Hive is a residential development by Nikal including 167 new build properties which form part of the wider mixed use Masshouse scheme in Birmingham city centre.  Launched to the market in January 2011, Core’s marketing strategy for Hive included the design and delivery of a new website to promote residential opportunities at the development.

Working alongside social media specialists Friend Digital, the website was designed to complement the Hive branding while also maximising on user functionality and capacity for search engine optimisation.  To achieve this and allow for regular content updates, the website was designed to sit within a portrait Web 2.0 platform.

Key features subtly built into the website and allowing for a wider social media strategy to be implemented include right hand navigations to wider online Hive communities created by Core on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Links for visitors to share the Hive website on their own social media platforms are also included on each page of the website.

On-going monitoring allows Core to review and regularly update the website as part of the proactive and reactive social media strategy encompassing Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and Hive’s news/blog pages.  Keywords identified as part of Hive’s SEO strategy are embedded throughout the website and continually reviewed and updated to ensure premium search engine rankings.

Finally, integration with Hive’s wider offline and online marketing strategy is crucial to the success of the website with wider marketing materials including HTML mailers, adverts and PR all utilised to drive further traffic online.