Finding time to blog

I've found it challenging to make time to post to this blog. What is blog-worthy? What is worth spending the time on? I guess I'll try and think about it more, post more regularly and see what happens.

Stay tuned.....

If you have ideas on how to get inspired to blog, please let me know!

Real estate book created in record time

Yesterday I was introduced to Steve Kantor, who conceived the idea of a book gathering the thoughts of 1,000+ REALTORS® about how to stay successful in a down market. He pulled the book's contents together in five (!) days. The ebook was available for download within one day, and the printed book will be available as of Friday. I commend Steve and his team for the effort, although it remains to be seen whether the information is useful....

Tired in Las Vegas

I've been in Las Vegas since Sunday, primarily for the National Association of REALTORS® conference and also to attend the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Summit (warning -- the WOMMA site talks!).

As we come to the close of Thursday, I'm tired. I've had more drinks than usual, slept fitfully, had 12+ hour days (filled with enjoyable, interesting activities, but long nonetheless), and have hardly breathed outdoor air.

I'll be glad to get home.....

Real Estate BloggerCon tomorrow!

Tomorrow (Nov. 12, 2007) I'll be hosting NAR's first-ever BloggerCon, along with the Center for REALTOR Technology, at NAR's annual conference in Las Vegas.

It will take place from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the Venetian Hotel, in the Bloggers Lounge on Level 4 - Zeno 4605.

If you're a REALTOR® or a REALTOR® association executive and you blog, please come and meet the other bloggers and share your thoughts.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Adding more widgets to the blog

Look at the right column to see what I've been twittering (tweeting?) about, as well as what I'm listening to....in case you're interested. What are you listening to/twittering about, and do you post that information on your blog? I'd love to know your reasons either way.

Web standards and governance

I've convened my team in our DC office for a "content summit," my term for an intensive session to:

• refine our content strategies/standards/guidelines/policies
• standardize the job that our content strategists do between offices and with various departments throughout our association
• position the team to be able to govern the site more effectively. Lisa Welchman will be working with us on this final piece.
  

We'll be posting the site's standards online -- I'll post the link when it's up.

After a glass of wine and a relaxing dinner, I'll be ready for a third day of interesting discussions tomorrow.

CNN.com 2.0

Check out the new CNN.com, just relaunched today! It's "as an enhanced multimedia site - packed with web 2.0 features such as recommendations and user generated content," according to Read/Write Web. Many of the standards and ideas that it implemented are the same ones we are using or planning to use on REALTOR.org, which is validating:

• Streaming video vs. forcing downloads
• Playing streaming video in Flash, vs. Windows Media Player
• "Integrated multimedia storytelling," which we are taking baby steps toward doing

Some of the site's other new features are ones only in our minds at the moment, including Ajax; "we recommend" and "hot topics" dynamically generated for text and video content; and multiple opportunities for readers to engage with articles, video, and categories.

A revolution in corporate communications is coming your way soon

Debbie Weill, in her BlogWrite for CEOs blog, wrote about a phenomenon that I've been watching for quite some time. (I wrote an article about this back in January 2005, "To make your website work, transform your communicators from writers to editors.") The blogosphere and the rise of social media have made this transformation happen faster and more fully than I expected, though!