I only have time for this brief note, as I’m working on some massive new things.
But… I had to say something. I just found this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcsBcWsbnYY
It was uploaded by a Cesar Musitani, who has a grand total of two videos. That video has a grand total of 50 views on it, with the 50th being me.
I assume it comes from HouseLogic which chose to use Brightcove to put the video out there. I know I can embed it by copying this:
<embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1465406675" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=2132640023001&playerId=1465406675&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed>
But frankly, I don’t want to. I hate Brightcove, and most WordPress users do as well. It’s even worse than Vimeo. Plus, to embed the YouTube video above, all I had to do was copy and paste the URL on its own line, and WordPress took care of the rest. Small suggestion for the good people at NAR: put everything on YouTube. It gets shared more. You can have comments. It’s pretty damn nice.
What’s even more interesting is that NAR has an official YouTube channel. This video is not on it. But this one is:
NAR has a Facebook Page. This video isn’t on it, but screenshots are. Um, maybe because the thing is in Brightcove? And on said Facebook Page, I notice that the screenshot posts have between 52 and 67 Likes. That’s not bad, considering there are only about a million REALTORS. I mean, if NAR were a big group with lots of members, getting 60 Likes for something like this might be a problem.
Three things here.
First, it is mind-boggling that only one person on YouTube uploaded that video. There are a million dues-paying members of NAR. There are 50 State Associations. Every single one of them has at least a Government Affairs Director. And large committees of deeply involved REALTORS who donate thousands of dollars and go to rallies and such. Any many, many, many of these people use video every single day. Quite a few are experts on YouTube. In fact, you can find dozens upon hundreds of webinars and tips and tricks and advice columns for REALTORS on how to use video.
For that matter, even if you can’t be bothered to upload the video, or don’t know how… 50 views? Really? Not a single comment? 67 Likes on the official NAR Page?
C’mon, man!
Second, we’ve heard for the past several years — and we still hear it now — that blogging is teh shiznitz for lead generation. We have gurus in this business who make a living telling REALTORS that Content is King, and produce tips on how to “generate content”. There are courses being taught by Associations on “Using Facebook for Business” and such. So, what’s up? Where the blogposts at? Where are the thousands of Facebook status updates sharing this video far and wide to all your clients? A slick professionally produced video that tells your clients that you and your Association are looking out for them isn’t content?
C’mon, man!
Third, this episode is precisely why I think the current top-down model of politics cannot work for NAR. At the end of that video, the nice man’s voice intones that “National Association of REALTORS supports maintaining homeowners tax incentives”. Well, when only 60 of the 112,000 people who LIKED your Facebook page liked that, and further noting that only 1/10th of your total membership even LIKED your page itself, I got news for ya. The National Association part might support maintaining tax incentives, but you’re gonna have to do some work to convince me that the REALTORS part does too. And when 999,940 members of the National Association of REALTORS couldn’t care less about the Dreams campaign, why should homeowners give a damn?
C’mon, man!
You know, when the mortgage interest deduction goes away, when 30% down payments become the norm, when the FHA becomes a strictly-for-Section-8-renters thing, and REALTORS I know are gnashing their teeth and angry at those fools in Washington DC, I’m gonna point to this episode and say,
What exactly did you expect was going to happen?
C’mon, man!
