Apartment Social Media
The Renter’s Voice
Update: TRV responded to my questions via email and agreed to let me post them here.
Checking out The Renter’s Voice this morning.
Bullet point thoughts thus far:
1. Listings powered by an ILS – does that mean you have to do business with the ILS, Ellis or Renter’s Voice? If so, bunk.
TRV: No you don’t, many of the listings will begin with the robust content from a large content source – AF.com – so helps jump start a positive review platform.
2. I see zero activity thus far so hard to form an opinion about it. Even the listings in the side bar on the left seem plugged. When you click on them and go to the actual review page, it is void of the aforementioned review.
TRV: It will take time to build the reviews as with any web presence.
3. Not sure how managers can/will respond or participate (see point number 1)
TRV: Joanna Ellis is working with the PMC companies on building this review site for our industry. It is an open forum for renters to share experiences about apartment living. Over time, there will be other opportunities to use reviews for marketing in the apartment space!
Build Your Own Mouse Trap
I am still a firm believer that apartment management companies can build and equal if not better mouse trap right on there own website.
Ratings and reviews are a driver of business – no doubt. But, not if you have to pay to participate.
Your always wondering about the definition of advertising partner multifamily maniac,
M
Some Feedback from Twitter –
@mbrewer curious- what’s going to be the difference between them and the other rating/comment websites? Did I miss that?
— Nicole (@NYork75) June 21, 2012
Apartment Social Platform – I Ask Myself Why
I received a tweet last night asking for my thoughts on a new apartment social platform called 5Neighbors and I found myself wondering. Don’t get me wrong, I love people who go for it. People who put their heads down, design, build and deliver. And, who have the wherewithal to put it out there by asking for feedback. The people who just do it, care what others think and use it (good and bad) as motivation for making their offering even better. Those people – rock. I applaud the 5Neighbors team in that respect.
Their platform is clean, it’s well designed, it’s inviting and it’s user-friendly. And, for all intents and purposes, it’s fairly priced with zero contractual obligations. But, I wonder…
Why?
My chief question is – why? As a group – we have gone to war with each other over who is going to get the top spots on page one of Google. And, trust me, it is an all out, take no prisoners, war. It’s the middle man competing with 30 other want-to-be middle men vs. the little guy who now has an equal footing. It’s war. And, where has it taken us?
Prize?
It’s lent to a ton of confusion for the end-user. Fragmentation – at it’s best. The people who want to do business with us can’t even tell us where they heard about us half the time. And, the other half that can remember mis-quote their source.
In my head, the further we fragment this audience the less likely they are to participate. Even in the niches like 5Neighbors. Why? Because they are – capital f – letters in between ending with that ing suffix – tired. They are just tired. 
You see it with less conversation on Twitter. I recall a day when ten or so multifamily rockers talked every single waking hour of every single day – it was crazy cool. I can’t tell you the last time I participated in that way. I recall a day when the same thing happened on FB, MF Insiders and other platforms. Today – not as much. I remember commenting on ten to fifteen blog posts every week. And, responding to just as many comments on my own blog. Today – not as much. People are distracted by too many channels and too much noise. And, I don’t think fragmenting the audience into a less noisy channel is the answer. Maybe to a select few but not to the masses. Not in a way that will be meaningful to the user. But hey, that is just this guys opinion.
I’ll Stop Now
5Neighbors – I do applaud you. I really do. And, I wish you the best of the best kind of luck. You’ve built a cool thing on a cool premise. Do keep us posted as we love to be wrong about things and will gladly do a future article on your successes.
I am curious what others think – if you have a quick second in between your fragmentation efforts – give us some feedback.
Your – wondering why I’m feeling further fragmented – multifamily maniac,
M
Apartment Interest Graph Marketing
To preface, this post is likely several years off in terms of being really germane to apartment marketing.
I have been reading a ton about Interest Graphs as of late. An interest graph is akin to a digital map that captures and demonstrates everything you like or frankly don’t like. Be it coffee, tea or me – it takes everything you like about your personal adventure through this world and packages it up into one nice comprehensive picture of you. Think Pinterest – the red-hot picture pinning site. In my estimation IG’s are a marketers wildest dream come true.
Apartment Marketing a Few Years Hence
Imagine with me for a moment – if you will. Tomorrow morning you walk into your office, pop open your email and you read:
Hi all,
Today we are embarking on a new marketing initiative. As such, we are completely revamping the information you commingle to make up your demographic set. But, unlike many of our other initiatives, for this one you don’t need to do a thing. In fact, this thing is so brilliant you are going to have a tough time keeping up with the new-found demand we intend to create.
You see, we have crafted a quasi-quant algorithm that constructs your apartment communities Interest Graph. That is to suggest that your community has a personality (and, a friend making ability) and we have found a way to define it based on the premise of how moving it is. Then – get this – once we have defined that personality, we are going to align it with people with like kind personalities or Interest Graphs.
