Daniel Rothamel and Nick Bastian at RE Blogworld 09
So, last week, I was at RE Blogworld. If you are a regular reader of the blog, you probably noticed that from my previous posts. On one of those posts, Doug Francis left a comment asking me share the top 10 things I learned while I was there. Thanks for the suggestion, Doug!
I’m going to go with 5 from RE Blogworld, and then another 5 from Blogworld in a subsequent post. To kick things off, here are 5 things I learned at RE Blogworld (in no particular order):
1) If you want other people to create content for your blog, or you want to create content for someone else’s blog, you should get an agreement in writing as to who owns the content, what will happen to it, and how it can be used. Not enough bloggers do this. I know that we would all like to live in a handshake and “word is bond” world, but, if that is going to be true, what does it hurt to put those bonds on paper? Sounds like good business to me. (Thanks to Jennifer Baumann for rocking the panel I moderated and giving everyone that little nugget)
2) The real estate industry is way ahead of the curve when it comes to using social media. Sure, not every brokerage or agent is doing it, but for those who are, they are on the cutting edge of what is happening with the tools and how they can be used. If you went to every panel of RE Blogworld and then every panel of Blogworld, you would be hard-pressed to figure out who the real estate pros were, and who the ubergeeks were. We should all be proud of that, and keep pushing ourselves more while sharing our knowledge with others who can benefit from it.
3) Blogging about your local area can make you a resource that your community will turn to for everything from news to real estate services. Heather Elias and Dave Smith (among others) are living proof of that. 3(a) I also learned that fact #3 scares the bejeezus out of a lot of folks in “traditional media.” As such, they will often rail against a perceived “bias” that real estate pros have because they make their living selling homes in a particular area. Such journalists and media types are full of crap. Proceed accordingly.
4) The concept of “personal branding” isn’t going away, no matter what you think of it. This new era of media and information in which we are living is going to bring to a head conflicts between many brands, personal and corporate. He who ignores his personal brand does so at his own peril. You would be much better served to spend some time considering what your personal brand is, or what you want it to be, and working to make sure that you are conveying that in everything you do, both online and off. The world is changing, no matter how hard some may wish otherwise.
5) Not going to an event or conference because you can “learn everything I need to know by reading these people online” is a HUGE MISTAKE. Sure, I can go and read the blogs of just about everyone who went to RE Blogworld. What I CAN’T do, unless I meet with them face-t0-face, is get in deep, thought-provoking conversations. I can’t even begin to describe the depth of the conversations I had with folks like Sarah Stelmok, Rob Hahn, Jeff Turner, Gahlord Dewald, Jay Thompson, and many others. These are conversations that simply couldn’t happen online. No amount of reading their blogs or tweeting back and forth with them would have yielded that same amount of insight. Online is great, but face-to-face is where it’s at. Don’t use online interaction as an excuse to pass up the opportunity for valuable face time.
That’s it, the top 5 things that I learned at RE Blogworld. The entire experience was both rewarding and incredibly fun. I can’t wait to do it again.
(Thanks to Nick Bastian for that great pic. Check out all of Nick’s pics from RE Blogworld ‘09 on Flickr)
