the blog

This past week, I took a trip to Costa Rica with a few friends including Rahmin Sarabi, founder of unclasses.com, James Gross, VP at Federated Media, and Matt Jessell, Stategic Programs Manager at Federated Media.

With collectively over 15 years of web experience, most of our conversations were centered around how the web is changing media, consumer behavior, and our daily interaction – typical for a group of web guys on a vacation. Sorry, no bikini girls taking body shot stories here.

But in the context of a third-world country, heavily influenced by the US recession, the web seemed more relevant than ever.

It has become an equalizer; a channel of communication to connect and broadcast to anyone and everyone around a topic in real-time.

Before the leaving for the trip, James had connected with the founder of SurfingNosara.com, Erik Antonson. Erik has been experimenting with social media as a distribution and communication channel and wanted to meet with us to “get advice and talk strategy”.

What came next was a surprise. In an hour conversation with Erik, I realized that I had very little to offer. The specific strategies in using Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, Blogs, Video, and other social media mediums are elementary. The technology is simple and the additional tools such as Twollow, TwitterHawk, Involver, etc can be found in online resource guides.

So how is it that a group of web dudes from San Francisco couldn’t give Erik a more concrete social media strategy?

Because he got it. Living in Costa Rica, thousands of miles from any technology hubs and in the middle of the jungle, he got it. He may not have the best SEO or SEM strategy, or may not be utilizing the best tools to scale his consumer engagement, but understood the foundation the social web was built on.

He knew to:

1) Focus on relevant and real-time content.

Erik posts regularly with interesting and engaging content. No automated content rss fed content from an api of twitter search with geotagged stories from ghost bloggers (I think I got most of the bs terms used). It’s real content from him and his crew.

2) Be authentic.

He’s not going to pretend to be a brand, or hide behind a logo. He is the founder, owner, the company, and a person you can ask questions and talk to.

3) Be passionate about what he is doing.

Erik is a realtor. But he actually cares about what he is doing, and it is easy to recognize that. It is apparent from in his posts, his videos, and the community he has built.

4) Use marketing channels as means to communicate, not sell.

He understood that these mediums are a means to communicate and engage around conversation. He actually cared about your experience, the relationship, and building an online community around Nosara. He makes it nontransactional. (Yes, he’s a realtor and yes, this is possible)

5) Make decisions as if he was 16.

He thinks about his life and his company as if he were a young, optimistic adolescent. He makes it fun, appreciates the process, and in the end, is doing more of what he enjoys. Why does this matter? Because making an extra dollar is not the end goal.

Again, the web has become as equalizer. Understanding the trends, tools, and fundamentals of the social web are no longer restrictive to those in the microcosm of San Francisco geekness. All too often we associate “living in San Francisco” with technological know-how. Sure, the entire globe isn’t using FourSquares or Vark, but Erik started with a solid foundation of focusing on content, his relationships, and his passion; and with these principles in mind, he is going to crush it.

Find Erik at SurfingNosara.com.

In 1997, I can recall my older sisters saying how cumbersome email was.

In 1999, I can recall high school classmates saying that Napster will never replace music CD’s.

In 2005, I remember friends saying how stupid Facebook is.

Today, I hear business associates saying that print is well positioned.

And these are probably the same people that say Microsoft cannot fail, that Google will always be the dominate search engine, and do not get the value of Twitter.

Though we have yet to see the later three statements proven false and may never, it is this same mentality that causes business to be in a continuous state of “catch-up”.  We’ve seen this in the multiple industries disrupted by innovation and changing consumer behavior.  Gannett should have created Blogger, NBC should have created YouTube, and Yellowpages should have created Yelp.

I’m not defending the value of Twitter as a lead generating service for the apartment industry as of today.  And I am not saying that Twitter, FriendFeed, or Facebook is the next platform that will change the way we find apartments.  But I think it is a mistake to make all decisions based on measurable results.

Here is why:

1) It takes time to build and adapt to new technologies.

There is a learning curve involved.  You cannot just get a PageRank of 9 overnight.  You cannot build a network of followers for your blog with one post.  You cannot build your online content presence by creating a Facebook Fanpage.

2)  Social Media is also an engagement, communication, and customer service tool.

Not all results of customer service are immediately measurable.  I do not need to defend the value of transparency; we all use UCG and review sites everyday.  But I feel like I need to convey this… The way we (consumers) communicate, interact, and consume information is changing and for the most part, has changed.  The social web, reviews, and UGC influence our purchasing decisions.

Would you stop using your phone because it does not provide a way to effectively market to consumers?  Now replace the words, “your phone” with “social media”.

Conclusion

Newspapers have a daily circulation of over 40 million with 39% of people read newspapers.  Print is still providing significant results.  There is no doubt that print should be a main source of advertising for many companies.

However, the proportion that read just the print version of a newspaper fell by a quarter, from 34% to 25% over the two-year period.  Within the week, hundreds of thousands will stop reading.  Within a few months, millions will stop reading.  Within 10 years, the industry may not exist at all.  Though print may not be dead, it is definitely dying.

Lots of momentum in the valley around Eric Reis’ Lean Startup.  Though I find his advice particularly valuable to startups, I think there are other applications to the general principles.  If you haven’t seen it, here is his presentation from the Web 2.0 Conference.

 
In our industry, the traditional methodology of developing and implementing a new idea or service seems to stifle creativity.  At a typical property management group, the risk-profile is perceived to be very high.  Further compounding the problem, traditional mediums are viewed as efficient “enough”.

I’m not recommending you spend hours a day tracking and measuring leads, but putting some simple processes in place will help you identify which leads are converting from which sources.  Though the general goal is to drive the most leads possible, maybe it should be to drive the most qualified leads possible.  

3)  Reduce total time through the loop.

The general idea is the getting through the feedback loop as quickly as possible.  The faster you are at identifying what renters want or how to interact with renters, the more branding and lead generations opportunities you will have.  

I think a lean startup is about testing a variety of hypotheses, using feedback and data to identify consumers’ needs, and being able to quickly change strategy and iterate again.  This may be a bit of a stretch for property management groups and I know I am oversimplifying things, but I think some lessons can be learned and applied.  What do you think?