Confused? That’s okay, it will all make sense at some point –
Stay tuned,
Your Marketing Team
Fish Where the Fish Are 2.0
As the internet becomes more and more fragmented with special interest groups (not to be mistaken with those who lobby politically), the more specific we can get with where we have our conversations. And, we can be more precise about what we say and don’t say. Today, we know we have to have a website, a blog and we have to get connected on Facebook. Tomorrow, we will still need those things but now we will be able to find and converse with exactly who we are looking for in the exact place where they don’t mind sharing and talking. Because the conversation will center around the very things they love and cherish as represented by their interests. So long as we are patient and exercise all the simple lessons Dale Carnegie taught us – we will open the flood gates. That is don’t be a stalker.
I see a day when we know exactly who it is that we want to rent our apartments, who will actually rent them, when they will actually rent, and how much rent they are willing to pay. All by simply defining and promoting our communities Interest Graph and coupling them up with people who have like kind interests. In my head, it’s akin to creating personas of the people who you want your marketing messages to speak to but much more amplified and much deeper, richer and more compelling. Much more intimate. It will bring together a like hearted and like-minded apartment community that will attract like kind people. And, that my friends will likely be the lead into the beginning of singularity.
Your Apartment Interest Graph Marketing Junkie (at least this week),
M
Pic Credit: Robert Scoble
Apartment Marketing: Paying Rent is a Social Act
Update: 4.30.12 – Social gifting, the new buzzword in e-commerce
I wrote about an idea along these lines sometime ago and Wrapp just might be the early way to get it done.
Original Article
Ran across Pepsi’s Social Vending Machine Story while I was in the process of purging some old files and it got me thinking about ways that we could make paying rent an even more social experience.
Is it reasonable to think that Facebook, Twitter, G+ or even resident portals could be robust enough to allow payments by third parties unassociated with lease contracts and the such?
Following the concept of Pepsi creating a the experience of sending free sodas to friends; could you see the same thing apply to rent payments? If my buddy knows that I have fallen on hard times and wants to help; could he go to our website, log in without disclosing his identity [at least to me] and pay my rent? Or, a portion?
It already happens in the analog world. Or not, if leases are written such that you can not take third party payments [not smart in my opinion]. In the former case, parent’s pay their student’s rent via various payment methods. A process, at least at Mills Properties, that is usually administered by our onsite teams. Can we make it DIY for third parties with technology? Do you employ such a service today? Tell us about it.
Your looking to make paying the rent a more social experience multifamily maniac,
M
Social Media Flash Mob
I have decided. If I am not passionate about doing something, I am simply not going to do it. For a recent experience, Lovin’ the Lou, I was able to let my passion flag fly and find others flying theirs proudly as well…it was magical!
First things first, we have a fabulous new development/rehab called The Laurel Apartments located in Downtown St. Louis in the Mercantile Exchange District. This is an up and coming neighborhood with incredible potential to really help rejuvenate Downtown – and we are right in the middle of it. So we needed to get the word out. In comes Lovin’ the Lou! In order to enter, we asked Lovin’ the Louers to create a 2 minute video capturing their love for St. Louis.
This is not just a contest with a fabulous prize (Free Rent for a Year at The Laurel), it is much bigger. It is about reminding an entire region how alive and exciting downtown St. Louis really is. We originally wanted to use all the traditional media outlets like television and newspapers but as it turned out, that is not where you find people for passion projects. So you ask yourself…how can we find this targeted audience of people passionate about St. Louis? The internet of course! This project was run completely through social media – twitter, facebook, website, and blog posts. And maybe we sacrificed some volume (maybe) by avoiding traditional media, but I think we gained a ton more in passion.
We received 18 passionate, creative, and fun videos showcasing St. Louis for this project! Every entry had a great story to tell and it was clear that this was not really about winning free rent. BAM! Exactly what we were looking for…our prize was secondary to real passion for the city! Not only were people loving the videos, they were also commenting and sharing the information with their friends. Our broader goal of helping revitalize downtown was really coming to fruition. We have 18 mini-commercials from real St. Louisans that are much more intriguing than any ad I have ever seen. This is only the beginning. It’s funny (and maybe this is a precaution), when you start a passion project you find it will never be complete – you will feel internally compelled to do more. So I guess we will see what the next chapters bring!
But for this chapter, we are in the final stages of judging to announce the winner later this month – check out all the entries at Lovinthelou.com.
Broader reminder to marketers: Don’t push your content (especially with passion projects). Passionate people who really buy-in are much more inspiring than fancy ad campaigns with fake passion. Passionate people truly believe in what you are trying to accomplish and they will find you. It’s like a social media flash mob for your project! Ok-ok. Here are some stats… (over 5 month period).
5,058 Visits 3,231 Unique visitors 16,951 Pageviews 280 Comments 166 Lovin the Lou fan page likers 554 Facebook individual webpage likes 63 Tweets 11 +1’sWe are nearing the first chapter finale for this passion project and I can’t wait to continue! What will your next passion project be?
