Category Archives: homeowners association

Neighborhood Transparency

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Tom Skiba, the CEO of Community Associations Institute (CAI), posted a great article on neighborhood communication on the CAI blog, Ungated, last month. He highlights a community in Arizona that is making extra efforts to provide effective and clear communications to their residents.

Cottonwood Palo Verde at Sun Lakes is the HOA in question. The HOA spokesperson, Richard Hawkes, states that they will be working with local news publications in addition to their website, weekly flyer, and TV programming in order to deliver on their promise of open communication.

It’s great to see that HOA boards are so open to the next generation of communication tools. This is the same sort of transparency of communication that eNeighbors is promoting with our web-based service. The eNeighbors tool allows for 24/7 communication to and from any member of the community. We encourage open dialogue between residents and the board of directors. In addition, we take the typical website up a notch. Our service is private and secure. Only the residents of the community can view the site and participate.

More about all the eNeighbors features.

Amber Alert

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I don’t have an insightful industry post today, but I wanted to highlight one of the features of the eNeighbors service — Bulletins.

Bulletins is a great feature that allows an email message to be sent to the entire neighborhood instantly. Bulletins are most effective for an emergency situation where the entire community needs to be contacted immediately. I compare it to a neighorhood-level Amber Alert. In fact, of there was a case where a child was missing, the Bulletin feature would be the quickest way to alert everyone just like the Amber Alert system.

Find out more about the other eNeigbors features.

Next Net Neighborhoods

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I wrote yesterday about how we need to start creating the first online network of neighborhoods and in turn drive the value of local advertising for the businesses in our community. Here are a couple of guys already doing that.

citysquares.com
Ben Saren has created a great locally-based online community centered around Boston. Citysquares.com is a local company that brings together local businesses and their consumers. The philosophy is that you enhance local neighborhoods by strengthening the locally owned businesses. Local businesses are what make our neighborhoods unique. Citysquares.com is focused on providing rich, hyper-local content for urban and suburban communities.

Visit citysquares.com

Front Porch Forum
Based in Vermont, Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis created Front Porch Forum to help people create healthy and vital community within their neighborhoods. Their mission: common sense and a growing body of research tell us that well-connected neighborhoods are friendlier places to live, with less crime, healthier residents, higher property values, and better service from local government and public utilities.

Visit Front Porch Forum

Neighborhood Art Show

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As I was returning my Netflix DVDs this morning, I saw this taped to my mailbox:

Let’s say that I was really interested in this event that was happening in my neighborhood. If I didn’t happen to have my camera with me (which I always do, but I would argue that I’m not normal), I would have to go back in my house and grab a pen and paper then walk back outside and write down all the details of the art show. Then I would have to make sure I didn’t lose that piece of paper for the next 4 days in order to attend the show at the correct time, location, etc.

See what a pain in the rear that was? Now, if my neighborhood was using the eNeighbors service (which we are working on), then these artists could post their art show as a neighborhood event, and not only would I have been notified more effectively via my neighborhood communications, but I would also have all the event info right there on the website and could easily reference it at any time. Furthermore, I could leave a comment on the event page asking questions about the show. I could even tell my friends next door to check out the art show on the site in case they hadn’t seen it yet.

This is the sort of local community activity that is at the heart of what eNeighbors is trying to accomplish. We want people to talk to each other, share ideas, create things and ultimately enhance their lives by feeling more fulfilled in the place where it matters the most — their home.

Why Is eNeighbors Important?

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I was thinking about what it is that we do — Why does eNeighbors exist? What are our goals? Why did we create this web application? etc… You get the idea. Here was my conclusion — the most important thing about eNeighbors is that we promote, facilitate and encourage the following:

  1. Open communication
  2. Sense of place in a community
  3. Public safety

The goal of any social network is to create constant communication between its community members. eNeighbors has taken this concept and pushed it even further. Our goal is to get our users (neighbors) to interact with each other “offline” in the real world.

This interaction of online community members in the offline world is known as blended networking. One of the reasons MySpace has been so successful is that when it first started, it’s original members were drawn together by the music scene. Fans would connect online and then join up at concerts in person. This activity helped build a great sense of place around their favorite bands.

eNeighbors can accomplish this exact same scenario, but rather than a band being the central point of interest, your neighborhood is the primary focus. eNeighbors creates a great sense of place within your community by fostering constant communication and openness in resident conversations not only with each other but also with the board of directors.

The great thing about all this open communication is that it helps to build a safe environment for you and your family. Everyone in the community is informed about what’s going on, and the social awareness is very high. Additionally, in case of an emergency, you are able to instantly alert the entire community.

At the end of the day, we all want to live in a great location with high property values, low crime and good schools. At eNeighbors, we are doing our best to make this happen in your community. After all, we want the same thing for our families.

Learn how to get your neighborhood online with eNeighbors

The Future of Social Networking

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Over the weekend, I came across a great article on CNET written by Paul Lamb last fall. He comments on the current social networking space and points out that it is primarily targeted to the teen and twentysomething crowd. But what about the older more low-tech people who are now on the internet? Paul asks the following:

“What would a world look like where the best of social-networking tools were put to use in “average” communities and for the larger social good?”

