November, 2009

Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
23
Nov 09

Print Advertising versus Social Media Campaign: Weighing the Pros and Cons

newspaper3Our ongoing series about traditional media campaigns compared to social media campaigns continues with a tried and true old grognard…print advertisement.
Unfortunately, print media readership/subscriptions are down. Smart newspapers recognized this trend early and have been introducing digital media to clients in order to retain market share and survive this paradigm shift.

Once again, 6 Degrees Group views social media as a compliment to, not a replacement for traditional print media.  In fact, there will be some very real opportunities to combine digital, mobile, social and new media strategies with traditional print in the very near future. We are quickly approaching some exciting times in the marketing/advertising world.  For now, however, we recommend shifting your budget to cover a larger, more varied audience base. When allocating your marketing budget, why not substitute one week of display ad in your current newspaper’s classified budget and launch a social media campaign?  For the cost of one week of display ad, you may be able to implement a monthly social media presence that can add valuable content to your brand narrative and help drive traffic to your website and sales/leasing office.

Print Advertising

Advantages

  • Allows you to reach a large audience in a geographic area
  • Fairly easy to update
  • Traditionally used to communicate inventory
  • Quick turnaround

Disadvantages

  • Expensive
  • Declining circulation
  • Static and limited text content
  • Short shelf life
  • Ad must compete with a clutter of competitor ads in one location

Social Media Marketing

Advantages

  • Cost effective
  • Allows for print, image and video to be effectively and engagingly utilized
  • Easily updatable in real time
  • Medium has interactive component – socially engaging
  • Compliments traditional media
  • Keeps campaign fresh with real-time communications and updates
  • Ability to be spread virally and endorsed by key industry and geographic influencers
  • Aids/Increases Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Facebook has more than 300 million active users w/ fastest growing demographic 35+*
  • There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.*

Disadvantages

  • Takes time to establish campaign rapport
  • Creative content and research requirements
  • Management is crucial, yet time-consuming
  • Certain venues (Facebook, Twitter) require user membership (albeit free)
  • CRM required (ability for negative feedback)

* Statistics from Facebook, November, 2009

Related Articles:

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

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Social Media Campaigns / Twitter — No Comments
13
Nov 09

15 Reasons Why Broker/Agents Should Follow New Home Communities

twitter_feed_4_blogAt 6 Degrees Group, we recommend and create Twitter pages for our lifestyle communities, real estate development and builder partners in order to continue their community narrative, create brand awareness within geographic regions and build relationships with local partners.  5 key groups are embraced: Prospects, Homeowners, Local Business, Press and the Broker-Agent community. Because we are licensed Brokers ourselves, we understand that a strong relationship with the local Broker-Agent community is important to the successful absorption of any development.

By becoming a follower of real estate communities where you do business, you are able to keep up to date on the latest featured properties, incentives, events, new models or phases releases at the development.  You are also reminding your clients, friends and followers that you have knowledge of these communities and are “in the know” by keeping in front of them.  While they may not currently be in the market, your friends may know someone looking to purchase a new home in the geographic area that you specialize in or someone looking to sell at the building.

15 Reasons Why Broker/Agents Should Follow Real Estate Communities on Twitter

  1. Trust – If you are associated with a product, buyers will trust that you know more about it than an agent who is not.  Name and face association with a brand also builds trust.
  2. Exposure – Be where buyers and future sellers are. Your face and name attached to a 24-7 online news feed increases your chance for new business.
  3. Knowledge – You will have access to more knowledge than the website and brochure.
  4. Communication – Be the first to know. Get the latest immediately - in real time.
  5. Name Recognition – Your name, photo and a link to your web page is attached to the community you follow.
  6. Expertise – Become an expert on particular buildings with access to updated, detailed information all in one easy to find location.  Share your expertise with buyers.
  7. Relationship Building – Engage, be genuine and build relationships by answering questions and sharing community recommendations. Show your support for a community, neighborhood and product. Be a part of the dialogue.
  8. Rapport –Develop rapport with other followers as a recognized member of a community within a specific geography.
  9. Commitment – Taking the time to follow a communities updates shows your commitment level to your work. You go above and beyond the expected.
  10. Tech Savvy – Are you up-to-par on trends?  Do you relate to your target audience?
  11. Marketing – see #5 and #2 (Exposure + Name Recognition)
  12. Events – Be invited in-person to network.  Put faces to names.
  13. Press – Receive access to relevant articles and press in one easy to find location.
  14. Community Feedback – Get real live information on your niche market, it’s like a giant focus group with invaluable information. Listen up.
  15. Referrals – If you aren’t networking via social sites online yet, you should be. Over 85% of buyers cite the internet as their first place to begin their search. Be seen. Be heard. Be knowledgeable. Add value to your service.

