Neighborhood/HOA communication forum? (Houston, Spring: for sale, houses, elementary schools) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

DavidAg02 · 10-13-2011, 01:53 PM

Does anyone here have any experience setting up or using social media to communicate with your neighbors/HOA board/etc?

I'm in the process of setting up a Facebook group for my neighborhood that will hopefully facilitate people getting to know each other and communicate about community-wide events. However, I'm worried that it will become an exclusive thing, because not everyone will have or be willing to use Facebook.

Email blasts would work, but it's just not as personal as Facebook, and would require more work to keep everyone's email up to date.

Do any of you do anything like this within the community where you live?

Timnwendy · 10-13-2011, 03:02 PM

Yes, and we struggle with the same issues you brought up. We use Yahoo Groups (free) as our email forum, and we have almost 400 residents in it now. We also have a FB group (restricted), but it only has 80 members. What we've found is that the majority of our neighbors who make the effort to participate online simply feel much more comfortable signing up for emails, instead of joining FB.

We do not cross-post everything between Yahoo and FB. Sometimes we do, but usually not. Most of our communciations go out via Yahoo simply because it pushes out to more of our neighbors.

lhafer · 10-13-2011, 03:06 PM

My community (Master Planned) has it's own website. I love it. It's probably fairly easy to maintain because the information doesn't change much (aside from the community events section).

You have to register (free) to access it. Once you are on the site, it has information for neighborhood stuff (trash pick up name/number, utilities info, recycling info, etc). It has a HOA info section where you can contact the board, find documents, various committees, pay HOA dues online, etc. It has the local school information. An events section to announce neighborhood wide events that will be held in the community. A resident directory (that is voluntary to partcipate in). An online calendar that has when various HOA meetings are, when girl/boy scout meetings are, etc. It has a classifieds section where you can post stuff for sale, or found/lost items that can only be seen by residents - but this is maintained by the residents - they have to post/delete their own posts, so not a lot to do here.

From this website, there are several spin-off Facebook groups (that are private/secret/restricted) that I am a part of, and I am not sure how many there are. One is a Girl's Night Out group - only residents of our neighborhood are a part of it, and they have various get togethers a few times a week, and you can decide what to go to (Bunco, Pampered Chef parties, etc). They also have a Playgroup that is made up of our residents, and they set up play dates at least once a week - usually 2-3 times a week. Lately there have been a lot of pumpkin patch stuff, or playing at indoor playgrounds, or meeting up at places like chic-fil-a for lunch, etc. There's another for our swim team, one of our elementary schools, etc.

nana053 · 10-13-2011, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidAg02

Does anyone here have any experience setting up or using social media to communicate with your neighbors/HOA board/etc?

I'm in the process of setting up a Facebook group for my neighborhood that will hopefully facilitate people getting to know each other and communicate about community-wide events. However, I'm worried that it will become an exclusive thing, because not everyone will have or be willing to use Facebook.

Email blasts would work, but it's just not as personal as Facebook, and would require more work to keep everyone's email up to date.

Do any of you do anything like this within the community where you live?

We use yahoo groups. Not everyone is on facebook. We require that people give their real name and address when they join so we don't get spammers and such. They can still use an anon email if they want to. And, you can access the group through individual emails, daily digests or web only so you choose the level of stuff that shows up for you.

Our HOA does have a website too and we can communicate with the board members through that.

DavidAg02 · 10-14-2011, 07:27 AM

This is good information... thank you everyone! Lot's to think about.

I'm going to see if the developer would be willing to host a site like the one lhafer mentioned... I can see that being very useful.

Topaz · 10-14-2011, 08:20 AM

We have both a Google group and a Facebook page. More people use the Google group than the Facebook page but I hope that changes over time as the Facebook page facilitates better communication.

Timnwendy · 10-14-2011, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidAg02

I'm going to see if the developer would be willing to host a site like the one lhafer mentioned... I can see that being very useful.

Good luck. Our developer sites are only geared towards generating sales for them. Our HOA management company site is minimally maintained, and seems geared towards giving as little customer service as they can get away with.

You will probably find that a private group, like Yahoo and FB offer, are your best options for good communication among your neighbors. The advantages here are that you can maintain them yourself, to make all the rules, administer subscriptions, and handle all content, without any delays or heavy-handedness from your developers or HOA. Another advantage of the private groups is that it acts as a safety valve when people need to vent about the HOA and/or the developers. Try doing that on a HOA or developer's site, and the complaint simply goes to la-la land.

HoustonRonnie · 10-14-2011, 08:22 AM

SCR has it's own website actually provided by the HOA which houses information and links to a yahoo website for homeowners. Further, our little nook in SCR has a Facebook page.

lhafer · 10-14-2011, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidAg02

This is good information... thank you everyone! Lot's to think about.

I'm going to see if the developer would be willing to host a site like the one lhafer mentioned... I can see that being very useful.

Mine is Eagle Springs, and you can visit the webpage - not sure who hosts it. I could probably find out. Fall Creek and Summerwood have similar websites.

Eagle Springs, Humble - Houston, TX

archangelus2 · 10-14-2011, 10:16 AM

In Eastwood we have a website, email list and facebook page. I personally love the facebook page because I use facebook anyway and am regularly updated on neighborhood happenings without any extra effort. I have met people in the neighborhood who were on facebook and involved with the neighborhood but didn't follow the Eastwood page, so getting everyone up to speed is something we will have to make an effort to do.

One cool thing our website developer did was include a window into our facebook page from our website, so even those who didn't use facebook could still go to the website and see what was posted on the facebook page. It's under the news section.

Eastwood Civic Association