NAR looking to hire a Social Media Manager

by Daniel Rothamel on October 8, 2008 · Comments

in Industry Issues, NAR, News, Social Media

This post from the CRT Blog is one of the most interesting things to come through my RSS reader in quite some time.  Looks like the National Association of REALTORS is going to hire a Social Media Manager.  That should prove interesting, to be sure.

I took a look at the job posting on Monster.com.  Benefits look nice, but I wouldn’t move to Chicago, even for “discounted on-site massages” :-)

I have some thoughts, but I’m not exactly sure how to react to this.  Part of me thinks it is a wonderful development.  There is another part of me, however, that is cautiously optimistic, at best. 

What do you think?

One thing is for sure, the announcement of the actual hiring of a Social Media Manager for NAR will be the biggest development in the organization in quite some time.

I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for that announcement.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Jay Thompson shares some initial thoughts on NAR Wisdom

  • Jay
    Maybe NAR will be taken more seriously on their supposed concern with social media when the throw out their bogus Article 12 of the Code of Ethics after they initially in REALTOR magazine encouraged realtors to use keywords such as MLS (a generic term these days). Now successful realtors who pay $$$$ to the NAR are being persecuted by their local MLS boards by jealous realtors who refuse to modify their business models.

    The NAR is allowing with Article 12 serious injustices to go on as a result of realtors taking the NAR's good advice. This is upside down and disgusting.

    To be taken seriously in their social media endeavors NAR needs to rescue these realtors who are being thrown under the bus with their misguided policies and unintentionally nefarious policies.

    Prove to use you care about your members instead of the bullcrap Pamela Kabati. Seriously!

    http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/morga...

    http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/...
  • Pamela Geurds Kabati
    Hi Daniel!
    Since the new social media manager at NAR will "live" in my department (I'm NAR's VP of Publications and Web Publishing), I wanted to jump in here and say that I believe this development is, indeed, a very good thing for NAR and its members. OK, so I'm a little bit biased (smile), but here goes:

    This new position was approved by NAR's current elected and staff leadership with great enthusiasm. The goal of the position, to speak to Derek's comment, is to be proactive in the social media community, though I suspect it will also need to be reactive sometimes, because that's just the nature of things. (I was proactively checking out what I consider to be the best of the real estate blogs today, and now here I am reacting to something I read on one of them.)

    As you can tell from the job posting on monster, this position makes it someone's actual job at NAR to talk with NAR members when and where they choose to congregate in the digital space, adding value to those conversations in whatever ways this person -- and by extension, NAR -- can. For example, NAR has a lot of information at its Web sites and in its databases that can really help its members with their day-to-day business if it reaches them in a moment when it's particularly relevant to them.

    Another big part of this person's job will be to listen (underscore) to the conversations happening out there among NAR members, and help NAR as an organization be more aware of that collective intelligence and the role in can play in helping the organization spot trends and shape its policies and positions.

    This person will also evangelize to other NAR staff and leadership the value of engaging in the digital space, and it will help educate other staff and leadership about the rules of the road in that space.

    Will NAR and the person in this new job get it all right all the time from day one? Probably not (though the eternal optimist in me thinks the answer could be "yes, of course!")Still, I think this is a big and important step for NAR and its members. So my hope is that you, Daniel, and other avid real estate bloggers out there will do two things. One, that you'll help us figure this out as we go and keep us honest along the way; and, two, that you'll be patient with us and any missteps that may occur as NAR becomes more engaged in the digital conversation.

    Finally, but ceratinly not least, if you know of anyone out there who you think would be terrific in this role, please do let us know. I've already logged and appreciate the suggestions of Ben Martin and Jay T!

    Best,
    Pamela Kabati
  • Laurie Manny
    This should be interesting.
  • Derek Overbey
    WOW is all I can say. I wonder if the thought was to use this person in a proactive or reactive capacity? It will be interesting to see who they hire and how they try to interact with rest of the RE.net world.
  • Tina in Virginia
    I wonder if they're hiring a SMM because they WANT to and WILL SUPPORT the position, or if they're hiring one just to say, "we have one". Will it be a position in practice and implementation or theory???
  • Jay Thompson
    Interesting indeed.... very interesting.

    Seems like the perfect position for a "virtual location".

    I wonder how much of a discount you get on massages?

    ChiTown. Windy City. Snow. Cubs.

    Things that make you say, "Hmmmm......"
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