The biggest mistake we see companies make when they first hit Twitter is to think about it as a channel to push out information. – Tim O’Reilly & Sarah Milstein – The Twitter Book
For those veterans out there in the media space this seems like a no brain-er but in a world steeped in tradition, it seems like the right thing to do. Take a new medium, insert old practices and principles and voila, we experience success. Except that we don’t.
Apartment Twitter Marketing in Saint Louis
Just this week, I followed up some new #STL Twitter handles [new apartment deliveries in the city proper]. I will admit, I was very encouraged to see their use of the medium included push marketing. Special after special, floor plan after floor plan, us – us – us & look at me copy – it all makes me smile inside.
It makes me smile because I don’t think it’s what those who use the space expect or even want to see. In other words, it’s a big turn off and at best it’s ignored and left to rot in a digital dump-ground way off over there in the dark ‘Cloud.’
Not that we at Mills Properties have it all figured out and are knocking it out of the park as a result. That being said, we do seem to experience a ton of participation from the people that work with and for us, the people that they serve in our some fifty properties in the Saint Louis Apartment Market and our coaches and mentors in the multifamily industry. All by using just the opposite approach and all for which we are immensely thankful. We keep experimenting, failing, learning, tweaking, experimenting & thanking those who give us feedback along the way.
Push Marketing on Twitter
Back to the point at hand; is there a time and place where this works? Have we reached that point or are we approaching a time where the masses that frequent Twitter, Facebook and the like expect, heck even desire to see some push marketing for goods and services?
0 Responses
Twitter for Apartment Marketing, It Works
Hey Mike, The era of Push Marketing is long gone, or at least not as effective, that said, it seems there are appropriate times to “sell”, like when the a potential prospects asks us a question. The public knows our brand and what business we are in. If they have a rental question, they ask and we answer.
We require our leasing gals to tweet (8) to (10) times per day, but never about our apartments, only aimed at Hyper Local Engagement. We have garnished nearly 10,000 mostly local followers, and many threads of back and forth “conversation” It works, but is “a lot of work” Many aren’t willing, or haven’t cleared other things from their schedule to enable them to be effective.
E
Thank you for adding to the conversation. It’s that whole permission marketing philosophy. You have earned the right to sell by not selling at all. That rocks.
It is a ton of work but over time I am certain it will/does yield a bigger bang for you marketing buck than some of the more traditional media spends.
Take care and have an amazing week. M
I have a whole Twitter list dedicated to apartment communities which I monitor regularly. The problem I see is that there is almost zero interaction. Whereas there may be a message going out about what is available I have been sincerely hoping to see apartment communities use Twitter for an effective communication and connection tool. Our experience overall as marketers has seen better results when there is conversation. My goal is to help the evolution of the conversation that typically takes place on FB pages now and see that go to the next level on a platform like Twitter.
Mills in my books like Urbane and JC Hart have been pinnacle pioneers in this process. You folks are not afraid to take the plunge and test marketing from every angle.
There are so many brands who have capitalized on Twitter and I am looking forward to property management companies and their communities start leveraging it for themselves.
Great post as always sir. Love what you bring to the table
J
Thank you for taking the time to add to the conversation. And, thank you for the very kind words. This is fun stuff..
Hope the balance of your week rocks!!!