Search Results for: 2011
Own your Twitter Followers?
There is much ado about who owns the Twitter following you may have and or may create over the course of a work stint. This story Lawsuit May Determine Who Owns a Twitter Account – NYTimes.com over at the NY times highlights a company that is taking the matter to court to determine the answer.
Whatever the outcome, I have always been of the firm opinion that apartment management company employees should never cede to the pressure of commingling their personal brand handle in joint with the company they work for or with. For example: @Mike_MyEmployer or @MyEmployer_Mike. In my head, there is no chance and no way I would ever do that. Not in the context of personal branding world. Neither would I ever ask anyone I work for or with to do as much.
Now I am sure there a several camps out that agree or disagree and all for reasons that apply to their various interests.
But who is right?
Or, is there a right answer? And, as a company that champions social media as part of their branding/marketing strategies, should you push the issue? Would you terminate someone who refused to comply with the request to co-brand? Is it in your social media rules, regs, do’s and don’ts? Do you refuse to hire a soon to be hot personal brand superstar because he or she says – “yeah – no, my social graph is not up for discussion even if it is in the early stages of development.” “Neither am I willing to segregate business from personal?” Bold? Yes – but, it is out there.
Do you sue the guy that leaves with the list?
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#apartmentmarketing – 2012 Short List Prediction Post
Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing. – Mike Volpe, Chief Marketing Office – Hubspot
Not another social prediction post! No, there are many really good ones already out there such as the one Mark Juleen posted with the help of Mike Whaling and Duncan Alney. Another fav is the one Brian Solis penned on the subject of social and how it relates to business in 2012.
I’m not heading for the broad angles or general predictions that seem to affront us all this time of the year. No, I would like to get a little more intimate and little more bold. To me 2012 will be the true year of pain for many of the tried and true resources that many of us have leaned on over the years to market our apartments and communities. The simple premise being that the proliferation of DIY platforms and DIY tools along with a growing level of comfort in using them have made it easier to compete.
The barriers to entry have crumbled and it’s time to ROCK!
My prediction comes in the way of a question –
Who will be your biggest apartment marketing competitor in 2012?
Print and Internet Listing Services
If you are anything like me you pay attention to everything the traditional ILS’s and print media outlets are doing in the social space and otherwise. In 2011 some of them made shrewd moves like employing our very own leasing consultant and management forces across the country to build Google Juice on their behalf. Brilliant but very un-partner like in my opinion. And, still others have stumbled; for example absolutely refusing to unbundle print from internet offerings until it was just frankly to late. Certainly soured my opinion of that specific group.
You just can’t see them as partners anymore [remember – they have to pay the light bill too] and to the extent that you can embrace that, use them where you need to [print and ILS are not broken and are still effective] and build a plan that brands you and your company first you will be better off. It’s frankly as important as sending out renewal letters and collecting the rent at this point.
Just know, anymore it’s not the building next door or across the street from you that is your biggest competitor. It’s more and more so the print media and ILS providers.
The Re-imagination of Locators in Secondary, Tertiary and Hyper Local Apartment Markets
Back in late 2004 or 2005 I met a guy named Eddie Passadore. Brilliant guy and passionate about the multifamily space. He came to work for Equity Residential and quickly went about producing some off the wall results. How? Craigslist. And, Rentwitheddie.com. That’s right he built out his own website, put his personal cell number on it, made himself available 24/7 and syndicated it via the emerging social platforms of the time. Namely Craigslist and MySpace. Result? He now runs his own property management firm in Portland, Oregon.
I recall spending countless hours brainstorming with Eddie about marketing oneself in lieu of physical buildings. It’s what inspired my personal blog [at the time called mike brewer on stuff and things] and the Portland Rocks Newsletter blog we ran back then that promoted Equity Residential’s Portland employees and properties. We talked about everything from using print to advertise our agents in lieu of our communities to building out personal websites for every single one of our agents. An idea I still think has some crazy potential [time and date stamped for future development]. And, he went and did it.
All that to suggest that the locator will have a major play in our space and many of our current day leasing consultants will be the people doing it.
Me. Us.
If we are to contend with the fire hose of data and change that will come our way in 2012, we have to invest in ourselves. I think this is the year that those who have sat on the sidelines as observers and passive participants are going to come alive. They will finally get that if they don’t they will be cooked and standing in the unemployment lines across this great nation. This is the year that organizations raise the bar for talent. No longer will mediocrity be tolerated. And, no longer will it be just okay to muddle along.
You are your biggest competitor in 2012. You are your own benchmark. The you that you look at in the mirror today should be a distant memory by the time you make it out of bed tomorrow. And, in a more beautiful way!
Here is to us in 2012!
Go – and make it relentlessly compelling!
M
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Apartment Budget Time Suck
Ah! With budget season coming to an end, it will feel good to ease my way back into the blogging world. It’s been way too long. So, if I am rusty with words and concepts bear with me.
