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The ActiveRain heresy

Joan of Arc statue The ActiveRain heresy...

Do you know what heresy is?

I believe Joan of Arc and Galileo were officially heretics to the big "ism" in their age. Joan got burned at the stake for it...

ActiveRainism - dogma?

How to write this without going into religion, dogma... I am a fan of ActiveRain. I don't think I practice ActiveRainism but some might... EDIT think I do. I think ActiveRain is one good way (place?) for the real estate industry to learn about social media, the real estate industry, blogging, technology.

I have been an ActiveRain member since 2006. I have seen lots of members come and go. Some for the next big thing (shiny object), some for their own blog, some back to their own blog... some to play on a cooler real estate blog (geekier, exclusive, classier) some because they are no longer working in the RE industry, some because they got in a snit...

For me that's OK! ActiveRain is not for everyone... just for 164K +/ - in the real estate industry.

ActiveRain is a real estate network.

If you are in a physical class with me and the ActiveRain heresy is uttered you will see steam coming out of my ears... The sentence which when uttered by a real estate guru, educator, RE blogger or a technology know it all... here it is... The ActiveRain heresy is "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents" or maybe "just for talking to other agents"...

ActiveRain heresy - heretics

ActiveRain is NOT a religion... ActiveRain is not a cult. There is no ActiveRain kool aid. Is there?

Endoheretics would be those within?

I am not sure if those who were members but quit in a snit (or just fell away, or are just inactive ActiveRain members) would be endoheretics or exoheretics when they utter the heresy... "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents."

Exoheretics would be those from outside...

I know when I go to a real estate class and the instructor is not a member that they probably don't know what they are talking about. They are exoheretics but I try not to scream "HERETIC" when they utter the phrase "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents"

Fact not everyone likes ActiveRain - that's OK

The sentence which when uttered by a real estate guru, educator, RE blogger or a technology know it all... The ActiveRain heresy "ActiveRain is for talking to other agents"

ActiveRain

You can talk to other agents...

You can also talk to the general public. Google and other search engines can be your megaphone for talking to consumers about real estate, communities. If you need help on how to blog to consumers ask for help.

Your ActiveRain blog? Your choice who you talk to.

ActiveRain syndrome Facebook training

'Galileo God rest his soul." Joan of Arc too...

Photo Credit -

St. Joan of Arc Statue

http://www.flickr.com/photos/riverap1/ / CC BY 2.0

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Posted by Maureen McCabe Central OH Homes on 11/07/2009 09:01 AM

Comments (51)

ActiveRain in the ActiveRain Channel

activerain, blogging, real estate blogs

Post is included in group: Real Living
Post is included in group: Addicted to Active Rain
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: Dedicated Bloggers
Post is included in group: Active Rain Newbies

51 Comments on The ActiveRain heresy

NOV

Very clever....but then you are an Ambassador :). AR is fun, but it's also consistency and that "work" pays off....I'm drinking the AR-koolaid (I mean coffee....AR is my morning companion).

and here I got three quick comments.

Nothing against trying something new but if someone tries everything new or the thing that will be the next AR, it's hard to be consistant.

ActiveRain is not perfect but Google finds the Local content quick.

On Tomato Radio this week Stefan Swanepoel recommended ActiveRain (among others.)

Yes I am an Ambassador....

Let's hunt down the witch that made that comment and burn them at the stake............

Ralph I'm emailing you some names...

Maureen, I blog to the "Public" mostly and I comment to the "Members Only" for the most part. (Note: no heretics were harmed while commenting on this post,LOL)

I probably blog 80% to the public now and 20% to peers... this week more to peers. There is a a cycle.

I comment mostly on member to member posts but not necessarily "Members Only" posts. I seldom comment on post written to consumers, I am not particularly fond of comments on my posts to consumers, they sound so awkward..

I was talking to a member recently who thought he ought to post to Members Only whenever he spoke to peers and I saw an influential member trying to urge a member to make a post members only. Anything I can keep public is going to be public. Every reader can decide what they want to read.

Hi Maureen,,, Bravo! I say that you, Ralph and I form a posse and chase down the heretics!

here's a match...

Maureen - That's one heresy that I am definitely familiar with. One thing that I also haven't ever understood Is why some people opt to leave this network altogether, after spending a lot of time building relationships here. Why abandon that, even if you are starting a new blog, etc.?

I don't get it.

I may seem very positive about the network and considered a "kool-aid drinker" but I Really do bitch (rare) when I have a legitimate gripe behind closed doors.

It's hard to please everyone all the time. Active Rain has a network to run and each individual blog owner has their own blog (with their own goals) to run.

ActiveRain isn't perfect. I bitch about it all the time and I don't necessarily do it behind closed doors. There are things to bitch about... any place that is social is difficult because you've got to get along with other people.

IMHO AR works great for talking to the general public about communities, the real estate market.

I am biased.

NOV

Could it be that those that speak heresy just really do not understand the platform? Or better yet they are jealous that they didn't think of it first?

