Highlights from the Inman RE Connect Conference
Highlights from the Inman RE Connect Conference
San Francisco July 27th-29th
by: Jared White, Manager CCAR Technical & MLS Services
The mood at “Inman Connect” this year was both energetic and apprehensive. While mobile technology and Social Media dominated conversations, it’s clear that the economy has real estate technology professionals scrambling not only for the next big idea but just to maintain the status quo. This year the subjects and workshops ranged from “New Opportunities in Social and Advertising” to “Going Local: Neighborhood 2.0”. Over three days, 50+ topics were covered and grouped into learning tracks for the attendees. If you made it to Inman this year I hope it was extremely informative for you. If you didn’t, no worries, I’ll highlight the top topics in regards to MLSs and the future of Real Estate Technology.
Given my position at CCAR, I chose to stick to Track 2: “The MLS” and will summarize it for you here…
My 2011 Inman experience began with fellow geeks in the “ConnectTech Workshop”. We spent our first hour or so discussing mobile technology, concentrating on mobile applications, followed by discussions about implementation strategies and techniques. Understanding that mobile is the future we discussed tactics to make your web presence mobile friendly, without having more than one url.
Going mobile is a must, but asking yourself the right questions will improve your results. For example, what is your mobile web presence goal? Before creating or reviewing your mobile web presence determine your desired results, define your mobile strategy, and determine success metrics. Then implement your strategy, measure your results and iterate continually. Then you’ll be ready to optimize your current web presence for mobile compatibility by using these powerful web weapons: HTML5, CSS3, Responsive Web Design (Java), flexible layout, fluid images, and media queries.
But don’t forget these web weapons are just tools and techniques; what’s most important is you define your goals for mobile presence and identify the strategies and techniques you’re going to use to achieve those goals.
Having enjoyed my first day learning about topics I’m familiar with, I decided to jump into unknown waters and joined the general session on Day 2. The general session kicked off with a presentation from Porter Gale – VP of Marketing for Virgin America. She shared the interesting tactics Virgin America has and is deploying to build their brand via social marketing. I could have written an article just about her groundbreaking ideas. The big takeaway though is this: social networks will make or break your brand over the next 3-5 years. To stay ahead of that curve, and learn the latest in social network marketing, join CCAR at reBarCamp East Bay in San Ramon on August 26th.
Another interesting topic during the general session was “Manage Your Online Reputation, or Face the Consequences.” Pete Kazanjy, Co-Founder and CEO of honestly.com opened my eyes and mind to how my online presence can shape my future. He insisted you ask yourself some pointed questions:
How is your reputation created?
What does it look like historically?
What does it look like today?
What should I do about it?
What to do right now?
Taking the time to provide in-depth answers will give you the knowledge to create, shape and control your online reputation and future! Here’s a CCAR Tip: Ask friends and colleagues the same questions about your online reputation. You’ll get even more useful feedback that will help you manage your online presence.
Perhaps the most interesting topic of the entire conference for me was, “The New MLS Org Chart: Structuring and Staffing for the MLS of Tomorrow.” Managing the MLS and CCAR support staff has been a welcoming challenge, however the future will bring great change for the structure of all MLSs. The biggest “ah-ha” moment or better yet, epiphany for me was realizing that historically, MLSs have effectively forgotten about the public—the actual home buyers and sellers.
As an Association our REALTOR® members are definitely our customers, but so too are the consumers. Hearing that CCAR is not the only MLS/Association to make that mistake was comforting, but still provoked many ideas and concerns for the future. Consider that if MLSs had spent the development capital to create powerful public facing websites 10 years ago, we may not have sites like “Yahoo! Real Estate,” “Trulia” or “Realtor.com” hogging the real estate presence on the web.
Thus, as I consider any type of restructure of CCAR’s MLS staff I have to factor in how all stakeholders will be impacted: CCAR, Brokers, Realtors, MLS Subscribers, staff, and the consumer. In my opinion future MLS staffing decisions must not repeat past mistakes, and instead make technical research & development a top priority going forward.
