Mikes post today “Social Media: The danger for apartment owners” should make us all stop and think, because the danger isn’t Social Media, it is here and looks as though it is here to stay, it showed up, unannounced, without our permission. There is just no way to avoid it. So, it seems the danger isn’t Social Media, it is the avoidance of Social Media. Kodak avoided the digital cameras far too long and completely fell off the radar, (when is the last time you did One Hour Photos, or even used a non digital camera?)
Our Social Media experience at urbaneapts.com has been surprisingly positive, even though we have tripped over ourselves multiple and many times since our start-up five years ago. We have made mistake after mistake, and when we do, up goes a post for everyone to see it, HOWEVER, guess what we work on with every post we see, that Residents Problem, and guess what that Resident Sees, that we cared enough to make a run at fixing whatever the problem of the day was, and if you are genuine and sincere it shines through, brighter than before the error occurred.
Embrace this new world, as Mike points out, start today, it just isn’t that hard, and it really is a requirement of today’s business. And, it can be pretty fun, I have met new people, created new relationships and have learned a heck of a lot.
One Response
Eric, you are completely right. Residents are going to talk using social media, one way or another. Successful communities will use that to their advantage to monitor and react to resident concerns and needs that arise from this medium. Conversely, communities who don’t “listen” to social media will continue to suffer from high turnover and not understand why.
Here is a blog post that I think you should respond to: http://cpnmhn.typepad.com/out_and_about/2008/05/on-sunday-the-n.html