My Life as a Blogerator - Real Estate IS Blogging

We are off and running with the company blog! After two 10 hour launch days filled with training, tips and education I am happy to report we are up and running. We are still adding features, organizing and tweaking the site, so we are still technically in the "soft launch" phase - but my agents and staff are blogging their fingers off!

I am personally moderating each post - teaching and pointing out a few things along the way. I just finished moderating the 600th post - all of which came in over the last 48 hours. I coined the term "Blogerator" ( remember you heard it first here) which is my new night job as I teach and train bloggers through moderation.

Not only am I teaching, but I am learning. I am amazed at the new attributes I can attribute to the company that have bubbled up through blogging. So here are a few new things to add to my "Who Knew" list.

1. We have many foreign language bloggers. I knew we would get posts in spanish an many of our agents are native spanish speakers - but what I didn't know is that culturally they are inherently incredible bloggers. The spanish speaking culture is deeply rooted in story telling, so blogging just comes naturally. My spanish reading comprehension has grown exponentially and we have had to add a spanish spell check to the editor.

I was blogerating late last night and I thought I was losing it when I opened a post and didn't really understand much of what was on it. It was in Italian. I just pushed publish because I have no idea what the blog was about.

In the draft cue right now, there is a french post, a russian post and 2 portugese posts - I am a 2 language blogerator - I'm already in over my head.

2. We have some really interesting people working at EWM. We have someone offering a good affordable wine as a weekly feature. The there is someone studying the effectiveness of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale when it comes to construction quality. There is a Brazialian economist who wonders why the FED is lowering the discount rate. The aforementioned Italian describes that American interior designers only know about the worst Italian marble. The list goes on and on. I love my peeps, but I never knew how diverse and fascinating they can be.

3. Life on the internal blog is fun and active. My favorite part of the blog is where it resembles active rain - the "private" ramblings of the agents. The story telling, the questions they pose and how so many are commenting and sharing. Commission cutting, mortgage fraud revelations, and loving the blog are some of the favorite topics so far. I received an email from one of the agents, who was quite vocal in the classes yesterday, expressing his concern about the company image being tarnished through blogging. He had been researching and found an article to make his point. I emailed him back and told him to blog about it - and he did - the comments are running. Someone put up a post that they like the blogging thing but ask if the blog is successful that the management not dress like Star Trek anymore. (BTW, that is me as Spock - it went over big with most of the crowd)

4. The internal blog is a great way to give our vendors and department heads direct access to our agents. Today, Jeff Turner posted about Real Estate Shows. He will contribute on a regular basis as we start to introduce RES as a new company tool. Our company trainer is offering night classes in English at a mutually convenient Starbucks. I can offer regular suggestion from the Blogerator to everyone.

5. The blog is a morale booster. The South Florida market is among the worst in the nation. The excitement generated by the blog has given a huge shot of energy and excitement to many of us weary warriors. Everyone is talking about it, searching for their stuff, patting themselves on the back for learning how to upload pictures and find new ways to describe their tired listing inventory.

I could go on and on and remember I am only 2 full days into this. I am overwhelmed by the positive response and just want to say that the company blog is simply the most amazing tool for real estate since the telephone. I just got a call from one of our top producers, who has already posted 20 articles (and they are pretty darn good stuff) saying he is quitting real estate to blog. I simply told him... REAL ESTATE IS BLOGGING.

Check out our blog- which for now is hosted at blog.ewm.com - poke around, comment and have fun. Stop by often as it will change and improve everyday. I'm off to blogerate. And just in case you wonder what this blogerator thing is about...