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It’s easy for AEs to focus on the items most visible to members: the MLS, the dues bill, emails. But in the association tech space, so much is happening behind the scenes that members will never notice—unless something goes wrong.
Associations track long-term projects, delegate among remote teams, plan complex events, and stay on top of legal news, forms, economic data and member questions—plus produce oodles of content. The main outreach tool used to be a once-a-month mailed newsletter, but today it’s blogging, emails, long videos, short videos, podcasts, social media posts and real-time live feeds for immediate interaction with, well, pretty much anyone.
With more than 11,000 members in a high-profile population center, the Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS® needs to stay on top of many moving parts at once. That’s why its staffers rely on multiple technology tools. For example, team members use Asana, a project management tool, to stay on top of tasks, and Teamup for managing calendars and dates. “I couldn’t live without Teamup for making editorial calendars,” says Christine Barnhart, GCAAR’s vice president of strategic communications. “We set up a timeline, or we make it look like a calendar. That’s the view I prefer.”
Barnhart’s team also uses Canva, a web app for developing any kind of graphics imaginable. “It’s so easy for anybody, whether you’re a designer or not a designer,” she says.
For member meetings, GCAAR loads a written speech onto a teleprompter that the speaker can see in real time, just as politicians do. The only equipment needed is an iPad with the app Teleprompter Pro. “A photographer uses a mirror on a stand to reflect the iPad to the person speaking,” says Barnhart. “We can control how fast the text moves and can edit on the fly.”
Not every association needs so much technology. Patra Brady has been the AE of the South Central Association of REALTORS® for 10 years. Over that time, her membership has doubled to 260. While she partners with associations in nearby cities like Richmond, her association is a good place for the needs of her members transacting in nine rural counties in central Virginia. “I think we provide a lot to our members being as small as we are,” says Brady, who is the sole staff member. “We’ll do anything to make their daily transactions easier.”
South Central offers industry tools such as SentriLock, InstaView and ShowingTime. It uses QuickBooks for financials. It has MLS data shares with its neighbors, and the website is hosted by the MLS. It just works. “I try to be available and have low-cost supplies in the store,” Brady says. “They don’t want to drive to Richmond and pay double for a sign.”
Saving Time With AI
At the National Association of REALTORS®’ Communication Directors Institute in Oklahoma City in July, one keynote speaker was Marki Lemons Ryhal of Chicago, who talked about the potential for artificial intelligence to create, enhance and repurpose all kinds of member communications.
In addition to being a real estate broker and NAR member, Lemons Ryhal is a podcaster, public speaker and sales trainer. To save time, she creates content once and repurposes it often for many channels.
“Video is the only form of content that you can repurpose without recreating,” says Lemons Ryhal. She uses Zoom or Zencastr for recording video. From there, she extracts the sound into a podcast, or she uses an app like OpusClip to create short, snappy videos for Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
AI tools like Fireflies or Otter.ai can extract written text for a blog post or email—that is, after Lemons Ryhal proofreads it with Grammarly, an online grammar tool. For example, she used Fireflies to automate the scheduling and summary of an interview call held with this AExperience magazine writer.
The AI-generated summary was not perfect. While the quality should improve over time, “I encourage everybody to go back and proof that content,” she says of AI tools. However, she adds, “I’ve never seen a set of human notes compare to Fireflies.”
Decide What You Really Need to Get Done
If our mantra is to ensure real estate agents who are REALTORS® remain highly valued by buyers and sellers in the transaction, technology is not the start or the finish. But it is the means to associations supporting members and creating a sense of belonging. It can also help associations meet Core Standards and strategic planning goals.
The real estate industry is blessed with high-quality and committed software providers, but they cannot fill every need and cannot always develop new features fast enough. For this reason, the wider business world is a great resource.
The web is full of apps, tools and services eager for you to sign up. They are attractively designed, easy to use and, most importantly, easy to learn. Many use a technique called “gamification,” which makes interacting with the app fun by using scores, leaderboards, bright colors and even avatars so you can watch yourself rack up points online. For example, if you’re learning a language on Duolingo, then you’re deep into gamification. This is not a bad thing, but be aware of your time commitment.
Another caveat for REALTOR® associations is that it can be too easy to get drawn into an attractive new app without fully understanding what you need to accomplish. It becomes a solution in search of a problem.
So, sit down with your staff, consultants and key members to think about what you need to get done. Perhaps your needs fall into categories like these:
- Planning and running events and classes
- Scheduling employees in the office, at events or at state/national meetings
- Communicating with members through email, the website and social media in a way that works best for them to receive your messages
- Carrying out new initiatives called for in your strategic plan
- Doing repairs or upgrades on your office building
Once you understand your needs, you’ll have a better idea of the right tools. You will not always get it right the first time. Because so many apps require pay-as-you-go subscriptions, the easiest way out is often just to cancel the subscription and look for something else. However, when you cancel, you will probably want your data that’s been stored in the app. Read the Terms & Conditions carefully. They usually say you own the data but not the technology. The easiest way is to export data to an Excel spreadsheet, but some services make that difficult and you must manually cut and paste. This is “vendor lock-in,” which is probably legal but definitely frustrating.
Also consider this final, important caution about using apps. The parties ultimately responsible for what your association produces are you and your staff. Remember to endlessly check, double-check, proofread and factcheck everything that you produce and release. This is especially true with AI: As such a young technology, it is fun and efficient but far from perfect. Every AI-generated piece of content that comes across your desk should be reviewed by at least one human before it goes out into the world.
