I'm going to keep this simple and short. I read about the new ActiveRain blogs being promoted here and was amazed to see something: 10+ national brand logos being used in templates that are driving revenue for ActiveRain.
On my 123 Social Media blog, I write a lot about branding on the web and losing control of what is happening online.
- Has ActiveRain made corporate deals with all of these national brands to provide official blog platforms?
- Are mainstream companies like ReMax, Century 21, Prudential, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Windermere, ERA, EXIT, First Team, John L Scott, Real Living, & Sotheby's going to sit down and remain quiet while AR is selling merchandise with such respected brands?
- Wouldn't they be respectively annoyed, angered, displaced, and concerned about ActiveRain offering a web platform that is taking valuable SEO traffic from them and misrepresenting ownership of a brand.
- How long before they start sending official policy statements to all agents and franchises to immediately stop using the platform?
Knowing how sue happy the legal teams from the real estate industry are:
- Does anyone have an egg timer?
;)
;)
Hmmmm. No comments. I thought the same thing, but I usually don't question what someone else does with their business. However, if I think it can affect mine, then I'll analyze it for both its negative and positibe benefits. In this case, I thought the negative outweighed the positive. I do note, however, that none of the companies' logos are being used, only a section. That would seem to create a gray area, a gray area that I'm not comfortable sitting in.