Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have been credited with successfully promoting everything from porn stars to literature. Now, some of the players in New York real estate are dipping into the virtual networking waters, with mixed results.
Pages on those Internet sites usually serve as personal calling cards; users are most often young adults and teenagers who use the site to create a virtual identity using photos, music, videos and blogs. But these pages are often also used to market political candidates and commercial interests, including real estate businesses.
In December, Savanna Partners’ Williamsburg condo development 125 North 10th launched a MySpace site that had more than 200 “friends” at press time. The site proved a useful tool in promoting the development’s January launch party, thanks in part to the event’s marquee entertainment — celebrated Brooklyn burlesque star Angie Pontani. “Miss Cyclone” is a prolific user of MySpace, which she used to draw a crowd to the property, says Doug Bowen, CORE Group Marketing sales director.
“We thought MySpace would resonate with our core audience,” Bowen says. “We’re in one of the most vibrant artistic communities in the city. People here are very media-savvy, and they pay attention to online advertising. It seems to be working pretty well, though I couldn’t say that any sales have transpired as a result.”
The development sent out an e-mail blast from which mention of the MySpace site netted a large number of hits, Bowen says.
Meanwhile, the Developers Group is working on an April launch of a Facebook site for the Edge, a Douglaston Development project also in Williamsburg.
The Developers Group executive vice president Highlyann Krasnow said she feels her firm of young brokers “should have looked into this before,” but plans to keep promotion of the site to a minimum. “We really want it to be word-of-mouth and organic,” Krasnow says. “Facebook has an underground connotation, and we want to keep it that way. Then it feels more legitimate.”
“Underground,” “legitimate” and “organic” are the characteristics craved by young adults who have grown weary of corporate influences and manufactured media messages, says Michael Hoy, a Prudential Douglas Elliman broker who has been involved in a number of new media initiatives in recent months.
Starting last spring, Elliman posted a number of property tour videos of Brooklyn rentals on the video site YouTube. Featuring witty subtitles and campy 1980s love songs by the likes of Bon Jovi, the clips seem to have resonated with the 18- to 30-year-old crowd. One video generated nearly 2,500 views.
The brokerage was less successful last fall with its MySpace sites for two high-end properties that appealed mostly to older buyers, says Hoy, who was involved in both projects.
“It’s a little too corny for most young people, and the older crowd didn’t catch on to it,” says Hoy, who is currently creating a social networking portal for New York real estate in which renters, owners, developers, buildings and neighborhoods could have their own MySpace-esque pages. Like his other new media efforts, Hoy is targeting a younger audience.
“Real estate has been really hot in the last 10 years, and it’s still moving with the dinosaurs,” he says. “These guys are moving the same boring print ads which are costing them money, when there is this free thing called the Internet.”