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Press Release: BLU Uses 2-D Barcode Tag for Virtual Model Tours and More

PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
Lennar Urban – BLU, San Francisco High-rise is 1st to use Microsoft Tag Barcode Technology for New Home Marketing

Polaris Group, a real estate sales, marketing and consulting firm, announced today that it is contracting with 6 Degrees Group to implement a smartphone marketing campaign by deploying Microsoft’s new 2D bar code technology, Microsoft Tag, for the penthouse release of Lennar Urban’s luxury downtown high rise – BLU. 6 Degrees Group released a new service to industry partners in January 2010 called ITS – Integrated Tagging Solutions, through which they pair barcode technology with specific, customized marketing objectives to capture the ever-increasing mobile market.

BLU is a 21-story residential tower over a single story podium containing a retail space and residential lobby at Folsom and 2^nd in San Francisco. Located in San Francisco’s vibrant South Beach -SoMa District, BLU will benefit from customized retail window and directional signage with tags. The frontage will feature a tag showcasing a virtual video tour of the new penthomes narrated by Sales Manager, Wendy Novia. Busy professionals in the area will be able to snap the signage with their smartphones to get the latest information at BLU before, during and after sales center hours. The custom tag will also be placed in the newspaper advertisement, allowing a multi-media dimension to a once flat ad.

Microsoft Tag connects almost anything in the real world to information and interactive experiences on your mobile phone. The “Tag” is a graphic image bar code that creates an instant connection to the Web via an end-user’s smartphone browser.

How does it all work? When a consumer downloads the Microsoft Tag application and then snaps a picture of a Tag, the application performs an action, such as opening a Web browser and taking the consumer to a URL or launching an online video. Consumers simply go to gettag.mobi to download the Tag application, and then they’re ready to snap away.

“Bar code technology for mobile devices is an emerging technology in the United States and has unlimited potential to increase the end user’s experience by expanding upon a message usually limited in print and sign media” said Kirstin Burghart, owner of 6 Degrees Group . “Microsoft Tag allows for the fusion of traditional and new media”, she said. “The potential for this technology is virtually unlimited as it empowers the consumer by giving the buying public the information that they readily need in a convenient and portable way”.

About Lennar Urban

Lennar is one of the nations’ leading builders of quality homes. With more than a half century of experience, Lennar is committed to Quality, Value and Integrity. These principles are the underlying foundation upon which Lennar was established, and this commitment continues to guide business decisions today.

About Polaris Group
Polaris Group is a sales, marketing and consulting firm with years of experience in successfully bringing new residential real estate to market in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

About 6 Degrees Group
6 Degrees Group is a new media marketing group specializing in real estate community branding.

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

Twitter — No Comments
30
May 10

Twitter is Everywhere

On a recent trip through picturesque Sonoma County, we happened across a road construction sign on the side of the highway informing motorists about future closures and road conditions affecting their travels along scenic Hwy 116.

For those of you who think Twitter is of little value or a passing fad, we respectfully disagree.

Click on the image below to watch the short movie clip.

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

New Media — No Comments
5
Apr 10

More Than Just Topography

New Bing Maps and Augmented Reality Bring Imagery to Life

Bing Maps has evolved into a robust mapping system, challenging Google Maps for a slice of the on-line mapping market.

Meta data, user-submitted images integration and with the introduction of augmented reality (physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery) overlay, Bing Maps has an impressive array of tools and gadgets to make it a toe-to-toe contender with the best of the mapping giants.

Finally, a real reason to geo-tag those Flickr photos. Bing will allow your property, community and the surrounding points of interest to come to life. Get on the map and become part of the virtual world!

Watch the video below to see what’s new in the world of Bing Maps. We’re sure you’ll be as excited as we were with all the new technology that will further enhance mapping visibility.

Gotta love competition and a free market place.

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

New Media / Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
24
Mar 10

YouTube Is Massive

WOW. YouTube has recently announced a huge milestone/statistic:

24 hours of video is now uploaded to the social video site every sixty seconds.

Just think about that stat for one moment. It may be hard to wrap your brain around the fact that for every second you are browsing YouTube, 24 minutes of video is uploaded to the site.

That is a 17% increase in upload rate from just 10 months ago…. An impressive increase by any standard and another statistic that video is here to stay and will become an even bigger player in your media mix.

More than two million minutes of video (or 34,560 hours) is now uploaded onto YouTube per day. Simply amazing!

The video site even provided a graph depicting its growth:

In less than two years, YouTube has doubled its upload activity. And of course, YouTube is owned by Google, so video will play an even more important role in organic SEO campaigns for your brand.

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

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

Social Media Campaigns — No 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
9
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

6 Degrees GroupNew Media for Real Estate Communities & Hospitality

Posts Tagged: 6 Degrees Group

Press Release: BLU Uses 2-D Barcode Tag for Virtual Model Tours and More

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