It’s official, Mills Apartments is slowing making it’s way into the world of social media. While the process of participation has been slow to evolve, we have not been completely idle. Over the past two years we have listened and interacted here and there, dipping our toe in on experimental basis only. We are now going from dipping our toe to a full swan dive by creating an overall marketing strategy that integrates social media into the mix.
The following are the areas we are choosing to focus our time and attention;
- New website [not something that we would have elected to do [nor see as an absolute necessity] except that we collectively did not like our current one]
- Prospect Portals
- Resident Portals
- Ten blogs, eight of which will serve the various neighborhoods and regions where we have a presence. The other two will be penned from our home office, one from the various team members that make up this family called Mills and the other by our President – Kirk Mills.
- One Twitter Account Click Here
- One Facebook Like page for each of our 47 [as of today] properties Park Clayton Apartments
- YouTube Channel
Now we have no illusions that we can pull this off with out the help of a professional and after a bit of a beauty contest we elected to work with Mike Whaling over at 30lines. He along with a few others [hopefully, soon to be announced] are building the lion’s share of the infrastructure. Up to this point, he has proven to be a very valuable partner and resource and as such we are very excited about the future.
The post today is really just a tease in the way getting our story out there in the crowded sea of multifamily social media starts. I have been given full permission to document the good, the bad and the ugly along the way in building this out. And, in doing so I would be remiss not to mention the many fine trailblazers that we have borrowed [wink wink] ideas from. Many of the things you will see in the coming months will echo the efforts of others and many will take on little tweaks and nuances. And, I will do my best to site the sources of inspiration and feel free to call me on the carpet if I miss anyone.
With all that being said, I wanted to share the first of a number of internal dialogs that relate to our get social initiative. This gem is from our Communication Strategist and Brand Manager – Melissa Presusser. It relates to our blog initiative and went out to a select group of managers who have been charged with beginning to create compelling, over the top and very cool content. While they will by no means be alone in this – we thought it right to have them highly involved in the process. We are certain that it will be a work in progress and we will learn a lot along the way.
As a premise, we are encouraging all of our bloggers’ to read the introduction of Brains on Fire. We are going to use their passion for ignition in hopes of putting a real dent in the city of STL.
With that – here we go!
YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED!!
Mills Properties will begin a blogging frenzy in the next few months with 9 blogs going at one time. We have chosen all of you to help get this super important piece of our web presence started!! You have all shown a very strong ability and passion for writing and using social media and we think you will be perfect to join our team! This is an excellent, rockin opportunity for you to really build your skills and help make really great things happen – bigger than big!
Here is what will be required, if you choose to accept…
- Accept our offer to be a Fabulous Mills Blogger
- Purchase, with petty cash, the book Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements
or pick it up – I believe it can also be purchased in store at Barnes & Noble or Borders - Read the introduction of the book mentioned above by October 26th
- 4. Attend the Mills Blogger Training Class on Tuesday, October 26th at 9:00 at the corporate office (we should conclude at or around 12:00)
- Get started with your crazy cool content to make things happen at Mills
We can’t wait to hear from you! Please call me if you have questions!
Let us know what you think and a big thank you to all that have inspired us along the way…
0 Responses
Mike, Congratulations and best of Luck on your adventure. Are you planning on creating all or most of your blog content internally? Also, how are you measuring progress.
I am really interested and excited to see your company doing this, and applaud you and Mills for sharing the “good, bad and ugly” along the way, as that is where the learning resides.
EThank you. We have a plan that will include both organic [internal] and paid content. In the beginning, however, it will be 100% organic. As it relates to measuring, we have taken some benchmark traffic metrics from our current website that we intend to measure against. We think that participation in the way of comments is a viable metric as well. In addition, we will have analytic packages built into each blog so as to measure the basics. I do wish we were more active in building it out two years ago and in the same respect I think there are some advantages to wait and see. Have a great Sunday! M
Mike I am super happy for you and the Mills team. It’s good to really analyze and carefully sort out what will work best for your company which it sounds like this is what you and the team have done. It is very encouraging to see more property management companies moving into 2011 take a much more broader approach to social media. All the best to you and the team.
P.S. Happy that you have Mr Whaling working with you guys 🙂
Jonathan
Thank you for the kind words. We are jazzed to be working with Mike W – smart guy with tons of great ideas. Should be a blast…
Sounds like you guys are about ready to rock and roll! Keep us up to date on how the blogs in the different neighborhoods work out. Who will be writing those?
Looking forward to following your efforts!
Cheers.
Ryan
Thank you – we are excited by it.
We are hosting our first blogging summit tomorrow for the first team of writers. Over the coming sixty to ninety days we will host a number of follow up summits to train anew and maintain momentum with the veterans. Over time we will likely install a pay for post model but only where it really makes sense for us and the blogger. If I had my druthers it would be 100% organic but I am not certain that is practical for what we are trying to do.
Thanks again.
Mike, certainly can’t thank you enough for the opportunity, and I’m looking forward to seeing the conversation evolve here and across the Mills sites. You have a great story to tell in your region and to the industry, and I’m glad to be part of the team. Let’s do something BIG, eh?
Mike Whaling [Stated in a loud and thunderous way]
I think it goes without saying that you have taken far more than enough time to capture the hearts of many. It’s clear to me that you take what you do, not as a job but rather as a passion. And, your knack for asking truly great questions is to be admired. It’s an art. We are jazzed to learn and grow with you and the various other people that will no doubt be a part of this journey. Should be compelling!
Mike,
Just finished reading the book, doing some research now. I am very excited to be a part of this new direction the company is taking.
Melissa
Melissa
We are jazzed to have fired up game-changers like yourself be a part of the process. I’m getting pumped about tomorrow’s discussion – it should be a compelling one.
M