Imagine a croissant crossed with a doughnut. That hybrid was named one of TIME magazine’s 25 best inventions of 2013. Its name: the Cronut. Its creator: pastry chef Dominique Ansel.
On launch day, the Cronut went viral. The first photo on Instagram drew over 140,000 interactions in a few hours and turned Dominique into one of the most recognized pastry chefs in the world.
It looked like luck. In retrospect, Dominique used a positioning strategy that has worked for almost every company that has built a real audience on social media. Four parts. All apply directly to a residential developer trying to position the brand on social in 2026 — with one major update: social media is no longer social. It’s interest media.
A few years ago, the feed on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube was dominated by content from people you actually followed. In 2026, most of what shows up is from accounts you don’t follow, served by algorithms based on what they’ve decided you’re interested in. The mechanics for getting on those feeds — and for getting cited in AI assistants when buyers ask about your community — are different from the old “build a follower base” playbook.
Here’s what works.
1. The law of the few — start with the smallest viable market
When developers think about “positioning” on social, the default is mass. More followers. More likes. More content. More paid distribution to a broad audience. The result is usually mediocre engagement and even worse conversion.
Mass-market positioning works for global brands with global ad budgets. It rarely works for a regional developer.
The right approach is the opposite: get genuine traction with the small, specific group of buyers who are exactly right for your project. The “smallest viable market.” The audience that, if you delight them, will tell their friends — and whose friends look like them.
Two years before the Cronut went viral, Dominique built a small loyal customer base in a single Soho block. Three employees. No NYC-wide advertising. No paid follower campaigns. No mass-market positioning. He delighted his small viable market. The viral moment was a result of the foundation, not a substitute for it.
For a residential developer, the equivalent is owner community. Delight the first 50 owners in the project. Their referrals and content do more for the brand than any paid social campaign.
2. The product (and the content) have to be worth talking about
You probably remember the first time you saw something on YouTube that was so good you sent it to a friend. That moment is what every brand needs from its content — and you can’t fake it.
The Cronut isn’t a fried doughnut with chocolate. It’s a patented laminated dough fried in grape-seed oil at a specific temperature, filled with cream by hand, and finished with doughnut glaze. Dominique spent months iterating before launch. The product was talk-worthy because it was actually different.
Most developer social content is forgettable because the underlying product story is generic. The first move isn’t a content strategy. It’s making sure there’s something specific, distinct, and genuinely interesting to say. Then the content writes itself.
3. Context and channel
Not every product needs Cronut-level differentiation. But the product, the content, and the message have to be excellent for a specific group of people, in a specific moment, matching their worldview and their stage of decision.
When Tom Dickson built the Blendtec blender in 2006, he didn’t have the budget for traditional advertising. He believed his ideal buyer was watching more YouTube. So he filmed videos blending wood, marbles, iPods, phones — every absurd thing his viewers asked for. In two years the videos had 285 million views. Blendtec became the dominant blender in commercial restaurants.
For a residential developer in 2026, the equivalent question is: where is your buyer actually spending attention right now? Instagram Reels of community life? TikTok of model home tours? YouTube long-form on neighborhood guides? AI assistants when they search for builders in your county? The answer determines where your content has to live.
4. Consistency
Dominique started working in a restaurant at 16 to help his family. He worked at Fauchon, then for Daniel Boulud as pastry chef. Each job taught him something. He opened Eponymous Dominique Ansel Bakery in 2011. He spent two years iterating on new desserts before the Cronut hit. Most people thought it was an overnight success. It was 20 years of preparation.
The same is true on social. The accounts that build real audiences post consistently for years before the breakthrough. There is no shortcut.
For a residential developer, this means setting a publishing cadence the team can sustain — and sustaining it. Two posts a week for two years beats a 50-post burst followed by silence.
What to do with this in 2026
- Define your smallest viable market specifically.
- Make the project, the story, and the content actually worth talking about.
- Pick the channels your buyer is on (including AI search) and the formats they engage with.
- Be consistent — for years, not months.
Combine this with the Route block and the Conversion block, and social stops being a vanity expense and starts producing reservations.
For the complete picture, see Digital Marketing for Home Builders: What Actually Works (2026) and the MERCA framework.
