I had a great time this past week attending BloodhoundBlog Unchained and NAR 2008. I was able to catch up with a lot of friends, meet some people who I knew only as avatars, and make some new friends. All in all, it was a very rewarding experience.
One thing occurred to me, however, as I was attending the panel discussions and presentations. It is something that I think I have been feeling for a while now, but it never really hit me until this past week– I am not the audience anymore.
Allow me to explain. For every single one of the panels that I attended that had anything to do with social media, I already knew the panelists. Most of the time, I not only knew them, but knew them very well. I read their blogs, or have had meaningful discussions with them about all things technology and real estate. In that way, I almost knew what they were going to say before they said it. This is only because either I had heard them say it before, or I had said similar things myself.
In a way, I could have looked at this as a let down. I could have said, “well, gee, NAR 2008 and BHB Unchained were a complete waste of time. I didn’t learn anything.” It would have been easy to say that. But it wouldn’t have been the truth.
I did, in fact, learned two very important things:
1) I learned that their is a much larger audience for this information than I ever expected. Two of the NAR panels I attended about social media had at least 150 people in attendance, probably more. That is more agents and brokers than I expected, quite honestly.
2) I learned that the “RE.net” is made up of people who are eager to share their knowledge and experiences with an audience, any audience.
The fact is, much of the discussion that has been happening around the RE.net has been occurring amongst basically the same folks for about a year or so. That’s fine.
What has been happening most recently, however, is that other folks are starting to listen-in. Other folks are starting to get curious and ask questions. It used to be that everyone was too busy working multiple offers and running buyer assembly lines to pay any attention to talk of things like social media.
Now, things are a bit different. People have more time to consider what they are doing, where they are spending their effort, and how the market will look in the future. As they make these considerations, they are beginning to look at the things that the RE.net has been talking about for years, and say, “hey, that sounds interesting, tell me more.”
That’s were I come in (and so do you).
I might not be the intended audience for many of the topics that were presented at NAR 2008 and BloodhoundBlog Unchained. That does not, however, mean that the audience does not exist. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I believe that we will see that audience grow exponentially over the next 12-18 months.
The growth of the audience means that I have a responsibility (and so do you) to share what I can with them; a responsibility to seek out those who are searching for knowledge, and give what I can.
The “RE.net” can continue to have its own conversations, but the really important thing is to expand those conversations to include those who can benefit most from the knowledge, those we have yet to friend on Facebook, those we have yet to follow on Twitter, those we have yet to meet in person, for they matter most. If our industry is to truly be changed forever, it is those who must be reached.
I might not be the audience, you might not be the audience, but believe me, the audience is out there. They are willing to listen, they just need someone willing to share.
Are you that person?
