Tweeting - does it work for New Home Developers?

Jan. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- An interview with Banner Homes Plc

As Banner celebrate their One Year Tweeting anniversary and their 600th follower we talk to the team about their experiences and insights of being a Twitter using New Homes developer.

The main question is what do you want to communicate through Twitter?

The aim for us is to foster brand awareness and to support our image as an innovative creator of modern luxury homes.

How long have you been Tweeting and do you have many followers?

Banner Homes celebrated its one year Twitterversary on 13 December. We have just passed the 600 mark, but get new followers every day.

Of course it’s not as simple as that, what have you learned along the way?

At first, our Tweets were almost all about show home openings or other Banner events and offers, but there was very little response to it, and we could see through Google analytics that no-one was clicking on the links.

We came around to the fact that a Tweet stream is not a good medium for purely broadcasting advertisements. Instead, we started talking to individual followers about mutual interests, making jokes and trying to get to know people just as you would at a cocktail party or networking event.

Even though our excellent consultants had been urging us to do this, it was not an easy step to take. It is very tempting to stay behind a corporate mask and to only Tweet things which can be classed as traditional marketing messages, but no network works that way and Twitter is no exception.

Another thing which works really well is sharing photos or videos. People are much more likely to look at a singled out photo of a show home than they are in clicking through to the website with all the particulars – especially if there is something a little bit quirky that you can tweet with the photo that will pique their interest.

Using this approach, we made some friends and earned the odd #ff. For the uninitiated, #ff stands for Follow Friday and it’s a weekly opportunity to thank Twitterers that you enjoy following by recommending them to those who follow you. One of our first #ffs was from Tracey Kellett, Tweeting as @BuyingAgent, who had 1000 followers at the time and it read something like: ‘#ff @bannerhomesplc for being the only house builder on Twitter with a sense of humour’. Soon, our following began to grow.

Okay that makes sense so how does it fit into the marketing mix?

The main benefits can be seen in public relations, internet marketing and personal selling, although if approached carefully, there is also space for sales promotions, direct marketing and even some advertising.

Public relations is where Twitter really shines, because after all, people is what Twitter is all about. All of our blog posts are automatically Tweeted, and this includes all of our PR activity – case studies, Banner news, show home launches and events. In addition, it opens an additional communication channel with those living near our building sites and has helped us to find opportunity for growing relationships with key opinion holders in these localities.

Twitter also drives traffic to our website and blog, and in turn each page of our website includes a link to follow Banner on Twitter and development pages link to relevant blogs for that development. This helps all three sites be seen by search engines as well as boosting traffic.

On occasion, those we follow have Tweeted that they are looking for a particular house in a particular area. This has given us the chance to approach them personally with links to appropriate sites. Ultimately, we aim to build a larger following of home movers to use this powerful personal selling.

While being mindful of not becoming a spammer, it is also possible to Tweet advertisements for our sites using location ‘hash tags’ (for example #hampshire) to reach people searching for information about those regions. Through hash tags such as #firsttimebuyer and we are able to engage in more targeted marketing for groups of potential purchasers. We also use Twitter to talk about purchasing incentives like paid stamp duty on particular sites or the option to part exchange. Overdoing these sorts of Tweets is the fastest way to lose followers, though, so we try to be moderate.

What would you say are the benefits of  Twitter for property?

Like PR, the benefits have been subtle, but no less valuable. Firstly, many influential companies and people in the industry are on Twitter. It means that we have a connection with the likes of Sarah Beeny, Rupert Bates and Zoopla. Their Tweet streams give us access to real time industry news.

Secondly, geographic communities are increasingly building their own online communities and Twitter is a major platform for them. Becoming friends with Twitterers such as @DeepcutVillage has opened the way for honest two-way communication and promoted good will. It has helped us to become more involved with the community in which we are building, so we can communicate more directly with them on any unfortunate but sometimes inevitable disruption to their area, and at the same time highlighting the careful steps we take and benefits we strive to bring to their communities.

Finally, Twitter offers a way for Banner to reaffirm its positioning as a builder of quality, premium houses and promote the brand to a new audience.

For further information about Banner Homes please visit our website http://www.bannerhomes.co.uk or blog http://www.bannerhomes.co.uk/blog. You can also follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bannerhomesplc

# # #

Phoenix is a full service marketing and PR agency. We are currently working for Banner Homes and Fourayes Farm as well as a number of other clients in the estate agency business on project work