Recently, Twitter introduced “lists” as a way to organize and create categories of who you follow.  6 Degrees Group is using these lists to show appreciation to local broker/agents that follow our real estate communities by creating a custom category per development – tagged “real estate”.  Essentially, this  allows viewers easy access to identify REALTORs® and lenders that are “in the know” about our community and helps them grow their followers.

Some agents use Twitter purely to promote their listings and others use an 80/20 rule, tweeting personal updates with the occasional tweet about the local real estate market or a listing.  Many follow REALTORs® in other geographic regions to create referral relationships, or follow  REALTORs® at their specific brokerage to hear quick updates on listings.  Some corporate brokerage brands have created twitter accounts to provide customer service and build local community relationships, while sharing helpful real estate tips and promoting a list of their agents.

Twitter is a platform where you can create new relationships, strengthen existing ones and market your service professionally.  It allows you to engage in a dialogue with peers, endorse brands and promote services and businesses that you are passionate about.  It also is a way for your audience to learn more about you.  Do you specialize in a certain neighborhood, district or city? A type of real estate?  Are you passionate about the “green” movement?  Do you support local business?  Are you a fan of contemporary architecture or local arts?

At 6 Degrees Group, we believe in community building. We use Twitter for our communities like you would a concierge or a relocation list.  We tweet information about the local neighborhood/district, specials at your favorite wine bars and restaurants, announce art exhibits and free local events. We also follow local small businesses that provide valuable services to our communities and Re-Tweet (Forward) helpful tips, making it easy for local agents that follow our communities to share with their clients.

A list of our current new home communities can be found here @6_Degrees_Group/new-home-communities

Related Articles:

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

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Facebook / Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
6
Nov 09

The Importance of a First Impression

Billboard-for-bogFirst Impressions -

We’ve all heard the saying – “you only have one opportunity to make a first impression”.  While it may be a bit cliché, it is very true.

A positive first impression is an important start in building a solid relationship with your customer.  This is true whether the interaction is over the phone, in-person or online.

It is important, especially in today’s economic climate, that you create a welcome and pleasant experience for your prospects and one that builds rapport with your current clients.  Your marketing collateral, including your community’s online presence, must be appealing, compelling and current in order to stand out from the competition.  Professionally-produced websites can have outdated news feeds, outdated images and preconstruction VR leaving viewers confused as to the state of the development.  Blogs and microblogs often go ignored and aren’t consistently updated leaving the impression that new media is an after-thought or unimportant to its owners.  It is crucial that your community’s presence be up to date;  the viewing public is interested in the present and future, not the past.

Online media is often your first impression. Your social media presence deserves the same level of professional attention found on all of your marketing collateral.  Too often we see Twitter feeds and Facebook fan pages with underdeveloped or irrelevant content. Often these posts look like an afterthought.  The whole purpose of social media is to create an ongoing, up-to-date narrative that evolves into a dialogue of relevant and valued content for the end-user. If your property is not managed with consistent, relevant content updates that add value to the end user - your first impression will not be a favorable one.  Bottom line – if you are going to use this media, be prepared to spend the time to use it correctly or hire someone who will.

