They Didn’t Quite Get It With Social Networking

I absolutely love how more communities are using social networking tools as part of their overall marketing plan, either to existing residents or to prospects, but I get the feeling that some are still dropping the ball. Let's take the Bulletin Space for example on MySpace. Now, my gut tells me that a community's friends list is populated more by residents than by prospects. I don't know that for a fact, but it stands to reason that a person actually connected to a property will be more likely to be friends with the community than somebody who has not decided to actually live there. That said, in general you would anticipate that the majority of bulletin posts to be resident-oriented, right? Not in the slightest! I see countless posts regarding specials, deals, and all sorts of great things for prospects, but rarely a peep (relatively speaking) for residents. Granted, residents may be able to refer their friends, but it frustrates me to see a tool that reasonably should be expected to add value to residents instead being squeezed into the prospect marketing arena.