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Jun 26
2009
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Turn Key Social Media Product Offering for Apartment Communities
Posted by: Eric Brown on Jun 26, 2009 01:00 Tagged in: Untagged
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Well, it has happened! Someone has created a Turn Key Social Media Product Offering for Apartment Communities. That someone, being Daniel McCarthy, chairman and CEO of Network Communications, Inc. (NCI), one of the nation’s largest local media companies, with web sites and local magazines serving the housing market are launching the first commercial service providing customers with customized and individual content creation, management and distribution service.
They are calling it CommunitySherpa. It is a turn-key social media marketing service for the multi-family industry. The service, which is provided at a fixed monthly cost, provides for web development, content creation, content management and distribution, and social network maintenance. You can learn more about it at the CommunitySherpa web site. CommunitySherpa is the first of a series of internet marketing services, focused on content creation and management, that they intend to launch through their DigitalSherpa Operations division.
Dan reports on his blog, Viral Housing Fix;
I hope our friends in the Apartment Social Media Space will at least wait and see how this launch goes before the criticism begins to fly. I have already heard rumblings of what it is not, which may or may not be true, we all shall see. I myself am usually a pretty quick shot with my opinions, which does not always serve me.
Hats off to Dan for being the first to deliver a Social Media Product to the marketplace. And, although this is a conversation for another time, this endeavor will put to rest the whole Scalability Issue that we all continue to debate.
They are calling it CommunitySherpa. It is a turn-key social media marketing service for the multi-family industry. The service, which is provided at a fixed monthly cost, provides for web development, content creation, content management and distribution, and social network maintenance. You can learn more about it at the CommunitySherpa web site. CommunitySherpa is the first of a series of internet marketing services, focused on content creation and management, that they intend to launch through their DigitalSherpa Operations division.
Dan reports on his blog, Viral Housing Fix;
We’re looking forward to providing this suite of services to the marketplaces we serve. We believe it plays to the remarkable strengths of our business. And, we believe that these services will be able to deliver a new kind of Internet marketing to our customers, who will benefit in their Google PageRank from fresh and relevant content; in their connections with their current customers in the development of their social network; and in the expansion of their pool of prospects in the broad array of connections that their own network brings to bear.Dan and Company at CommunitySherpa, Bravo! Although I have not used the product it seems to me that you will be wildly successful with this, as you have designed a Product Offering that is very affordable, and you already have your own Community of Customers.
I hope our friends in the Apartment Social Media Space will at least wait and see how this launch goes before the criticism begins to fly. I have already heard rumblings of what it is not, which may or may not be true, we all shall see. I myself am usually a pretty quick shot with my opinions, which does not always serve me.
Hats off to Dan for being the first to deliver a Social Media Product to the marketplace. And, although this is a conversation for another time, this endeavor will put to rest the whole Scalability Issue that we all continue to debate.
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Comments (7)
Thanks for the positive approach, Eric. People were very interested in the service at the show and we've got a bunch of communities to take live, so discussion will be able to move from conjecture to observation in fairly short order.
I'm afraid I didn't do justice to our intent during our conversation, Mike. You are absolutely right that we aren't offering a service to manage the social dialogue, and that communities will continue to need to respond to their residents and to participate in services like Yelp.
Our focus is on having a very specific and customized content plan for every community and dedicating professional editorial resources to help to solicit, create and coordinate content about that community. This includes soliciting on-site contributions, developing content contacts in the local market, and deploying our own staff in the market to events to take photos, etc. when appropriate. So it's not one-size fits all; our effectiveness is going to depend on how well we learn the community and reflect its energy and identity in such a way that people want to participate and join the conversation.
We're also going to monitor all of the social identities that we establish in order to alert the community to any issues or negative dialogues that they absolutely must engage with.
The SEO/SEM play is a natural by-product of the content creation. But my private yardstick for the success of CommunitySherpa is all about how well we understand and reflect the energy of the community.
I'm afraid I didn't do justice to our intent during our conversation, Mike. You are absolutely right that we aren't offering a service to manage the social dialogue, and that communities will continue to need to respond to their residents and to participate in services like Yelp.
