Every once in a while my training in political theory helps me process things in my business life.
So it was that I came to understand the phenomenon I witnessed at Real Estate Connect last week.
It was the week Web 2.0 went mainstream in real estate. The bloggers, the Facebookers, the innovators and other members of the Twittering class crashed the gates of the real estate establishment and rocked their world.
It started Tuesday night with the Zillow Party. Those in attendance experienced a collective “Holy S____” moment … my god, where did these people come from?
It turned out to be a moveable feast, as the hugging and idea swapping moved a couple blocks to the Trulia party, where conference veterans stood pinned to the walls wondering at the raucous group that all seemed to know one another.
The party never ended, really. For three days, the new breed dominated the discussion. Bloggers gave lessons on viral marketing and branding to seasoned executives; founders from Web 2.0 startups explained to veteran real estate brokers that the web is really about a conversation; at night, entrepreneurs no one had heard of a year ago held forth at restaurant tables throughout The City.
Something big happened last week. The social, participatory, democratic web that surfaced between last year’s Connect and this one obliterated many of the barriers to collective action – the sine quo non of change – in our industry.
If you haven’t read Mancur Olson’s, The Logic of Collective Action, I highly recommend it. Its central thesis – that small groups can act upon common interests much faster than large ones – explains much of what’s going on in our industry right now. It also helps explain the success of real estate social platforms like Active Rain, which grew like a weed by not only grouping people with shared interests, but providing them all, as individuals, with clear benefits.
The genie is out of the bottle. The roiling, churning burning kinetic phantasmagoria that was Real Estate Connect last week is the new normal.
Let the good times roll.
– Brian Boero
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Brian,
Great post! The atmosphere at Connect this year was electric. It looks like social real estate hit the tipping point this year.
Thanks! It was indeed electric. It's been a long time since there was that much energy at Connect.
Brian
I attended the "roiling, churning burning kinetic phantasmagoria" in San Francisco and the energy was viral. It was great to see friends from the past and from the web.
Hey Brian,
Other than all the advice on blogging and collective wisdom that Real Estate needs to engage end users and make them the center of the conversation, what new initiative's do you think really caught the spirit of the Web 2.0 wave?
You know that we're excited about our new SpotIt application . But of course we were so busy I'm sure we missed picking up some of the other new ideas you allude to.
Thanks!
Pete
[...] Sure, the parties were bigger in ‘99 and 2000. And when the bloggers hit the scene big time in 2007 it was really something. [...]
I attended the "roiling, churning burning kinetic phantasmagoria" in San Francisco and the energy was viral. It was great to see friends from the past and from the web.