What’s Next for FOREM?

The Future of Real Estate Marketing blog is a very special place for me. When I was getting my feet wet in this industry, FOREM was one of my go-to daily reads. The content that Joel Burslem created was no where to be found in 2006, 2007, and 2008 – back when people were saying, “Facebook – what is that?” When I came on board with Inman News in November of 2009 and was asked by Brad Inman, founder and publisher of Inman News to take over managing editing duties and become the primary writer for FOREM, I was honored, excited, and a little nervous.

I knew I had big shoes to fill, and had several conversations with Joel about why FOREM had the success and audience it did. A big part of it was the content – offering a fresh eye, talking about what was new and exciting and also looking at other industries to see the parallels to the real estate technology space. The other part of FOREM’s success was Joel’s personality. Anyone who knows Joel knows that he is a great guy – down to earth, super smart, and one of the nicest people you’ll meet.

So for the first couple of months, I tried to be like Joel and what I quickly realized, and any blogger reading this can relate, is that I needed to find my own voice. It wasn’t soon after January 2010 that I really found my rhythm. I started writing about things that I knew real estate agents wanted to know more about and things I was passionate about. I talked a lot about Facebook and Twitter – do’s and don’ts, getting started, and taking it to the next level. We also talked a lot about mobile technology – especially with the iPhone and the iPad. It’s hard to remember a time before those two devices!

In the fall of 2010, I started to bring in some fantastic guest bloggers to talk about technologies they were working on or to offer another point of view. Over the course of 2010 and now 2011, our readership grew and grew. I’m very proud to say that we increased our RSS readership ten-fold – literally growing from a couple thousand RSS subscribers to now almost 12K and quadrupling our number of page views. We also won the coveted “Best Blog Award” from NAREE (National Association of Real Estate Editors) this year – taking home the second place award – competing with blogs like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal real estate blogs. I say all this not to pat myself on the back, but to really give credit to you – our readers. It is our readers and our devoted audience who have helped form and grow FOREM; and through your feedback, comments and sharing – have made FOREM what it is today.

So what is next?

I think there is a huge opportunity to take FOREM to the next level and offer a larger variety of content, have more contributors, and reach a broader audience. I am excited to announce the official launch on Monday 7/11/11 of Inman Next, produced by Inman News. Inman Next will be a place for real estate agents to learn about the latest tips and tools in social media, mobile, tech & gadgets and events. FOREM will play a big part in Inman Next.

You will be able to find all of the content from FOREM on Inman Next – it will all be marked “Future of Real Estate Marketing.” Going forward, you will continue to see longer form posts and more in-depth articles marked as “Future of Real Estate Marketing” articles on Inman Next. I am collaborating with Chris Smith, co-founder of Tech Savvy Agent and now Chief Evangelist with Inman News to launch this exciting new channel. In addition to Chris and I, we have a fantastic list of contributors who will be submitting posts regularly to Inman Next.

Special invite

We will be launching Inman Next this Monday, July 11th at 11 am (PST)/2 pm (EDT) and I would love for you to be a part of our special launch event. Please go to Inman Launch and enter your email to receive a special invite to our launch event this Monday, July 11th.

Thank you for all of your continued support and contribution to FOREM. Please join me on Monday the 11th as we usher in one of the most exciting things to debut for real estate agents in a long time. I’ll see you there!

Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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