Hey Everyone -
In the coming week, we're planning on launching our new & improved company profiles. These new profiles will replace the current company system with more robust profiles that are interactive, and which do not require approval from our admins/mods.

That said, there are a few important things I want to bring up:

1 - We're looking for beta testers for the new companies system. As a beta tester, you will have the first look at the new system, and will be able to help us make sure everything works as intended. All that is required of you is to help us play with the system, and to take notes on any potential problems. If you're interested in helping us test it out, please let us know ASAP (below or by PM).

2 - As I mentioned before, the old companies system is being replaced. That means that if you currently have a company profile listed in the system, that profile will be removed. You won't have to do anything to remove it, but if you want a company listing on the site, you will need to create a new profile once launched.

The new company profiles will be far more robust than the current ones, and will have some great features to allow businesses to interact here on the site:

- You will not need a user profile to create a company profile, but we certainly recommend it.
- Companies will be able to create a blog on the site and will also have a dashboard feed that they can post to.
- If you follow a company, you'll be kept up to speed with the latest developments at that company, but otherwise, the new companies directory should not affect your experience on the site, unless you want it to.
- Companies will NOT be able to post on our forums. Only user accounts will be able to do so. We still believe that interaction between people is essential on a discussion forum, and we know that if we allow company accounts to engage on the forum, it will certainly lead to spam.
- Users will be able to create more than one company. We know that many of you have multiple real estate related businesses and we felt it imperative that those all have the opportunity to be represented on our site.
- You'll be able to switch between your user and company profile(s) effortlessly via the site navigation bar.
- Company profiles will also include a public feed so interested parties can see the kind of dashboard posts you're making to help them determine if they want to follow.
- Once you create a company, it will show up on your user profile. If you create multiple companies, you'll be able to select a primary company, which will be the one that shows up.
- Other employees will be able to join your company, and that can all be managed once you're logged in as the company.,

Overall, the new company profiles will allow our users to get a more exposure for their businesses. After almost 7 years of people asking us to let companies engage a little more, we're happy to announce that they will be able to do so in short order.

Again, we're looking for beta testers, so if you're interested, let us know.

Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for the launch announcement in the next week.

Joshua Dorkin

Podcast Guest on Show #100