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Stay Curious, Be Kind & Listen Well
TheHamilton Mausoleum is located in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the resting place of the family of the Dukes of Hamilton. A place of ethereal beauty, its massive dome and high stone once held the record for the longest echo within any man-made structure in the world, taking 15 seconds for the sound of a slammed door to fade. The record was broken in 2014 at the somewhat less notable Inchindown oil storage tanks in the Scottish Highlands when an official fired a pistol blank inside one of the tanks and the sound reverberated for 112 seconds!
Fascinating! But neither of these historic echo chambers holds a candle to the ones we find ourselves trapped in these days. Contemporarily speaking, an echo chamber is defined as an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own so their existing views are reinforced, and alternative ideas are not considered. Google any current hot topic – religion, politics, climate change, or social justice and in the blink of an algorithm you are likely to find yourself in the company of people with like-minded views without any particular effort on your part – thereby reinforcing the rightness of your opinions.
How does that affect your relationships at work? When you hire, coach, mentor, discipline, and even exit employees? Without serious effort, it is possible, even probable, that you may find yourself more drawn to people who are aligned with your personal worldviews and somewhat distrustful of those who aren’t.
As businesses work to intentionally attract and retain a more diverse and inclusive workforce, it is essential that we examine the pitfalls inherent in our personal biases.
Genuine curiosity is key. Encouraging curiosity across the workplace often results in more creativity and better business outcomes. Curiosity is also associated with less defensive reactions to stress. It can encourage people to understand each other’s perspectives and to take an interest in other’s ideas. Try this – when engaging in conversation, don’t come with a list of points you want to make but rather with things you want to learn.
In such divisive times as these when the work of inclusion is more important than ever, healing begins with empathetic listening. Listening – deeply listening – is a vastly underrated life and leadership skill. Listening is hard work, made harder still in a world where our attention is fractured by constantly competing demands. Like any skill, it can be learned and improved upon with practice.
I close with something wise that Bryant McGill had to say on both these topics:
“Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.” and “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”
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Burn
What do you burn for?
Who are you?
What do you believe?
What do you do when you are alone with your thoughts?
What are you doing when you feel most authentic?
What do your instincts tell you?
What do you crave?
What do you long for?
What does your intuition swell up inside of you?
What do you burn for?
Do that…
Your ever anxious Multifamily Maniac,
M
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Social Media is Not for Marketers
News Flash.
Not everything has to be about marketing all the time.
Believe it or not, most people would enjoy a space online free from blatant marketing.
I know, shocking. We all know this as marketers, yet every day new articles surface on how all these social channels should cater to the marketing folk.
New social channels are always hesitant at first, but then a few months later, here comes ‘insert social channel here’ for Business.
Why do we, as marketers, have this overwhelming desire to control everything? We are little bullies on the social media playground where the ‘teachers’ [read: owners] must create special rules so we don’t completely alienate the class.
Virtual High Five to Craigslist. That’s right, I said it. Craigslist is likely the biggest ad source for my business, and controlling it would be a dream come true. But once that happens, it is no longer a viable source.
Once it is optimized for marketers, it is no longer useful to its main customer. Craigslist took control from marketers recently and decided to get back to basics.
According to Wikipedia, “Craigslist works because it gives people a voice, a sense of community trust and even intimacy.”
Marketers have fully embraced this trust and intimacy and fabricated a marketing ad jungle. I applaud Craigslist for enforcing rules minimizing marketing ploys and remaining an innocent space for people to share.
From the beginning, social media was designed with people in mind. Not business. The primary goal for most sites is to empower people to connect and share ideas.
“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Twitter “helps you create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”
Pinterest “is a tool for collecting and organizing things you love.” Not one time does a social media site elude to the goal of making business more profitable by giving special access to marketers to push a product on their users constantly. Nor do they imply they will ensure the platform, not originally designed for you, meets all of your crazy expectations and special needs to exploit most fully the individuals for which the site was initially intended.
Or did I miss that somewhere?
Moving Forward.
While, first and foremost, marketers are people, it is crucial to understand that we are guests at the social media party, and oftentimes we are unwelcome. We must learn to use the space responsibly and follow the rules.
Broken down, marketing is about people, period. Even in our business class seats on the social media flight, it is important to the future of our business to become part of conversations only when we are invited naturally. Engage as people, not brands.
*I believe businesses should be notated differently if allowed on social platforms so users know they are interacting with a business. However, I don’t believe we should expect all platforms to cater to our (business) needs.
Source: Leaving Customers Dissatisfied
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We are Still in the Apartment Business
Today’s piece comes from our over-the-top amazing Marketing Director at Mills Properties – Melissa DeCicco She rocks!
