(952) 548-1614
Kevin is the Broker/Owner of IBR Realty, Minnesota's largest family owned, independent real estate brokerage. IBR uses a unique blend of virtual agent/traditional bricks and mortar business models and benefits from the best of each style. Kevin is dedicated to implementing web 2.0 concepts on a brokerage level and is slightly creeped out by referring to himself in the third person in this description.
We moved one of our sites to Diverse Solutions and really like the features. Lots of cool consumer stuff, the right amount of stickiness and a solid company to work with.
I am working (ever so slowly) on a class to present to local associations or real estate companies to provide an overview of web 2.0 history, development and applications. It is my hope to raise awareness among a greater number of agents and to get a 2.0 community established in the Minneapolis area. I tell my agents that they need to become proficient in an area and to establish themselves as experts if they want to attract clients. I am trying this same approach to attract agents by becoming a source of information about the evolution known as web 2.0. The task of pulling information together is mind boggling. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone has some good resources for me to tap into for this project. Like where to even start...
@ G Dewald and Stacey, The primary social media I have been using is Facebook, Linkin and Active Rain. So far AR has been able to identify agents in the Minneapolis area better than the other two. This is a fairly new venture for me, so it is too early to know if it is successful or not. My goal is to meet agents who are more sophisticated and appreciate the potential of web 2.0 concepts. The few agents I have made contact with fit the criteria, so I guess I am least partially successful. I did manage to recruit and hire a local agent I had met on her blog. I commented on her posts over a period of months and met for coffee one day. She mentioned she may be leaving her brokerage and I asked her to join my company. Social networking got us acquainted, but it still came down to building a personal, face to face relationship. The bigger problem is that there are relatively few agents using social media for any purpose. I would have hoped for a larger participation by an industry that will greatly benefit from its application. Even in my own company I have difficulty changing a 1.0 culture to one that believes and uses 2.0 applications. I have a brokers blog that is not widely read. We have an intranet with an agent to agent bulletin board and other social aspects, but again, not widely used. Change will come, but slowly. Ever so slowly.
