Posts Tagged: new home community

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.

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
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.

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

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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.

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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

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

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Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
22
Oct 09

“Build it and They Will Come”- Why it Doesn’t Work

high-rise-construction

It’s painfully true that you can’t simply build a beautiful product and it will sell itself, right?  There are certain measures that we must consider from inception through completion in order to have a successful community.  Location, Architecture/Design, Product Mix, Price, Demographics – these all must be considered for a successful development.

Essentially, it isn’t that different when developing a social media campaign. Build it and they will come…simply doesn’t work. Social media is not an advertisement for your brand. It is about engaging individuals, so that they can understand and gain affinity for your brand, thus driving them to make a purchase or to share your message with others who may.

1. Know your audience

You have to first know your audience and where they are before you can engage them. Identify your target market, what platforms they prefer, what common interests they may have, what topics would be of value to them and even what times of day they may utilize social media.

2. Put in the time

Often people have the misconception that if social sites are inexpensive or free, they can just throw together the minimum (create a presence) and it will do the trick. Quite the opposite effect, really. Social Media is a 2-way dialogue with value added content. Placing an “ad” in this medium will repel your audience and, in fact, may have a negative effect on your brand. It takes time to get it right.  If you want your social media campaign to succeed, be prepared to put in the time or hire someone who will.

3. Commit

Commitment is key to the success in any campaign, but even more-so in SMM. Your audience can tell if you are using social media platforms on occasion and upload basic content that benefits – you. The wrong impression can easily be made by staff that don’t really understand the point, don’t really understand the platform and don’t really feel like they “have time for this”.  You should not only have a team behind the scenes that is committed to consistency and quality of content, but also a team onsite at point of purchase that embraces the campaign. Social Media is about transparency. Your whole team must show commitment.

4. Strategy is not an afterthought

If you are going to roll out a social media campaign, at least get it right.  Create a plan and have a strategy that is best suited to engage the end-user. Marketing real estate isn’t the same as marketing a pair of shoes or big corporate brand. At 6 Degrees Group, we understand that your brand’s target audience will change over time, depending on inventory, pricing, square footage, sales levels and even the style of your floor plan. Create a plan that will embrace your unique audience at key strategic times within your campaign and be flexible.

5. Play by the rules

There are both legal rules and rules of social engagement to consider. Make sure your community social campaign manager is up to date on FTC, Fair Housing and Real Estate Advertising Laws. Additionally, you should ensure that the person at the keyboard understands how best to respond to inquiries and feedback. Remember, an unlicensed person should not be answering any inquiries that require a real estate license. Social media is a conversation and responses regarding square footage and pricing are often asked. That is why we have licensed Brokers at the keyboard at all times. What are your rules of engagement? Social media marketing is a blend of customer relations, PR, marketing, networking and advertising. Campaign management is best handled by someone immersed in the technology personally and professionally, understands your brand, its key influencers and the etiquette involved in this ever-changing medium.

Related Articles:

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

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Facebook — No Comments
15
Oct 09

Facebook Leads Visitor Loyalty

The goal of every brand is to obtain a loyal visitor following.  Brands should give consumers a reason to return and a reason to purchase. Social media platforms target the geographic and pyschographic parameters of your market in a location where consumers choose to be and to return. A new online survey suggests that Facebook is the preferred vehicle for such loyalty, even beating out the big boys at Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Chitika, Inc., a search-based online advertising network, conducted a study to test reader loyalty.  The study was based on a sample of 33 million unique users across the Chitika publisher network in September, 2009.  It compared the number of visitors coming from major traffic sources – Bing, Digg, Facebook, Google, Yahoo! and Twitter – to the number of times those visitors came back to the referred site.  For this study “loyal” is defined as a visitor who came to the site four or more times over the course of a week.  Repeat visits equate to interest in the site overall.

loyaltyreferring

Facebook definitely came in as the leader, with over 20% visitor loyalty.  As far as sheer numbers, Google wins hands down. However, social media sites such as Facebook continue to grow. This is compelling evidence that social media platforms are here to stay and will continue to play a major roll in advertising and marketing campaigns, both now and in the future.

