SMO « 6 Degrees Group

Posts Tagged: SMO

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

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

Facebook / SMO Getting Started / Social Media Campaigns / Twitter — No Comments
1
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

Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
23
Nov 09

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

Our 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

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

Social Media Campaigns / Twitter — No Comments
13
Nov 09

15 Reasons Why Broker/Agents Should Follow New Home Communities

At 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

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.
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.
Knowledge – You will have access to more knowledge than the website and brochure.
Communication – Be the first to know. Get the latest immediately - in real time.
Name Recognition – Your name, photo and a link to your web page is attached to the community you follow.
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.
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.
Rapport –Develop rapport with other followers as a recognized member of a community within a specific geography.
Commitment – Taking the time to follow a communities updates shows your commitment level to your work. You go above and beyond the expected.
Tech Savvy – Are you up-to-par on trends? Do you relate to your target audience?
Marketing – see #5 and #2 (Exposure + Name Recognition)
Events – Be invited in-person to network. Put faces to names.
Press – Receive access to relevant articles and press in one easy to find location.
Community Feedback – Get real live information on your niche market, it’s like a giant focus group with invaluable information. Listen up.
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

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

Facebook / Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
6
Nov 09

The Importance of a First Impression

First 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.

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

Social Media Campaigns — No Comments
22
Oct 09

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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