the blog

Simply put, the social graph is how we are all connected. Brad Fitzpatrick refer to it as “the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related.” Most people understand the social graph is terms of Facebook or 6 degrees of separation.

Why do I care?  You probably don’t, but here is why you should.

1)    The social graph has brought credibility to information.

We all know reviews have been around for years.  Amazon in 1999, ApartmentRatings & TripAdvisor in 2000,  Yelp in 2005, etc.  However, we have traditionally discounted these reviews by people we do not know or have a connection to.  With portions of the social graph becoming more available, we now understand those relationships and can place a value on the additional data.

2)  Evangelists and CRITICS are more influential than before.

Because of our connectivity, content spreads quickly through our personal networks to wider networks.  Evangelists and critics have multiple outlets and incredible reach to spread their opinion, which eventually falls on the eyes and ears of your potential customers.

3)     Our conversations, thoughts, and opinions within our networks are public.

With the portability of Facebook newsfeeds, searchability of Twitter, recording of chats on Vark.com, and the like, our conversations amongst friends are now public.  We talk about culture, news, and yes, apartments.  This feedback is tagged, passed along, and searched.  You can no longer hide behind marketing dollars.

We know that consumer feedback quickly spreads through the social graph.  We know it is important to identify our evangelists and critics.  What can you do?

A simple email survey will help you identify who is who.  With evangelists, provide them the tools and incentive to spread their opinion.  Friend them on Facebook, give them content to spread, and acknowledge them.  With critics, provide the feedback loop they seek, outlets to express their opinion in a contained environment, and customer support.

Our first version of RentWiki.com is now live and open for private beta users.

So what is RentWiki?

Well, to draw from personal experience, I recently moved to San Francisco and had no idea where to live, what neighborhoods were good, and even had no idea what a good price was. I moved from Arizona so apparently $400 per month just gets you a parking spot and not an actual house. Anyways, I spent hours calling people, walking the areas, and canvassing streets to try to get a feel of the environment. A simple peer recommendation could have saved me hours of headaches.

When we move, we want to know much more than location, price and amenities. We want to meet their neighbors, understand the area, and experience the social scene – content that is not readily available online. We do not start by going to Craigslist.com or Move.com to sort through hundreds of listings, we call a friend, family member, or co-worker and ask for advice and their opinion to narrow down the location.

So RentWiki is just that, peer recommendations on where to live. The website is in its first iteration and just in a rough form, so I would love to get some feedback. Let us know what you think!