In the spirit of collaboration and consistent with my objective to increase The Planning Boardroom’s presence across the internet, I am proud to announce that PropertyCru is now a valuable partner. I encourage my readers to visit their website and be apart of a fast growing new initiative where property professionals alike can network and share information.
Social Networks
Social networks have revolutionised the way we interact with each other. In fact, some say the half a billion Facebook users, have formed their own version of the internet. Google found about 953 million hits from searching the term ‘social media’, which clearly proves how popular this new age of communication has evolved.
According to Wikipedia here are some fascinating facts on social media usage.
- Australia has some of the highest social media usage statistics in the world. In terms of Facebook use Australia ranks highest with almost 9 hours per month from over 9 million users.
- Social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent online in the US.
- Twitter processed more than one billion tweets in December 2009 and averages almost 40 million tweets per day.
- Over 25% of U.S. internet page views occurred at one of the top social networking sites in December 2009, up from 13.8% a year before.
- The number of social media users age 65 and older grew 100 percent throughout 2010, so that one in four people in that age group are now part of a social networking site.
What is PropertyCru?
The creation of this new social network for property professionals drew inspiration from a building experience back in 2008. One of the three founders of PropertyCru, Joshua Jordan shared with me how he came up with the idea.
“During a house renovation in 2008 I needed a new driveway, so I contacted 8 concreters from print ads & Yellow Pages without being able to find out if they were any good and licensed, etc. After ringing each one, none of the 8 were able to service my requirements. So not only did I waste my time, more importantly, I wasted the time of 8 other people. I thought “there has to be a better way to connect a customer with a solution” and that sparked the creation of PropertyCru.”
Cameron D’arcy and Roshan Bandara are the other two founders who were involved with the development of the website since September 2009 and the website was finally launched in the middle of 2010. Jordan admitted using Skype to hold meetings as he was living in Brisbane, and D’arcy and Bandara were situated in Canberra, while also holding full-time positions.
PropertyCru members include building trade companies such as electricians and plumbers, Real Estate Agents and a range of other property professionals. According to Jordan, PropertyCru has a competitive advantage over other social networks.
“PropertyCru uses similar models of LinkedIn and Facebook, but blends this together to create proffesional user profiles and interactive tools to network by sharing pictures, videos and information relating to anything property. By using these tools, users can build working relationships and gain new opportunities.”
Remember to visit PropertyCru and develop new business contacts for your next building project.
