For all of you managers and brokerage owners out there, have you ever considered blogs for internal communication with your agents and your staff? Well....the exciting news is that Realty Blogging says you should. Whether you have a single-office real estate company, or a multi-office brokerage company, (even regional or national membership trade associations), all these can benefit from better internal communication that is easy and cost efficient.
Some of these companies and associations may already use intranet applications or rely on e-mails for announcements but there are problems with both approaches. Traditional intranets can be expensive and difficult to use. E-mail is open to all kinds of problems, including spam and filters that may block e-mails from ever getting to their destination.
"Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, McDonald's, and DaimlerChrysler, are using blogs just for this purpose"
Some of the benefits of Intranet Blogging:
- Easy to use (I think we can all agree, based on our experience here with Active Rain).
- Simple platforms and simple administration (great for companies that don't have a large budget for internal IT resources).
- Cost-effective (nothing like good and cheap). One example given is that www.Infoworld.com, a technology company, was presented with a $250K quote for an intranet portal application - they opted for a blog instead and now considers the use of blogs as "indispensable".
- Archiving information - e-mails usually get lost or trapped in e-mail boxes that no one will ever see again (if you are like me, you receive the e-mail and delete it - what else can you do with all those e-mails?). Blogs can be archived by topic and date and are easy to retrieve.
- E-mail Saver - (how many work-related e-mails do you get daily? Some people spend more than 50% of their time reading and deleting e-mail) - "only real and appropriate content can make it to the site".
- Build Community - blogs can be used to establish a sense of community within an organization (just like we see community here in Active Rain) - you can learn more about your colleagues and learn about meetings you could not attend through a blog that "fosters wide staff participation".
The last chapter of the book goes into detail about how to put the Intranet Blogging concept into actual practice, and also goes into detail about Intranet Blog Platform requirements, since these need to be password protected and are different than customer-focused blogs.
I want to end this post with a link to a blog by Renee Burrows that really cracked me up. Although not exactly an Intranet Blog, it's an analogy to how I envision these taking place; in this case a virtual office meeting where everyone partakes in the fun. The Interactive Business Meeting..... on Christmas Day! .
FINAL NOTE:
In my opinion, this book is a MUST read - you've made the first step if you are here blogging away in Active Rain and will get tons of benefits from reading it. Thank you TLW for organizing the reviews and getting this talented group of ladies together, and for including me in the mix.
Here are the rest of the reviews about REALTY BLOGGING:
I Think Therefore I Blog: Realty Blogging Says Be a Groundbreaker...Blog Now!....Review #1 by Carole Cohen
Your Blogging Voice... Where is it? (Realty Blogging Review #2) by Mariana Wagner
So Far to Go, So Much to Learn........ (Realty Blogging Review #3) by Ann Cummings
Branding through Blogging (Realty Blogging Review #4) by yours truly
Become an Expert by Building the Relationship..Realty Blogging Review # 5 by Monika McGillicuddy
Have a Niche? ... Scratch it! (Realty Blogging Review #6) by Mariana Wagner
Bloggers are The New Woodward and Bernstein: Realty Blogging Book Ch. 9 #7 by Carole Cohen
Turn Your Blog Into A Lead Generating Machine - Realty Blogging Review #8 (Chap. 10) by Ann Cummings
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