Capstone Project

Capstone ProjectSarah Orscheln and Beth Carpenter

Background researchExplaining MilitaryHomes.com: providing targeted

listings in military-heavy areas, and services to assist in finding a home.

Our role: increase hits or add value to increase hits later?

Initial goals Strategize direction of blog. Provide content and rewrite existing

content. Explore social media usage, including

Twitter Provide ideas for how to best market site,

including possible redesign advice

Site as is

Comparative research

Findings Well-designed websites aren’t common in

this genre. Sites like militarybyowner.com are doing well despite a not particularly well-designed site.

The demographic is particularly reliant on basic forum sites for community purposes.

Sites like MilitaryOneSource.com are popular because they provide a one-stop resource (also a popular Facebook group.) Ads are targeted at women, rely on motifs of family and children.

Goals from research

We wanted the site to be targeted mainly toward females as primary buyers.

We wanted the site to be very usable, accessible and helpful. Like MilitaryOneSource.com, we wanted it to be a one-stop shop for anyone looking to buy a home.

We needed to establish credibility. With only one base having home listings, we needed a way to establish trust with the customer that this was a widely-used service.

Using social mediaSEO, Facebook, Twitter, blogs

Social media and SEO

How does social media fit into a search-optimized marketing plan? Builds links, traffic, and brand engagement. Social media won’t replace a core product.

One day’s Digg hits won’t stick around the next day.

Don’t expect social media plans to translate directly into numbers (i.e. hits)

Facebook Pros:

As more and more join Facebook, it’s the simplest tool to bring together scattered family members or servicemen across the globe.

Built-in discussion forums and mechanisms to promote site traffic.

Cons: Militaryhomes.com is not a recognized brand

name and struggles gaining a fan page following.

Needs more authenticity and value

Twitter Learned how to use commercial tools like

EasyTweet.com to make the Twitter process easier

Writing tweets that are interesting, informative, and can be retweeted to spread throughout Twitter.

Backlog of Tweets for future use Acting legitimately to add value to the

Twitter community strengthens the brand

Blogging Short, succinct posts Evergreen posts, can be posted anytime or

used anytime Reach out to outside sites that might be

likely to link back Problems:

Need a more personal touch Need someone available to do more current

posts, thus encouraging relevant conversation

The numbersLooking at Google Analytics

Traffic sourcesOver half of the traffic comes from search engines, where MilitaryHomes.com is the second ranked result for the keywords “military homes.”

The site vetfriends.com was our top referrer.

Plus1 would like to increase their rankings for locale searches – i.e. Jacksonville military homes. Thus our emphasis on local-driven content.

Traffic summary

Final productsHome buying guides, blogs, Twitter postings

Home buying guides

Created HTML versions for bases Created InDesign template of

downloadable, formatted guide file Example: Ft. Leonard Wood

Blogs Created 30 backlogged evergreen blog

posts Future posts can follow the same models Featured charities, essential knowledge

when buying a home, tips for military families, and portraits of some of the bases on MilitaryHomes.com

In the future can use “milbloggers” to promote particularly good content

Twitter posts Same guidelines as blog posts: need to be

evergreen yet interesting and informative Need to be supplemented with a small level

of interaction with Twitter community if followers are to be maintained.

Examples provided

Final recommendations

Use simple structure of blog posts and tweets to continue posting.

Use profiles of realtors and names for blog authors to personalize the site and build trust.

Profile customers for testimonials for the blog. Continue revising all site content for brevity and

usefulness. Add more advanced search functions and an easier method

for users to save listings, email and share, et cetera. Create sections for each base with the personalized HTML

buying guides (and downloadable PDF guides based off provided template) to make moving to a specific base easier.