Cohousing-L Mailing List: Facebook advertising

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Mar 30, 2016, at 3:45 PM, Tiffany Lee Brown <magdalen23 [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> 1) ongoing, dedicated experimentation with a view toward long-term online 
> community-building might serve your group well. the way to make this work is 
> often to have a single person who really loves online communication/social 
> media take charge or lead up a small team. this isn't your marketing person: 
> it's a facilitator, host, cheerleader, someone with a genuine love of the 
> medium and who deeply cares about your cohousing organization. let's call 
> them your "connector.” 

I’m not convinced that online advertising works any better than any other kind 
of paid advertising because you still can’t target a list of people who want to 
live in Cohousing and are ready to buy a unit and move. Your market has to come 
to you. Find you because they are looking. 

I wanted to second the description of the “connector.” This is essential. It’s 
often overlooked that a Facebook page, especially for an organization, has to 
change  almost every day. News has to be posted. Comments have to be responded 
to. Pictures posted. Anything to keep it alive.

How often would you read the paper, turn on the TV, or listen to the NPR if it 
was always a static image, story, or song? Many people lurk before joining 
cohousing. Thats how they find out who you are. They watch you. Lacking real 
figures, I estimate that 98% of people are busy. They aren’t going to attend a 
meeting at night across town, or even in the next town, or the next state 
unless they know you are real. Online is the easiest way to find that out.

But you need that person who loves being online. Just  like a disc jockey or a 
talk show host who shows up every day. Think Oprah.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org