Related Articles:

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

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6 Degrees Group — No Comments
12
Oct 09

10 Reasons to Hire 6 Degrees Group to Manage your Social Campaign

 

10 Reasons to Hire 6 Degrees Group to Manage your Community SMO Campaign

  1. 6 Degrees Group provides fully managed custom content campaigns to our partners.
  2. We handle all the time consuming tasks of SMO – research, planning, content and management.
  3. We offer an alternative to training & paying full-time in-house new media employees.
  4. We keep clients looking fresh with updated content and consistent communication.
  5. We are a niche consulting firm, providing an affordable alternative to big ad agencies.
  6. We understand your time is valuable. Our service frees up time for sales to focus on sales.
  7. When you hire 6 Degrees Group, you are hiring experienced industry peers.
  8. We know what content is important to point of purchase and broker/agent communities.
  9. We utilize appropriate language and context in accordance with real estate regulations and laws. <As Licensed Brokers, we can post/reply with pricing and square footage, unlicensed advertisers cannot.  It’s the law.>
  10. Extensive real estate, new construction and community lifestyle marketing background
    * Over 20 years experience in new home real estate marketing
    * Over 50 community partners
    * Member ULI (Urban Land Institute)
    * Certificates earned in Green Building and Architectural Design
    * Licensed Brokers in both CA and Oregon

Related Articles:

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

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Twitter — No Comments
5
Oct 09

Using Twitter to Market Your Lifestyle Community

twitterbirdWhat is Twitter?

Twitter is an online micro-blog with a 140 character limit. It displays real-time short messages that work via mobile texting, instant message, or the web. Worldwide, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to casual updates from friends.

How is this useful to my community?

You communicate to all of your followers and the twitter online community.  Your name and (icon), usually a logo or photo, appear in all of your followers pages and help reinforce your branding message.  For real estate communities, it is important to remember that geography matters. It is more important to focus your attention on key influencers within your geographic network than to gain mass exposure. Choose quality over quantity.  It is our philosophy at 6 degrees that quality over quantity can also be applied to the number of tweets. We prefer to provide followers with content that they would deem valuable (and spread to others), rather than to message them multiple times with content that is purely self-promotion and may be perceived as spam.

Communicate real-time updates:

  • Featured Specials (highlight a specific property, special price offerings)
  • Incentives (create urgency via specials)
  • Event Promotion (Grand Openings, new releases, cocktail parties)
  • Ongoing Communications (keep consumers coming back)
  • Press Releases (awards, features & articles)
  • Links (provide value added content via other social media accounts – Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Website)
  • Reinforce Brand Message (items that set your community apart)

Who are my (followers)  key influencers?

  • Prospective buyers
  • Purchasers (homeowners/repeat clients)
  • Broker/Agents (travel agents)
  • Press (mainstream – tv, radio, writers + bloggers and microbloggers)
  • Neighborhood Community Business Network

When is it best to begin a Twitter campaign?

If you are marketing a new construction development, we strongly recommend beginning a Twitter campaign 60-90 days prior to your Grand Opening event. It can help keep your prospects focused on your product, excited about upcoming opportunities, increase the relevant traffic counts at your opening event, thereby converting more prospects into sales in less time.  Bottom line, it helps communication and marketing momentum.

Gone are the days of relying solely on traditional marketing methods. Embracing new media is already widespread among most corporate brands. Consumers are demanding to be a part of the dialogue, endorsing their favorites and providing valuable feedback formerly given through the use of focus groups. The strength of your Social Media presence will define how effectively you can promote your lifestyle community to your target market. Quality content and an understanding of your audience is the key to being heard.

Twitter is just the tool – you are still the marketer who has to get it right.