To kick it off, I have decided to start and ongoing series dedicated to questions that I ask myself throughout the course of any given year.
The subject matter will be all over the place but central to the ongoing operations of an apartment management business.
I hope to keep the posts brief and to the point [200 words+/-].
With that, let’s see how it goes…
To start: What do you do to streamline your budget process?
Every year from September until the later parts of December we nearly stall our home office operation to write our property operating budgets. To me it is one of those necessary evils of doing business. That is to suggest that the end product is a well thought through playbook for not only the year to come but the ten to twelve years beyond that. As such, it demands prudence in its preparation. But, what suffers?
Nearly all the fundamentals get the semi-thoughtful but certainly not mindful once over review. Everything is surface and there is little time to dig in to the really important stuff. In all fairness this year was the best one on record. That said, we are always looking to approve.
Would love to hear your feedback on the subject.
Trusting you will have an amazing 2012.
M
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#apartmentmarketing: Clarity
Mike Brewer · · 1 Comment
I have written about the subjects of brevity and clarity on a number of occasions. The concept came to me from a senior leader at Equity Residential some years ago and has stuck with me ever since. At the time I had the propensity to provide reports that were beyond the time necessary to digest them and I had the knack of going on and on in my descriptions of strategies and results. That is despite all the customary body language queues that would have guided me otherwise; had I been paying attention to them.
Principle: Brevity and Clarity
When thinking about apartment marketing, exercise the principle of brevity and clarity in your print ad copy, website copy, brochure offerings [if you still do this sort of thing], Facebook posting, blog posting and the such.
It’s not sage or unique advice but nevertheless a good reminder; we live in an attention economy. As such, we have to be compelling in our remarks and mindful of the clarity in our brevity.
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Sales, or something like it
I have never been in a position where I get more cold calls than now. I guess that is what happens in marketing. I have to admit, I have been super busy and my patience level is incredibly short. Probably the reason I have been furious lately when my phone rings.
However, some sales calls I get super excited about. Here is my advice to sales people – not only in multifamily. Some of them happen to apply to our leasing associates as well!
11 Sales No No’s.
(FYI, all of these things have happened to me in the last week or so)
- It’s about a relationship, stupid. Please don’t be fake.
- Do not cold call me with no knowledge of my company or what we do. At minimum, please use Google.
- I do not respond well to threats or super pushy marketing tactics like name dropping or insulting our current efforts.
- If we, or I, determine your product isn’t right for us (now or even in the future), don’t bully me to change my mind – that really ends the possibility of a future relationship.
- Don’t send pushy emails copying my superior, especially when I still don’t know why I should care about your product.
- Don’t request me on LinkedIn before we have had a positive conversation/interaction or any at all.
- Please be prepared. I don’t want to wait on the phone for 2 minutes while you look for your earring back or listen to your uncomfortable pauses and sighs when you aren’t sure what to do next.
- NEVER ask me what we pay your competition for their services. If you don’t know what your product is worth, I do – $0.
- Call a million times a day without saying why I should want to call you back, you will likely not get a call back if I have no clue why I am calling you. Its super weird for me to call you and say “Hi this is Melissa, I have no idea why I am calling you but please, pretty please, sell me something.”
- By the way, NOT COOL, when I finally begin to try to have a conversation with you (warranted or not), that you berate me for taking so long to call you. Give me a reason first and I will respond more quickly!
- This one is too hard to explain, so here is the actual email. Don’t do this, ever, and at least spell my name correctly!!!!!!! I have never interacted with her (I think she left me some empty voicemails)…
“Haven’t given up Melisssa…
Certainly don’t want to be a “thorn in your side,” so I’ll try & make this as painless as possible.
Eager to know your level of interest in our training offerings. Please check an option, promise no hard feelings : )
___ YES, send me a FREE DVD preview of your latest & greatest training programs, __customer service __leadership
___ I prefer to preview online, set me up with a FREE demo with your web-based platform.
___ Training doesn’t fall under my umbrella, try contacting ___________________________.
___ My plate is more than full, better timing would be ___later this year, ___ early 2012, ____ never darken my
doors again.”
The Best do these things. Short and SIMPLE and it doesn’t waste my time or yours.
- Interact with our company on our social media platforms in a meaningful way (not name dropping your company), we like that and builds trust.
- Start conversations, not sales pitches.
- Be an expert in your field and help us when possible – without our business at first.
- Go the extra mile.
- Help our company and teams increase efficiency.
- Use email at first then move to the more personal phone call. Refer to number 10 above.
Final Thought:
Above all else, do us all a favor, and LOVE what you do and what you are selling. If you don’t, why should I?
Thank you for listening to my rant. I really want to like sales people (I will always love ours though :)), but for some reason only a limited few really get it. Does your team?
I would love to hear that these things happen to other people, so please tell!
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