Friday, April 4, 2008 marked the first ever BloggerCon at the Dulles Association of Realtors (DAAR) in Leesburg, Virginia. Our host was Ben Martin, Director of Communication and New Media, Virginia Association of Realtors. There were almost 30 Realtors from around the area, including southern Virginia and Maryland who came out for the event. They span from those who have been blogging for years as well as those who don't have a blog, would like to, but don't know where to start.
The event started off at 10:00am with introductions of everyone in attendance. We then moved on to throwing out various topics of discussion up on the whiteboard and voting on them. We took the top 4 topics, along with a discussion with Keith Garner, Managing Director Center for Realtor Technology (CRT) at NAR. There will also be a 1-on-1 discussion forum at the end of the day to help answer any unanswered questions. All these helped create a general outline for the day though it was flexible allowing for other discussions on topics that are important to attendees.
The 4 topics were:
- Blogging platforms
- Blogging 101
- Getting tangible results
- "Potpourri"
The first topic of discussion was about the differences between the top blogging platforms available (Ben Martin from VAR, Bob Carter, Brian Block, Frank Borges Llosa and myself). The 4 platforms we discussed were Wordpress, Blogger, Active Rain and TypePad. We focused on the pros and cons of each and the ease of use of one versus the other. We actually pulled up blogs on each platform to show real life examples to the back-end functionality.
Next up was Keith Garner. He went over his role at CRT and CRT's focus on providing benefits to Realtors through new technologies and software. He said that some of the things CRT does are very technical while others are not. But the end result is to make it easy for Realtors to utilize the technologies and make them more productive.
To the surprise and dismay to all of us, Keith said that he has to "dance around certain questions and topics". One of the reasons for this is that NAR does not personal opinions of staff to be considered policy by those they are commenting to. Keith does want to keep his job so guess I can't blame him for not going against NAR's policy.
While Keith was speaking, Pamela Kabati, VP of Communications for NAR showed up, a pleasant surprise. It was nice to see Keith and Pamela engaged with what's going on with Realtors and today's technologies.
The next topic was Blogging 101 (Tony Arko, co-author of this and our other blogs). Part of that discussion was the blogging platform one mentioned above. But that's only a small part of it. Topics covered were,
- must be passionate about blogging to create a voice and a following
- saving time by referring clients to posts that answer their questions rather than retyping the answers in an email or re-talking about it in person.
- finding a niche
- making yourself stand out from others
- creates more ethical Realtors because they're held to what they write, which will always remain visible to consumers as well as your peers
- read blogs to get an idea of what you do and don't like, see what others are talking about and how they're writing it, see what other blogs look like so you can get ideas of what to make your blog look like
- promoting your blog - SEO, pinging, etc.
Next up was "Tangible Results" (myself). This covered the direct and indirect tangible results from blogging. In other words, how does blogging help make you more productive as a Realtor?
- creating credibility
- exposure to the 80+ percent of consumers searching for information about local real estate and properties online
- networking via blogs leads to connections with consumers and other Realtors that can eventually lead to business
Also covered were,
- "leads" versus "customers"
- writing for the consumer and not about yourself
- is blogging a tool and a part of an overall marketing plan or does it stand by itself?
- it's not about "SEO" - it's about "YEO"
Next up was "Stupid Blog Tricks" (Ben Martin). Four groups were created, one for each blogging platform. Each group was dedicated to talking about how to "trick out" and "tweek" your blog with widgets, themes and anything else possible to make it look as cool as possible and function as effieciently as can be. Some very cool tips and tricks were discussed.
Some of us got to have a candid coversation with Keith Garner and Pamela Kabati. Tony Arko chatted with Keith while I chatted a while with Pamela. Some great discussions.
Next up was Daniel Rothamel who hosted a live BlogTalk radio show which aired on RealEstateZebra (You can listed to the show anytime there). Prior to starting the show, Daniel talked about BlogTalk radio, how it works and its' benefits. Daniel did admit that he's always wanted to have his own radio show as well as be involved in real estate. This allows to kill two brids with one stone, so to speak.
The show was live and many of us were listening in over the phone or on our computers with headphones. Jim Duncan, Jeff Turner and Bob Carter were on the phone helping lead the talk show. The topics covered reactions to the BloggerCon, what people learned and what they took away from the event.
To end the BloggerCon, we had "Potpourri" which was an open forum for various topics.
The first topic was how to put an ad in Sunday's edition of the Washington Post (print edition) for $16, presented by Frank Borges Llosa. Very cool!
The second topic was about FranklyMLS.com, "the world's first ever wiki MLS" (can I use that term?), presented by Frank as well.
The last part was 3 groups talking about analytics, ethics and etiquette. All three seemed to create a lot of discussion.
Everyone in attendance said that the event proved to be very helpful and positive and was a great learning experience for everyone. It was also great to finally meet some of the Realtor bloggers in person that we've been chatting with online for some time now. Based on the number of attendees, which has grown greatly since the last one, and the postive reactions to the event, I would not be surprised if there are more BloggerCons in the near future.
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