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.