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All of us at NDG would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Before the tryptophan kicks in, we’d like to welcome NDG’s newest team member, Chris Stith, to the team.

Chris joins NDG as a Senior Programmer with over 12 years of development experience, including websites for companies like Marriott, Washington Post, US Air Force and US Navy. When he’s not at work, Chris enjoys spending time with his two kids—3 and 5 years old. He also likes watching football and basketball, and is a huge Chicago Bears fan (but he secretly cheers for the Redskins).

We’re thankful to have Chris on the team and proudly welcome him to the NDG family!

On Friday, several NDG Communications team members and I attended the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit on Intelligence & Insights on the Future of Communications at Gannett headquarters in McLean, Virginia. We learned some interesting new things and found affirmation about the effectiveness of tactics we’ve begun to employ for our clients—and ourselves.

For example, when it comes to online content, presenters reinforced the importance of micro-targeting—the more focused and relevant the conversation, the better the engagement and response. Make your messaging so specific to your target audience that they not only read it, they start to see themselves in it.

In terms of social media engagement, we were reminded of just how critical it is to talk to and about your prospects. Research has shown time and again that when companies talk about themselves, engagement drops. But, talk about your buyer—what’s important to them, what’s trending in their world, what keeps them up at night—and watch engagement go up!

Click here to learn more about the event.

Last week, we announced the new Brookfield Homes website, and this week we have even more great news to share—the launch of Brookfield Homes new mobile website, developed by NDG Communications.

This simple, user-centric website allows users to search for homes and communities based on location, home type, and price range. In addition, users can browse model galleries and floor plans, request information, and get directions to the community—all from their smart phone.

Check it out on your smart phone at m.brookfielddc.com.

As always, we are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Brookfield Homes team and we look forward to many more wonderful collaborations.

Over the last few weeks and months, the NDG team has been busy developing an incredible website for Brookfield Homes. The new site illustrates the Brookfield Homes’ Design is the Difference concept when it comes to their homes, floorplans, and communities. With an abundance of well organized, buyer-centric information, the new site makes it easy for prospective homebuyers to find everything they need in one spot and truly discover their very own “How, Why, & Where” with B rookfield Homes.

We are proud to have worked with the wonderful team at Brookfield Homes on the development of their new website—offering more convenience for their customers when researching a new home purchase.

Click here to check it out.

While the number of social networks continues to grow, only a few of them have unique value to you and your clients.

The latest one on our radar—“Pinterest”—is a great example of just such a network, and here at NDG, our “pinterest” was sparked right out of the gate. This unique photo-sharing website allows users to “pin” images to theme-based boards, which can be shared and commented on.

Instead of tearing pages out of catalogues or bookmarking countless websites, now you can store images quickly and easily on Pinterest just by adding them from your web browser.

But Pinterest isn’t just for personal use. Companies are using it for design inspiration and brand promotion—you can capture and share the essence of your brand and company culture through pictures, hold contests, and observe the types of people that are liking or repining your pins.

Who are the early adopters? West Elm, The Today Show, and Travel Channel are already on Pinterest. Will you be next?

Click here for 5 Hot Tips for brands on Pinterest. Or, click here to learn how to use Pinterest to boost consumer engagement.

Our BDX (NewHomeSource.com and its affiliate network) account manager has just informed us that a recent campaign for one of our national homebuilder clients has achieved record-setting CTR results—“the highest performance we’ve ever seen from corporate creative”—a 570% increase over the industry average.

Research, testing, best practices, solid strategy, and superior creative helped us generate these exceptional results, but still we are not satisfied. NDG’s commitment to our clients inspires us to further refine and constantly improve our results, even record-setting ones like these.

Hilary Suskey,
NDG Senior Marketing Manager

Life just got a little easier for realtors. Our client, Stanley Martin Homes has just launched TeamStanleyMartin.com, an online realtor resource center created by NDG, where realtors can create personalized sales materials, live chat with a Stanley Martin Realtor Relations Counselor, and learn the latest about future promotions and incentives. Realtors can even make personal tour videos for clients with Flip HD video cameras available on-site at every Stanley Martin community. Go to TeamStanleyMartin.com to register today!

Sara Badr,
NDG Marketing Manager

Big news in the social media realm: No longer are the days that you must share information in the form of status updates with hundreds of friends or acquaintances all at once. Google launched a trial of their new Google+ social network to a limited number of users this week.

Now, Google+ wants you to be able to connect with others in more ways than one. The new social network includes features such as a news feed known as “the Stream,” video chat in “Hangouts,” and the ability to group chat on mobile devices with the “Huddle” option.

The creators at Google+ also recognized that you may only what to share something with a certain group of friends. For example, maybe you want to brief industry professionals or interested clients on an upcoming meeting you’re holding. With Google+, you’re able to group friends into various social groups or categories called “Circles” and relay information to those people only.

Google+ will gradually open up to the public over the coming weeks. Will you try it out?

Big news for homebuilders and developers engaged in social media: According to the new Spring 2011 tracking survey from The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, African-American and Latino internet users are significantly more likely than whites to be users of the micro-blogging/status update service Twitter.

The survey revealed that the Twitter adoption gap between African-Americans and whites has increased significantly, even just over the past six months: “In November 2010, there was an eight percentage point difference in Twitter use between African-American and white internet users (13% for blacks vs. 5% for whites),” whereas by May 2011, that gap had increased to 16 percentage points—25% of online African-Americans are now using Twitter, compared with only 9% of online whites.

The big takeaway: One in ten African-American internet users now use Twitter on a typical day—double the rate for Latinos and almost four times the rate for whites, so it may be time to rethink who your audience is, where they are socializing online, and how—the survey also found that more than 50% of Twitter users now access the service via a mobile phone or device.

You can access the entire Pew Research Center Spring 2011 survey here.

NDG Communications, Inc.

Category Archives: web

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving from NDG!

Brookfield Homes Launches Mobile Website

Brookfield Homes Launches New Website

NDG Sets New Online Advertising Record for National Homebuilder Client

Stanley Martin Makes It Easy For Realtors To Turn Prospects into Clients