Multi-Location Marketers Use Nextdoor Business Awards to Drive Awareness

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As Nextdoor brings back its Neighborhood Favorites Awards program for the sixth summer, multi-location marketers are looking at how they can capitalize on the social attention to drive business and increase awareness among consumers in their local communities.

A popular promotion among consumers and SMBs, the Neighborhood Favorites Awards gives Nextdoor users a way to reward their favorite businesses for excellent customer service. Users can vote by posting on the Nextdoor platform and @mentioning a business while also using the #NeighborhoodFavoritesContest hashtag. Or, users can leave a recommendation on the business’ Nextdoor Business Page. Voting in the contest is open through July 29, and winners will be calculated based on the number of recommendations and @mentions each business receives.

Winning businesses will get their names included on a curated list of Nextdoor Neighborhood Favorites, along with a trophy badge that appears on the organization’s Nextdoor page. The top 10 winning businesses nationwide will be awarded $500 in Nextdoor Ads as well.

A longtime favorite of multi-location marketers, Nextdoor’s hyperlocal social networking platform has for years served as a place for brands to connect with targeted audiences online. According to Nextdoor’s research, ​​72% of the social media company’s users have been influenced by a recommendation.

While the company’s Neighborhood Favorites Awards program was ostensibly created to celebrate local businesses by encouraging users to vote for their favorite restaurants, bookstores, and home services, it has grown over time and now serves as a valuable marketing tool. More brands are now looking at how they can capitalize on the social attention that comes from winning a Nextdoor award and translate the goodwill into actual sales.

“For businesses and marketers, Neighborhood Favorites provides greater recognition and visibility for their business on Nextdoor,” says Shannon Toliver, a communications manager at Nextdoor. “All winning businesses will be included on the Neighborhood Favorites list in each neighborhood they were voted a favorite and will be awarded a trophy badge on their Business Page so neighbors will know they are highly recommended.” 

Toliver says multi-location brands can claim free Business Pages for each of their store or business locations. Companies that have a presence on other social media channels are encouraged to ask their followers on those channels to vote by posting recommendations on the Nextdoor app. 

More than 55 million business recommendations have been posted on Nextdoor since the platform debuted in October 2011.

Appearing in a curated list of popular local businesses could be a valuable way for multi-location brands to stand apart — and build deeper connections in the communities they serve. 

Nextdoor hopes that its Neighborhood Favorites Awards will also be an antidote to ad overload, which is an overexposure to digital advertising that consumers see as excessive, distracting, or intrusive. According to a survey by the audience targeting firm GWI and researcher WARC, 52% of consumers said that overexposure to ads negatively impacts their perceptions of a brand. 

Another 32% of consumers said ads that appear next to “questionable content” can negatively impact their perceptions of a brand. These are the types of issues that draw brands to Nextdoor, where posts are almost universally focused on local happenings and neighborhood businesses, and questionable content is a rarity. Users on the Nextdoor app must use their real names and they must verify their address to begin participating in neighborhood conversations. 

In recent years, Nextdoor has also been expanding its services for brands and advertising agencies. Nextdoor now sells sponsored posts and display advertising to multi-location brands, with the ability to target ads based on location, audience, device, and interests. 

The company also revamped its advertising offers earlier this year, with a self-serve campaign management platform designed for SMBs and larger advertisers.

“Nextdoor is building an ‘active valued community’ — an engaged community of neighbors, businesses, and public services that you can trust and depend on to exchange valuable information, goods, and services,” Toliver says.

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Stephanie Miles is a journalist who covers personal finance, technology, and real estate. As Street Fight’s senior editor, she is particularly interested in how local merchants and national brands are utilizing hyperlocal technology to reach consumers. She has written for FHM, the Daily News, Working World, Gawker, Cityfile, and Recessionwire.