Testing The Trulia Voices Widget

18 Responses

1. Maureen Francis

   February 29th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

   1

   Something in my browser made it impossible for me to get my voices RSS feed. After 10 minutes of frustration I decided that the 2 trulia widgets I am already sporting are more than enough. Frankly, I don’t really want to lead traffic back to my voices answers either.

2. Kristal Kraft

   February 29th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

   2

   Trulia answers has turned into a big mucky mess. I think the powers that be would do well to have “answer cops” policing the people who feel compelled to provide answers despite the fact they are totally clueless.

3. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. Was that fast enough Jay?

   February 29th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

   3

   Hi Jay! - Thanks for trying out the Voices widget. Interesting suggestions. Re: question #1 - What if you have more than one answer on the thread? Maybe show all in reverse chronological order? Would you just want to show your answers? Re: #2 - That would be nice.

   Also, as you suggest, choosing the number of questions to display is a good idea. More choices the better.

   Thanks again for the feedback Jay. I’ll shoot these ideas off to the team for review.

   Hi Maureen! - Really? Which browser are you using. Come on, you can never have too many Trulia widgets in your sidebar

   Re: Leading readers back to your Voices answers - Curious, why? What if you answered a question that a potential client had on their mind? Now they would be able to see your thoughts on the subject.

   Hi Roberta! - Mucky mess? Oh my goodness What are we going to do? Think of it this way, it just makes you look that much better. Seriously though. we do have guidelines in place but people are people. Nobody is perfect. So we look to the community members to flag inappropriate content and the community relies on successful agents like yourself to jump in and provide the correct information. Once again, another opportunity to showcase your expertise as a well informed agent.

   Best,

   Rudy
   Social Media Guru at Trulia

4. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. oops! I meant Kristal.

   February 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

   4

   ooops! I meant Kristal - KK

   Guess I had Mrs. Murphy on my mind………..

5. Kristal Kraft

   February 29th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

   5

   LOL, I was happy to be mistaken for Roberta! Figured you must be sleep deprived for sure…

   I like your response, but have you considered having a Hall Monitor to bounce out the junk answers? Perhaps appoint one for each state.

6. Maureen Francis

   February 29th, 2008 at 1:43 pm

   6

   Rudy, my browser is firefox.

   As for part 2, I really see no benefit to me to having my readers see my answers on Trulia. Most of the questions I answer do not pertain to my target market though they are usually from my state. The questions tend to be quite specific and I don’t think they would really be of interest to my local readers.

   The other Trulia widgets are cool. I don’t see a benefit to me from the voices widget, personally. I like the market info and the listings widget. I was going to test the voices widget until I ran into the snafu, but I am don’t think I will try again even though I am a Trulia fan.

7. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. Hi KK!

   February 29th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

   7

   Hi KK!

   That’s a good idea KK. But I think we had this conversation in Denver last summer while you were on stage. Something about compensating volunteers with shoes I’ll discuss the feasibility of it with the team.

   Emily is our top Customer Service rep and she along with a few other people monitor Voices. But largely, we rely on the community to police themselves.

   Overall, great suggestion KK!

   Rudy

8. The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

   February 29th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

   8

   Just under 1.5 hours Rudy. And at lunch time no less. Not bad!

   Didn’t think of multiple answers to same question… need to ponder… Actually having the answer in the widget may be good enough. When I wrote this, I didn’t realize that long answers were truncated (as they should be).

   Worked fine with Firefox for me. Google reader kept wanting to grab the feed URL, so I had to work around that some.

   As for answer cops/hall monitors… that’s a tricky one. No one likes a heavily moderated forum. Where so you draw the line? Do you boot an answer that isn’t wrong so much, but just stupid? (for example an agent in CA answering an AZ specific question that they obviously have no clue about. So they answer in gross generalities)

9. Maureen Francis

   February 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

   9

   Ahhh. That is what the problem was. It was that Google reader was trying to take over…. Now I remember. I did not have the patience to find the work around.

