We push social media, blogging, and the need to be aware of what’s going on with our local boards incessantly. As the only larger firm in our area that’s actually growing, we will have that presence on the board in the future. We are going to change it from within, they are finished but they just don’t know it yet.

To me this all seems a simple matter of equilibrium. It isn’t supposed to be touchy-feely, it is survival of the strongest. Life is not fair. We can continue to push the tech side of agency, but the one’s that don’t want to participate or believe that their company page is actually a website are simply not going to be in the business long enough for me to worry about them.

Navy Chief, Navy Pride

When I first became an agent – I got through my first six months, sold three million and realized I didn’t know what the he** I was doing. I took the GRI courses and the ABR, mainly for the knowledge. I did both in three months by going to several different boards from Orange County to Riverside to San Diego. The local boards were different back then

Back then, website providers were just starting to make their rounds at offices and selling individual sites. I believe the internet has changed the face of the Realtor and those who are committed to serve. If I had to say why, it would be some move forward, while others stay in the past – the rest get caught in the middle with no direction.

BTW – I open and read all my board email.

More open the short postcard type messages, time? I don’t know.

You learn a lot by being involved on committees, you meet agents and calibrate with them when you are not negotiating a transaction.

I’ve tried recruiting for committees, and for folks to start blogging. The same one’s volunteer over and over again.

Very few of the top agents are involved in my board, they are just out selling. Very few top agents are blogging and doing social media, but they are out selling.

Members aren’t reading the e-mails and newsletters; they aren’t running to join the committees and they aren’t using the tools that we’re desperately trying to give them. Who are the members listening to?

Maybe I’m just a nerd for liking to read (even the more poorly written publications and emails get some attention), but I find a disturbing disregard for the information presented to us (and I’m speaking locally here). We get several different emails from local to state to national. We get several publications as well (one of which is from the Texas A&M Real Estate Center – which is like über-geekdom of real estate, a Texas think-tank of Realtor®-ology). Not to mention the blogs that I read and am involved in. When I talk to some of my peers, I find they just don’t care. Remember the original Mortgagee Letter 9-15…nothing. “Oh yeah, I thought I heard something about that.” Google is a scraper? Don’t even try, most of them just pay the fee to a broker for a canned website that few are looking at and leave it at that.

Without figuring out why they don’t care, I don’t think it matters what medium they deliver it through.