Follow Friday: Eric Bryn

It’s a real challenge to find clear distinctions between observations and commentary in online media. The web is littered with blog posts that are opinions, repackaged opinions, and responses to repackaged opinions. Now don’t get me wrong, I love good analysis and commentary. But it’s always good to get the full and complete source along with it.

My “Follow Friday” this week is a guy who always does a great job of this.

Why follow Eric Bryn?

In the whole Observe/Orient/Decide/Act (aka OODA Loop) strategic method, being clear on what’s an observation and what is someone’s analysis or commentary is critically important. For those who can find meaning in original research, finding original research and data is critical for making meaning and informing better decisions.

I first started paying attention to Eric Bryn after meeting him at an Inman Connect in San Francisco a number of years back. We were at a vendor party, the place was packed and loud. But we quickly got into talking about web analytics and how traffic data can be put to work in the real estate industry.

Eric was one of those guys who not only got this stuff, but was already doing it and thinking it. Later during the conference I saw him on a panel discussing A/B testing and ways to optimize a home page in a sort of live “real estate site makeover” kind of thing. His comments during that session were spot on.

But what ultimately makes Eric a great person to follow is his ability to find original research online, tease out a few worthwhile insights and then provide a link to the original research. For those of us who are tired of getting pre-chewed opinions on the usual suspects of research and white papers, Eric’s ability to find solid research and willingness to share is a goldmine.

There are, of course, a lot of ways to follow Eric Bryn. I recommend, first and foremost his blog (it’s one of very very few that get directly emailed to me whenever there’s an update), Real Estate Relativity. Given that Eric’s blog is filled with references to research papers, the blog should be of value to those in industries that aren’t real estate.

Other ways to follow Eric Bryn:

• Meet him in person at a conference, I’ve seen him at Inman Connect and several other tech/real estate events.
• Eric Bryn on Twitter
• Eric Bryn on LinkedIn