10. jay

    February 29th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    10

    I tested out TV on the front end. What did I find?
    A bunch of desperate agents spamming the trulia voices arena outside their markets so they could increase the number of answers they had on record. It was pathetic. Has it changed? Or do agents still participate outside of their marketplaces? Nothing is worse than real estate spam. It ruins it for everybody….

11. Louis Cammarosano

    March 1st, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    11

    Rudy

    Any chance of Renaming Trulia Voices “Jeopardy For Reators”? If not I’ll end the campaining for it here.

    Congrats on the new features and good luck working the bugs out.

12. James T Boyer

    March 1st, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    12

    I know Rudy has heard me on this before, but I think they are sending the wrong message to those of us who know that trulia is putting no follows on the Realtor links which go with the listings that REALTORS upload to Trulia. I think it is just a sign Trulia is very much trying to compete for the same market place that many of us web savvy REALTORS are competing for. Nice post though.

13. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. Nice to be here!

    March 2nd, 2008 at 7:02 am

    13

    Hi Jay!

    Cool.

    Yeah, every community needs guidelines. However, letting the community police itself to a certain extent may be more healthy than having a hall monitor. We do receive feedback from community members informing us of comments that may be a little extreme or against out guidelines and act accordingly.

    Regarding this point:
    (for example an agent in CA answering an AZ specific question that they obviously have no clue about. So they answer in gross generalities)

    I agree and disagree with you on that point.

    AGREE because each state and community is unique. “Specific” questions about things such as state laws, standards of practice, local trends, community features, etc…. may be better answered by those who practice in those local areas. Maybe if those agents outside of those areas prefaced their comments or posts by saying that although they are not from the area in question, they’d like to add their 2 cents as to how they do it in our area. That might lead to a more fruitful conversation. Everybody’s Voice Counts!

    DISAGREE because savvy and knowledgeable agents can and do add value to real estate conversations outside their local geographic area of expertise everyday. e.g. blogs If agents only answered questions on forums or blogged about their local market then I would have never met you Jay and what we all now know as the re:sphere would not exist. That would be a shame. So, I think we can all learn from each other, even when we are thousands of miles apart I know I have learned a tremendous amount from you and many others around the nation over the last 2 years. Priceless.

    Rudy

14. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. Nice to be here!

    March 2nd, 2008 at 7:04 am

    14

    Hi Maureen!

    Ah, so that Google reader is at it again

15. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. It's still Nice to be here!

    March 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 am

    15

    Hi Jay!

    See my previous answer

    Addendum: As with any community or forum, it takes time for the culture to mature. Voices is one of the fastest growing segments of our site and the community is really growing. Conversations are increasing. Quality is improving. Connections are being made. We are listening to all feedback.

    Everybody’s Voice Counts!

16. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. Everyone gains by the conversation...

    March 2nd, 2008 at 7:22 am

    16

    Hi Louis!

    I’ll take Trulia Voices for a $1,000!

    Hmm? Unless Alex Trebek comes on board, maybe not But, never say never

    Thanks for sparking an idea Louis……….

17. Hi! I'm Rudy from Trulia. Are you following me?

    March 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 am

    17

    Hi James!

    As I mentioned to you before, we just decided to share our link juice with our community in a different way - through our members profile pages. That’s how we share our link love. It’s quite potent actually.

    We’re here to support agents and brokers. As you may or may not know, we send interested and savvy buyers and sellers directly back to your clients exclusive listings on your website for FREE. Voices is a FREE community where agents can interact directly with buyers, sellers and other agents for FREE. Not too shabby….

    Everyone has a choice on what forums, blogs and platforms they want to participate on. Understanding your ROI, which can mean a lot of things to different people, is important because your time, effort and energy are valuable. Try new things. If they work for you, then great. If not, no harm no foul.

    Have a wonderful Sunday!

18. Jayson

    March 2nd, 2008 at 9:56 pm

    18

    That’s a pretty slick widget and a great way to get traffic and exposure. I agree - they do have a pretty smart team over at Trulia -