Notorious R.O.B.

Although I wanted to post this sooner, other commitments prevented getting to it before now.  And quite a few of these ideas have been hashed out, particularly in the TQ Radio Show yesterday, but there is something to putting ideas and questions into words.  So here we go.

But first, a disclaimer: Many of you know that I am involved with Lucky Strike Social Media Club, the organization that is putting together REBarCamp NY 2010.  All of the opinions expressed in this post are mine and mine alone, and I am not speaking for LSSMC or for any of the other organizers.

A little background before we dive into it.

For whatever reason, REBCNY 2010 has generated little eddys of controversy from the start.  First, it was over our decision to keep the working committee members to people who had attended a Lucky Strike meeting in person; this, I was told, violates the “spirit of REBarCamp”.  Second, it was over our decision to have a limited number of tracks (approximately 10 out of 80 we thought possible) pre-planned for the benefit of newcomers and more tech-oriented people who may be in attendance.  I was told that this pre-planning violates the “spirit of REBarCamp”.  Then the final straw, it appears, was our thought to offer to sponsors of REBCNY an attendee list.  This, we were told by various people, was completely against the “spirit of REBarCamp” and there was a lot of buzz on Twitter about how worried various people were, about how the new hashtag should be #notabarcamp, and so on.

In all cases, the organizers heard the feedback, considered our decision, and either stuck by our original stance (tracks) or changed our position (attendee list).  Much of the explanation is on the REBCNY site itself, and you’re welcome to head over there to check it out.

This post is not about any of those decisions, nor is it about the kerfuffles that arose in response to any of them.  Conversation, debate, discussion, even argument are all very healthy things, and I rather think the episodes showcased social media in action: listen, consider, and respond.  I’m personally grateful to everyone who raised the issue with me personally, and with the LSSMC organizing committee; it’s wonderful to be in the RE.net where people feel passionately enough on such topics.

At the same time, there’s a lot to discuss here at the level of principles and ideas.  So we dive into that.

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“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade

Todd Carpenter (@tcar on Twitter) has been named as the first ever Social Media Manager for the National Association of Realtors.

After an extensive search, we hired Todd Carpenter, a founder of RE Blogworld and of mariah.com, a network of real estate and mortgage web sites including lenderama, REMBEX, and Denver Modern Homes. Many qualified candidates, both inside and outside of the real estate industry, applied for the position, and I asked a small set of finalists to prepare assignments detailing what they would do during their first 90 days in the role and how they would handle a challenging issue leveraging the power of the RE.net and the blogosphere.

We loved Todd’s ideas, his easygoing manner, his reputation and how knowledgeable he is about social media. We also really valued his relationships with so many REALTORS® who are using blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media channels to connect effectively with one another and with potential clients and customers.

As I have recommended Todd for this job way back when — albeit layered with concerns — I am of course thrilled for Todd, and wish him the best of luck.  I have also been privileged to be invited to converse with NAR leadership about their social media strategy, with an emphasis on what the NAR Social Media Manager’s role ought to be, and have given them further thoughts on that.

Here, I want to expand with three further thoughts.

1.  Yours Not to Do and Die / Yours But to Reason Why

With due apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson, I’d like to stress what this role cannot become: the voice of NAR for “social media”.

Becoming the “voice of NAR for social media” does two disservices: one to NAR, and one to you.

For NAR, it ghettoizes social media as “just another marketing channel” just like print, TV, radio, or email.  What is needed is not another “marketing channel” but a wholesale change in approach to how NAR connects with its members, with the public, and with policymakers.

For you, the disservice is that rather than becoming a change agent able to drive cultural change from within NAR, you become yet another communication channel — of which NAR has plenty.  I likened the proper role of the Social Media Manager to be something like a “cluetrain conductor“.  And I think that remains the case.

Yours is to reason why NAR does or does not speak to its constituents and the public on a particular topic, in a particular way.  And to force the organization itself to ask “Why?” or “Why not?”

