Dear Realtor.com: This is How You Communicate With Your Users

Trace Richardson — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:59:00 +0000

Redfin suffered about the worst occurrence a datacenter can endure, fire. They still beat Realtor.com by 12 hours with only 5 hours of downtime compared to Realtor.com’s 17 hours of downtime or 53 hours of downtime if you include the 36 hours of in-action before going offline for 17 hours after their blog was hacked. In fact, the once daily posts on the Realtor.com blog have ceased altogether for over two weeks, so it is apparent that the problem is not under control, unless giving hard working / blogging Realtors less exposure is part of an unannounced strategy.

That’s right, their datacenter caught fire and they still smoked Realtor.com, pun intended. There is only one right way to handle such a situation: quickly, honestly and transparently. If Redfin gets this, why can’t Realtor.com?

Chris Neitzert Sorts Through Charred Rubble of Redfin Datacenter

There was a fire in the Seattle-based data center that Redfin uses to host our web servers, causing a loss of service between approximately 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Pacific Time. The entire data center was shut down by the fire department, including universal power supplies. Thanks to Redfin’s Chris Neitzert and his team, the site is now up and running. Throughout the interruption, our agents have of course stayed at their posts working with clients. But as the data center installs new equipment, it is possible that we will experience much-briefer interruptions in our website service around midnight tonight. We will continue to be available by telephone at 877-973-3346 or through the direct number our clients have for their agents.
For now, we apologize for the interruption in our service.

Aftermath of Realtor.com Blog Hack

Rebuilding the Realtor.com Team From the Ground Up

Trace Richardson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:48:11 +0000

Realtor.com is clearly in disarray. They not only refuse to acknowledge or communicate with their community, I have come to question whether or not they even recognize that a Realtor community exists. More importantly, I ask myself, if I were charged with rebuilding Realtor.com, reversing the brand and community damage and making a genuine effort to start a new relationship with Realtors, how would I do it?

A good starting point would be to review Loic Le Meur’s 10 Rules for Success. While the list is geared for startups, many of the ideas work just as well for established businesses.

Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

(via Financial Times)

BrokerScience Mortgage Marketing Blog » realtor

Dear Realtor.com: This is How You Communicate With Your Users

Rebuilding the Realtor.com Team From the Ground Up