Give me a match!!

Maureen,

Active Rain is like anything else, always changing! People come and go (as we have both seen through the years:)

I think that if something does not "pay off" for someone, they will blame it on the platform and not themselves. Very much like life itself. Mostly humans here on AR:) For the ones that "get it", congratulations to them!

AR is a triple platform. It's for learning, networking with peers and networking with clients. Not a bad thing!

Maureen, I guess they just need to keep on believing that. My bank account certainly says differently and that's all that matters to me. ActiveRain make me money. Most of it comes from the consumer and another big chunk comes form the stuff I have learned and implemented into my business. I too joined in 2006 and I am a FAR better broker now than I was then. My drastic improvement would have never happened without ActiveRain.

So.....I guess I'll just continue "talking to agents". Please pass the Kool aid

Maureen, consistancy is the key. Most give up after 6-9 months and say that this doesn't work and off they go to try something else that is the flavour of the month! Good post

I like the way you put that, Maureen. I live in a world full of AR heretics. They don't "get it", and by the time they do, I'll have made too much money education others about the benefits of AR for their business...

Maureen,

I too am from the ActiveRain Class of 2006 and I too have heard this many times. At first, I felt as if I had to defend myself for 'wasting my time' talking to other agents. Now I just smile and say, 'you're right' and consider it MY SECRET that my competitors will never learn about.

Just for the record, I have come and gone, from ActiveRain, too many times. I have had my own 'twits' and I have gotten busy sliding AR to the back burner. I know whenever I turn up the juice that there is new business right around the corner and I have recommitted myself having posted 140 articles in the last 2 months, including several that were featured. (Maybe you an I even had a 'twit' - if we did, lets get over it and move on, because AR is such an incredible place and definitely big enough for opposing opinions and heated debate.)

The good news when 'we spek to each other' we are learning. We are learning about technology. We are learning about our code of ethics. We learn about the law. Heck, this is where I find out about breaking real estate news.

As an agent who is as independent as we come, I have no brokers office to go to and no classroom for regular meetings - I hold the meetings for my team and I pay the rent for MY team office. ActiveRain is the backbone of the education I receive in this business.

Oh, and it seems like I always have at least one or two open escrows from someone who read my AR blog...but shhhh, lets keep that between ourslves.

Thanks for the cleverly written post...I'm going to go ahead and reblog...

John

Where did you people come from?

I came to read James' comment ... thanks all.

There is a phrase missing "I don't think I practice ActiveRainism but some might... "

should say...

"I don't think I practice ActiveRainism but some might... think I do."

Someone told me this week that I am delusional.

Maureen, you wrote a timely post. At a seminar just last week I heard people utter that, "it's just talking with other agents." We know it's that--and that's good!--but also:

our posts are found by the public
we learn about technology
we pick up new ideas
we get encouragement to try things
and--we make some awesome friends

I'm here to stay

In the classes I teach, I stress that talking with other agents on AR is just a small benefit of the site, but a very small number implement.

I also find it interesting that some people in my classes say they're active on AR, and when I go to look them up, all they've done is fill out a profile. That is not "active".

I agree, it's invaluable if you do it right, as in contribute, learn, network, but keep it from sucking yout time away like a sponge (which it can do if you're not careful!)

Donna you're great that you teach these others who don't want to be taught. You must have patience. I'm like John now, I just say uhh huh, shake my head and agree that AR is a waste of my time as I'm doing another consumer post!

I bet you never see those naysayers at the bank depositing a check?

Thanks all for the comments

Jason I think "time' is the excuse most people use NOT to participate... or maybe it is that it's work.

Personally chewing the fat with other agents to me is a waste of time, so that is not how I choose to use ActiveRain. Learning about technology or posting content for consumers is not a waste of time. It never has been on ActiveRain. I posted my first market report on ActiveRain in August or September 2006, not a popular move but THAT post shows up on Google to this day.

Active Rain is my favorite place to come and learn stuff. It also sends most the traffic to my web site.

Sorry I had to edit it... "think I do"...

I learn new stuff here all the time too... or about places to learn stuff.

A/R is a brilliant platform for learning what real estate related professionals know.... And don't know.

ActiveRain is for talking to anyone and everyone about real estate. There are lots of good ideas and it keeps me technologically up to date. Thank Goodness!

Maureen, it may be talking to other agents on comments BUT it's much more productive than the water color because of all the STUFF we learn here! Sheesh! It's fine with me, we'll just keep all the Google juice kool-aid to ourselves and laugh all the way to the bank! :)

BTW, love your constantly-evolving avatars lately. Looks like you're having fun with them :)

I don't have a photo big enough to do the avatar. The photo I used was fuzzy and it was too small for the digital avatar. The generic avatar last Sunday killed me. Now it won't let me go back to the avatar I was using.

Man, I enjoyed your remarks!! Entertaining and enlightening! The longer I am on AR the more I realize the multitude of benefits to all. Thanks, Maureen.