A summary of how 6 Degrees Group uses Twitter in Lifestyle Community Campaigns:

PR (Earned Media/Third Party Endorsement)
Viral Marketing (Re-tweets)
Twitcierge: Strengthen Neighbor Relations + Adding Value
Link Campaign: Value Added Content (micro-blog ongoing narrative in 140 characters + articles/blog links)
Event Promotion (Brand integration/Co-tweet campaign)
Quick Communication (updates, incentives, press, etc…)
Relationship Management (community/neighborhood, Broker, consumer, resident, etc…)
1 Link in Body to web page, Facebook or Blog
Ongoing Links in 140 Characters to webpage, Facebook, Blog, YouTube, Flickr, Yelp

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 / Twitter — No Comments
1
Oct 09

15 Bad Habits that will Kill Your Social Campaign

dead-twitter1

Social Media Misguided

6 Degrees Group recently met with a client to begin planning a new media campaign for a community; the client summed up what we have said, in so many words, many times over – “I’d rather not have a presence than have the wrong one”. Let’s sum up “what not to do” when participating in social media, shall we?

 

15 BAD HABITS THAT WILL KILL YOUR SOCIAL CAMPAIGN AND GIVE THE WRONG IMPRESSION

  1. Vanilla. No custom avatar, no custom background or a page that is inconsistent with your brand.
  2. Non-committal. Posting 4 or 5 times with all the basics that can already be found in your brochure or on your website, then walking away as if the job is done. Your property sits unattended and looks dead. You meant to use social media as an advertisement, but alas that is a big faux-pas & your target will notice…it should be an ongoing dialogue.
  3. Inconsistency. Off to a good start and then it comes to a screeching halt. You’ve seen this. Check dates on postings and tweets of active pages, you will see what we mean. Our favorite no-no – PR or Media firms that upload 4 posts in a row and then nothing for a week or two, sometimes three. You can tell this a job to them, not a partnership.
  4. I-Phone Uploads. This isn’t your personal site, this is a professional presence in a social environment. You don’t show up in sweats to the office, do you? An occasional simple I-phone upload is not going to look unprofessional, but consistent 1-line uploads – yep.
  5. Quantity not Quality. It isn’t about #’s. It is about the right influencers within your target audience. Don’t cheat the system and end up with a huge random circle. Do find leaders in your industry, press contacts that may want to blog about your news, interests and geography that match your target audience. We realize this research takes time. Don’t take short cuts, this is important for the quality of your campaign.
  6. Frequency. Too frequent = spam; Not frequent enough = disinterest.
    (Know your target audience & what is important to them)
  7. Lack of Links. We’ve seen this far too often. Your Twitter page and Facebook page should also link to each other and back to your website. Additionally, links should be included in Tweets and Postings. Include links to YouTube, Flickr and Yelp accounts, when applicable. One of the top benefits of SM is its value as a linkable campaign.
  8. Adult Sites. They pop up, sure. Scan your followers and make sure to block them visually for your brand. We scan our accounts 2x per week to ensure a professional look. You should do the same. Beware of the auto-follow tools…your brand could end up looking like it subscribes to multiple adult channels.
  9. Language and Tone. We’ve seen it all…from tweets that would most certainly violate Fair Housing Laws to swear words, inappropriate slang, consistent poor grammar and spelling to monologues purely about the community without value added content.  Beware of companies that outsource internationally or delegate the job to a disinterested intern that is also tweeting about how boring work is.
  10. Wrong Tabs for Your Content. You can customize Facebook tabs and yet so many pages don’t go the extra step to edit the tabs according to relevancy of campaign content. Often we see pages created with video tabs and yet no videos to view and a review or discussion tab with no posts and only 3 fans. While I am here, I want to mention the selection of wrong titles for your channels. It is important to use a descriptive and location when selecting titles. So many brands we see give no indication as to location or type of product. It becomes difficult to sort through the selection in cyberspace and this lack of description also makes it more difficult to locate your brand in searches.
  11. Speed Dating. That is what we refer to when we see the mistake of jumping in and asking your audience questions or engaging them in a discussion before they have gotten a chance to know you. Too often we see a great question posed too early in campaigns and it sits unanswered.  Awkward! Remember, it is give and take. Be patient.
  12. Lazy Uploads. You’ve seen them. It may seem like a good idea at first. It does make your life easier to simply upload your blog or Tweets to your Facebook account, but it also makes it look like you are just trying to make your life easier. Is the same content repeated on all of your channels at the same time? Beware: This is how campaigns appear flat, lack dimension and engaging content.
  13. Zero Following. You allow others to follow you, yet you follow no-one. What impression does that give? It says, I am here for a monologue, on my soapbox and I’m important.  Pick 1 or 3. That is what the SM audience will think of you. Zero Favorites Pages on Facebook demonstrates lack of outreach and disinterest in networking with other local businesses in your network.
  14. Lack of SM Culture and Etiquette. It’s an entirely new world out there. There are certain rules of participation (spoken and unspoken) that will make or break your reputation as a participant or simply another spammer/advertiser. Want to be credible? Become a part of the culture and learn the rules of engagement or hire someone that is immersed in the culture already.
  15. Auto-DM. Its much better to send a #FF or a direct personal thank you for following. I used to think this was a nice feature (when I was a rookie), now I agree with the SM mob that find it irritating and spam-like. There is an entire campaign to un-follow any auto DMers out there. Did I mention that there are particular etiquette?

