Country Club Communities 2.0
Country club communities that are in the green or in the process of recovering from the brink of near disaster are now trying to make their way through this difficult economy. They have a huge job on their hands.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a couple of complementary full page “Chris Griffith kicks puppies and breaks rainbows” ads so here’s the five hundred words of wisdom I have to bestow upon country club communities struggling to get their good news to consumers.
We’re in the information age. News travels at the speed of light and can be created and even spun by choice at the click of a mouse. Every business, including police departments have adapted to the technology of social networking and blogging. The real blogging that is … not harpooning in nasty comments on forums.
Get the public up to speed, get your residents up to speed by providing information in the most transparent fashion in which they’re able and to promote their business like any other business promotes; 2.0 on the web. You’ve not budgeted for it or hired professionals to do it, but you should probably start.
Instead of creating an uber secretive society of closed doors and secrets why not just expose how great your community is and how structurally sound it really is?
If you’ve not Googled your country club or your community’s name, you need to. For every blogger or newspaper that has published a story that isn’t positive why not invite the author for a fresh look at the community to write a new story?
Appoint a representative or a committee that monitors the sales of properties in your neighborhoods and create a .pdf file of what your community has to offer, maps, statistic, membership information or whatever else you want potential buyers to know and get it to the real estate agents to attach to the multiple listing of every single home in the community.
Your community websites should now be comprehensive and include just about anything an owner or potential buyer needs to know about your community. Why are your HOA and condo documents not on your websites? They’re a matter of public record, anyway. Why are the membership applications not up there, too? Meeting minutes? Budget? *gasp*
If you’re a member of a board in a community or condo, do yourselves a favor and anonymously call your management company and try to get one emailed or faxed. You’d think it was a national secret just to try to make application in some of these communities.
A blogging platform added to your website is a minor change that can bring a world of enlightenment. Publish your own news; let the owners publish their own news or photos of the latest events by submitting it to your web marketing expert. Your marketing expert could simply just be an intern at a local high school or college or maybe just a web savvy resident.
It’s not rocket surgery. The internet age has made it necessary for just about everything to be transparent. To succeed in this trying economy club house communities need to get on the 2.0 band wagon and manage their reputations, run their businesses like a business or they’ll continue to shrivel on the vine.
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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
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