Seth Godin has ActiveRain going tribal?
It took a few times reading Seth’s post… but I think I’m starting to see what Jon is getting at… Maybe.
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Dustin
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Dustin
Greg already covered tonight’s Redfin announcements…
…in detail, so no need for me to repeat things. But what stuck out for me the first time I read the press release was that they are now giving consumers the ability to export all of their saved listings to a spreadsheet for better off-line analysis.
That’s a beautiful idea. And it pains me a bit that the site is still “under maintenance”, because I can’t wait to to see how this feature comes together in practice.
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Kyle Else
Adobe has a similar system that allows websites to build and deploy data-feeds to the desktop.
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Dustin
Kyle,
That’s really interesting… It looks to require an additional download for the users, which could probably turn off some users, but the idea is actually quite compelling.
Dustin
This comment from Pam Guthrie on Bloodhound seems like something that would be…
…worthy of a response from the Trulia team:
I wish that Trulia would do what it says it will: … meaning, that it suggests to you that if you get a point2agent website, your listings will be fed into trulia. WRONG ! I pulled up a couple of my own personal listings and noticed that only 1 was being fed in from my point2agent website, while the others were being fed to Trulia from some OUTSIDE lead generating company with MY LISTINGS !! I have emailed Trulia several times concerning this. The outside lead generating company that is feeding my leads to Trulia is a member of our MLS. They are NOT salespeople. They are a magazine that sells ads to real estate agents. This magazine forwards my leads to the people that advertise in the magazine. I want Trulia to do what they say they will do and that is PULL MY LISTINGS INTO TRULIA from my point2agent website or follow the IDX link I gave them of which I pay each month to my MLS for. I gave Trulia the direct link from my MLS idx feed that gives them ALL MY LISTINGS. I have eight listings and Trulia only shows me being the agent for 1. This means that all interested parties obtaining additional information will be directed to this other Magazine and then the leads are disbursed out to their advertisers. YUK – WHAT A MESS – GET IT RIGHT TRULIA.
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Jessie B
This issue is not limited to T since now you have syndication and re-syndication of of the listing data.
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Dustin
Jessie: I would say it is not limited to Trulia except in that it will be interesting to see how they respond to concerns like this. It could be a real head-ache from a data aggregation point of view and if not addressed in a timely fashion, could definitely start to piss the agent community off.
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Kris Berg
You want pissed off? Since my company started “feeding” their listings to Zillow (changing names but not subjects), my active listings are MIA and yet eight homes that closed escrow in 2007 are showing “14 days on Zillow!” or something to that effect. I have spent far too much time trying to get this corrected, not to mention fielding angry phone calls from incensed buyers who think I am pulling a bait and switch, to no avail.
Since we are having group therapy, I have seen everything from double-postings to no postings on Trulia. And, don’t get me started on Yahoo. I am six days into a listing that has yet to show up there, yet my broker swears the feed is active.
I do not know whose fault any of this is (my broker’s or the sites’), but it is becoming painfully obvious that while Realtor.com is the site we love to hate, the IDX feed with an opt out is the only way to resolve the issues we are seeing. And (get this), it results in a more heavily populated site, which I’m thinking is the goal.
Maybe I’m missing something, or maybe I’ve just had a bad week.
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Greg
I just listed a home that already shows over 260 days on market on Zillow. The sellers asked me if I can change it (or I wouldn’t have ever noticed), but I can’t get Zillow to change it so the new listing looks as though it’s been active for months.
rudy
Hi Dustin!
Pam’s issue has been resolved……We’re working on Kris’s issue now…….
Rudy
Dustin
Rudy: Apparently you’re wasting no time! Trulia is lucky to have you on board!
David G from Zillow
Greg & Kris – sorry to hear of both of your frustrations & for not seeing your comments earlier; I’m following up by email.
Pam Guthrie
Trulia has corrected my problem. Thank You. Pam Guthrie.
Dustin
Pam: That’s awesome news!
Michelle DeRepentigny
Wow, the power of a blog! I remember the old days of sitting on the phone and writing letters to the CEO. Think of the customer service issues that could be better handled if all of corporate America were open to transparent blogging.
Dustin
Rumor has it that NAR’s Second Century can’t fund…
…starts-ups that feature listings thanks to the non-compete clause with Move.
This begs the question: What benefit will the VC fund actually bring to its members if they can’t help them market their listings?
(On a side note, I REALLY want to thank everyone who has been sending me tips lately… It definitely makes checking my email more fun!)
