New York city planners and developers are going to have to learn to use “the Facebook” and “the Twitter” if they hope to get much done, because anti-development groups are effectively showing many projects that would bring in “millions of jobs” the door thanks to zoning and commercial development groups’ lack of familiarity with social media[1]. Recently, a band of residents in Huntington Station (located on Long Island) successfully marshaled opposition to and blocked a $100 million housing development[2]. Most experts believe that the counter-initiative succeeded largely because developers were not really aware of the scale or potential impact of the campaign and did not address it through like media.
“It’s complex to understand social media, but it’s crucial to do so,” said Patricia Bourne, a former executive commissioner of the Nassau County, NY Planning Commission. She went on to point out that many people get their information now from that type [of media]…rather than getting it from traditional ways of information such as print media and watching television.” Bourne made her comments during a recent Nassau Country Planning Commission Public Hearing held to deal with the serious fiscal woes in the area. More than 200 brokers, developers and other investors and participants in commercial real estate also held a conference at Hofstra University to address how to promote their projects using social media. Both meetings dealt with the clear power wielded by groups who understand social media, and urged developers to use social media to provide accurate, positive information on their projects to communities. For example, Bourne believes that when a housing development will benefit veterans, it should be very clearly stated that this is the case in social media materials as well as elsewhere in the educational literature.
Currently, commercial real estate-related pages on Facebook are largely dominated by anti-development groups that “fuel community ire.” Do you think that there should be regulations on this type of activity, or is it the developers’ and investors’ responsibility to counter bad information with good?
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[1]http://www.antonnews.com/plainviewoldbethpageherald/news/11899-nc-planning-commission-holds-public-hearing.html
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/AP4edd04f0344743659f3ade7cd54d91b4.html
The squeaky wheel gets the grease and sounds like they certainly did in this situation using social media as a platform to get their anti-development message across. To get something you want, you must attract attention or speak loudly and with the 564 million people using Facebook today and over 50 million tweets per day, you can speak VERY loudly. It’s no doubt that the most attractive or loudest agendas will get the most attention, no matter if they communicate all the facts accurately or not. Those using the new media opportunities, will most likely be the victorious ones. Basically, the message here is “don’t show up to a gunfight with a knife!”. Without a voice advocating your multi-million dollar commercial real estate project using social media, many times the only voice that will be heard will be those whom oppose it’s potential success. It is essential that the Commercial Real Estate Industry as a whole engage in social media and have their voice too. Social Media 101 is a great start but to fight the battle of anti-development advocates, it’s going to take a Social Media Professional to thwart adversaries.
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The death of the New York project is typical. I call them the “I have mine, up yours group” They do not want anything new. At our City Council Meetings they show up in force. Unfortunitely, those in favor do not.
that is VERY impressive. I bet Zuckerberg is pretty proud of himself.
Was there any kind of counter-protest? I mean, clearly the developer had no idea what was going on – but usually for every reactionary Facebook “issue” there’s an opposite if not completely equal grassroots reaction. Perhaps no one actually wanted the development – crazy, I know.