Search Results for: the space between
More Outlets Does Not Equal a Better Story…
…People do.
This is a simple unscientific case for passionate apartment marketing (professional or otherwise) content producers [Read: conduits]…
I picked the following quote off of a blog some time ago and pasted it into a file for future posting. Now, after a few search engine attempts, I can’t find the author of it so if it’s yours – please claim it and I will give you the due credit.
There seems to be a curious thing happening – the more outlets for stories we get… the less and less we’re hiring writers, content strategists, editors, designers. It’s like the second spawning of “reality programming”- no need for writers … it’s real life.
It’s a very interesting dilemma that we find ourselves facing in the apartment marketing space; do we go it alone in an amateur more reality based way or do we go pro? It’s not a simple answer but a necessary question to consider. And, the reasons run concurrent with trends in the way we influence, are influenced, how we consume and how we distribute information as a society.
The Niche is Coming Into its Own
With the absolute proliferation of platforms that host and syndicate blog content along with the opportunities to narrow our focus by creating lists and circles on the likes of LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and the king of the them all Facebook, we all have a niche to serve in some way.
Niches are not a new concept but they themselves are new to the likes of being served information in a passionate and pointed way. And, in mass from marketers, friends and acquaintances. And, thus the need for a professional or an amateur but passionate writer…
The Simple Case For
I am very much a visual person so I took the time to draw this out on a piece of paper. While visual, I am clearly not artistic so feel free to toss fruit from the front row…
Be it you advocate professional content producer/managers or the Sunday driver version; I think you would agree that you need a guru…[term used very loosely – in fact I hate that word – let’s go with…] someone who knows what they are doing.
I have been reading the book: Grouped by Paul Adams the Global Brand Experience Manager at Facebook. You might recognize my pic as an adaptation from the book. He makes a much deeper case for what I am trying to loosely convey in this post so buy his book – it’s a goodie. (The link is not tied to an affiliate account).
As we further fragment based on interests and or outright fatigue, the ability to connect via influencers (seemingly more a myth than realistic) is waning and or presenting itself as more of a fallacy. Small groups connected by someone who cares and someone who knows what they are doing will be the way to continue on with the conversation. Continue down the current path or seek the alternative and we’re just creating noise for ourselves. And, as the number of outlets increase, we have to ask ourselves are we just being noisy in more places? Instead, be a conduit and bring together the small groups that will move business in the future.
See that person in the middle of my pic – for the theory to work, that person must know (intimately) someone in each of the four outcroppings. The way this works is that this person is the conduit of/for information (influence) to flow between the outcroppings or small niche groups. Without the conduit, the potential potency of this group is never realized. They will never have the chance to know one another because they will have no real reason to do so.
The job of that someone who knows what they are doing and cares enough to do it is to bring the groups together in a way that is appealing to the individual members. He/she gives them a reason to believe. A reason to be merry. And, a reason to be intimate with one another. Intimate in a way that moves business forward.
Experiment
As I flesh this concept out in real life experiments – I’ll be sure to post updates.
Your – interested in interest graphs – multifamily maniac,
M
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Multifamily #Trust30: Right Now
Day 7 of the #Trust30 challenge – and, today is a challenge! Whoa!
What is burning deep inside of you? If you could spread your personal message RIGHT NOW to 1 million people, what would you say? (Author: Eric Handler)
It’s All About Choice
The message is something to this effect – the difference between that which you are and that which you want to be is the sliver of a space between stimulus and response – you are what you ‘choose’ to be and you can be what you want to be by choosing differently.
How would you answer the question above?
Your lovin’ the #trust30 challenge contributor,
M
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Multifamily #Trust30: Self Control
Day One of the #Trust30 challenge:
Nothing like a punch to the gut to get things started. The following quote and subsequent action step showed up in my inbox as promised:
That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? . . . Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (ie I don’t feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (ie How can I do work I’m passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them.
Self control instantly came to mind but I did not have a post-it. I chuckled and thought I could write about finding a post-it as my biggest challenge of the moment. But, that would obviously be missing the point of the exercise. So, I grabbed the nearest piece of paper and wrote the word out. Looks like Sunday mornings writing time will be dedicated to the subject of self control.
In brief opinion, self control is getting more and more difficult in the wired world. Now, I could displace it on my self diagnosis of ADHD or an Addictive Personality or I could blame it on Facebook, Twitter or any other host of social media platforms but at the end of the day, it’s on me. It’s that space between stimulus and response called choice. I get to choose what I spend my time on despite the stimulus. And, it really is predicated on my ability to control thyself.
