Exploring New Territory -- Digital Map Sites

Make Your Point Clearly... So I open the latest issue of the National Real Estate Investor (July 2000), and staring at me is an advertisement on page 1 for "NextEdge." Wow, sounds cool. Here's part of the copy: "Enter NextEdge -- a new concept powered by the resources of Arden Realty, Inc. New thinking. Creative applications. The next competitive edge to help your business grow." So I look for a web address. Hello. No web address for Arden or NextEdge in the ad. No e-mail address. Just a name, Greg Sullivan, and phone number, 310-966-2600.

So I go to www.nextedge.com, which looks like a web developer's site. Oops. But it doesn't seem to be very active. Hey, Arden, maybe you should buy it. So I look up Arden Realty at PikeNet (natch) and go to www.ardenrealty.com. Holy Cow. Flashing graphics, disco music. Then more moving images. A scrolling ticker. Even pop-up, full profile images of the CEO and COO. Click anywhere on their bodies for a one-paragraph bio! (Home/About Arden/Executive Profile) And finally, there's a NextEdge link: "Progressive real estate intelligence for real estate growth." And up pops another screen with more copy like, "We provide clients with new thinking and creative applications to virtually every aspect of real estate and finance." And, of course, Greg again. But no e-mail link.

So what is NextEdge? Beats me. I don't have a clue. And anyway the message doesn't sound very "authentic." Would a real person actually say those words? ... Read the Cluetrain Manifesto by Levine, et. al. Here's what they say about reaching an audience: "Your site needs to have a voice, to express a point of view, and to give access to helpful people inside your corporation." Why? Because markets are conversations. And that's how you start a conversation. ... Full Disclosure: There are no subscribers to the PikeNet Dispatch using the domain ardenrealty.com. Uh-oh.

--Peter Pike