Q and A on Advertising and Getting New Members
Q. What national print and online media have worked best to attract potential members to developing cohousing communities from outside the immediate geographic region? Would this apply to a condo or a neighborhood trying to build community? An already built cohousing community?
Developing cohousing communities have found that spending money on advertising other than on the Cohousing Association website have not yielded new members. They may bring lots of queries but these tend to be curiosity calls, not joiners. Exceptions to this might be the Unitarian Universalist international magazine UU World, and possibly Communities Magazine, a publication of the Fellowship for Intentional Communities. Some people have found Quaker congregations attract members but there are fewer of them.
There is less experience -- "less" meaning none that we know of -- where a conventionally developed real estate project has had as its initial goal developing a community in the fuller sense that cohousing and other intentional communities mean. There "new community" usually means "new residential real estate project." Very large projects developed around a special interest, such as retirement, waterfront property, or golfing, do advertise nationally and apparently have success because they keep doing it. They are either so large that they are selling multiple units, repeatedly, so the costs are spread over many units, or are very very expensive so their profits from each sale easily cover the costs.
Advertising is expensive and the rule of thumb is that people have to see an ad 3-4 times before it clicks, if it ever does. Ads are best at building name recognition over time, reminding people that a company or product exists, and placing it in the pantheon of top flight companies whose ads appear along side it. That isn't what a cohousing community needs.
There may also be something about an ad that contradicts the spirit of cohousing. I recently had a strong negative reaction to a group's written materials because they were too commercial. They were very well written and designed with pictures and good layout, and with personal color printers, they were not expensive to produce. The problem was that they looked just like the big new fancy development down the street. They quietly screamed REAL ESTATE.
People who are looking for REAL ESTATE will almost certainly not be attracted to a small self-managed building or the expectation that they will be building new relationships with their neighbors. It is too far outside their experience or interests. And people who are interested in the small self-managed building with new relationships probably won't expect a real estate ad to tell them where to find it.
Q. Is this true of a conventional condo or a neighborhood trying to change itself by transitioning into a closer community? Or to an already built cohousing community?
Selling or renting a unit or home is usually the responsibility of the individual owner and they determine where and when to advertise. If a community wants to preserve its identity or develop a new one, however, it is important for the neighbors to take an interest in finding a new resident that will shares their goals. This will be particularly important in a conventional condominium or neighborhood trying to transition to a closer community.
Most common interest communities, like condos and cohousing, have a process for selling shares (coops) or units (condos). In coops, this generally includes board interviews, personal and professional recommendations, and financial disclosures, finally ending in a secret ballot of board members before the purchase is approved. In condominiums, a notice by the seller to the board and cursory review by the community lawyer to ensure appropriate funding and title transfer may be all that is required. In cohousing communities, in addition to any or all of these, there are likely to be requirements that potential new residents attend both a business meeting and a social event before they purchase.
At minimum, the rules and expectations of common interest communities will be outlined in a resale packet that includes the community's legal and financial documents. Most often when potential owners are exposed to the expectations of the community, they will self-select. Even more often, the potential owners will have been attracted because they were already familiar with the nature of the community. Most cohousing communities maintain lists, informally or formally with a small fee required, of people who have expressed an interest in the community. They are notified when a unit becomes available. This often attracts buyers before public notice is necessary.
In a building or neighborhood where there are no established expectations of new residents beyond being quiet or mowing the grass, developing a closer community will require that the neighbors organize and develop a process for attracting new residents that share their goals. Some possibilities are:
(1) Maintain a List of Interested People. Like cohousing, start with friends and relatives who have expressed an interest. Make presentations to community groups on your goals for the community. Invite people to look your neighborhood over. Have them to dinner. Hold a semi-public pot luck that includes your neighbors. As long as your goals are not too divergent from your neighbors or your activities attract negative publicity, this can only be in your neighbor's best interests. It ensures sustained property values and produces ready buyers. For you, this can mean new friends even if they never become neighbors.
(2) Enlist Your Neighbors' Cooperation. Begin by telling them that you want to help them sell or rent their house or apartment. Most people who sign contracts with a real estate broker include a clause that exempts them from paying a broker's fee for sales in which the broker is not involved. Even if your neighbor is uncooperative, you can use your list to refer people to the broker or to the neighbor. They do not have to say who sent them!
