6 Degrees Group

Facebook — No comments
18
Mar 10

More Analytics From Facebook

This announcement is perfectly-timed, as more and more clients are requesting statistics regarding their social media campaigns. Facebook is adding another level of analytics for Administrators of Fan Pages; introducing the latest addition to improved analytics - the new weekly email report.

Although the reports aren’t the most detailed in nature, they do offer the administrator a nice “snapshot” of traffic and engagement for the Fan Page.

Some of the stats covered are:

number of fans added
summary of wall posts, comments and likes in the past week
and the number of visits to your page this week, compared to last week’s visits

All of this signals the importance that Facebook is placing on insight into your Fan Page activity. The more details Facebook can provide regarding demographics, longer-term growth, and engagement trends

…..the more the Fan Pages will appeal to brands

……the more the brands will spend on Facebook advertising.

Makes perfect sense to us and we love the evolution of branding options on the world’s most popular social media channel.

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

New Media — No comments
26
Feb 10

Google Search & New Location-Based Options

Understanding the importance of locational searches, Google has just added a new “Nearby” tool to the Search Options. So what does all this mean? Just that users can refine results for a more custom search process which is focused upon location.

You have to try it out for yourself to actually experience the power of this new tool. To give it a test-drive, do a normal Google search, then select “Show Options” -> “Nearby.” This feature allows you to switch between your default location and a custom (of your choosing) location. Filter results by city, state or region. It’s all up to you!

Google is very aware of the importance of geo-tagging and location-based searches. The search giant’s location services will complement each other more and more, from location searches to social-media check in technology, all in an attempt to create an entire location-aware Google experience for the end-user.

Can you say “Location, Location, Location”?

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

Social Media Campaigns — 2 comments
13
Feb 10

10 Social Media Successes that aren’t measured by ROI

The greatest successes you will have in Social Media Marketing will not be able to be measured by the number of followers and fans. It is natural to want to quantify the success of a campaign by a simple number count. Since the work performed uses digital methods, many assume all ROI can be measured by number of clicks, impressions, mentions and forwards.

Many of our successes come in ways that aren’t so simple to quantify, yet yield a much greater ROI than a number count.

We’ve compiled a list of 10 successes we have had in just the past 10 days:

Approached via Twitter with 3 free press opportunities in national industry magazines
Local brokerage Facebook page hosted our community Facebook page as a favorite
3 communities dominated top 4 Google rankings through organic SEO
Official Facebook page for a city hosted our community Facebook page as a favorite
Received 13 thank you notes from homeowners, area businesses and local agents
Well known shopping center hosted our community Facebook page as a favorite
Fielded 56 questions about our communities
Twitter lists created by 12 area real estate agents and businesses naming our communities
Architect made our community YouTube channel a favorite
2 homeowners offered unsolicited testimonials

How much value would you put on an article featuring your property in a national real estate magazine or a homeowner offering a testimonial for your community? What about industry professionals, like well respected brokers and architects, endorsing your property publicly?

Half page ad in a luxury magazine $4,300
Weekend 3column ad in local newspaper $2,440
Monthly PPC campaign $2,900
.com online listing $600
online banner ad $260
Happy homeowner referring local co-workers to your property = priceless.

Big numbers are great, but in our experience, the strength of your relationships with homebuyers and the local broker-agent community yields the greatest number of qualified, relevant traffic through the door.

Have you had any unmeasurable successes in your marketing campaigns? We’d love to hear of other examples. Share with us!

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

New Media — No comments
29
Jan 10

Active Listening through New Media

Listening is part of the process of learning. In real estate development, traditionally, builders and marketing firms have projected what the demographics and psychographics of a target market would be based on past experiences in that location and based on the mix of units (size, floor plan type, price projections, style, finishes, etc.). It is amazing how many new tools are out there that can act as a real-time focus group!

New media, geotagging and mobile technology allow us to gain valuable, specific and increasingly relevant insight into the interests of a particular neighborhood geography and its demographic. By listening to our fans and followers and paying close attention to their interests and concerns, we are able to provide valuable content, build trust and potentially overcome objections.

How to actively listen through New Media:

Research by analyzing the analytics of a pre-launch campaign. Note what cities are most interested in your community and what VR videos, floor plans and price ranges received the highest number of hits or had the longest viewing time.
Google search your development name and see what bloggers, micro-bloggers and Yelpers are saying about your product and neighborhood.
Review who has listed your Twitter community and what/who else is on their list.
Review your community Facebook fans and see what other fan pages they have listed.
Create a blog and pose questions to your readers or approach a popular blogger to write about a particular subject that may help you gain valuable market insight.
Create a Gravatar, and when appropriate pose a question related to the hosts topic (i.e. Architectural style, Specific neighborhood…)
Post an open ended question on sites like Trulia or ActiveRain to gain Broker opinion. (i.e. What size space are your buyers looking for in X neighborhood)
Listen to feedback via mobile geosocial sites like Gowalla, Foursquare, Blockchalk, Yelp and Groundmap. Users can not only check-in via mobile and notify others through a tweet or Facebook message, but they also have the capability of leaving a review, recommendation or quick note about the place visited. Ideal for Broker tours, open houses, homeowner testimonials and unique new home events, right?

