It’s official – Mills Properties is taking the plunge into new media. For the past three years we have been at work producing real results with simple tools like Craiglist and vFlyer. One example, which I will fully detail in a later blog post, includes a manager that used CL exclusively to add 23 points of occupancy in just seven short weeks. It’s an amazing story but it is not where we wanted to be. We wanted to be fully immersed in the use of new media as it relates to marketing apartments.
The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step
I am jazzed to report that Mills Senior Leadership has given blessing for me to document the entire journey from soup to nuts. In doing so I hope to utilize all the rich media out there in order to produce some massively cool dialog. The chief aim is to bring real meaning to the word engagement as I am fully convinced that the word is very often misplaced and misused in the world of marketing and new media specifically.
All that being said, I invite you to join us as we take the first step to Get Social with Mills.
Update: And, if it starts to look and or feel like a ton of self promotion, company promotion or ego-centric rhetoric, say as much. Our intent is to tell a story that may add value to your new media marketing efforts.
M
0 Responses
Rock star!
Get Social with Mills: The Journey Begins: It’s official – Mills Properties is taking the plunge into new media. http://bit.ly/9GPuu8
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
MBrewer Group Post: Get Social with Mills: The Journey Begins http://bit.ly/9y1QN6
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RE: @mbrewer Rock star! http://disq.us/dkw7v
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Stories are great. Many property management companies are searching for a path and direction. Documented progress will only serve to help and assist our industry. Their tends to be a lot of over analyzing which has caused some to hesitate dipping their toes in. It's a reality that needs to be embraced. I look forward to your future posts.
Jonathan
Thank you for always taking the time to comment. It should be a ton fun and we are really looking forward to it. Up until now, It's been tough setting on the sidelines listening and observing all the activity.
Have a great Easter –
Makes sense to me: proof of forward-movement is going to serve to reinvigorate some confidence in the market. Am I off, here?
Get Social with Mills: The Journey Begins http://bit.ly/a22xKi (via @mbrewer)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RE: @mbrewer Stories are great. Many property management companies are searching for a path and direction. Documente… http://disq.us/dkwh6
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RE: Jonathan
Thank you for always taking the time to comment. It should be a ton fun and we are really looking forwar… http://disq.us/dkwm0
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Mike,
Very interested (and excited) to see Mills get involved in the social media space. Not sure if you are looking for any advice or feedback so for what it's worth here's some:
1. Know your audience – many companies get caught lumping what should be segment customer groups together creating ineffective mass communication
2. Create value – after you have defined your audience(s), how can you provide value to them? Content? Discounts? Events?
3. Communicate frequently
4. Actively grow audience – cross promotion through other marketing platforms, keyword monitoring, group and fan outreach and more
Would be happy to discuss offline more if you'd like but, regardless, definitely excited to see this take shape!
Mark
Mark,
Thank you for taking the time to comment – we are always open to feedback especially when it adds value to the conversation.
In a lot of ways this delay in getting into the space has served us well. We have been writing about it here on this blog for a number of years now and as such have been exposed to an amazing network of apartment new media maniacs.
I look forward to keeping the dialog alive and any time you have feedback by all means hit us up. And, thank you so much for taking the time.
Congratulations on the new initiative and permission to document it Mike. Have you set any goals for this initiative in advance? How will you know whether to continue, adjust or shut it down? I can't wait to read more.
S
Thank you for the questions – at this point we have put out a rather lengthy and somewhat open ended RFP. In the RFP we clearly defined the vision we wish to create. We purposefully left the objectives, strategies and subsequent goal setting open.
We really want a true partner along for this journey and as such we want them to be as much a part of the goal setting piece as the actual execution piece. As this is part of a larger re-branding effort that will include everything from a new logo and website to a new media and reputation management component we think and feel it will be crucial to the success of it all.
At this point we are less than a month away and very excited. We look forward to any and all feedback – good, bad and uber-ugly – if appropriate.
Thanks again Steve – I trust the new week will be a compelling one for you.
I’m the latest to find out @mbrewer and Mills Props are documenting their move into social media to rent apartments http://bit.ly/b6Zops
This comment was originally posted on Twitter