I received a tweet last night asking for my thoughts on a new apartment social platform called 5Neighbors and I found myself wondering. Don’t get me wrong, I love people who go for it. People who put their heads down, design, build and deliver. And, who have the wherewithal to put it out there by asking for feedback. The people who just do it, care what others think and use it (good and bad) as motivation for making their offering even better. Those people – rock. I applaud the 5Neighbors team in that respect.
Their platform is clean, it’s well designed, it’s inviting and it’s user-friendly. And, for all intents and purposes, it’s fairly priced with zero contractual obligations. But, I wonder…
Why?
My chief question is – why? As a group – we have gone to war with each other over who is going to get the top spots on page one of Google. And, trust me, it is an all out, take no prisoners, war. It’s the middle man competing with 30 other want-to-be middle men vs. the little guy who now has an equal footing. It’s war. And, where has it taken us?
Prize?
It’s lent to a ton of confusion for the end-user. Fragmentation – at it’s best. The people who want to do business with us can’t even tell us where they heard about us half the time. And, the other half that can remember mis-quote their source.
In my head, the further we fragment this audience the less likely they are to participate. Even in the niches like 5Neighbors. Why? Because they are – capital f – letters in between ending with that ing suffix – tired. They are just tired. 
You see it with less conversation on Twitter. I recall a day when ten or so multifamily rockers talked every single waking hour of every single day – it was crazy cool. I can’t tell you the last time I participated in that way. I recall a day when the same thing happened on FB, MF Insiders and other platforms. Today – not as much. I remember commenting on ten to fifteen blog posts every week. And, responding to just as many comments on my own blog. Today – not as much. People are distracted by too many channels and too much noise. And, I don’t think fragmenting the audience into a less noisy channel is the answer. Maybe to a select few but not to the masses. Not in a way that will be meaningful to the user. But hey, that is just this guys opinion.
I’ll Stop Now
5Neighbors – I do applaud you. I really do. And, I wish you the best of the best kind of luck. You’ve built a cool thing on a cool premise. Do keep us posted as we love to be wrong about things and will gladly do a future article on your successes.
I am curious what others think – if you have a quick second in between your fragmentation efforts – give us some feedback.
Your – wondering why I’m feeling further fragmented – multifamily maniac,
M
0 Responses
Hey Mike,
People are tired, as evidenced by all of the things you mention. I too miss those early days when everyone clamored about on Twitter and such. But something else has unfolded, not just in the multifamily space, but in nearly all segments. Folks have gravitated toward and created fiefdoms, and only those who agree with them and comply with their way of thinking are aloud in. It is funny really, and pollutes the relationship.
It is the folks like 5Nieghbors who will continue to create better and better mousetraps, however that is only a piece of it. The reason most of us are doing this is to enhance our business result. I believe that those who create the best and most effective following, fans, friends, followers, views and such will far, far outpace their competitors.
There are no more gatekeepers, becoming your own Branded Media, and cutting the dependency with outside sources IS the path. That said, it is one heck of a lot of work and few are really capable of pulling it off.
#gameon – you are spot on.
Very well said Mike. I think this is an excellent topic to discuss on @30lines podcast. Would love to have @mbj and @Urbane_Media jump in. Again, well said and nice job stepping up as an operator to acknowledge the “noise” we’ve all created.
J
Thanks for taking time out of your day to chime in. And, thank you for the kind word. Would definitely tune in for that episode. M
Oh no, you can’t just “tune in.”. I’m counting on you to participate!
#gameon –
Occasionally I miss 2009 and early 2010 when our group was friendly, tweeting and sharing ideas (whether they worked or not)! We were the early adapters, the first ones to take risks, publicly fail, and try again. Now that we’re successfully implementing our ideas, it seems as though we don’t have the time (or the trust) to discuss new ones.
It isn’t just about the fragmentation. The situation has become much more competitive, probably because we’ve found models for success. Take a look at our original group for example. Many of us are now selling our services, our experience and our intellectual property as providers, presenters, educators, etc. Unique ideas are difficult to come by, and the former “friendly” atmosphere has evolved into each of us protecting our reputations.
Personally, I am rarely on Twitter (or even a few LinkedIn groups) – they have become an echo chamber full of those afraid to share a differing opinion or unique idea. The personal attacks and demands for data/proof/evidence is disheartening.
I used to really enjoy jumping on Twitter and engaging with, learning from, and gaining new friends. Maybe that’s why I still read, and comment on your blog Mike?
C
Always a pleasure to have you comment – thank you for taking the time.
