Why do Web 2.0 sites like Zillow and Yelp and Trip Advisor work?  Because people love to share information.  They love to feel like they are a contributing part of a community.  They love to talk about their passions whether that be their neighborhood, a favorite restaurant, or a trip they just took. 

There is a Realtor in Grand Rapids, MI, whom I am sure Active Rain regulars know about as she is featured quite often, Lola Audu, who in the past few years has gone from not knowing what a blog is to being one of the best bloggers out there.  She has used this new medium to not only build her reputation nationally, but has actually generated a lot of business from her efforts. 

 Think back ten years ago and imagine you just developed this awesome system for generating new leads.  Would you go teach everyone else how to do it, including Agents from competing Brokerages?  Probably not.  In fact, as someone who has sold advertising to Real Estate Professional for 10 years now, this was always a challenge for me.  When someone had great success with something, they didn't want to tell anyone for two reasons.  1- They wanted all the leads this successful advertising was bringing in to themselves and 2- They didn't want their advertising rates raised because they probably weren't going to cancel if they were making money from the product.  This is Web 1.0 thinking. 

Fast forward 10 years and there are Realtors like Lola all over the country having success with new online applications.  So what does Lola 2.0 do?  She holds a seminars and offers to teach anyone who wants to come how to experience the same success she is having.  This is such a Web 2.0 way of thinking and I applaud Lola for incorporating these 2.0 concepts of sharing and wanting to build a strong community into her every day life. 

When she and I were talking about the concepts that were going to be covered at her upcoming Blogging and Technology seminars in Grand Rapids on October 25th and November 7th, finally I just had to ask her one question- Why are you doing this?  She isn't making any money from it and it is taking a lot of time to organize.  Her answer- When you are going down a dark, unknown path with one flashlight, all you can see is where you are flashing the light in front of you.  But when you take others down the path, all the flashlights together illuminate the path so that not only can you see in front of you but all around you as well.  Lola truly wants to take people with her down this path that she has experienced some much success on herself. 

This is why Lola will be successful.  And this is why Web 2.0 is successful.  Together the community illuminates and shines lights on things that are important to us and teaches us how we can come together and learn from each other.