most recent Featured Realtor blog and keep up the good work!

Thanks to everyone else that showed up for the event at the NAR expo, it was great to finally meet everyone and I look forward to seeing you at the Inman event in January.

Previous Featured Realtor Blogs:

• The HouseChick


• Harper Team


• State of Mind Real Estate


• Every Kid Deserves A Yard

New Featured Realtor® Blog

I went on a quest yesterday for a new featured Realtor® blog. My travels didn't need to take me much further than the MyBlogLog widget on this site. Hailing from the sunshine state is a Keller Williams team with the moniker, "Every Kid Deserves A Yard". I clicked through to their blog and it met all of the criteria for our new winner.

1.Local content that is "narrowcasted" to a specific audience. This establishes credibility and experience.
2. Clean, easy to navigate design. The blog isn't cluttered by useless elements and widgets.
3. Brand integration. The blog should blend into the overall web experience. It should do a good job of delivering relevant blogging content without self-promotion, with an easy way to get to access to listings or generate leads.

This blog does an exceptional job of establishing community credibility, fits well into the overall web presence and brand and is super simple to navigate. Congratulations to the team at EKDAY for a job well done. ~MP

I don't feel so bad....

Regular readers of this blog already know this. My blog proofing skills leave a bit to be desired. Every now and then a spelling error will get through. As for grammar and structure, forget it. My creative writing teacher always told me not to worry about it, if I had something compelling enough to say, people would get it. That's good. If I need to send out a mission critical piece of business correspondence, I get someone to proof it, gut it, re-write it if necessary. What if I were the president of a country and not an Internet start-up? You can bet I would make sure someone stayed awake at the switch. Case in point, number 5 in Business 2.0's 101 dumbest moments in business for 2006.