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Spencer
um, pretty hard to imagine a VC in this space being succesful without being able to fund a company w/ listings
even if a company starts without listings (e.g., imagine a community website or blog network or something), they’ll probably want to ADD listings eventually
not good
Dustin
Thanks to Marc for his kind write-up on 1000Watt
I’ve had some great conversations with Brian and Marc of the 1000Watt team lately and all my experiences have been positive. I don’t get the impression that there is a lot of fluff in what they do or the services they provide.
Dustin
It tickles me whenever someone outside of the real estate industry…
…uses RCG as an example of effective blogging. Thanks Dave! 
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Deborah Burns
Congratulations Dustin! Funnily enough I am in the middle of reading “The New Influencers” by Paul Gillin.
Dustin
All over the place
Not only am I speaking tomorrow at a Coldwell Banker educational event, but I just got back from a fun speaking engagement at Pepperdine University where I was on a panel with some people from ActiVision and MySpace talking about online marketing to a group of marketing and technology graduate students.
There were some great questions from the students in attendance, but the one theme that was most prevalent was questions about the value of an MBA to an “internet” company. I wish I could have been more encouraging for the Pepperdine students, but while an MBA will open a few doors that might be hard to open otherwise, blogging can also do that!
Because Move’s headquarters is so close to Pepperdine, the company has more than a few Pepperdine MBA Alumni on staff… and my experience was that the quality of the students were completely hit-or-miss. Some of them were smart-as-all-hell and willing to get their hands dirty in tech details while others were always looking to solve the “big” questions and didn’t seem to know how to filter though all the marketing fluff to get to useful information.
One MBA alumni in particular sticks out in my memory for a presentation he gave on the “state of the industry” that was so full of stats, charts, and data points comparing the online real estate industry to other industries like the automotive and travel industry that it took all of two minutes to realize he hadn’t developed a filter that let him know what trend information was actually relevant…. Other MBA alumni were much more successful by focusing on doing whatever it took to get measurable tasks accomplished.
This wasn’t the first time that I’ve talked with Pepperdine students (speaking at local schools like Pepperdine and CLU was a great recruiting method for my team at Move!), and I’ve honestly enjoyed and learned from each experience. The optimism that radiates from a crowd of MBA students is somewhat infectious and has me remembering to think think big about all the opportunities available in our niche of online real estate… 
Dustin
The power of RE.net engagement strikes again
A tipster just let me know that one of our own will soon be taking a very interesting position at a well-known real estate site. A huge congrats goes out to…
(rumor to be confirmed on Friday)
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loren nason
Well that is SOOOO broad in scope with whom you talking and also very broad in where they are going so why don’t you just wait until friday ???
Now i’m going to be pacing back and forth to find out who it is your talking about.
Is it me?
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Dustin
I tried to be a bit more specific that would give a better hint… but my phrasing got shot down!
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loren nason
well i guess its not me.
I was hoping somebody offered me a job at 500k a year to not break things
Dustin
Dustin
Ben proposes NAR foot the…
…legal bills for Lucas. And as crazy as that might sound at first… I think it actually makes sense.
Stratton is discussing. -
Stratton
This “story” makes for a good story depending on how you frame it.
The fact of the matter is that Lucas has not had his real estate license for more than 3 years and he began blogging about a year ago.
Most of his information is factual and there is no doubt that his intention is to help people. As a reader of his blog, and one with about 10 years real estate experience, his information is often inaccurate and borderline slanderous.
I respect the right to free speech for sure, but LL has been getting some credibility for his blog ( more power to him!!) but he should have been reigned in a long time ago.
EWM did the right thing by canning him immediately, and he’d do the right thing by eliciting the help of a Public Relations guru and milking the hell out of this thing!!!
As you can see, bloggers are coming to his defense because he is a blogger without regard to what inaccuaracies he posted or the harm he may have done to another human being.
Jim Cronin 11:32 am on January 31, 2008 Permalink |
Were there supposed to be different links? Both go to Seth’s post on Tribal Management
Todd Carpenter 1:48 pm on January 31, 2008 Permalink |
Jim, Jon’s comments are on his blog.
http://activerain.com/blogsview/359591/ActiveRain-business-insight-Tribe
Jessie B 3:46 pm on January 31, 2008 Permalink |
Here is the quote highlighted by Jon…
“Everything the organization does is to feed and grow and satisfy the tribe. Instead of looking for customers for your products, you seek out products (and services) for the tribe.”
Now I maybe way off this but it may explain why housevalues wanted in… active can deliver the HV product message and platform to the tribe of ARs?
Seems supported by Jon’s comment after…
“partner with companies that fit the bill”
How do you think the ARs will receive the messages or do you think HV products will simply be rebranded and offered under AR?
Dustin 11:25 am on February 1, 2008 Permalink |
Jim,
They were suppose to be different links (fixed) and Todd provided the article I meant to link to!