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What Matters Now in Apartment Marketing
Generosity
As it relates to apartment marketing – generosity and being the difference that makes a difference is not status-quo. Being the difference takes a lot of effort and hard work and more times than not for little to no pay. The wage of a true hero in our space is paid in winning the respect of people across the gamut. It’s paid in knowing and understanding that the world is a better place for having shared all they know. More specifically, it is the free giving of time and resource that makes the real difference. It’s generosity…
How I Learned About Generosity
A quick story of reference – when I entered the apartment world some fifteen years ago I had the fortune of meeting one of these rare people. She took me along for a ride in her car one day and rifling through her purse looking for a compact she displaced six or seven thousand dollars worth of checks made out to her. Commissions for rentals and sales she had transacted over the past month. Her non-chalant response and the answer to my follow up question is what sticks with me to this day. “Oh – I really need to get those in the bank” – I asked – “Where do you bank?” She pointed – Our office happened to be right next door to her bank. I thought – unreal. Her follow up was – for me at the time – alarming. I don’t do this for the money – “I do it for the gratification I see in other people when they go through the experience of moving into their new home.” I thought [inside voice] – that’s crazy lady – I do it for the greenbacks.
It was only upon her losing a battle with cancer a few years later that the deeper meaning of generosity was cemented with me. I attended her funeral and witnessed what seemed like thousands of people paying their respects for her having given of her time and resource. Well before the mass appeal of the Internet and the advent of social platforms she had literally built a community of constituents. I have no doubt she achieved it in large part through her generosities. In my passing her casket – my time with her in the car ride came cascading back and in that moment – I caught the essence of generosity. She really didn’t do it for the money…
Now many years later I confess I am still chasing the application of what I consider a supreme human quality – in a me me me world, giving of time and resource takes a back seat far to often and I am as guilty as the next guy.
As it Relates to Family and Apartment Marketing
Might I suggest in 2010 that we get back to the art of giving and start with family and friends. And, as it relates to apartment marketing – give to your influencers and your non influencers alike. Give of time and resource in your community without the expectation of return. Figure out which charities that the top five businesses around you give to and partner with them to give of your time and resource. Do it regularly. Write about it on your blog. Get your influencers to influence their influencers and so on and so forth. The old axiom of the more you give the more you will get is really true and it applies equally to generosity. Be the difference that makes a difference in 2010. Be generous.
Inspired by: What Matters Now
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Can Apartment Marketers Afford to Disconnect a 24/7 generation?
You will hear it again and again in 2010 – what started out as a simple and subtle tap on the window has become a crashing of such proportions that you can not ignore it anymore. Business as we know it has changed and like it or not social mediums are here to stay. The question for the coming year is, will you embrace change [embrace engagement] or will you be comfortable with irrelevance? Harvard Business Publishing posted a story titled: The Uber-Connected Organization: A Mandate for 2010 In it, Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd bring notice to a number of companies embracing business as it relates to social media. They really drill home the point of access and I would like to expand on that in the context of the apartment industry.
Apartment employees access to social media
We have all heard of NetNanny and other Internet site blocking technologies used to cut off access. Meister and Willyerd suggest that, “Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos on YouTube, using social networking sites like Facebook or shopping online under the pretense that it costs millions in lost productivity, however that’s not always the case.” I suggest, in lieu of the monies dedicated to blocking initiatives, it might be time to re-imagine your culture and spend some of those monies enhancing your employees experiences.
One inexpensive example, image turning your employees loose to use Multifamily Insiders – a social media mecca for great ideas relative to our industry. Imagine your employees trading best practices with some of the industries best and brightest visionaries, consultants, practitioners and idea generators. The site includes people that dream stuff up, people who devise strategies about those dreams, people who get out and try things, fail, fix and try again and their are others who give opinions on it all. And, still more that just quietly observe. Point is that there is a mountain of information out there free of charge and ready to use but not if you block access.
Gen Y apartment talent expects access
The article speaks to the fact that by 2014 1/2 of the workforce will be comprised of Gen Y. Much has been written about the idea of this generation growing up digital. The term, social media, is not used to frame conversations like it is with older generations. It is just what they do. It’s the way they communicate. It makes up, to some degree, who they are. Think about it in terms of the multifamily demand boom coming our way.
We have all either written about or read about the coming [it is here] boom in demand created by Gen Y. Much has been made about the idea of Gen Y propping up the profits of the multifamily market for some time to come, especially in light of the stall in supply. Now if the lion’s share of occupancy is going to come in the way of Gen Y residents and 1/2 of the workforce is going to be Gen Y and Gen Y communicates via social media then why would you block access? Facebook is just what they do – Twitter [not as much] is just what they do – Text messaging is just what they do. Communicating experiences is just what they do. Cut it off and they just won’t work for you. Rather they will work for your competitor who is embracing business are it relates to today’s workforce.
