When is an “Emerging Issue” no longer “emerging”

September 25, 2008

The Emerging Trends Meeting

On Wednesday’s Emerging Trends panel, there were three local level Association Executives and a room full of Member-Leaders and other Association Staff. It was interesting to hear the exchange of ideas and sharing that went around the room.

The following items were some points I wrote down, that came from that meeting:

  • Historically communications went from the Associations to the Brokers and then, as in a pyramid design, the Broker distributed the information down to their members. However, in this age the information needs to be delivered more laterally to all members. This has created some challenges and opportunities for Associations to deliver information. The largest challenge is getting members to open the mail / e-mail.
  • One Association mentioned that they had established a “Rookie Roundtable” wherein, they have found a group of 10 Rookies, with less than 2 years experience who meet regularly and have Board Officers attend as well. This gives the Association the insight of the new agent, just getting started.
  • One AE remarked that most members only need their Association staff for one particular issue a year, and the ability of the staff to handle the situation well, may establish the Member’s perception of value in their annual dues.
  • Dave Phillips (Charlottesville’s Executive) made the observation that we should begin to see the member who participates from on-line venues; such as opening e-mails and taking on-line surveys as “active members.” My understanding from his point, is that it isn’t just the folks who physically attend committees, that we should consider our core members. (I fully agree)
  • There was a lot of discussion about VAR and Local Associations employing or directing existing staff toward doing visits with Broker members at their company meetings. It was also mentioned that Local BOD and VAR Policy Board members should also be making these outreach opportunities.
  • Scott Brunner (VAR’s AE) mentioned that VAR was looking at the possibility of doing mini-news / update video casts on a regular schedule. These casts would be in a format that delivered some Association Happenings and updates from staff, such as Lem Marshall. One member of the audience mentioned that it would be nice to feed these messages to the local Association’s webpage, so that members didn’t need to search several webpages to find information.
    • Author’s note: This can easily be done, thru an RSS feed widget and is free at www.WidgetBox.com. You can an example of it on my Association’s Blog at www.FAARForum.com.
    • It was also mentioned from the audience that Video E-mails to the members, of Association Staff or Member-Leaders giving updates maybe a good way to get reader retention.
      • Author’s note: Take a look at www.eyejot.com. I haven’t a clue what it takes to do this in bullk, but I am sure they have a feature that does so. Otherwise, agents can already do this for little or no cost on this site.

    Are these Trends? Are they New?

    All of the ideas above seemed like good forward motion, however none of them struck me as an “emerging issue or trend.” Difficulty communicating with members has always been an issue for groups and associations, even outside of the REALTOR® group.

    There were a number of people who wanted, what essentially was an RSS aggregator, but didn’t really know what to call it. These systems exist and are ubiquitous. A number of folks were commenting about their “new webpages” It saddens me a bit that in 2008, entering 2009, a REALTOR® organization feels that having a webpage is groundbreaking. Especially now that the technology world is moving away from static webpages and into RSS fed, blog based webpages. They can service all your static page needs plus more. They are typically far less expensive, more modifiable and are meeting the Digital Native (current and future leaders) where they are.

    I would challenge everyone to take advantage of the Social Media class topics sprinkled throughout the Conference. The premise of the Social Media technology is communication. I don’t think it’s the end-all-be-all, but it is a great tool in reaching people. Now, we just need to educate everyone on these emerging tools.

Posted by Matthew Rathbun | Filed Under Social Media, Speakers 

Comments

One Response to “When is an “Emerging Issue” no longer “emerging””

  1. David Geller on September 25th, 2008 1:56 pm

    Regarding Eyejot - the platform does have the ability to send out video messages to multiple people at one time. It also has the ability to define groups, which makes sending video messages to the same group of people very convenient.

    Eyejot is available in three versions - from free to PRO Plus, which allows users to add their own organization or company logos to our notification elements and to attach office documents to video messages. The free version allows anyone to try the product, get a feel for it and then decide of video messaging is important and useful for them.

    -David (Eyejot CEO)

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