Mike Brewer
Purchasing feedback: I will pay you vs. I will give you something free
Read the following tweet this morning [RT @[xyz] @[abc] Suggest that you give away a free Flip to every prospect/resident that creates a [management company] Experience Video, Beats free rent] – it really got me thinking.
I have read both sides of this issue and have taken the position that if you disclose that you are paying for and or giving something away in exchange for an endorsement then frankly it’s okay. It really comes down to what is in the eye of the beholder. And, I think, at the end of the day, if a person really wants a product/experience they will go and get it/have it despite the persons of influence in their lives. They may read and listen but if they want it – they want it, period.
My real point here is that the above tweet implies that it’s okay to give away a Flip in exchange for an endorsement. Moreover it specifically states that it’s better than giving away free rent. On that point I ask: What’s the difference? – give away free rent or buy 20 Flips to give away – either way you hit the bottom line. Sure buying the Flip is cheaper and brings along a novelty that escaped the free rent give away long ago but it’s still an expense. It’s just a different form of currency. Marry it with a “you get the Flip free “if” you give me an endorsement and you have really marred the picture but I will leave that for future conversation.
For now – I really wonder what the community thinks – Is the Flip, used in this sense, a form of currency that could be construed as purchasing feedback? If so, is that okay? Would it pass a Yelp sniff test? Do you think the masses really care? Would you give equal stage to people who would speak conversely about your brand experience? Is it better than free rent? If so, why?
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Bing
Microsoft debuted a new search engine on May 28, 2009 called Bing. Head on over and Bing yourself, your company and or your apartment community. You might be surprised by the results.
Dubbed the decision engine, Bing is suggested to help users search the web more intelligently. It does so by grouping or organizing search results according to users preferences. You can learn more about Bing by watching this informative video.
Bing is not Google and it will likely take some time to gain traction with users but it is cool. It makes me think the SEO game will/has changed. Will we now be competing for Bing Juice and if so what are the key drivers? I ran a few apartments in [insert city] searches where companies usually dominate the front page of Google and found some interesting results. Each time it yielded [among the usual ILS’], a company URL, usually down the list, not the social media stuff. Now when you type in a specific company name social media seemed to dominate the listings.
Now I know it is early and in the same respect if Bing does take off to the extent it changes the game for Google and others, what will that mean for all the work we are currently doing with Social Media? Not suggesting we quit but does it change our approach? Should be interesting watching the news and reviews unfold over the coming weeks and I would love to hear from some of our more tech oriented MFI users on the subject.
Have a great week. M
*Note this is an edited version of the initial post.
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Using Wave to Market Apartments
Can you imagine a service that combines email, instant-messaging and document sharing? Well now you don’t have to; Google Unveils a Conversation Service called Wave – WSJ.com.
This struck me as I am currently working on a piece that is relative to
the next generation of the Internet; Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web and in
my opinion this speaks directly to it.
This is a fascinating topic in that it really boils down to search
engine sites racing to organize web content around a set of standards –
standards that would ultimately give meaning to web pages. Meaning so
precise that any search term you typed in would yield the exact person,
place, thing or in our case apartment that you were looking for.
Imagine searching for a $612 second floor one bedroom apartment facing
Forest Park in Central West End of St. Louis and boom you get it. Add
the words; near someone I know and boom you find one right next to one
of your Facebook friends. Google’s Wave is for all intents and purposes
a way to organize conversations in such a way that they have a more
precise meaning to the end user. How might something like this be
useful in our space?
Using Wave we could generate a message on the topic of a recently
vacated apartment home and the need for a new resident. We could then
send it out to our permission based user set [read: resident
evangelists]. Maybe we tie an incentive to it or maybe we don’t. The
point is the evangelist would then go to work finding their next
neighbor all the while content is being organized. Each time that
happens Wave gets smarter and each time the end user gets a richer
experience in yielding exactly what they search for. And, over time the
scenario above becomes more realistic. It all makes my spin. You think
social media is fun? The Semantic web will bring a whole new meaning to
apartment marketing. And, just when you think you can’t take anymore
the Web in things will be in full force.
And, with that I must hit the publish
button as it is 2:33AM and I have a big day planned with my kids.
Have a famous weekend.
M
Related Story:
Will Google Wave Eliminate the Need for PR as Media Relations?
apartment marketing, semantic web
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Quotable Friday: The Reason You Must Trust Yourself
“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
@sbrewer10 – thank you for the reminder.
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All the Best Intentions in the Social Media World
Tom Peters has carved out a very unique niche in the business consulting arena and rightfully so. His ideas, dating back 25+ years are as relevant today as they were back then. Many of them are still cutting the edge that we all innately yearn for. Over this Mother’s Day weekend I managed to read a post that really hit home in a simple but important kind of way. The following is an excerpt from the blog titled: Wrong Answer!
When I got back from the field, covered with mud (it was rainy season), I was sent directly to the Commandant with no time to change into a respectable uniform—a great embarrassment. General Chapman engaged in all of about 15 seconds of chitchat, and having done his duty to my aunt, sent me on my way. As I was literally walking out of his temporary field office, he summoned me back, and said, out of the blue, “Tom, are you taking care of your men?” (I had a little detachment, about 20 guys as I recall, doing the work described before.)
Yup, 40 years plus later, I remember his exact words—which is the point of this Post. I replied to the General, “I’m doing my best, sir.” To this day, with a chill going up my spine (no kidding—as I type this), I can see his face darken, and his voice harden, “Mr Peters, General Walt and I and General Buse are not interested in whether or not you are ‘doing your best.’ We simply expect you to get the job done—and to take care of your sailors. Period. That will be all, Lieutenant.”
The line, “we simple expect you to get the job done,” took me back to 1996. It was my rookie year in the role of property manager and I was as confident as they come – on top of the world and on top of my game. Or, so I thought.
The hand written note read; “all the best intentions in the world are worth nothing unless they are followed through with.” It was the last sentence in a long letter addressed to me from my district manager shortly after a very important property inspection. It floored me. It took my view of the world from a 6’7″ lens to that roughly the height of fire ant. Mind you – it was well deserved and sticks with me to this day.
She had entrusted me with a project that needed to be complete prior to the upcoming inspection. I put it off to the last minute not knowing that the regional manager would walk the property on the eve prior to the date her expected visit. She, along with my DM, caught us in the act of prepping the project in the eleventh hour and was clearly tweaked. The following day was both the best and the worst day of my PM career. The best in the sense that I clearly understood the definition of expectation – the worst in the sense that I did not meet it on behalf of the one that had bestowed the responsibility on me.
I say all that to say this – as we continue down the path of social media as it relates to marketing apartments; remember intentions must marry to expectations. Our consumer demands that we live up to and follow through with the ways in which they like to do business and not much concern is given to our sacred cows. Any more it is not our executive officers defining the way we do business – it is the consumer and we must engage. We must get the job done in a way that is being defined and redefined everyday.
What are your intentions for the coming week and who is driving them?
Have a famous week. M
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