Our focus is on having a very specific and customized content plan for every community and dedicating professional editorial resources to help to solicit, create and coordinate content about that community. This includes soliciting on-site contributions, developing content contacts in the local market, and deploying our own staff in the market to events to take photos, etc. when appropriate. So it's not one-size fits all; our effectiveness is going to depend on how well we learn the community and reflect its energy and identity in such a way that people want to participate and join the conversation.
We're also going to monitor all of the social identities that we establish in order to alert the community to any issues or negative dialogues that they absolutely must engage with.
The SEO/SEM play is a natural by-product of the content creation. But my private yardstick for the success of CommunitySherpa is all about how well we understand and reflect the energy of the community.
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Dan, I appreciate the further clarification and the continued discussion in this forum. I don't believe you are taking a one-size-fits-all approach, and I never accused you of doing so.
However, I stand by my original comments that I have reservations about handing my brand over to a company that has no connection to my customers. It still feels a lot like a broadcast content play ... there doesn't appear to be much social about the service except the sites where you'll be syndicating content. You simply can't (nor shouldn't) be the voice of the community to its residents, at least not without disclosure.
My greater fear is that those in our industry who were reluctant to jump into social media in the first place will now have another excuse to ignore opportunities to expand their web presence beyond the services you'll be providing. That's certainly not your fault, and it's not your company's role to solve that issue, but it's bound to happen.
I really do wish you and your team the best of luck with the service.
However, I stand by my original comments that I have reservations about handing my brand over to a company that has no connection to my customers. It still feels a lot like a broadcast content play ... there doesn't appear to be much social about the service except the sites where you'll be syndicating content. You simply can't (nor shouldn't) be the voice of the community to its residents, at least not without disclosure.
My greater fear is that those in our industry who were reluctant to jump into social media in the first place will now have another excuse to ignore opportunities to expand their web presence beyond the services you'll be providing. That's certainly not your fault, and it's not your company's role to solve that issue, but it's bound to happen.
I really do wish you and your team the best of luck with the service.
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Dan and Mike, Thanks for stopping by and continuing the discussion. Dan, your product is brilliant because it is affordable, timing is great and it is really easy for a Marketing Director or Property Manager to place the order.
You actually have something you are selling, I love that part. That has been an issue with Social Media, what is the product and what tangible item are we selling.
As opposed to getting hung up on the semantics of what is or isn't Social Media, (we all get really stuck on that and it doesn't move the process forward) I have a different question.
The "content" that you will be creating, if applied correctly, and I am sure it will be, could/will significantly increase a communities web traffic, and certainly will increase a communities Page Ranking on a Google Search, particularly if you can achieve inbound/outbound links. This isn't theory, it is what we did at Urbane, and once Mike (Mike Whaling @30Lines does a lot of work for Urbane) set up RSS Feeds for different things, our Page Ranking soared to Number One to Number Three on Page Google consistently when the search was Apartments (your city) And according to the recent white paper by Rent.com Apartment (Your City) is one of the most used search terms for folks looking fro an apartment.
In our case at Urbane it was Apartments Royal Oak. We just entered a new market and did the same thing thing with Apartments Birmingham MI. We are NOT SEO experts by any stretch, but it also didn't take us very long to get to page One, Number One either.
So my long winded question is this, assuming your product delivers a like result, meaning you push the Community to a Page One Google Ranking, have you provided more value than an ILS, meaning will the prospect click that community before going into the maze of ILS Listings? And, what value is that to the Community?
I have put most of our marketing chips on that square, thinking that if the prospect clicked on Urbane Apartment Web Site before getting tangled up in the ILS Maze our opportunity for conversion increased dramatically.
You actually have something you are selling, I love that part. That has been an issue with Social Media, what is the product and what tangible item are we selling.
As opposed to getting hung up on the semantics of what is or isn't Social Media, (we all get really stuck on that and it doesn't move the process forward) I have a different question.
The "content" that you will be creating, if applied correctly, and I am sure it will be, could/will significantly increase a communities web traffic, and certainly will increase a communities Page Ranking on a Google Search, particularly if you can achieve inbound/outbound links. This isn't theory, it is what we did at Urbane, and once Mike (Mike Whaling @30Lines does a lot of work for Urbane) set up RSS Feeds for different things, our Page Ranking soared to Number One to Number Three on Page Google consistently when the search was Apartments (your city) And according to the recent white paper by Rent.com Apartment (Your City) is one of the most used search terms for folks looking fro an apartment.