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
26
Sep 09

15 Reasons Why Broker/Agents should Fan New Home Communities

Blog_BLU_FB

At 6 Degrees Group, we recommend and create Facebook Fan pages for our real estate development partners in order to continue their community narrative, create brand awareness within geographic regions and add valuable content to existing marketing plans.  5 key groups are embraced: Prospects, Homeowners, Local Business, Press and the Broker-Agent community.

It seems most agents are on Facebook, but feel uncomfortable using Facebook as a tool to promote their business.  We agree that personal Facebook pages should be kept personal.  You are on Facebook to interact with friends and peers and to strengthen existing relationships.  New listing and sales updates can be provided through a website link on your Facebook page.

HOW DO SMART AGENTS USE FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS?

So how do you create new relationships, strengthen existing ones and market your service professionally, while keeping your Facebook page strictly personal?

  • Become a fan of real estate buildings in your geographic area.
  • Are you a condo, townhome and loft specialist? Fan specific types of real estate pages and interact by adding your voice and allowing the community to get to know you.
  • Request your brokerage create a fan page, and company agents become fans.
  • Create a neighborhood fan page where you specialize OR follow another one and lend your voice as you would on someone’s blog, adding insider tips and recommendations.

By becoming a fan of community pages where you do business, a message is sent out stating that (your name) is a fan of  Blu Condominiums in San Francisco.  A Blu Condominiums link is also placed on the info tab of your Facebook page.  You are now where your future clients will be.  Additionally, you will receive real-time updates from this community that may include special events, promotions, incentives, local neighborhood services and developer/builder specials on featured properties.  Your name and photo will be placed on the fan page showing that you are knowledgeable about the building or neighborhood, have existing clients or are a candidate to represent future buyers and sellers.

You are also reminding your clients, friends and followers that you have knowledge of these type of communities and are “in the know” by keeping in front of them.  While they may not currently be in the market, acquaintances and  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 Fan Real Estate Community Pages

  1. Trust – If you are associated with a product, buyers will trust that you know more about it than an agent that 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 bulletin board 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 – You name and face becomes more familiar.
  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 – Show your support for a community, product and an appreciation for their efforts to be a part of the dialogue.
  8. Rapport –Develop rapport with other fans as a recognized member of a community within a specific geography.
  9. Commitment –This step 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 – This is an indirect, free marketing platform for your business.
  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 – Listen. Get real live information on your niche market, it’s like a giant focus group with invaluable information.
  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.

Related Articles:

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

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