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

Twitter — No comments
16
Jan 10

What is a Twitcierge?

A Twitcierge is an online concierge created for lifestyle communities via a Twitter feed.

We are continually getting positive feedback from prospective and current homeowners, as well as, local small business owners and the real estate community on our Twitcierge style of Twitter use for lifestyle marketing.

By following hand selected local services and retailers, we are able to narrate the story behind a building and a community. This allows the readers to learn more than what may be found on a website or in a brochure. Neighborhood maps with points of interest are no longer static dots with addresses, as specific nearby amenities: entertainment venues, parks, retail and restaurants are featured to showcase lifestyle. Local businesses offer ongoing incentives, which are passed along to our followers via Retweets and also categorized as “local” on a list for easy viewing. We actively listen to our followers and request their input on the list. Homeowner recommendations and feedback is an important factor in providing real value. A sense of community is truly built within a community.

Real Estate Agents may follow our local list to gather helpful relocation tips for their clients or gain immediate insight into a particular neighborhood. Looking for the best lunch spots, dinner specials, current events, happy hour specials, a local florist, day spa or dog walker? It’s all on our local list. Having access to neighborhood content in one spot may also come in handy to create the perfect move-in basket.

Creating a Twitcierge takes time and effort, but it is a great way to add value to your Twitter campaign! How do you add value to your community followers? Share your ideas with us…we’d love to hear them.

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

New Media — No comments
09
Jan 10

Hopscotch anyone? How about Foursquare?!

Foursquare is a geosocial networking application that allows users to connect with their friends, update their location, and earn reward points by using mobile devices. The application is a free download and works with the iPhone, android, palm and blackberry (a blackberry app is being introduced next week). Tech Crunch on Foursquare

Foursquare was built as a mobile device that allows the end-user to explore their city, discover new places and share recommendations with friends, much like a mobile Yelp with Facebook undertones and the gaming qualities of Zynga. When you check-in to a particular place you are able to leave feedback for others, leaving a stream of recommendations, reviews or comments at each location. People check-in at all kind of places – cafes, bars, restaurants, parks, homes, offices. Foursquare keeps tabs on who’s the most loyal of all the regulars through a point system. The competitive spirit kicks in and participants are driven to unlock a new badge and move up the ladder to achieve the ultimate reward – becoming the “mayor”. Since so many users have their smart phones connected to Twitter, you often see tweets like, “I just ousted KBurghart as the mayor of Arterra.” If you’ve been to a place more than anyone else, you’ll become “the mayor”… until someone else comes along and steals your title.

Businesses in major cities are utilizing this mobile, social technology to drive traffic to their locations and many are rewarding their customers for the most frequent number of visits by offering a free coffee, happy hour pricing all night and even free hotel stays.

6 Degrees Group has recently put Foursquare into play at several of our new home developments. We believe it is an ideal traffic generator and incentive tool to gain testimonials about a community. Next time you introduce a new floor plan, model, phase or plan a Broker Preview event, try a promotion connected to Foursquare, gowalla or Yelp and incentify participants to check in and give a testimonial or review.
What are the benefits?

Drive REALTOR® Traffic
Reward the REALTOR® with Most Frequent Visits/Showings (Check-ins)
Word of Mouth Marketing/Buzz
Geotagged Advertisements (sent via Twitter)
Homeowner, Prospect & Broker Endorsement via social sites (Twitter/Facebook)
Homeowner Reward Programs (Mayor of Building)
Ability to Learn More About Target Market (Psychographic & Demographic)
Unique Opportunity to Listen/Obtain Feedback

What do you think about integrating non-traditional mobile marketing methods into the mix? Do you have any success stories that you’d like to share?

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

6 Degrees Group — No comments
31
Dec 09

Reflecting on 2009

Today is the last day of 2009 and just few hours from now a fresh new year will begin. This year has been filled with challenges and opportunities, with failures and successes. I will always remember 2009 as the year that I was tested, struggled & succeeded. Jeff and I spent our last day as newlyweds in 2009. We decided to formalize the new media consulting program we had been implementing for new home builders since 2007 and 6 Degrees Group was born. Loyalty, hard-work and commitment re-affirmed our faith. New relationships were quickly formed and old ones strengthened. Throughout the year we reflected on milestones met and felt grateful to our partners for their faith in us. In 2010, Jeff will celebrate 21 years in new home sales and marketing. I will be celebrating 13 years in real estate consulting and marketing, working side-by-side with my husband, which is an achievement on its own! 2010 will be a big year for us with new technology, new products and new services. We have a lot to celebrate and send our very best wishes to all of our friends, family and clients that supported us along the way.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6 (Yay – 6) – Happy New Year!!!! ok 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 W00T! W00T!

