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Nextdoor is a social networking platform for neighborhoods. The company was founded in 2008 and is designed to help neighborhoods keep in touch. Typical platform use includes neighbors reporting on news and events in their “neighborhood” and members asking each other for local service provider recommendations.

Neighborhoods are created based on hyperlocal communities. It could be a subdivision or a small geographic area. I have been a member of the Franklin, Tennessee, neighborhood for several years. If your address falls outside of the geographic definition of the existing neighborhood, you can establish your own “neighborhood.” The “Founding” members determine the name and its boundaries. To create the new neighborhood, the member must attract a minimum of 10 households to the platform.

Users of Nextdoor submit their real names and addresses (or street without the exact number) to the website. Posts made to the website are available only to other Nextdoor members living in the same neighborhood.

The Nextdoor platform was co-founded by Sarah Leary, Nirav Tolia, Prakash Janakiraman, and David Wiesen in 2008.

Nextdoor introduced advertising to the platform, including real estate advertising, in 2017. Advertising includes posts inside a user’s feeds about business services and products.

Here are some suggestions on how agents can participate in the platform.

• Think of Nextdoor as a hyperlocal Facebook and neighborhood watch program. Like any social platform, the more engagement the better.
• If you don’t find your neighborhood, create a new one.
• Seek recommendations. My experience is that people seek recommendations about who they should work with for a wide variety of services. The more visible your agency, the more likely you will see engagement.
• Consider experimenting with the advertising platform.

Nextdoor wrote a very informative article profiling how insurance agents can use the platform: Three Ways Insurance Agents Can Build Connections on Nextdoor. It is worth reading for ideas on how to the platform.

I don’t know if using Nextdoor will bring in new business to your agency, but it certainly is worth considering.

Have you been using Nextdoor to engage with a local community? What has been your experience?