Hyperlocal Communities and Community Building
How many of you are working on building hyper local communities for your neighborhood or city?
I’ll take a guess and say “everyone” (at least to the agents and brokers reading).
How many of you understand community building?
I’m guessing the answer is “not many”.
Finally, how many have executed on that understanding and succeeded building a vibrant hyper local community?
Likely, and unfortunately, the answer is likely “virtually no one”.
Community building should be one of, if not the most, important aspect of your marketing plan. If you don’t have community, you are going to fail over time. There’s simply no other way to differentiate yourself in the sea of crap online.
But almost everyone fails building community for a very simple reason.
It’s hard work. Team that with the fact that most don’t take a long term approach to their business and you have yourself a lethal combo to failure.
What do you need to succeed building a hyper local community? Richard Millington sums it up nicely:
What we need is a genuine community building approach. You identify your first members, initiate discussions, invite members to participate in those discussions, write content about what’s happening in the community, and repeat as you grow.
And I agree. Talk to your readers, early and often. Email them. Call them. Ask them for their feedback. Ideally, get them talking to each other – not just to you. Get them to vote on polls. Curate the best of the best of everything related to your neighborhood or city.
What are you doing to build a hyper local community?
Bill
Posted at 20:39h, 09 AprilLots of theory, but where is the substance? Enlighten us the .
Drew Meyers
Posted at 06:51h, 10 AprilThis is a theory post focused on highlighting the missed “community building” opportunity 🙂
In all seriousness, it comes from the many local sites I’ve looked at that are all biz, all the time with no engagement. They are focused too much on the short term, SEO, and the immediate return. No personality, and they don’t seem to truly care about their audience…just making a buck.
Kathleen Sheridan
Posted at 05:56h, 27 AprilFinding a way to engage a portion of the community is the challenge for every real estate agent. What you are suggesting is an idea which peaks my interest, but it sounds like a whole career, for several people, in and of itself. My community is more than 300 years old. The historical society, the staff at the historic trust house, archaeological programs at several sites are all at work on uncovering the history of the area. And then there is the local ‘Patch’ site that focuses on present events and news. If I focus on one small manageable section of the neighborhood, could I possibly monetize my efforts with real estate sales? That seems unlikely.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 01:57h, 02 MayI don’t see why not? Is the vast majority of your business in that one community now? Do you know all the home owners? Make rock stars out of the ones you do know — I guarantee they’ll reward you by telling their friends.
Howard
Posted at 19:28h, 03 MarchA balanced community building approach includes interactive multichannel community engagement that allows all stakeholders to engage and learn what’s going on and where the deals are locally. Hyperlocal Connect.