His first example — neighborhood social networking.

Social networks are great for getting people connected online and joining disparate groups through common interests and activities, but ultimately, we are social beings. We like to see, touch and interact directly with other human beings.

Social networking is still in its nascent stage, and we can only assume that as the paradigm begins to shift and mature, these social networks will start to adjust to accommodate real-life interactions. As Paul says, a look in the eye and a handshake will tell you a lot more about a person than a text message or a generic online profile.

Visit eNeighbors.com to see our first step towards something better for social networks.

Baby Boomers vs. The Internet

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Fact #1:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, the majority of homeowners are between the ages of 35 and 55.

Fact #2:

eNeighbors sells an online communication service that serves as private social network and communication tool for managed communities and neighborhoods.

Conclusion:

This would lead one to believe that the primary audience for the eNeighbors web service is the baby boomers since they make up the majority of the residents living in most neighborhoods.

Now we all know that this particular generation has a varied mix of tech savviness. For example, my parents couldn’t tell you what a social network is let alone why they would want one. On the other hand, most of the top tech companies where founded and are now operated by this same generation.

So, how do you market to this audience? Great question.

The answer is: We don’t know.

Seth Godin touches on this dilemma on his blog today. His summation is essentially that psychographics are more important than demographics when it comes to this audience. I would agree. Just because they are older doesn’t mean they don’t get it. eNeighbors is banking on this fact.

So far, all I can tell you is that people love being social (even the old ones). As broadband penetration keeps growing and the older generation gets more comfortable with technology, they’ll want to stay in touch. Especially within their local offline community.

That’s when eNeighbors will be there for them.

Geocaching: 21st Century Treasure Hunt

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When I was a kid, my brother and I would ride our bikes down to the EZ Shop and buy candy for our “treasure hunts” that we would journey upon in the back yard. We would then painstakingly create riddles, clues and pace counts (12 paces to the “forked tree”) in order to complete our treasure map.

These days, geocaching is all the rage. Using sites like Geocaching.com and Google Earth, modern day treasure hunters can explore unknown territories via handheld GPS devices or a laptop. Treasure caches are all over the place in even the most unlikely places. I found at least a dozen of them within 5 minutes of my house in suburban Kansas City.

There are currently a few online communities actively supporting the geocaching community, but wouldn’t it be great if there were was a way to create a local group right within your own neighborhood. Imagine having a geacaching treasure hunt at your next community barbeque or outdoor social gathering.

This is exactly the sort of thing that the eNeighbors “Groups” feature offers. Groups allows you to create your very own mini social network within your neighborhood eNeighbors site. Members can stay up-to-date on the latest events for that particular group by checking the Group page and engaging in an online conversation with other members. The Group leader can manage the member list, and the leader also has the ability to send out emails to the entire Group at once.

Read more about Groups here.

Conversation Architects

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David Armano, Creative VP at Digitas, just published a great article on Business Week. He starts out by making the point that we are all consumers in all aspects of our life, so how do you market to all of us these days…?

His proposal — become a conversation architect (great concept, btw). We need to facilitate the exchange of information, create affinity around brands and communities, and ultimately let the medium drive the message.

I love the sound of this! Here’s a great excerpt from the article that just nails the shift in the mental state that needs to happen:

Consider the example of a typical creative brief template, which usually says something like, “What are we trying to communicate?” Can you see the old-world residue in the word “communicate”? It lacks the dimensions of experiencing something and having an ongoing two-way dialogue. “What are we trying to communicate?” implies a one-way conversation. Maybe we should ask ourselves: “How can we facilitate?”

Enter eNeighbors.

For decades, since the inception of homeowners associations, there have always been a select few (i.e. the board of directors) that communicate in a one-way manner with the remainder of the community residents. Sure, there are meetings where all are invited, but who actually shows up? And how many?

The greatness of eNeighbors lies in the ability to facilitate a conversation between not only the board members and the rest of the residents but between the residents themselves, and at the same time allowing that conversation to happen at any time day or night within the convenience of your own home.

I know… why hasn’t anyone done this before? Well, we have now. Feel free to converse amongst yourselves.

Local Advertising & Local Content

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The “Drilling Down on Local 2007” conference sponsored by The Kelsey Group finished up in Santa Clara a couple weeks ago.

Hilary Schneider of Yahoo was one of the keynote speakers presenting Yahoo’s efforts in the local advertising space. She stresses that the demand for local search is growing each year and the potential ad revenue is in the billions.

Additionally, Peter Horan, the CEO of IAC Media & Advertising, also discussed the local opportunities. Specifically, he mentions integrating professionally produced content with user generated content in an effort to capture the user’s attention in their search for local service information.

This integration of content at the local level from a trusted source that is targeted to a hyper-local audience is the exact model that eNeighbors hopes to drive. Imagine having a prescreened roofer or plumber advertise on your local neighborhood website right where you already read the latest news about your community. The local service providers can start coming to you rather than you searching them out. And it’s all done in a subtle, approachable way that is not “in your face” with sales pitches.