Yankee Blog Swap: The Potential of Real Estate Wikis by Pat Kitano
By: Drew Meyers, Business Development Specialist | December 19, 2006
Ed: Today we hand the Zillow Blog over to a guest blogger. The event is the Yankee Blog Swap, and 28 bloggers have agreed to switch blogs for a day. We’re paired with Pat Kitano whose posts about Transparent Real Estate are always insightful. Over to to Pat:
- Self-expressive - blogs, Myspace , Youtube , link sharing > defining the individual
- Relationship - Linkedin , Active Rain , MyBlogLog , Second Life, online gaming > defining the society
- Collaborative - wikis, Digg , Real Estate Voices > defining the collective knowledge of the masses
Obviously, there are overlaps. Blogs and wikis both perform self-expressive functions, but self expression on the current "how-to" and "what-is-this" type of informational wikis like Wikipedia , WikiHow and Faqfarm is conceptually limited to the "truth" or variations of it.
Here’s my point: wikis have not quite evolved to their mass audience potential because they have been limited by their current role as authoritative information sources. Real estate wikis in particular now have the opportunity to change how the wiki might be used in the future.
Compare the present day blog with the present day wiki:
| Blogs | Wikis | |
| Content | Informational, topical, personal, biased | Encyclopedic information source |
| Audience | Specific (sticky) to the blogger as provider of insight. Subscribes to RSS feed. | Used like a reference desk. No reasons to subscribe. |
| Social networking function | Promote conversation between and among individual contributors | Promote collaborative authoring of topics and are read as authoritative |
| Ease of setup | Easy and therefore multiplying | Wiki tools (Socialtext ) are now low cost of entry |
One key difference between blogs and wikis is their readers’ stickiness to the site. Blogs are daily news, wikis are encyclopedias. Millions of blogs contribute content daily, wikis have far fewer contributors because it’s hard to add more content to an encyclopedia. (Exercise: try editing a Wikipedia article— you will find that they can already be fairly comprehensive.)
How can wikis become more interactive? To do this, wikis need to function more like collective blogs where contributors can comment topically on subjects that their readers want to follow. Real estate wikis are natural for developing a critical mass of ongoing contributors because local content- the market, the neighborhoods - is dynamic and always changing. As with blogs, daily contributors attract loyal audiences.
For example, incorporating a wiki into a google map mashup would allow granular real estate commentary - tagged by pushpins - down to the zip code or listing (so the map doesn’t get too messy, the commentary could be archived). Another text based method is Zillow’s Real Estate Wiki, which provides a section where bloggers can add localized information about their
market by State. When real estate wikis begin attracting expert postings by the vast pool of local real estate professionals, they will develop a dynamic audience that the standard "ask a question, get an answer" type wiki now lacks.
| Localized Real Estate Wikis | |
| Content | Local information source contributed by local real estate professionals |
| Audience | Local audience researching property market |
| Social networking function | Enables the lead generating relationships real estate professionals prize |
| Ease of setup | Easy setup should grow wiki population |
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Blogging, Zillow
Comments
20 Comments so far
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Jay Thompson on December 19, 2006 9:11 am
Great post Pat. I’ve always thought wiki’s were cool, yet underutilized in our business. You’ve given me some ideas to ponder (you have a way of doing that).
And thanks for the invite to the blog swap!
geno petro on December 19, 2006 9:56 am
Hey Pat. Great piece. I just left a note on REBlogGirl’s post basically saying that “I’m saving the Ivy Leaguers and Berkeley grads for last!” I should have taken out more student loans and went to a better college because I have to read these 2 and 3 times! I think I’m getting it…
Gena Riede on December 19, 2006 10:03 am
Great post, like Geno I must reread! It will be interesting to see how the wiki evolves over time.
REBlogGirl on December 19, 2006 10:38 am
Wow, Pat. You’ve caused our 5 little code monkeys to spin themselves into to a creative tizzy. They love the idea of integrating the wiki with mapping technologies.
Long Island Real Estate on December 19, 2006 10:42 am
Real Estate Blog Swap
Heres an interesting experiment. Today (December 19th 2006) 30 of the most influential real estate bloggers will exchange blogs in what is being called the equivalent of a Yankee Swap. This sounds like a great way for local consumers …
Kevin Boer on December 19, 2006 11:57 am
Maybe a new online format is being created in front of our very eyes…a Wikiblog?
teresa boardman on December 19, 2006 12:12 pm
I recently set up a wiki for a non-profit board of directors. We think it might be an easier way to communicate than via email. We send so much email to each other that it si just about impossible to keep up. No need for mapping yet.
Brad Nix on December 19, 2006 1:56 pm
Great Post. I am a very good self-expressive and relationship technology user and look forward to expanding into the collaborative area of web 2.0. Great info!
Pat Kitano on December 19, 2006 10:23 pm
Hey all, Drew and I both got the chance to hit the slopes today (in WA and CA, I’m betting the snow was much better north)… our reward is some fine bedtime reading of the 28 Yankee Blog Swaps. I appreciate your comments immensely!
Paul Chaney on December 21, 2006 9:59 am
I appreciate the way you codified social networks. That puts the relationships between each in greater perspective.
The thing is, while most Realtors are just now getting their hands around blogs, along comes social media. While the adoption rate in the use of blogs is high right now, I wonder how long it’s going to take for Realtors to latch on to the use of social media as a marketing tool.
It seems we still have a lot of educating to do on the beneficial effects blogs can have. Much more so where social media is concerned.
Pat Kitano on December 21, 2006 6:04 pm
Paul, you’ve hit the nerve - the data overload factor that Realtors now face is overwhelming. The pioneering Realtors (including all those who blog) who understand the flavors of internet marketing will be rewarded as a “window of meritocracy” opens up.
Education will be a two way street - as consumers better grasp how to manage their own real estate transactions by interfacing with the RE blogs and social networks, they will gravitate towards the Realtors most effective at internet marketing. An educated consumer will not take as much resource time from that Realtor, which frees up the Realtor to manage more transactions… likely at lower fees. You’ll then see a sea change in the 80/20 split of top Realtors as the net savvy Realtors start making headway.
Drew M from Zillow.com on December 21, 2006 8:17 pm
Kevin-
Wikiblog - I wonder what that would look like and how it would function? Maybe it’s just a new name for Active Rain blogs due to being so collaborative (tons of comments on every post). Interesting idea to say the least.
Condo Blog on December 22, 2006 8:53 am
Looking forward to Yankee Blog Swap 2007! Happy Holidays Everyone!!!
GoogleGiggle on January 25, 2007 7:30 am
Great article Pat. My hunch is that there will be announcements for such a wiki soon. What exciting times…
mccormack and scanlan on January 30, 2007 12:29 pm
This has completely energized my day. I have so much to do now! Thank you.
mccormack and scanlan on January 30, 2007 12:30 pm
This has given me so many ideas. Thank you.
Pat Kitano on January 30, 2007 10:31 pm
Thank you McCormach & Scanlan… it’s very nice to see a “made my day” kind of comment…
Jasmine Urban on May 24, 2007 2:12 pm
Nice write-up, very informative. We just got our new site through http://www.real-estate-designers.com and now we have to choose between organic SEO and PPC. I have been recommended by a lot of people to do both at the same time to get the best results. Any suggestions on this arena will be helpful.
Marco on August 2, 2007 7:54 am
very nice article… thinking of visiting this blog site again…
froreCoerie on March 10, 2008 6:18 am
Hi there,
So, let’s chat! How are you?
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