Lately we have been told we are in the media business or is it the relationship business? Both from wonderful, brilliant people who know a lot more about the apartment business than I. While they are both correct, I think it is just unnecessarily muddying the water. Make no mistake about it, we are still in the apartment business. Think about it. We, as consumers, are all doing our best to avoid all types of media (at least of the marketing variety) these days. And, when was the last time you wanted an actual relationship with a service provider? Really? The apartment piece makes us different. It is something that we can be proud of and something that we can become experts in. We are in the apartment business. Our goal is to help people find apartments.
So what should we be doing in the apartment business to continually earn and retain customers?
Do you remember the last time you thought that your salesperson actually had your well-being in mind instead of the commission you represented? I can’t think of a single instance. How refreshing would it be if people looked back at this point in marketing history as the age of ‘doing the right thing.’ When marketers/salespeople really just focused on helping the consumer to find the best possible fit for them, knowing that their product might not be the answer. It’s what good customer service is all about but it is never executed the right way or for the right reasons.
I recently attended the Social Media Marketing World Conference put on by Social Media Examiner. It was incredible. One thing hit me particularly hard. The closing keynote was from Marcus Sheridan who owns an in-ground pool company and happens to be an incredible marketer. His business was literally drowning and he brought it back to life. How? He made it about people and being useful.
The headline in the New York Times magazine article about his efforts was “A Revolutionary Marketing Strategy: Answer Customers’ Questions.”
Revolutionary, huh?
We are all people and desire real interactions that are not drowning in sale-speak. The answer? Write about your business online to teach and get the word out but never directly sell. Then become helpful/useful to the point of exhaustion. Customers ask a question, we answer. Sheridan aka “The Sales Lion,” suggests that we break down our marketing/sales tasks to this small list.
1. Listening
2. Communicating
3. Teaching
4. Helping
All day, every day. This is the future of business. Not media. Not fake relationships. People helping people in a genuine way.
Your tirelessly working on being helpful marketing maniac,
Melissa DeCicco
Photo courtesy of The Sales Lion Closing keynote – SMMW2014
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Making It Happen
JHerzog · · 4 Comments
Those of us in the marketing field are constantly being pushed to be creative, think of new ideas, come up with something unlike anything else. While I love creativity, brainstorming, throwing out ideas and thinking big, what I love even more is acting, doing, and creating results.
This year I’m challenging myself to put into play some inspirations that I feel are game changers. What puts one in front of all others? Getting it done, making it happen.
– Game Changers –
1. Striving Every Day To Be The Best Company To Work For: I’ve read several articles lately on Property Management Insider which have really inspired me. This is one particular. By really listening to your associates and what they need to be effective in making prospects and residents happy, you not only empower your associates, but make your prospects and residents happy. Review those policies that seem to be weighing you down and change them. It’s that easy.
2. Getting Back To The Basics: Mike made a reference recently about thinking inside the box. At our last marketing meeting we touched on this exact subject. Many marketers feel their role is to constantly think outside the box; big ideas, be different, and all that jazz. How about be the best? It doesn’t take grand ideas or even grand gestures (unless there’s a grand problem). It takes consideration, a smile, commitment and follow-through. You don’t need jacuzzi tubs and massage rooms, you need genuine associates who take the time to listen, care, and follow through with the daily needs of your prospects and residents.
3. Wowing Prospects: Another inspiring article I read discussed Making Apartment Tours Memorable. Apartment tours , in my opinion, are like shopping in a retail store. Sure you smile at the sales person, let them tell you about their Buy 2 sweaters, Get 1 half-off special, and maybe even ask if they have your size in the back, but you don’t really be-friend them. You’re not really comfortable with them, and you’re just waiting for them to persuade you to buy something. Rather than walk the prospect through the vacant apartment, walk your new friend through your unfurnished model home. Rather than show them the tan carpet and the white walls, show them the surprise take-home chocolate bar in the refrigerator and take note of the delicious aroma from the homemade cookie candle. Wow them with an amazing new apartment home, don’t sell them on a vacant unit.
4. Responding to Reviews: This is something we have taken up over the recent months. Last year we opened the floor for reviews on our website, thinking we might get away from the ApartmentRatings.com anonymous, anything goes comments. We were wrong. We’ve since made some changes and now require legitimacy. Name, e-mail, value. In my opinion, the point of a review is to get feedback or resolution. If we’re talking to anonymous who used a fake email and will never see our response for lack of caring, there is no value. We want to be able to use the feedback to find out where we need improvement and find resolutions. We’ve begun responding and working with our reviewers to make changes. And that, I believe, will make all the difference.
Cheers to not just reading, sharing, and believing, but actually Making It Happen.