Make your message matter

Make your message matter

Social media is an excellent channel to get the word out, but content is still king, and if you don’t have compelling, engaging content, you’re wasting your time.

That was one of the main points made Tuesday as Kyle appeared on a panel on “Communicating Your Story: The Message Still Matters” at the Urban Land Institute’s National Affordable Workforce Housing Forum in Orlando. The panelists talked about how establishing credibility is all-important in a time when developers’ reputations may be at an all-time low.

Key strategies:

  • Establish a succinct, powerful message.
  • Find a wide range of ways to tell your story.
  • Make your story real by showing what you are doing, not by simply telling people.
  • Speaking engagements, news media outreach, an engaging website, and video are ways to do that, while leveraging social media and your own database to further engage your audience.

The Orlando forum featured lots of discussion on what’s working now. A prime example: Tampa’s high-quality Encore project, a new mixed-use workforce housing development that’s underway with public-private partnerships, 15-plus funding sources, and a forward-thinking approach to walkable livability. For more information on that project, see Encore's website, part of a well-thought-out branding program done by Stephanie Darden and her FDG creative team, out of Orlando.