2.  It is the Valley of Death

Well, perhaps “Valley of Death” is a bit dramatic — but it fit with the whole poetry theme!  Let’s rather call it the “Valley of Slowly Getting Co-Opted”.

What you know already is that the people at NAR are delightful.  They’re smart, dedicated, professional, and truly cares about the industry, about their members, about consumers.  Contrary to some of the portrayals of NAR in the media and RE.net, I have found that everyone I’ve met at NAR is just wonderful.  There isn’t a person who works at NAR that I’ve met personally who I wouldn’t want to go have a beer with, or talk policy with, or even just talk about our favorite movies with.

This is a danger to you.

Because it is far too easy to become “one of them”.  JeffX’s twitter joke is actually profound:

@JeffX: Hey TNar, i mean @tcar will the NAR allow you to maintain your Ninja rights?

It isn’t simply NAR allowing you to be the person they hired; it is also you staying the person they hired, instead of slowly transforming into “one of them”.  You can’t stop the blipstreams, now that you have this “important position” in the real estate world.  You can’t stop blogging, can’t stop Twittering as @tcar, and can’t suddenly become “respectable”.

Of course, NAR can’t try to stop you — that plainly defeats the purpose of bringing you inside the fold.

3.  Be the Virus

The remedy, then, is to internalize that one of the biggest values you are bringing to NAR is to be the “virus from without”.  Your task is to make NAR more like you: open, authentic, honest, and constantly in touch.

Just as you have been transparent to the RE community over the years, so you must “infect” the rest of NAR to become transparent.  Just as you have always been one of the most authentic human beings on RE.net over the years, so you must infect the rest of NAR, the state associations, the member organizations, and indeed the NAR members themselves to be more authentic, be more human, and be more connected.

Through those efforts, I know you can bring in the fresh voices, the new perspectives from the RE.net and realestistas everywhere to the mainstream of the industry.  And you know that you have friends and allies who support you in those efforts.

So once again, congratulations to both you and to NAR.  You have my best wishes, and my pledge to support your efforts to become the Cluetrain conductor we so desperately need.

-rsh

(PS: I posted this publicly because many of the thoughts here are applicable to any large organization that is starting up social media initiatives, and to anyone working at those organizations.  And because some of these things are worth discussing.)

I am endorsing Todd Carpenter of Lenderama for the Social Media Manager position for the National Association of REALTORS. His plan is a solid one, and his experience with the RE.net makes him an invaluable resource.

However, I am rather concerned for Todd, and I make the endorsement with a good deal of reluctance and hesitation.

The concern and hesitation have nothing to do with Todd — he’s the ideal, perfect candidate in so many ways. Rather, what gives me pause is NAR itself. I don’t know how serious they are about embracing the fundamental changes necessary to make social media meaningful.

Reason #1: The Position

By rights, this should be at least a VP position in NAR, perhaps reporting to Frank Sibley, SVP of Communications, or to Bob Goldberg, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Business Development & Commercial Services, & President & COO, REALTORS® Information Network. Actually, if I were running NAR, this would be a Senior Vice President position on par with Frank and Bob, because it encompasses so much more that simple communications, more than marketing, more than business development.

“Social Media” as a phrase gets thrown around quite a bit, and I rather think most people either have no idea what it actually means, or use it as a convenient shorthand for “blogs, Twitter, and all that web stuff”.

What they don’t understand perhaps is that “Social Media” is media first and foremost. It arose out of the infancy of the blogosphere when individual bloggers were pounding the mainstream media (“MSM”) into the ground with their analyses, factchecking, and highlighting of little-reported stories. It has since evolved into an actual newsgathering operation on many fronts (see, e.g., Michael Yon).

If I take NAR at face value, creating a Social Media strategy means that it wants to supplant the MSM as the source of information on all things real estate to the American consumer. I do not believe this is NAR’s goal, and if it were, I do not believe that NAR is well-suited to running such an operation for a variety of factors. (Least of which is the inherent bias of real estate agents in reporting on real estate.)