You are right – it’s turned ultra competitive. Not bad in and of itself but when you add in abrasive, front-facing or back-handed back biting, it turns into something else. Innovation suffers at the hands of egoism.
Things have evolved and the chasm that exists between stimulus and response (choice) has become muddied by the fire hose of information coming at us.
That is where I think 5neighbors has a very valid point – the offer of escapism (in a sense) is intriguing. Or, filitering as Mark J put it in a recenct video. I see it as fragmenting or self-induced segmenting.
I am guessing that leading by inducement is the next evolution. And, to me inducement is a much more intimate level of conversation. That is much much harder to handle and manage. It’s the soft side of business that most see as silly and un-necessary.
Sorry – I may have got really off-point there. Nevertheless – it is still interesting to me and I look forward with anticipation but settle on desire for some mindul conversation in the meantime.
Have an over the top and amazing day today and thank you again for taking the time to chime in.
M
Charity – I think you hit on a really good point regarding the competitiveness within our industry. I, too, long for the days when there were only a handful of us on Twitter and there seemed to be a constant conversation. Idea sharing. Feedback. Applause. Occasional misunderstandings. The point was that we wanted to learn as much as we could about what each other were doing in our respective corner of the universe. I’m still curious and constantly seek information (which is why Mike’s blog is still an active part of my Google Reader account). As many of you know, I love sharing information too.
Last year I switched teams and became a service provider. The vendor world is a lot different than the owner/manager side and I’ve found it harder to reach out to people I’ve had good relationships with for many years. When speaking specifically about ILS’s, I realize some of that has to do with confidentiality agreements that employees sign. It’s something I’ve had to get used to, but I still have trouble understanding why someone I’ve known and followed for a long time would refuse to help me when I reach out for information or ask a question about an existing product. No secrets. Just trying to understand more.
I think Mike’s article is spot on (or #gameon, as he says). I research and follow new companies all the time and when I hear about start-ups like the one mentioned here I’m always like, “Really?? Why?” I don’t mean any ill will and certainly wish all of these creative people as much success as possible. For me, I guess maybe it’s a mixture of seeing too much of the same idea mixed with the feeling that they never asked anyone what they thought or for advice (possibly because of your point that we’ve created an environment where people are afraid to share).
Thanks David, it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one that misses those more carefree days of sharing. Some of our old friends no longer give credit to the original source of a unique idea. I’ve been consistently and inadvertently “training” my competition to do what I do. When I realized that, I stopped sharing my ideas so openly and started charging to present.
I’ve witnessed some catty, childish behavior by vendors in public forums and have been on the receiving end of both public and private attacks on my ideals AND ideas. It was a real eye-opener to read what one long-time industry Twitter “friend” wrote about me in an email to someone else – so I dropped offline and started keeping my ideas to myself. My clients love my ideas, but the contracts they sign have a disclaimer for intellectual property rights.
Hi everyone. Paul Anunda here, Founder of 5Neighbors. I love
the discussion that’s occurring here and I’ve found it quite enlightening.
Just to clarify: 5Neighbors was created to help residents
meet and interact with other residents. We don’t integrate/interact with the other
platforms (twitter/fb), nor is it accessible to those who are not a part of the
respective community. Yes there is a lot of fragmentation occurring in the
social space in general, but we’re entering the age in which focused platforms
are becoming the norm for their respective communities (ie Yammer for
workplaces, AngelList for the startup/investment community, etc).
To a resident, it seems like a lot of attention is paid
towards getting them in the door of the leasing office (which makes perfect
sense), but once that person has moved in, next to no attention is paid to them
unless rent is due, it’s time to renew, or there are maintenance issues. Yes,
some communities hold events, but not everyone’s availabilities are the same
and some people just prefer to not participate.
I live in a community with over 250 units. Although I’m
pretty outgoing, I only know 3 other people who live here (2 of which I knew
before I moved in). It shouldn’t be this way. In talking with residents of
other communities around Austin, their sentiments are the exact same.
5Neighbors hopes to fix this.
Paul
Thanks for taking the time to add a little context. There is part of me that sees this as just another platform that people will have to invest time in, time that they don’t have or don’t want to give up.
The other part of me sees value in moving to fewer, more focused, local in nature and as highly eclectic in personality and character – communities. I am just not sold that people will do it. Main reason – they are highly invested in other platforms whereby they have embedded themselves over a very long bit of time. Habits have set in and they are/will be hard to undo at this point.
Nonetheless, I am excited to see how it evolves over the long haul. And, I will be curious to see how your platform does under the focused platform premise.
Take care and look forward to your thoughts and ideas in the future –
M