(3) Think Successive Approximations. Building community takes time, as in years. The first person to whom you facilitate a sale or rental may not be whole heartedly interested in your ideas but at least they will be informed. Information leads to interest, and interest to action. Successive approximations is progress. Don't be discouraged.
Q: If advertising doesn't work, how can we get attract people who are interested in building community?
Items 1-5 are listed first because they are easy and serve as anchor points for the following efforts but those are MOST important because without them, the first five will be meaningless.
(1) Choose a Name. You can change it later but people can remember a name better than "cohousing group forming" and a group with a name sounds more organized. Choose a name local people will recognize or one that will resonate with people. One that includes the name of your town or a local geographic feature like Green Top Mountain Cohousing or one that feels good like Happy Village Cohousing.
(2) List in the Cohousing Directory. The directory is a good resource but people need to know the word "cohousing" before they can find it. Put your group there anyway and keep your information up to date.
Updating can't be stressed enough. People may not trust a community that says "forming" because many fail, but when your community moves up to "have land" they will know you are serious and may take the next step -- contacting you. Or trying to contact you. If the person listed has left the group or changed their email address, they may not make the effort to find you.
(3) Get a Website. Don't pay a lot of money for this. If there is no one in your group who can do it, find a teenager. If that fails, ask on Cohousing-L if there is someone who can help you set up a simple one page site. A properly designed website will allow people to search "cohousing [name of town] and find you.
(4) Clear Image. Don't confuse people. Keep a consistent profile throughout the development process. If the group name changes update the cohousing directory giving both the old and new names. Explain both names on your website, "Formerly Small Town Cohousing but now that we have land our new name is Ghost Creek Cohousing." A confusing image may brand you as a disorganized group. If no one has heard of you they will be open to hearing about you. If they have a negative impression, they will probably not listen to anything more.
(5) Participate in the Cohousing-L Email List. Designate at least one member to read and actively participate in Cohousing-L. Repeated announcements are boring and self-promotion is tedious, but a community name, town and state, and email or website address under a signature line will be seen on every message and attract all the lurkers who are waiting and watching to find a community. People may lurk for years on Cohousing-L before they take the leap. Cohousing-L will also be your A-1 best source of information as your project goes forward.
(6) Word of Mouth. Talk to everyone you know (that you might like to live next door to) and everyone you meet. Not all of these one-on-one contacts will be with close friends. Some will come a chance meeting at an event related to work, civic, or social interests.
(7) Flyers. Put flyers in places where people who are interested in group sharing like food coops gravitate and are likely to be attracted by alternative ways of living like a shop selling green building materials.
(8) Free Notices in Newsletters. Again, find newsletters for groups that attract people who are interested in group sharing and alternative ways of living. Some religious organizations. Unitarian Universalist congregations, for example, tend to include people who will take a chance and who are more likely to be looking for community. Their newsletter may reach hundreds of local people. Reach out to newsletters in surrounding towns and cities.
(9) Articles in Local Newspapers. Neighborhood papers are always looking for stories so attracting one of their reporters is easier. Then word-of-mouth develops from the story. If you know of an article being written about cohousing or another community, try to have your own community mentioned. Be pushy about this by calling, sending information in writing, and following up. These articles are almost always positive and being mentioned is an opportunity that you probably won't get any other way.
(10) Invite People to Meetings. This means not just orientations but real working meetings. People say over and over again, that the quality of interactions in the first meeting they attended convinced them to come back and eventually join. By "quality," they don't mean conflict free or happy times with cake and ice cream -- or caviar and champaign. They mean seeing how the group worked out conflicts and the attention paid to developing a good business plan. People will be looking for a group that is moving forward on solid ground. They need to see for themselves that this group will not be run by "condo commandos" or trying to function according to unrealistic organizational and interpersonal principles.
Some groups have separate, less frequent meetings for new people and only allow them to join the "real" meetings after they make a commitment at an associate level, usually after attending a certain number of meetings and paying a non-refundable fee. Some groups only have social events that potential new members attend. This can lead to a false sense of what becoming a member of the community will require of them.
Having a special time for new people to ask questions and restricting new people from making decisions that bind the group before they are members is reasonable. But how can new people make commitments to the work of building a community if they haven't seen the work? The "best" community members will be the ones who are ready to commit to the work, whether it is the financial nuts and bolts or the people relationship nuts and bolts. For that they need to see the "real" meetings. If they only see social events, they will be expecting social events.
Q and A on Advertising and Getting New Members
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