Majoring in the Majors
As it relates to the multifamily space, my biggest challenge at the moment in my business – How can I be compassionate and passionate about rising delinquencies at our more challenged assets? The mechanisms are in place and the processes are solid. On the backside, unemployment figures are not getting any better, people are one ‘life event’ away from complete financial wipe out and poor financial discipline is exaggerate by misaligned needs vs wants logic.
There it is – would love to hear what your biggest multifamily business challenge is at the moment. Please rock the comment box below – if you feel compelled.
Either way, have a compelling weekend. It’s going to be a crazy hot 98 in #STL tomorrow.
Your thinking hard about self control
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Using Social Media to Market Apartments – GoogleJuice
Here comes everybody
Above is the clever title to a very brilliant book written by Clay Shirky and I think it relates to a movement that is happening in the multifamily space. I have noticed more and more major players, as of late, using social media to market their apartments. And, it seems like with every passing hour I am reading a new press release, blog post, tweet or Facebook update about someone trying their hand at it. All of which I think is great news for the multifamily space; that is as long as we have the real end game in mind.
The truth behind it
I think it’s important to mention that the chief aim of an operator using social media is not to create value for the end user. Sounds crazy, I know but it is true. And, over the coming months as we see this flood of new users entering the space some of us have occupied for years, you will hear common phrases like; creating value for the resident or prospect, creating customer evangelist, creating value as perceived in the eyes of the consumer and joining the conversation, just to name a few. In all fairness these are very important statements and should be front and center in your approach to social media. But, they are not the goal. The truth behind it is that the more content you create, whether it be about your apartment company, specific apartment community or otherwise, the more you drive your Googlejuice.
What is Googlejuice?
This is the best definition I could find on the fly [source]
GoogleJuice is the ethereal substance which flows between web pages via their hyperlinks (in both directions!). Pages with lots of links to them acquire much GoogleJuice; pages which link to highly juicy pages acquire some reflected GoogleJuice. (do they? who says?) The level of GoogleJuice in a page thus reflects how well connected it is, and thus, in our world where LinksAreContent, how good it is (well, sort of). Google uses the term PageRank in-house to mean the score that they give to each web page. When it was google.stanford.edu, Google search results included a small graphic indicating how much PageRank each page has. Now that search results no longer include PageRank (unless you have the google toolbar), people use the term GoogleJuice to mean “the mysterious quality that causes pages to come up high in a Google search.” The GoogleSearch engine was the first SearchEngine to measure the levels of GoogleJuice in each page; it sorts its results accordingly, presenting the ones with the most juice first.
The short version: the more you link to others and the more others link to you, the more relevant you are and thus the better your chances to show up on the first page of Google when someone is doing an apartment search. There is a reason why all the major ILS’s dominate this space. I think Apartments.com is likely the best versed at it; with Rent.com and ForRent.com being a close second. [These are just my opinions based on some random searches I did this morning]
What is your chief aim?
At the end of the day nothing trumps a remarkable product, a memorable experience and out of this world customer service. But in the world of marketing apartments using social media they are but drivers of GoogleJuice. Using blogs as an example – it really doesn’t matter if your blog is about your specific apartment community or every business within a five mile radius of that community or both – if you fill it with amazing content and relevant links and people find it remarkable enough to link to then you are on your way to accomplishing the real goal.
Have a compelling week to come.
M
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Dare to be Different a post by eric
Eric Brown · · 1 Comment
The difference between number one and number two is typically rather significant. The leaders, those who Break from the Pack of Commodity do so by challenging the typical norm, with courage, absent fear. The metaphor of red and blue oceans describes the market universe. Red oceans are all the industries in existence today—the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody.
Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today—the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.
The corner-stone of Blue Ocean Strategy is ‘Value Innovation’. A blue ocean is created when a company achieves value innovation that creates value simultaneously for both the buyer and the company. The innovation (in product, service, or delivery) must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market.
Companies who successfully develop a distinctive brand and product are able to redefine the product they sell. Apple does not sell computers. Harley Davidson does not sell motorcycles. VW does not sell cars. What do they have in common? The sell the lifestyle and the products that provide that lifestyle. They reaffirm for their customer that they understand them and that they offer what it is that makes them unique and special.
1) Which factors in the Apartment Rental Industry that are routinely taken for granted should be eliminated?
2) Which factors in the Apartment Rental Industry should be reduced well below the industry standard?
3) Which factors in the Apartment Rental Industry should be raised well above the industry standard?
4) Which factors in the Apartment Rental Industry should be created that the industry has never offered
We look forward to your feedback and a spirited conversation…………………..
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