Is Your Association Really There to Help in These Tough Times?

After coming home from a week on the road and speaking to several hundreds (maybe thousands) of Realtors, I believe I have figured out what the major problem in our industry is and I believe I have figured out the flaw in the system. 

I was speaking to one gentlemen about his association's Realtors (he is a board member) using "social media" in their marketing efforts.  I explained to him there are many sites out there like ours ZIPVO.com that are FREE and easy to use for Realtors to help with their marketing efforts.  He explained to me that "neither he nor his association really care what the Realtor does and it's up to them to figure out what works." (I guess he was talking about the sink or swim technique?)  I was shocked!  I explained to him, "your Realtors pay you hundreds in fees a year, don't you feel it's your obligation to help them out with these tools?"  He just shrugged his shoulders, gave a sly smile, and walked off. I really was amazed and what I realized is that these are the people that are making decisions for the Real Estate Community.  I'm guessing some of these people can't spell WWW and certainly don't know what a blog is.

So this is what I suggest.  Let your association, board, CRS Chapter, office, ect know that there are tools out there that are free and effective that promote productivity which will save time and money.  As a Realtor you deserve to be informed by your association and board of these changing tools to help you stay connected with a changing time on ways to market yourself and your listing.  Speaking for myself, I would travel almost anywhere (assuming an audience of Realtors) to promote this exciting new social environment Real Estate has become.  After all, you have to attend classes to renew your license, why not make social media part of the curriculum?