There are quite a few search engine terms that members of the Active Rain community covet. For myself, "Homes for sale in Westchester County" would be among those considered a Holy Grail for a page 1 Google ranking. As I found out today, while my Holy Grail is still elusive, another term seems to be well in hand.
This afternoon, while filming a video shoot with one of the firm's super agents, Emilia Csak, at her $3.75 Million listing in Harrison, my cell phone rang from an out of state number. "Mr Faranda," the person began "Are you the broker-owner of Active Rain?" The question perplexed me, because, while AR is first and foremost an online community and a real estate platform, I never thought of the company as a broker, and certainly never envisioned myself as the broker in charge.
After some considerable discussion with this person, I ascertained that she Googled the term "owner of Active Rain" because she saw something that concerned her, and felt that she should speak with the owner to clarify the information. I was ranked 3rd on page 1 of Google for the term (w00t?), and since my profile says "J. Philip Faranda, Broker-Owner" she concluded that I must be the CEO of Active Rain (hot dog!).
I told her how to contact the company (the contact links is on the bottom of every page), and explained that I am broker owner of J. Philip Real Estate in Briarcliff Manor, NY, and that while my profile is one of hundreds of thousands on Active Rain, I hold no office with the Active Rain Corporation.
Many of us have had instances where we have been contacted about a business we have blogged about, such as an inquiry about a restaurant's Sunday hours assuming we were the contact for the place instead of their actual website because of AR's high octane Google juice. I have been mistaken for a restaurant, a mechanic, and I think even a school a few times. But mistaken for the owner of Active Rain itself? That's a new one.
For the record, no. I don't run Active Rain. I am just a member of the community.
But you never know, some day...
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