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

Twitter — No comments
28
Dec 09

10 Features of Twitter Often Overlooked

Twitter was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey and in November, 2009 had 22,481,568 unique visits (according to compete.com). Twitters credibility has increased dramatically as it recently struck deals with Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) as well as Google to provide real time search feeds benefiting all brands that create accounts.

10 unique Twitter features that we find compelling, yet often overlooked are listed below:

1. Favorites - Twitter allows users the ability to star favorite tweets. They can be your own tweets or others that you have enjoyed and re-tweeted. 6 Degrees Group uses this feature to “bookmark” our favorite highlights of a community so that readers can easily get a sense of the community’s features and market position without skimming through the news feed.

2. Lists – 9/30/09 Twitter announced that they would be adding a new feature – the list. This feature allows you to organize your followers or who you follow by grouping them into categories. Not only does this help industry partners easily locate other professionals, but it gives special recognition to those placed on the list.

6 Degrees Group uses lists in 2 ways: 1. We group local business and area attractions specific to each of our client communities (restaurants, wine bars, music and art venues, events, etc…) 2. We list local real estate professionals that take an interest in our communities by following along. This enables potential buyers to easily locate agents that are condo/loft/multifamily/leasing or area specialists. We look at this list feature as a way to show our appreciation and have termed it our long-term “Follow Friday”.

3. Website link icon - The icon link is often an overlooked marketing feature. Every community that has a Twitter feed should not only have a link to its website, blog or Facebook page on its Twitter page, but in turn these pages should contain a link back to Twitter. 6 Degrees Group always recommends that your community webpage and all eblasts contain a readily available icon for interested parties to click to read the latest real-time announcements from your community. This also helps your linkability and SEO campaign.

4. Location - Would you create a webpage without listing your location? It is important to list your location on your Twitter account as well. Real Estate is location sensitive. Someone with an interest in a San Francisco high-rise, leasing community or hotel may not be interested in one in Seattle.

5. Relevancy - Relevancy matters. Everyone wants to be the popular kid in school and have the most friends, however isn’t it best to have a handful of really great friends, rather than a roomful that don’t really “get you”? Simply put “who” matters more than “how many”. If someone who is relevant to your location or profession follows you, you have the opportunity to follow back. This can be a strong networking tool and just as in “real-life” you never know when you will be meeting this person face-to-face, if they are a source for referrals, if you have mutual friends or will be in need of their assistance in the future. A follow can strengthen not only your knowledge, but your network as well.

6. Video links - Links to videos can be attached as URL links in your Tweets. Services that allow you to shorten your URLs and track them are powerful for measuring click throughs. Video is continuing to grow and develop as higher broadband speeds become more widespread. Younger audiences are leaning toward a preference for multimedia and its popularity is growing. 6 Degrees Group likes using VR video, interview and testimonial links specific to a particular community in our Tweets.

7. Twitpics – Twitpic allows you to share photos on Twitter. An online photo album is created for your brand that allows you to upload and distribute photos in near real-time. 6 Degrees Group uses Twipics in community tweets to announce a new phase, model home or show off an event. Often we also include Twitter links to a community Flickr account embedded with keywords to reinforce the visual campaign.

8. Re-tweets Marker – Recently, Twitter introduced a new Re-tweets link that contains a 3 tabbed history with categories listed as (1) Re-tweets by others, (2) Re-tweets by you and (3) Your tweets, re-tweeted. This new feature easily allows tracking of brand mentions and forwards – allowing you more quantifiable measures of success. It also allows you to get to know the interests of those you follow and those that follow you more intimately by offering greater market insight -increasing your ability for quality content, customer service and co-promotion/endorsement opportunities. Additionally, it is a tool to find relevant people/brands to follow and followers – increasing your capability to create quality connections with Industry Leaders/Broker/Agents. The only negative we find is that many on Twitter use outside applications like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc… and are not apt to use this hard copy re-tweet feature, thereby decreasing the reliability of its trackable component.

9. RSS Subscription - Twitter truly is a microblog. Twitter brand pages are often updated more frequently than a blog. There is less room for journalistic editorial and creativity - it must be written in 140 characters or less. The subject matter is almost always relevant to the product because tweets must remain concise (aside from links). This is great for both organic SEO and busy professionals that are not able or do not prefer to spend a lot of time reading your community blog. An RSS feed is featured on Twitter pages where readers can subscribe to all updates. Subscribers receive updated information from the feed that is automatically downloaded to their computer and can be viewed in at their leisure.

