ActiveRain ought to have a law against posting....

I've attended network parties, functions, and many other events through out my sales career.  While most of these events have a main topic, each conversation is unique.  Not everyone talks about marketing ideas, or growing your business, or ways to educate yourself.  While those topics may come up, other topics arise as well when you get two or more people talking.  Networking is about sharing information and building relationships.  What better way to get to know someone than building rapport by telling a joke, sharing a recipe, sharing a moving story, or even talking about your kids.  Active Rain is about allowing professionals to learn from each other.  Whether it's about real estate, website, SEO, mortgages, credit repair, home staging, or even someone's favorite movie or song, networking is about building relationships, professional and personal.  Active Rain allows us to share who we are with others, and our character and personality shine through our choice of groups we join and blogs we post.  Personally, I'd like to know if my realtor or loan officer I'm referring my clients to have a sense of humor.  I'd like to know if he likes baseball or prefers football.  I'd like to know if he's a child of a war veteran.  I want to deal with people I like and what to know more about them and Active Rain allows us to do this.  We get to see a glimmer of everyone in every blog and every comment which allows us to want to read their blogs and learn from them as well.  Active Rain is for networking:  sharing ourselves with others for mutual benefit.  Maybe a joke isn't beneficial for you, but after a long day of rejections sometimes a good laugh is what I need.

One could argue that most of the content on AR is a joke.

Maureen,

I voted against cutting and pasting.  Being Southern, and, more specifically, Mississippian, I hold original literary content in high regard, and copycats are, IMHO, lower than a snake in a wagon rut, the bland and unimaginative purveyors of the false impression.  If cut-and-pasters ever had an idea of their own, they'd do a Google search to find out if anyone else had ever had that idea.  Having successfully googled it up, and therefore being comforted that the idea has legitimacy, such folks will then cut-and-paste the discovered material into their AR blog.  The rationale must go something like this: 1) I have an IDEA!!! 2) Let me check and see if anyone else has had this idea 3) Yep!  There it is, right on the 'search results' page! 4) Must be a good, or at least legitimate idea 5) I have no writing skills 6) Since I thought of this idea all by myself, it's ok if I lift the text from this other guy's musings.

As for the rest of the poll items, well, we all gotta eat, and we all gotta laugh.  Otherwise, we'd all be starving and insane, and it's hard to make sense out of those market reports when you're hungry and nuts!

I agree to Maureen.  The content should be overwhelmingly real estate related, but people want to know that you are MORE than just a Realtor.  People want to get to know the human side of you, too.

Maureen.....Well, as I've stated before, recipes really aren't my thing, although it is well-known that I like to eat. All the recipes I have posted in Suthurn Thangs are entirely my own, developed by years of culinary experimentation, often at the expense of dear friends and loved ones.  I only posted the ones that are actually edible, and have been well-received.....and that includes my Fried Tree Rat.  I've never purchased a recipe book in my life, and the only place I've ever written one down is right here on good ol' Active Rain.  Even then, I only did so because everyone else in Suthurn Thangs was doing it.  I guess you could call me a social recipeer.  But as a rabid defender of the First Amendment, I believe it is everyone's right to write recipes til' the buzzards come to roost...in other words, I may not like your recipe, but will defend to the (symbolic) death your right to post it!  :-)

You certainly hit a nerve with this one, Maureen.  130 comments and climbing.

With 87,000 + members and more groups that I can count, I would think we were a pretty big tent with room for everybody but child molestors and terror cells.

There are several ways to navigate in the Rain and the group system should permit you to pick and choose what you want to read and avoid topics you find less interesting.  If you don't find a group for your particular interest - start one.

As long as no laws are broken - I see no reason to limit what somebody else wants to talk about.  If nobody reads it, the author will not stay long. 

Hey Maureen, I agree: the cut and paste thing is irritating. I would hope our bloggers would desire original content.  But then again, it's about those points, isn't it?  Keep doing what you're doing. It's appreciated. :->

Interesting post. I found it especially interesting that the NAR Code of Ethics was the least popular video, especially since we are a community of real estate professionals.

I like being on ActiveRain because there is a variety of topics - not just real estate related. Allowing posters to write about a variety of topics shows a different side of their personalities - not just real esate.

Maureen: No offense but my advise is don't visit the groups that annoy you and be thankful there are groups for those who enjoy jokes or whatever. What makes me happy is to to see that certain Bloggers would just keep the right post in the right group, as I think that is what a group is about.

I personally just discovered the recipe group and have enjoyed reading them and actually just make one of them for dinner the other night! Yummy it was good... I think I might just break down and cut and paste a few into a new marketing piece I could call Famous Realtor Recipes from AR.  This is a joke, oops, should be posted in the joke group :-(

Anyway... I do think someone should open a group called Your Market Report and of course we all agree there is a need for the Cheater Group for Cut and Paste afflicted Realtors. It would not matter what was posted there

Hi Again Maureen, Great your not annoyed, that's good! Yes your post did not say anything like that, I just made a wrong assumption, sorry. 

As to the question, I think some would join a marketing group but there would be few comments posted on them.

Hi Maureen,

My comment back to you before I saw the entire post was going to be, "There are a lot of things that should be banned on AR".  I think you've captured several and I agree with most. I'm a real opponent of recipes.  There is an AR person here that writes at least 3/week for points!! 

However, I do tend to get a lot of leads from my postings and I do use Localism content to drive those leads.  So, my point is this - Market Reports and Neighborhood profiles(mine are better now w/maps, backlinks, and either a video or slideshow) the bread and butter that drive those leads.  With my new Flip Video I'm thinking of doing the Market Reports w/my tripod reporter style via video(if they look professional and relaxed).

 

I was always taught if you don't have something nice to say - don't say it!  So,, as a recipe, brag about my kids,  joke poster (to the appropriate groups mind you) I'm going to keep my opinion to myself.  But, as a mother and Realtor - I like knowing the "social, fun" side of another Realtor before I decide to add them to my network or refer a client to them.  This business is serious - we have to have a lighter side also! And to say those of us that post things other than "serious business" and code of ethics - well,,,,, I'll keep my opinions to myself.