So I have to take NAR not at face value, but at some code phrase value, thinking that what NAR really wants to do is come up with a strategy for helping REALTORS market more effectively to consumers by using the Web. Let us, then, instead use the term “Social Marketing”.

Because what NAR is really looking for is a “Social Marketing” strategy, I do not believe that the position has enough power within the organization to be truly effective. I could be dead wrong on that, of course, especially if the senior leadership from Dale Stinton on down are completely, 100% behind the effort, and are willing to listen to the Social Marketing Manager (“SMM”) and implement his/her plans.

My experience with large organizations, however, suggests to me that unless a position has (a) significant budget control, and (b) significant staff, it lacks power.  The job description is silent on either point.  Further, given that there are titles such as “Managing Director” at NAR, it leads me to believe that this position is at best a mid-level worker-bee position, rather than a strategic leadership position.

Todd can be the SVP of Social Marketing for NAR; he has the experience, the insight, the knowledge, and the connections.  He’s almost too qualified for this role.  So I endorse him, but with concern that he’ll spend most of his tenure banging his head against a brick wall… and silenced because he’s now part of the Establishment, instead of being a voice from outside the walls.

Reason #2: Fundamental Shift

So why does this position need to go from being a Social Media Manager to SVP of Social Marketing?

Because a social marketing strategy, in order to be effective, has to be disruptive to all of the existing marketing of NAR, most of its infrastructure, and vast parts of the membership.

I just don’t know if the people at NAR understand just how fundamental a shift it represents to go from the traditional marketing/communications model to a social marketing model.  I fear that they see this as more or less a “hey, we need to teach agents how to blog” distraction, rather than the kind of seismic change that will impact everything from membership to government relations.  And if NAR doesn’t see that, then it is far more likely that the needed initiatives will be stifled at birth within the organization, rather than given the juice and the horsepower to proceed.

To pick just one example, is NAR willing to completely suspend their idiotic advertising campaigns because the Social Media Manager insists that those ads are ruining the basis of social marketing: TRUST?

Again, I could be wrong, and I hope to be wrong — but the signs are not good.

Reason #3: Social Marketing Is Unproven

Finally, the uncomfortable truth of the matter is that social marketing in real estate is still unproven.  Anecdotes are not the plural of evidence.  That some blogger-agents are able to do enormous business does not establish in and of itself that social marketing is what is responsible for their success.  For all we know, it’s all of the other things that the blogging agents do that makes them a success, such as getting local knowledge, having professional ethics, and a rock-solid understanding of real estate fundamentals.

There has never been, to date, a systematic study of the ROI from blogging and other social marketing activites.  None.

The ‘good anecdotes’ are counter-balanced by the ‘bad anecdotes’ that show that some agents who are major RE.net figures, with top-notch SEO leading to excellent Google rankings, and are elite Twiterati nonetheless sell a fraction of the houses that the non-techie agent down the street sells.

No major (say Top 20) real estate brokerage has a track record showing the impact of social marketing on their revenues, on their profitability, on their efficiency, on customer retention, etc. etc.

Even if Todd is the greatest social media guru who has ever lived, and NAR is completely and 100% behind his efforts… it simply may be the case that social marketing does not have a dramatic impact in real estate.

After all, we are still talking about seven year cycles in between purchases.  How much blog reading about houses is the consumer going to do once he’s bought the damn house?  This is a market fundamental that no amount of Twittering can change.

I have faith in the transformative power of the web and the connectivity between humans it enables.  I believe that social marketing does have a positive impact on brokerage, done correctly.  I have faith; what I don’t have are facts.

Todd is the Right Man; Is this the Right Job?

So I am left with endorsing Todd as being the right guy with the right plan and the right skills.  He’s a leader, an inspiration, and a mentor to so many of us in RE.net.

Question is… is Social Media Manager the right job?

-rsh