10. Hashtags - Hashtags allow us to label our tweets. Multiple tweets with the same label can be searched and grouped. 6 Degrees Group adds hashtags to particular twitter posts or themes (promotions), as we would keywords. This enables us to create a listing of each time that post is re-tweeted or referenced.

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

Social Media Campaigns — No comments
18
Dec 09

Relevancy Matters

Relevancy does matter.

Social media is not a numbers game. It is about building relationships with the right audience. It isn’t difficult to get high numbers of followers and friends if you are open to spammers, adult sites and those using social networks purely for self promotion. There are auto-follow controls and even viral services that help your cause if you care more about quantity than quality.

Why is relevancy so important?

Think in terms of a weekend open house. Would you rather have 15 interested pre-qualified buyers walk your development in a weekend or 30 warm bodies that included: 8 agents trying to price their own listing against your product, 12 out-of towners waiting for a nearby retailer to open, 4 girlfriends looking for decorating ideas, 5 people hoping to win a free lunch and 1 window cleaner looking to promote their services?

Those new to social media spend too much time worrying about how many people are following or friending them instead of who is following or friending them and what those people are saying.

It is easy to make the mistake of measuring success by measuring the number of followers and fans. They are (after-all) at front and center, an easy gauge. They do look like a metrics of some sort and are quantifiable. The challenge is to see beyond all of this and go back to your roots, your target audience (prospects, homeowners, broker-agents, local businesses and media).

Some thoughts to consider:

When a follower/friend Retweets or “shares” your content, where does it go?
Are your followers/friends geographically significant to your building?
Are they truly interested in learning about your community?
What motivates them to follow along?
Do they have influence on your brand?
Do they provide helpful feedback and add value to your content?
Are you providing specific, relevant content about a community and positioning it in the marketplace or is your community lost in the corporate brand?
Are prospects, broker-agents and local merchants connecting to your individual development and endorsing it?
What do the businesses/people that your community follows and those that follow you say about your brand?

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

Facebook / SMO Getting Started / Social Media Campaigns / Twitter — No comments
01
Dec 09

Finding your Voice

In the world of advertising emphasis is placed on the voice that best represents your brand and appeals to your target audience. An advertiser will stress tone and rhetoric that can be carried throughout your campaign in order for your audience to identify with your message and your end product. Colors, font style and photographs are also hand selected to reflect the image the advertiser wants to portray.

Social campaigns add a clear voice to brands. They narrate the story behind a building and a community, allowing the audience to learn more than what may be found on a website or in a brochure. The bullet points come to life as they are expanded upon through video, photographs and article links. Neighborhood maps with points of interest are no longer static dots, as specific local amenities: entertainment venues, parks, retail and restaurants are featured to showcase lifestyle. A sense of community is truly built within a community. Opportunities for co-promotion and third party endorsements increase as relationships are built. Social campaigns have the ability to expand, adapt and deliver key messages to different market groups. It is where your prospects, clients, broker-agent partners and influencers will all convene to gather information about your product.

This brings us to the one crucial difference between how traditional and social marketing define a “voice”. In traditional methods, importance is placed heavily on the style of writing or “tone“, while social campaigns should be more concerned with value-added content or “message“. If you forget everything else, remember these 2 phrases when launching a social campaign: Be Authentic and Content is King.

Do not try to use social marketing as a traditional advertising platform with colorful sales language to pitch your angle. Instead, listen to your audience and deliver value-added content that they would find helpful. Feature specific amenities of your building by expanding your brand narrative to include content about a sculpture designed for your lobby entrance, low VOC paints, living roofs, concierge services and modern architecture. Feature special incentives, events and timely new release updates for your prospect and broker-agent audiences. Showcase your location within a community by spotlighting specific local businesses, events and service providers such as Movies in the Park, Jazz festivals, free tasting night at your local wine bar, neighborhood dog walkers and local moving companies.

While language use is still important, emphasis on “tone” should be reserved for web pages, brochures, press releases and advertorials. Social sites are places where “content” matters most.

Remember, the delivery of this content must be made in 140 characters or less using Twitter (including links) and 320 characters (with spaces) using Facebook, before expansion is necessary. This leaves little room for writers to showcase their skills. It does, however, open up an opportunity to add video that defines LEED or Green Point Rated, the Men’s Journal featured story about your neighborhood, an article in NY Times about your local gastronomical treasures or a homebuyer testimonial.

6 Degrees Group New Media for New Home Real Estate Developments, Leasing Communities, Resort Properties & Hospitality

6 Degrees GroupNew Media for Real Estate Communities & Hospitality

Active Listening through New Media

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Reflecting on 2009

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