If you have worked in the MLS world as long as I have you know how many moving parts there are in terms of technology to run the organization effectively.  With the creation of RETS, the so called “standard", the use of multiple modules to provide services has increased even more.  What has been obvious to me for many years looking at the industry’s technology, however, is that no one has done a good job of pulling all of the important data points together for the MLSs so they can run their organizations more effectively.  

Today, MLS systems do a great job of helping brokers and agents look and use property data. Accounting and membership systems manage member information and allow for billing while call tracking systems, if in place, allow MLSs to track user interactions.  MLS websites reach out to consumers and may provide valuable analytics on search behavior.  But, with few exceptions, these systems and products really don’t share data.  Yes, accounting systems can push some data over to the MLS system and there are other examples of simple data sharing but it is really not being done the way it should be.

Imagine this….

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I saw an article yesterday that relayed a story about how a certain person gets news.  She reported something like, I do not read the news, I scan my twitter feed.  Articles that are often cited or, linked to on twitter, are the ones I read.  The buzz word for this was something like ‘human sourcing’ of news. ReCoach - “kiss your rss goodbye”

Today, I read two different articles.  The first talked about the value of a 500 word freelance article - which turns out to be about $15 dollars on the low end and maybe $100 on the high end if you freelance for major newspapers or magazines (today’s LA Times).

In the second article from Advertising Age, I learned that Kim Kardashian gets paid $10,000 per tweet by marketers to reach her 2.7 million twitter followers.

When social networking started to be used as a marketing tool, it was all about trying to create a viral audience for sharing ideas and building an online reputation.  Very quickly, ideas like “I am ordering my coffee at Starbucks” were shunned by the community, but ideas like “Apple is releasing a tablet” are cheered.

Like it or not, Twitter is very powerful.  For some, it is the place where all information is ‘human sourced’ by fellow tweeters.  For authors or bloggers, it may be the difference between $15 and $100 for an article.  For celebrities, it can mean quick cash.

Perhaps this is creating an identity problem for twitter.  Is twitter about staying connected to the people you know and trust the most in your personal and professional life?  Is it a way for authors and bloggers to reach large audiences without selling their soul to media empires?  Or is it a way for popular celebrities to generate more income by partnering with marketing entities seeking their loyal and valued audience?  I am pretty sure I use twitter for all three purposes.  How do you use it?

For the past four years, Technology Concepts, a veteran MLS provider, has been developing a Customer Relationship Management product for the real estate industry.  The company has leveraged their experience serving MLSs, brokers and agents to architect and build one of the industry’s most advanced enterprise level CRM solutions. 

The product, named Eventus, is operational, installed and has realized outstanding results for the first tier users.  Now that the product is ready for full deployment into the market place, the company is seeking a business partner to fuel marketing and fulfillment.  The company will consider options from company or product sale to an exclusive licensing relationship.   Interested parties should contact WAV Group, attention Mike Audet (mike@wavgroup.com, 716-839-4628) for more information. 

About the product.

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Social networks are exploding in popularity. Forty-three percent of the online community now uses social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. This is up from 27 percent a year ago, reports The Conference Board and TNS.

Social networking spans all generations and clearly hits the target of real estate home buyers and sellers. Moreover, even older people are getting involved.  About 19 percent of those age 55 and over visit these sites, up from just 6 percent a year ago. Women are more likely than men to use social networking sites (48 percent versus 38 percent), but usage has increased dramatically among both groups in just a year.

Facebook Most Popular Site

The most popular site is Facebook, used by 78 percent of online households, followed by MySpace (42 percent), LinkedIn (17 percent) and Twitter (10 percent).

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It is interesting how one thing can lead to another.  On the same weekend that I was quickly making sure that http://www.facebook.com/victorlund would be my new handle on facebook, I was also researching a social media strategy for a client and recognized that someone was Cybersquatting on their brand everywhere - Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed etc.  Hence, thier brand was not available on these important social networks.  Hurry out today and register your name and your brand’s name on these networks, especially facebook - who changed from numbers to names over the weekend.

This is important on many different levels of brand and identitiy protection.  Additionally it is important for search engine optimization.  Here are a couple of tips…

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