Hyper Local Focus to build your following and get people talking

Build a Local and Relevant Following

One of the many questions that surface from our clients as they begin to think about launching a Social Media Strategy for their business is targeted traffic and followers. A local design studio in Kansas City isn’t interested in twitter followers and blog readers from Birmingham, Alabama. And while building a strong twitter following and blog readership isn’t a perfect science, there are many tools, coupled with a little guerrilla marketing that can greatly enhance the overall quality of your digital footprint.

Business is About the Numbers

Business success is and has always been about the numbers, or said differently, results. Growing the size of your digital footprint doesn’t happen without a plan to do so. Can you get some general organic growth, yes, but likely only a trickle without a consistent aggregation method. There are also specific phases of an integrated digital marketing life cycle. We believe that the cornerstone your social media marketing plan is your business blog. As we begin to populate your business blog with quality, relevant posts we also reach out to local folks in the digital space that may have interest in becoming contributors

Where Are They Hiding

There are an array of tools in your digital toolbox to help sharpen your hunting skills. One such tool we use is the search function in tweetdeck to ferret out local, relevant followers and blog contributors. For example, we have an apartment client in downtown Chicago, Left Bank at K Station Apartments that we have created a custom sherpa digital marketing program for. We have launched a life style blog, Left Bank Life to help them drive traffic and rental leads to their web site. We set up search categories for “West Loop”, “Fulton River District” and several other local search strings. When you Fish Where the Fish Are, you catch fish, and we have a series of Guest Bloggers lined up.

Locals Expand Your Digital Footprint

The newspapers used local news and happenings effectively. Local people and stories get talked about. Not only do local folks help you expand your reach, they also bring into the mix their own following, which quickly begins to expand. While not everyone you come across will be suitable writers, many are and they love to tell and share their story. But with that, they also begin to tell your story, as your brand gets talked about. That is how buzz gets started, people talking about your brand, which is why social media works.

Let us help tell your story

With over a thousand digital sherpa clients in several different verticals, we are helping brands and businesses share their story, and expand their digital footprint. We can get people talking, by getting people talking.

If you would like to discuss how NCI can help your business get started on a social media marketing plan, heres how you can contact us, We look forward to chatting,

You can find Eric on twitter or ebrown@nci.com

You can find Adam on twitter or ajapko@nci.com

Does increased web traffic result to increased sales?

Our Guest Post today comes from Jennifer Kennedy, Technology and Operations Specialist at Property Counselors Management Group in Fort Myers, Fl. Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and getting the conversation going surrounding web traffic and apartment communities!

Here is Jennifer’s post;

Measuring Web  Traffic

This topic came up on the January 5^th blog talk radio Apartment Marketing Gone Digital. I was inspired by the comment made in relation to traditional property tours.  As an industry we have a standard expectation that if a certain number of prospects walk through the door we expect our teams to close and lease a certain amount of apartments, thereby know how much traffic we need to generate to reach our occupancy goals.  However, how do we measure our website traffic? How much traffic do I need to generate to my property website to secure a lease?

Apartment operators and owners need to answer these questions for their business, and the way to measure website leads will vary from company to company depending on the marketing of their websites and the way the sites themselves are organized.  For PCMG the property websites are both for prospects and residents.   Based on the dual roles for our sites, when it comes to generating leads we look solely to new visits to our site that resulted in an online guest card.  We found that as a company 5% of new visitors completed a guest card.  We had one site as low as 1% and one as high as 10%, but the majority hovered around 5%.   Five percent sounds low until you put it in the perspective that our average number of new visitors to our website is 237.

This information generated a new set of questions.  How can I make 10% the standard?  What did my site that hit 10% do differently?  Was the traffic generated from different sources than my other properties?   Answer these questions and you now know what sources deserve the most resources allocated to them.  There are so many mediums that can be utilized to push traffic to your site it is paramount to determine where your time and money should be spent.

I urge you to start measuring today!  Complete an analysis that is appropriate for the purpose of your site.   As an industry we have to start measuring the effectiveness of our sites in order to progress and continue to take online leasing to the next level.  If we don’t have a measure for our online efforts, we will never know the extent of their success.

Tweexchange…Easy Branding for your Twitter and Web Presence

Social-marketing media today is lightning fast. Dream up a business venture, a blog, a political action committee…well, anything? Then you better get legit. And on the Web, that means a Facebook account, a Twitter handle, and a website with media and a great blog. But creating a brand–the name and image you project to the public–requires a seamless transition across social-media networks.

That’s why Tweexchange is such a cool idea. It’s the latest Twitter app from Long Island’s Blast Applications. Tweexchange used to operate outside the Twitter TOS as a black-market bazaar for buying and selling Twitter handles. Now, this speedy site instantly checks whether the username you’ve picked out for your new Twitter account is still available. If it’s not, the site will offer up a list of similar alternative names. The coolest part? Tweexchange has joined with GoDaddy.com, so you can also see which website domain names related to your username are available.

I decided to try it out myself, imagining that, one day, Ashley_Urbane could launch as a Twitter feed/website dedicated…well…to me (I’ll come up with a brilliant idea later). So I typed Ashley_Urbane into Tweechange. Whoops…it was taken already (by me!). But a ton of similar names were available…Ashley_Urban, Ashley_Urba, Ashley_Urbanes, Ashley_U (maybe I’ll open an online university?)…you get the idea. Right next to my potential Twitter names, the Tweexchange linked up all of the available GoDaddy domain names. AshleyUrbane.com?! Sounds like a winner!

If someone is selfishly hoarding the Twitter username you covet, you can opt to be notified when it becomes available (Twitter deletes usernames 60 days after their suspension). As the Washington Post notes, the notification service costs $5–chump change if you’re branding the business of your dreams.

CoolTechZone.com says, “Clever is one way to describe Tweexchange utilizing GoDaddy’s desire to built up their existing customer base.” That’s true, but it’s also a fast and easy way for the tech-fearful in America to brand themselves in the blink of an eye.

Blast Applications, the founder of Tweexchange, was just accepted into the Apple IPhone developer program. Their last application, Tweact, flips text so it’s mirrored upside down–a fun way to freak your friends out online.

Is Your Brand Listening

I follow Andy Sernovitz because he is really in tune with what larger businesses are doing with Social Media Marketing, Corporate Blogs and a whole array of Word of Mouth Marketing.

Lands’ End verses Zappos

Andy’s recent article Land’s End Verses Zappo’s caught my interest, first just from the point that Andy was making, What happened to Land’s End, everyone used to talk about them, now all the buzz is about Zappo’s.

My first reaction was, well, Land’s End simply got outmatched by the beloved Zappo’s. Tony Hsieh is a pretty dynamic guy and created a culture at Zappo’s that most business executives only dream of. It is fascinating that they sold their company to a rival, who is in the same business, and could have done everything Zappo’s did.

But Then, Land’s End Responded

The real point of this post isn’t about either online retailers, it is about Land’s End LISTENING. Shortly after the post, Stacey Symonds Senior Director, Marketing & Customer Analytics at Lands’ End responded to the article. Her points were clear, and not defensive. Stacey brought up many Social Media initiatives that they were working at Land’s End, including an extensive facebook fan page and facebook campaign.

While I am a huge fan of Zappo’s, I am also a new admirer of Lands’ End. The manor in which this unfolded is exactly how brands should respond, and Engage.

Nice Job Land’s End!

Are You and Your Brand Listening to what folks are saying, You Should Be.