Yours truly, Jayson Manship, was mentioned in an article on Builder Online discussing home builders using social media websites like Twitter.

Sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Ning and YouTube give builders the opportunity to engage in a two-way conversation with buyers in ways that have never been possible before. This type of permission marketing builds trust and rapport with prospective homebuyers and is proving to be very effective as home builders look to grow their business in a down market.

Eric Brown of Urbane Apartments is quoted in the article as saying that his company has saved significant amounts of money in recent years by opting out of print advertising and using social media instead.

My company offers builders a new approach to social media where we empower homeowners to spread the builder’s message to grow referral sales. Check out MyEstridgeHome.com to see how the Estridge Companies are using the URBaCS Referral Builder application.

Follow me on Twitter: @jaysonmanship or find me on a few other social networks
Follow Rob on Twitter: @robwagoner or find him on a few other social networks

Thanks Alison for the great article on Builder Online!

See the full press release at PRWeb.com

MyEstridgeHome.com gives every new Estridge homeowner their own personal website that they can use to share their building experience with friends and family. People considering a new Estridge home can also search homeowner photos to find ideas and see the behind-the-scenes quality of every Estridge home.

Carmel, IN (PRWEB) October 27, 2008 – The Estridge Companies creates MyEstridgeHome.com to make it easier for homeowners to show their new home to friends and family. Each Estridge homeowner gets their own website where they can upload and share pictures of their home during construction. As photos are added the site is automatically updated to show the home’s progress. Their friends and family simply need to visit their website to see the new pictures.

“Homeowners visit the construction sites every day to watch the progress of their new home. We wanted to give them a tool to share this with their friends and family. It’s also a great tool for the Estridge team to show progress of the home construction to homeowners who are moving from out of town.” – Scott Comer, Vice President of Internal Operations

In addition to individual homeowner websites, MyEstridgeHome.com also provides the ability to search and view photos uploaded by Estridge and Estridge homeowners. This gives visitors the opportunity to see many different Estridge homes and designs, as well as see homes under construction, which isn’t often available to the public.

“MyEstridgeHome is a great tool for our homeowners, as well as those looking for a new home or even decorating ideas. With so many homebuyers beginning their search online, our goal is provide as much information as possible. Often homeowners don’t have a lot of exposure to homes under construction, except in the neighborhoods. Our website gives them the opportunity to see the home designs at all stages – from construction to complete and fully decorated.” – Mary Catharine Grau, Director of Marketing, The Estridge Companies

On MyEstridgeHome.com, web users can find over 700 pictures of Estridge model homes, homes under construction and homes available now, and more photos are added for every home that is built.

For additional information about Estridge Homes or MyEstridgeHome.com, contact Mary Catharine Grau or visit http://www.estridge.com.

About Estridge Homes:

The Estridge Companies are comprised of a family of companies with the sole focus of building the finest homes and neighborhoods in the Indianapolis area. Estridge was started in 1967 as a custom home builder and has built over 7,000 homes in the past 40 years. Estridge currently builds homes from $250,000 to over $1 million in communities around greater Indianapolis.

Contact:
Mary Catharine Grau, Director of Marketing
The Estridge Companies
317-815-2508
http://www.estridge.com
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Today we relaunched MyShrinerHome.com with a new look and feel. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Estridge was founded in 1967 and began with a simple commitment: to design and build homes as if they were building them for their own family.  Quite simply, there was no higher standard.  Today, more than 7,000 homes later, Estridge is one of the nation’s most respected home builders.  They are the only Indiana homebuilder to ever win the National Housing Quality Gold Award, the highest award for achievement in the home building industry. 

Estridge has long been an innovator in the new home industry. They maintain a corporate blog and multiple microsites (You Live Free, Estridge Free Time, Estridge Custom Galleries). In April of 2006 Estridge launched their own retail store, HOMExperience, in Clay Terrace (map). At HOMExperience visitors can shop for some of the finest home decor and home furnishings in the market. They sell brands like: Surya Rugs, Rowe Furniture, Hooker Furniture and Timothy’s Fine Art.

Search thousands of photos of Estridge homes at MyEstridgeHome.com.

Times are tough. Every day brings a new challenge to the new home construction industry, and we all know that tough decisions have to be made. Many companies are laying people off or reducing overhead by dumping land. Others are defaulting on loans and closing shop entirely.

Rob and I read a lot of blogs to find new and innovative ideas to bring to new home sales. I stumbled across an mp3 of Let’s All Blame the Marketing Director while reading the Church of the Customer, a blog about customer evangelism and citizen marketing. See Advergirl’s post here.

The song was written in 2001 by Pat Harpell and used in a direct mail piece sent to marketing directors. The Harpell.com website is down at the time of this writing.

Any excited entrepreneur with a great product can attest to the difficulty in concisely explaining their product’s features and benefits in a way that makes sense to the buyer.

We at URBaCS have faced this similar challenge. As we have evolved our sales presentation we’ve worked hard to make it simple to understand yet effectively communicate our core message.

In 15 words we do three things for home builders:

1. We Spread a Builder’s Message Further
2. We Enhance the Sales Process
3. We Build More Referrals

We’ve created an expanded resource at WhatisURBaCS.com to share all of the different features and benefits provided by the URBaCS Referral Builder application. You can read our six steps to engage homebuyers, about how we leverage homeowner generated content and how to avoid losing business to directional signage.

We will be adding a new article every week to showcase how URBaCS can help your company make more sales.