CAN SOCIAL MEDIA MOVE HOUSES?

SHOW HOUSE MAGAZINE - DECEMBER 2009

It was a gathering of property marketing minds to discuss the phenomenon that is social media. Rupert Bates was there. He could tell you where, but then he would have to tweet you.

It was the second most momentous day of the housebuilding year. The first is featured heavily elsewhere in this issue.
The Danish pastries, in the spirit of the summit, were not flown in especially from Copenhagen, as, like the Roman senators plotting to overthrow Caesar, we gathered conspiratorially in a Mayfair bunker. What we were going to talk about would have had housebuilding directors choking on their Danish pastries.
But this was a marketing conspiracy we wanted the whole industry to know about. The subject of the roundtable discussion was how property can profit from social media.
It was organised by Overseas Property Professional magazine, the Show House equivalent in the foreign property sector. The web has the words world and wide in front of it, so digital media knows no barriers from Barking to Bahrain, or even Billericay to Barry. Lush. Tidy.
By the way, how good is Uncle Bryn, Rob Brydon, a former What House? Awards host? Presumably in Wales the top of the Twitter box reads: ‘What’s occurring?’
I digress. The roundtable consisted of Alex Evans, the editorial director of OPP, Natasha Gomer, head of digital media at Frank & Earnest, Roy Bristow, managing director of 140Property, Ryan Briggs, founder of The Construction Network, Ardi Kolah, chief executive of Guru in a Bottle, Monica Rowe, senior marketing manager of Chesterton Humberts, Laurence Jones, European regional manager of Jamaica Trade & Invest, Tricia Topping, TTA chief executive and Alex Lawrie, TTA client services director and myself.
Not a housebuilder in sight, but that will change, for as Space & Time Media’s head of digital Jon Clarke tweeted recently: “Stop moaning about the state of the industry and start to PR it.”
86 percent of UK companies are planning to increase their spend on social media next year. How many housebuilders are in the other 14 percent?
Evans posed the question: “Is it possible to take something founded on freedom, trust and honesty and turn it into a tool for property sales and brand awareness?”
Roy Bristow, a social media consultant, said: “Developers either do not respond to social media or they try to control it. But it is not about control, it is about influence. It is about getting an advocate to support your brand.”
I suggested social media was simply a license for citizen journalists, often misinformed, to have a whinge. Kolah disagreed. “Social media is more likely to be used to recommend something. We are all consumers and if we enjoy good service or a good product we are happy to tell other people.”
Gomer pointed out the importance of tracking social media ‘buzz’ about your brand, especially negative coverage that can gather dangerous momentum unless nipped in the bud.
“Wherever you sit in the property value chain, if you are considering some type of social media strategy, being able to link results back to solid financial goals should be a concern,” said Gomer.
“One possible way is to quantify and attach a value to social media metrics like blog traffic, where you can calculate the cost of advertising in an equivalent channel to reach the same audience with the same demographic.”
Jones from Jamaica Trade and Invest wants to embrace social media, conscious that for all its Caribbean delights, the island has an image problem around drugs and violence. I volunteered to ghost a blog on behalf of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt – provided I could do it from a sun soaked villa, sipping a rum, overlooking Montego Bay.
Twitter dominated conversation, but linkedIn was considered more effective for business networking, Facebook more personal than professional, while You Tube can provide video content to display the product and brand. Briggs, who has set up The Construction Network with Jason Leonard, believes social media is absolutely critical to tCn, as it becomes an interactive networking facility for the construction industry.
“Social media is word of mouth online and you need to trust it,” said Briggs, while Rowe said it can give a company a significant competitive edge if used professionally and with clear objectives.
I added, with the housebuilding industry traditionally poor at building brands and customer service, social media could drive a customer care revolution, helping maintain and enhance relationships before, during and after sales.
Buyers on new developments are setting up community tweets, which are invariably forums for complaint, many valid, some trivial. But housebuilders are daft not to locate these Twitter accounts and follow them. Potential buyers can tour the show home, love the village and agree a price, only to track down the residents online and find that every other boiler on the development has gone bang, or the sewerage system is proving less than fragrant. Equally a reputation for responding to snags quickly and positive chatter about the builder is brownie points for the brand.
So yes social media will evolve into a property sales tool. As Kolah said: “Social media is a good way of listening and we need to know more about our audience.”
Housebuilding have never been very good at listening, but goodness they would like to know more about their audience.

If you have a Twitter account why not tweet about this article? Or email rb@globespanmedia.com. Rupert Bates tweets at www.twitter.com/rupertbates and blogs at www.rupertbates.com.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Property UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.