Steps to Take for a Positive First Impression:

  • Create a strategy and plan ahead – plan a campaign with objectives
  • Post regularly - be consistent, avoid i-phone updates and randomly timed posts
  • Make it count – provide content that is relevant to each point of contact
  • Create value-added content – avoid speaking only about you – offer value to your audience
  • Be flexible – primary prospects, events and important news changes, adjust content accordingly
  • Be knowledgable – know your point of contacts and why they would find value in your content
  • Manage the campaign – immerse yourself and understand SMM strengths, purpose and guidelines

A fully-managed social media effort creates a dialogue and keeps your community in front of the major influencers – key to any successfully managed social media campaign.  These key influencers include:

  • Broker/Agents
  • Prospects
  • Neighborhood Businesses
  • Press (New Media and Traditional)
  • Current Residents

Branding your community in today’s market is more important than ever.  Consumers are looking to be informed in their decisions and are collecting information via online searches and opinions.  More than 300 million people have Facebook profiles and over 50% of social media  participants are now endorsing their favorite brands online.  Twitter is becoming mainstream. Small businesses are cutting a larger market share by supporting one-another and finding new promotionl opportunities through local co-promotion events.  Unlike static online advertising, properly managed social media marketing sites give your target audience a reason to return. Acknowledging that fact and commiting to the process by embracing new technologies and branding methods is essential to whether your first impression will be a lasting one.

Related Articles:

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

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New Media / Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
2
Nov 09

Think You Aren’t A Part of New Media, Think Again

morning-at-homeThere are a lot of misconceptions that social media channels and new media are only used by GenY and younger.  Facts and statistics debunk that theory, but how about putting this paradigm shift into common sense examples in various age brackets?

I recently hosted a dinner party with friends and family from age 5 to age 66 at my home.  It was a typical Sunday evening dinner: children playing tag, parents chatting over wine and parents of parents talking about their recent travels.  But then something strange happened.  Suddenly I was hearing very familiar terms like “Facebook”, “YouTube” and “Yelp” in each conversation.  Immediately, I became intrigued…

While the 5 year olds played games on iPhones and pre-teens to teens were texting or showing each other photos and videos on their phones, the parents and grandparents were engaged in serious discussion over a bottle of Zin… My father hopped up from the table to change the ipod to some Ella Fitzgerald, while my mom got out her laptop to share some Flickr photos of recent travels.  Several friends were discussing a new restaurant in the neighborhood and I overheard, “It’s fantastic.  You should try it…I made it a favorite on my Facebook page.”  Then the conversation turned to travel.  “We had such a great time and the hotel was in the perfect location, so we could walk to everything.”  ”How’d you know where to stay, if you hadn’t been there before?”  “Yelp. We planned everything by doing a Yelp search – lodging, meals…”  Meanwhile, two of my friends were discussing a local festival and one friend said to the other, “You always know about everything that is happening around here, how do you keep track?”  “The other said, I follow all of our local spots on Twitter. You should totally do the same.  A lot of local businesses give away discounts and free stuff.”

The topic of whether or not someone had responded to an Evite yet came up.  Discussion of the grandkids pictures on Facebook came up, as well as, photos of  a new home.  The men gathered around the computer to show each other funny videos that they saw on YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook and were engaged in gut wrenching laughter.  My father ranted about inaccurate facts on a blog forum he reads.  My mom raved about how cool it is to get new Netflix recommendations because she can never remember movie titles that she wants to watch.  When her friends agreed, she said “I’ll friend you, since we have similar taste in movies, and that way we can share recommendations.”  They enthusiastically agreed.

We are already culturally immersed in all of the social media platforms, new media and technology at every age.  Many of us are participating in reviews and providing feedback to brands, while others are using ratings and endorsements to guide our decisions.  Think you aren’t part of the new media paradigm shift, think again.

Related Articles:

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

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New Media — No Comments
1
Nov 09

Building Maker – 3D Google Earth Buildings made easy

Adding 3D buildings to Google Earth just got a lot easier. Before, you were required to use Google’s Sketch up 3D program to add your building to Google Earth. Now there is the  simple to use browser-based Google Building Maker, coupled with the Google Earth browser plugin to add 3D buildings to any of the 50 cities worldwide where this project is currently active.

All the user has to do is simply align a 3D wireframe model of the desired building and a textured 3D model is saved to the Google Sketchup warehouse. Once your model is approved, your model will appear on Google Earth.  This adds dynamic imagery of your building to neighborhood amenity location maps.

Overall, we feel this easy-to-use feature will greatly enhance your 3D experience in Google Earth.  It would be nice to see this technology evolve into a virtual online retail experience for the end users.  Time will tell.

Have a look at the introductory video:


To get started with Google Building Making, click here.

Related Articles:

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

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