If you don’t embrace change – I encourage you to get comfortable with irrelevance
Why would you not allow access? Why would you cut off the very essence of what defines Gen Y? I’ve tried to think through the downfalls and, there are some that have merit. But there are zero that would keep me up at night – that is provided our organizations guide the conversation. Will there be hiccups? Yes. We have already seen a few in this space. As the article implies in this quote, “Has blocking Facebook today become the equivalent of denying an employee access to a phone at work 40 years ago or email 20 years ago?” I have to believe there were hiccups when we finally gave up control of these communication mediums – I bet we could site some as recent as yesterday.
[Update] Found this over at The Marketing Spot – speaks to the point and could just as easily been social media holding up the productivity [in this case customer service]:“When we landed in Dallas after an 11 hour flight from Tokyo, and I wanted some coffee. I was expecting the same type of customer service I received at Starbucks in Seoul (they are everywhere in Seoul too). The lone employee on duty at the Starbucks in DFW Terminal B was having a personal conversation on the store phone. Two people were in line. After she leisurely finished her conversation, she took one person’s order, then begin to make his drink, leaving me and the other customer in line waiting, not even acknowledging us. I left without ordering. You’re not in Seoul anymore, Dorothy.”
To sum up – can you really afford not to re-imagine your organization in 2010 as it relates to the use of social media? Can you really afford to cut off access to a 24/7 connected generation? Remember they are/will be the front line serving your target 24/7 connected generation. Remember there are trailblazers out there that are willing to give them what they want. My speculation is those organizations will love being relevant.
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Using Social Media to Market Apartments – Resident Retention
Apartment residents move for a variety of reasons and many times we have no idea why. It’s kind of a shame, really. Social media/networking can help change that and by default drive down our cost of turnover. Think about it, if you couple the advent of the internet with the understanding that people are innately social – toss in a few platforms where they can observe, connect or participate and you have the perfect recipie for resident retention. And, as demonstrated in the last post you have the recipie for some great GoogleJuice. What we are really after is what Seth’s Blog: Share of wallet, share of wall, share of voice speaks to. [A quick shout out to @sbrewer10 for bringing this one to my attention.
In short, Seth speaks to the point many of us have made over the years – long before the advent of the internet and social platforms – the replacement cost for a resident is far more than the cost of retaining our current ones. Lisa Trosien wrote a great piece over at Multifamily Insiders that speaks to this point.
What kind of experience are you creating today to get a share of the wallet, wall or voice of your current resident base?
Have a stellar day –
M
Using social media to market apartments, resident retention, apartment marketing
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Video Game Training for the Multifamily Space
What if all multifamily training was video game entertainment based. I mean the real interactive point producing type entertainment.
Let’s dream for a moment that you have taken a position as Service (because I despise the word maintenance) Technician for The M Group. And perhaps you know nothing about the technical side of service because I hired you for behavior and attitude reasons.
Now imagine, it’s your first day and after the major celebration of your arrival to our team, I set you down in front of a Wii. And I plug in a game called – Service for Maniacs. It starts with some dialog describing a call for a leaky faucet in Mrs. Meisner’s apartment. After the description a beautiful tutorial voice, not unlike the British accented woman inside the Garmin GPS, comes on to guide you through the steps from taking the service request to closing it out in the computer after completion. Imgagine next that you had to do it on your own without the assistance of the Garmin gal. Imagine that there were many modules like this one. Imagine that you could not start work until you beat the last guys high score.
Imagine that service is suffering at your community. Consequence? Video game training.
I can imagine that guys and gals would play this before and after work. At lunch and in there spare time. Imagine a leasing game that played like Final Fantasy or Zelda. Okay, I dated myself but you get the picture.
Okay, off for a compelling day. You have one as well. M
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Make sure your apartments are clean
This excerpt is from a blogger who wrote about her search for an apartment. I don’t think you could find any more unadulterated feedback than this and it drives home the truism of clean apartments;
My apartment search was a lot harder than I thought that it was going
to be. The 1st place I found was Beautiful in the pictures and looked
Perfect right up until the Leasing Agent showed me the inside of the
apartment that we would be living in. It was DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!! My
face must have shown it all. The Leasing Agent asked me “Oh, is it too
small?” I said “No, the size doesn’t bother me at all it is just so
DISGUSTING, OLD and DIRTY” I then said “This is not going to work”. I
left there and called my husband crying telling him that I would rather
camp all summer than be living in that. I was upset and stressed out!
If all apartments look like this then I am Doomed! [Read the happy ending here]
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