Nikesh recently wrote a post announcing that RealEstate.com is being overhauled and that ActiveRain will help to sell subscriptions for the new site.
In that post, there was some confusion over the offering and Nikesh does a superb job of detailing the specifics and addressing any concerns that folks had.
I wanted to add my two cents (or a dollar as it may end up being a tad more than $.02) to the discussion as a result of a couple of exchanges I have personally had with members of the community.
I believe part of the reason Market Leader invested heavily in ActiveRain (to the point they now own the company outright) is because of the potential of ActiveRain as a sales channel. I've never had those beliefs confirmed by Ian Morris (CEO at Market Leader) or anyone else at Market Leader, this is simply my personal belief. The beauty of ActiveRain is that it's a sales channel with a voice, not simply a sales channel void of any feedback.
Ian is a smart guy. He realizes (again, just my belief.....this is what I would be thinking if I was him) that the value of ActiveRain is in the membership. It's in their editorial voice. It's in their ability to reach consumers in their market place. It's in their ability to be candid and frank with their peers. From the day that Market Leader took a controlling interest in ActiveRain, the desire to maintain that editorial independence has been forefront. Ian has relayed this to our team through Nikesh, our CEO. Not once have we (the community team) been asked to remove a piece of content that spoke unfavorably of Market Leader.
In fact, over the years, we've helped Market Leader get better at addressing those concerns head on. We've consulted them on how to deal with negative criticism and use it as an opportunity to improve the quality of their offering. It hasn't all been bad. In fact, we've also consulted them on how to leverage the incredible feedback they get from their customers.
If Market Leader tries to sell a POS crappy product through ActiveRain, it's going to be over before it starts. In fact, if any company wanted to sell a POS product using Social Media or a community like ActiveRain, it's going to be over before it starts. Inherent in this community is the reality that you are going to get open and honest feedback. Inherent in our guiding principles (unchanged from the day we launched in May of 2006) is the ability for our members to share their perspective.
So RealEstate.com
But we are calling our top members and offering them the option of securing their market on realestate.com. I've learned over the years, no matter which way you step, when you have a community of over 200,000 people, someone is going to disagree. I have learned to sleep at night still (this took some time, trust me. I would stay awake at night in the beginning thinking about issues where someone was upset with something we did......or many people were upset).
On one hand we offer it to our members and some are annoyed or upset they were bothered. On the other hand you don't offer it and some are annoyed or upset they never had the option.
If it was up to me from a strictly business perspective, I believe it would have been more efficient to look at who was currently spending money on Google PPC and approach those people with the realestate.com offering. These are people that have proven a willingness to spend money on internet marketing in an effort to generate additional leads and build a brand online for their business.....just what realestate.com is offering. In fact, during planning I voiced that to Nikesh.
But there is a caveat in that statement, "from a strictly business perspective".
We've never looked at things from a strictly business perspective. In fact, it's my job here to make sure the interests of the business are balanced with the interests of the membership. In that vein, I felt that making the realestate.com offering available to the membership first was the best thing to do. We wanted to give you the first option to say no (or hopefully yes.......but at the very least no). We owe that to our members.
Understand, this comes with some risk. The re-launch of RealEstate.com is new and the Local Expert will be a new product. If the offering is a POS, it will stop dead in its tracks because the community will make sure it does. I know that. It's a risk we were willing to take. It's a risk Market Leader was willing to take.
Buying advertising online isn't for everyone. I know that. The Local Expert product on RealEstate.com is not for everyone, just like blogging and SEO is not for everyone. But we felt we had an obligation to at least offer it to you before we went out and found the people more likely to be interested. It will take more resources to offer it to our members than it would to offer it to people willing to spend on things like Google PPC.
Of course, very few people wait by their phones for that next sales call. Why would they? Sales people will use fear of loss and other hard selling tactics to get you to buy. Have ours done that so far? Yes, in some instances they have, and in many other instances they approached the product and the member appropriately. Are we working to train those who fell short of our standards on exemplifying sales calls and in the culture of ActiveRain? Yes we are. Do we know that moving forward you will be dealt with in a manner that is consistent with what we expect of every employee at ActiveRain? Yes we do. Our messaging is being tweaked. Hopefully when you have the opportunity to speak with someone about securing your city on RealEstate.com it will be a positive experience whether you choose to buy or not. That is our goal.
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