In our case at Urbane it was Apartments Royal Oak. We just entered a new market and did the same thing thing with Apartments Birmingham MI. We are NOT SEO experts by any stretch, but it also didn't take us very long to get to page One, Number One either.
So my long winded question is this, assuming your product delivers a like result, meaning you push the Community to a Page One Google Ranking, have you provided more value than an ILS, meaning will the prospect click that community before going into the maze of ILS Listings? And, what value is that to the Community?
I have put most of our marketing chips on that square, thinking that if the prospect clicked on Urbane Apartment Web Site before getting tangled up in the ILS Maze our opportunity for conversion increased dramatically.
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I believe a primary goal of web marketing should be expanding your Google footprint, and experience shows that using SEO techniques, coupled with fresh relevant content and active links, can drive your presence in search results. You've done a good job with that in your marketing execution. It isn't my place to judge whether that is better outcome than is delivered by an ILS. It's useful to note that we offer that kind of audience consolidation with Apartment Finder and Apartmentfinder.com. We do expect that if we're successful building these communities, we'll diminish some traffic to our own sites, but our focus is on helping to drive down the cost of marketing as a percentage of revenue for our clients and we think this might be one more effective way to do that.
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There is a lot of energy around social media and I also am too quick to draw conclusions. If you know me, I am a consumer advocate, and most of my opinions and thoughts are centered around the end users.
After speaking with Todd Dubner who graciously reached out to me, I have a better understanding of the goals and benefits of Community Sherpa. It will expand your Google footprint. It will be the first step into engaging your target market if you have no current strategy. It will increase traffic, inbound links, and provide some relevant content in which to start a conversation.
But I am not sure if it will resonate with renters and consumers. Ghost writing has been traditionally frowned upon and some consider social media to be about transparency, engagement, meaningful content, authenticity, and community.
I think Community Sherpa will help facilitate a few of those, but not all. As it stands today, social media is not scalable. Ask Jeremiah Owyang or Tony Hsieh.
But ultimately, Community Sherpa will help property managers start to engage renters with consistent and relevant content and potentially help build a community - something that is extremely difficult and time consuming. It is a step in the right direction and I am excited to see the adoption and results of such an effort.
After speaking with Todd Dubner who graciously reached out to me, I have a better understanding of the goals and benefits of Community Sherpa. It will expand your Google footprint. It will be the first step into engaging your target market if you have no current strategy. It will increase traffic, inbound links, and provide some relevant content in which to start a conversation.
But I am not sure if it will resonate with renters and consumers. Ghost writing has been traditionally frowned upon and some consider social media to be about transparency, engagement, meaningful content, authenticity, and community.
I think Community Sherpa will help facilitate a few of those, but not all. As it stands today, social media is not scalable. Ask Jeremiah Owyang or Tony Hsieh.
But ultimately, Community Sherpa will help property managers start to engage renters with consistent and relevant content and potentially help build a community - something that is extremely difficult and time consuming. It is a step in the right direction and I am excited to see the adoption and results of such an effort.
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Eric, I enjoyed our conversation as well. Thanks so much for your interest in CommunitySherpa. I would just like to clarify the point about the content. Essentially, we agree that knowing the source of content is important and will not be using ghostwriters. It will be clear who wrote each element of content, whether it be us, community residents and management. We are performing the editorial and curating function, where we find good information and elicit good information and share it.
We expect that CommunitySherpa will do what the brand implies and provide the heavy lifting and grunt work of social media on behalf of our customers.
We expect that CommunitySherpa will do what the brand implies and provide the heavy lifting and grunt work of social media on behalf of our customers.
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What Do You Think?
Property staff will still need to respond to any comments, they will still need to monitor Twitter and Google Alerts, and they should still be directing residents to Yelp and other review sites for remarks about the community. This isn't a Ronco Rotisserie -- you can't just "set it and forget it."
Community Sherpa essentially replaces the printed newsletter, and I think it will do so very effectively. Understanding its place, its value and its shortcomings, I think many companies may find use for the service as part of their online marketing mix. It should be a cost-effective way to extend your reach and create relevant content that will more than likely help generate some good Google juice. (At least this appears to be the intention.) Just don't tell me you're "doing social media" if this is all you do.