It's another tool in the toolbox. A very good tool at that.

NOV

My two AR Outside blogs are NOT real estate blogs... someone in my market asked me to help him understand that because a local r. e. agent told him my blogs aren't really RE blogs and neither is my WP.org blog and... that I do agree with!!! that my WP.org blog is NOT real estate.

Yes! Let's keep on talking. I am just starting.

Jirius wrote "Let's keep on talking."

to consumers?

to one another?

to whomever we feel like talking to?

I would be happy to be associated with the likes of Joan of Arc!

she was called a heretic then after she was burned at the stake she was named a saint? does that mean those that say AR is just for talking to one another are right?

Thanks Melinda, nice to meet you.

I can see where on the surface it does appear that AR is just for talking to other agents, because there are so few public comments on our posts. What these instructors are not seeing are the emails, phone calls, form submissions, etc. that we get as a result of our blog. Do the instructors ever offer alternative solutions?

Oh I don't think it has anything to do with lack of comments on posts written to consumers. I think some of the biggest critics are blogging elsewhere and if they are blogging to consumers they are gettng limited comments. When they are talking to one another on the cool big blogs they are having deeper conversations. There is no "Great blog thanks for sharing" for the points.

ActiveRain is great, A lot of the members don't use it to talk to consumers, Many use it to teach one another and others, their blog their choice. Because many use it to talk to one another doesn't mean it is just for talking to one another.,..

Or I could be wrong...

NOV

Maureen. Talking to other agents has been the greatest source of growth for me as a professional.

Mark did you just become a RainMaker? You have posts that appear to be written to consumers but they are members only, If you just became a RainMaker open some of those up to public to talk directly to consumers.

Write about consumers favorite subject them, NOT them personally but their neighborhoods, schools, local events.

Defending the good agent to agent info on ActiveRain or your right to talk to peers really is not the response to the heresy, the heresy assumes we can only talk to agents and that consumers are not reading ActiveRain consumer posts, Localism and our Outside blog. The heresy that ActiveRain is for talking to real estate agens assumes that we can't use ActiveRain to generate leads. The first step in genearating a lead is to talk to consumers not about them.

I left a comment on your blog on one of the few posts that was NOT members only. You were asking about lead generators. You have one, it is RainMaker / Google, they will call you, email you.

You can learn lots on AR but there is a consumer facing side that many members are oblivious too. It's no wonder many who have not tried AR understand it's a great place to network , a great place to learn but don't get that YOU can talk directly to consumers.

I believe that's why I spend time in classes and hear that ActiveRain is just for talking to other agents from RE educators.

I was teaching a class and we hit that very subject. I had someone utter the phrase. When I came back and mentioned that there were two million non-member hits a month, jaws dropped.

NOV

I saw a discussion of it on Linkedin, in the NAR group yesterday.

NOV

Active Rain is a microcosm of life. Just because it is "virtual" does not mean it creates an environment/platform where people skills are not necessary. Some people are not team players and have poor people skills, thus they would most likely not get anything of value from the AR network. I often wonder why those type of folks would be in the Real Estate business in the first place!

NOV

gee that seems like harsh judgement...

I think maybe we are talking about something totally different but thanks for the comment.

I may want to burn them at the stake (an exageration for the frustration when I hear the phrase) for uttering the heresy but lot of them are great real estate agents. They just don't understand that ActiveRain is for talking to the general public.

Or many who I have heard it from are real estate educators. Not sure that poor people skills, not being team players or unfit to serve (in real estate) has anything to do with it.

Many members perpetuate it when they don't use the AR channels correctly when they post an entry, posting everything to the ActiveRain channel no matter whom they are talking to, ActiveRain is a professional channel, there is a channel to talk to consumers.

Again thanks for the comment,

NOV

If you don't like it you don't have to play, now go talk to someone at the water cooler about how business sucks.

Maureen, I love it. I signed up years ago and did nothing with it. And then Claude and I decided to take the bull by the horns and he took on blogging and I took on the web site and seo. After I got (some) control on my end, I watched from afar as he laughed at comments and read others blogs, and then I got involved.

I just love it. What a fool I was! There is so much beyond just peer interaction; there is heavy wonderful insightful information, that I have to just look in my rearview mirror and seee it-my ego, sitting there, big and fat, in my way. So glad I have become involved. A toast of AR Kool-Aid to you!

NOV

AR is my forum for all, though I do write some members only posts and pursue friendships with other agents. Although Steve and I work together, I often think about agents who work on their own and how isolating that may be. I see that for many AR has become their business/personal community - and a jumping off point for introducing other social media. My time on AR is worth every minute - but that's my personal perspective and others will think what they will. -- Sara in San Antonio

I wrote a members only post this week... I am conversing on the Linkedin NAR group. Members only, wonder if those who warn against talking to one another think the LinkedIn NAR group is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad too.

I have ben very, very bad this week about my consumer content. Way behind.

thanks for the comments

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