New York City is an amazing epicenter of culture.  There are few places on Earth that feature as much diversity as the Big Apple.

Getting around New York can be difficult by car so it’s key to be located in a neighborhood that has a bunch of cool walkable spots nearby.  New York City’s largest residential real estate firm, The Corcoran Group, decided to use Gowalla to create both useful trips for current and potential clients as well as highlight fun spots around the properties they sell.

Matthew Shadbolt, Corcoran’s Director of Interactive Product and Marketing, uses Gowalla to help paint a picture of various neighborhoods throughout New York City.  ”A key part of Corcoran’s brand strategy is the idea that looking for homes is just as much about what’s around the property, as what’s contained within the four walls of the apartment. We call this idea ‘thinking beyond the four walls’. We think it’s a critical part of the home buying process, and communicating the idea of ‘what’s near here’ is something we focus on a lot. We find that it’s a key differentiator in terms of content for all of our marketing initiatives.

As part of the promotion of our services, we have a substantial social media presence, focused on providing helpful information for what it’s like to live in NYC. We are on Facebook, Twitter  and also have a large volume of content on YouTube. Our social strategy is focused on providing specific, local-only insight and education.

This is where Gowalla highlights comes in. By providing helpful, insightful information per venue when folks check-in, we can market Corcoran’s local expertise on a per person and per check-in basis, and we find this to be a very powerful and effective form of brand marketing (plus its a lot of fun!) We see our use of Gowalla as a great location-based extension of what we’ve been doing elsewhere in social media.”

Corocoran has made eight Gowalla trips so far and is rolling out a vast venue highlight/ tip inventory across Gowalla. They aim to have over 1000 New York City highlights rolled out over the next few weeks.  That’s a lot of great information about the Big Apple!

Whether you are a native New Yorker or just an admirer, be sure to follow The Corcoran Group on Gowalla and bookmark all of their interesting trips to help you navigate your way through town.