A LOT of stuff has been written about Wave and how it will revolutionize communication.  While I don’t have much more to add to that discussion, I would like to offer my review of using it for about two weeks.

First Few Days: Barren as the Antarctic

Yeah, so it was ‘cool’ to be in the first wave of nominations that went out (thanks Dan!), but man, there simply weren’t a bunch of my paesans there to try out this new medium.  Thankfully, Dan and I tinkered, crashed a wave or two and generally kicked the tires while we waited for more folks to join in the fun.  The good news was that this ‘forced’ me to do some research and see what was already out there in the form of bots, extensions and how to search public waves.

Since then…

Many of my SocNet friends have gained their nominations and joined in the Wave.  Kinda fun breathing deep that “shiny new object” smell.  You know, kinda like that new car smell? Except not so automotive…

For sure, Wave is still experiencing growing pains.  For example, one feature that was present from the beginning was the “green dot of here-ness.”  This dot simply showed whether someone was online or not.  It disappeared and has recently made a reappearance, though it only shows the current user as online and nobody else, regardless of their status.

A few more features that need to be implemented:

• better contact management –> too easy to add someone you didn’t mean to a particular wave
• better wave management –> currently can’t remove someone from a wave unless you are that person
• GUI needs to be tweaked for better contact and wave management –> kinda clunky and too easy for confusion

Sounds Kinda Rough.  Is It Ready for Prime Time?

While Wave is a bit on the rough side right now, the potential is staggering.  Currently, with patience, a little spit and polish, it has been pretty easy to collaborate with a few folks on some upcoming projects.  Agendas have been proposed, revised, edited and finalized all while being able to track who made what changes…in real time!  And if we’ve needed to go face to face or ear to ear, there’s a plugin for that!

Wave is not ready for prime time just yet.  However, if you and your associates are willing to be patient and want to explore the edges of modern communication, this medium is a riot!  It is too simple to drop YouTube videos, pictures and other resources right in the middle of the conversation…and not just out of sheer goofiness!  Wave makes getting your point across a lot more fully fleshed out than a word document or email.

Collaboration is Key

So, uses that I can see for Wave immediately.  Yeah, so I’m a real estate guy, right?  I can see where Wave can be used to collaborate between agent and buyer, the homes that are being considered.  At the buyer’s discretion, I can see a lender being added to the wave to discuss financing, with auto-updating rate sheets.  Or even allowing access to folks whose opinion the buyers value.

I can also see a setup where emails are delivered right into a wave and addressed by the wave collective.  Kind of a customer support on crack.  If you have a distributed team, your CS could potentially be 24/7 worldwide and every CS member would see what had been asked and what had been documented via Wave.

Once screen sharing makes an appearance in Wave and it becomes more stable, presentations will change forever.

Honestly, the possibilities only accelerate from there …

Some Initial Wave Tips to Share:

• First tip : to search for other, open, public waves, type- with:public
• This will return a list of ALL public waves. Want to search for other waves? Modify the search string. To search for real estate type – with:real estate
• In order to add yourself to a public wave, be sure that your own googlewave contact is in your own contact list. Therefore, when you want to participate in a public wave, you simply hit the + button and add your contact to that wave…
• To “embed” a video, simply grab the URL of the video, paste in your new reply, and a little light bulb pops up at the end of the URL asking if you would like to embed the video…
• To create a public wave: Add public@a.gwave.com to your contacts and add the bot to any wave you’ve created that you would like to be public. To date, you will need to add this bot EVERYTIME you log back into wave if you want to add it to a wave.

Hello?  Is this thing on? Any brokers here?

Where are the brokers in the social media space across the internet?

Real estate agents have been on this bandwagon for a few years now:  Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube…  And a few brokers, to their credit, have jumped into the social media space.  They are the forward thinkers amongst their peers.

Sherry Chris, the CEO of Better Homes and Gardens has a good post about the book “Marketing in the Groundswell” by Charlene Li and what has(n’t) happened within national and regional real estate brokerages.

Sherry is to be commended for actually engaging, not only the agents in the real estate industry, but consumers.  Imagine the “risk” that she has exposed herself to…or has she really?

She has pushed towards more transparency and clarity within real estate as a whole industry.  And now she’s asking a vital question of her fellow brokers:

What does this industry need to look like to capture the interest of  the customers of today and tomorrow?

As an agent pushing the envelope of technology within real estate, I’ll phrase the question a little differently:

Where are you guys? Business models are BORN out of this kind of disparity!

Brokerages would benefit greatly from seeing Sherry’s foray into the social networks.  In an era when our public officials try for transparency, or at least the appearance, it is great to see an industry leader practicing it.

Accountability and Candor

Over at deadlyvipers.org, there’s a nifty post on a book entitled, “Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust” by John Kador.  The third point, in the brief post, says it all about Kador’s findings:

3. Leaders who don’t know how to apologize are seen as liabilities.

It would appear that open candor and accountability are slowly making a come-back as desired traits for people in leadership roles.

“But Todd, this post was supposed to be about social media and real estate brokers.  What does accountability and transparency have to do with how brokers utilize a new(er) technology?”

With information at anyone’s finger tips through a quick Google search, it is extremely easy for anyone to fact check claims, boasts or intentionally deceptive statements.  So, if a broker or agent makes a wild claim, the consumer can dismiss or validate the claim with no other intervention than a quick Googling.

Back to Sherry…

She “gets it,” and is actively seeking ways to push her brand further afield by creating value, backing up claims with results and showing all who care to see, exactly what is happening.

I’ll leave you with Ken Brand’s comment from Sherry’s post:

Interesting stuff.

I see a few things.

A. Old guard, hanging on for dear life, hoping to survive long enough to retire/exit/sell/fade away. (slow toast)

B. Old guard clueless and scared shiftless. (fresh toast)

C. Solid leadership skills; set savvy strategy, rally the troops, inspire the troops, wise enough to hire 2.0 trainers/speakers/presenters, savvy enough to retain and attract talent that embraces the 2.0 future. Dabbles in 2.0 but is currently personally uncommitted. (a two slice toaster)

D. Radioactive Always On Killer App Toaster Oven = The Skill set of C + the Mind set to embrace, point and shoot 2.0 connection/converstion tools and toys.

The immediate future belongs to C & D. The long term future belongs to D.

Which are you? And what can you do to make it to become the “Radioactive Always On Killer App Toaster Oven?”