Search Results for: 2011
#apartmentmarketing: Blog Format Question
Short and sweet today –
One of my favorite blogs, one I read everyday without fail, is Valeria Maltoni’s – Conversation Agent. First rate content always.
Apartment Blog Trunk
I gave up on RSS feed reading about a year ago as I spend more time in my inbox. Nearly every blog I read is done through Outlook now and as such I give more time and attention to the things I read. In other words, I generally do not skim the headline and move on.
About a month ago Valeria made the decision to truncate her email subscription delivery meaning we only see a portion of the message and are forced to click on a link to see the rest.
Result: I read fewer of Valeria’s material to the end. Sorry Valeria.
I understand the reasons for cited in her Saying it in 200 Characters post back on Aug 10, 2011.
My question – should apartment marketers truncate their blog post offerings? We are trying it a Mills [Shameless plug – the Mills Blogging Team is Putting a Dent in the #STL market place].
Would love to hear this communities thoughts? And, thank you in advance for taking the time.
Share this:
RealPage acquires MyNewPlace: Marriage made in heaven?
Today’s post comes from our friend Bill Sitko over at Bsitko ; his content is ripe with great wit and keen insight. Today’s guest post is exactly what we expected and we love it…
First before I even begin I wanted to thank Mike for allowing me to blight his blog with some of my own prose. I hope to do him and his blog justice.
“Every noble acquisition is attended with its risks; he who fears to encounter the one must not expect to obtain the other” ~ Pietro Metastasio
A curious thing happened on the way home from work yesterday. I was parked at a light and as usual decided to glance down at my phone to see what had changed in social media since 5 minutes ago. Luckily I had TweetDeck up, I refreshed it and that cool looking blue background with white text announced that RealPage had acquired MyNewPlace. If you’re hearing this announcement for the first time right now your first reaction is probably WOW. I know mine was. My second reaction was “Are they planning on buying EVERYTHING?” but I digress.
Who are the players here?
MyNewPlace has been a player in the Internet Listing Services market for years. We used them several years ago with little conversion success (and it left us with a pretty drained pocketbook). The majority of us know RealPage and what they offer. MyNewPlace, on the surface, seems to be a perfect match for RealPage. They currently have no paid listing offerings and this acquisition will certainly give them presence there. In addition MyNewPlace has RentEngine which will give RealPage access to social media tools, a Craigslist posting tool, reputation management, pay per click campaigns, some great search engine optimization tools and a partridge in a pear tree. MyNewPlace will also be an integral part of their recently announced LeaseStar Marketplace. One thing that I find interesting about this new product is it will enable customers to talk or chat with a live leasing associate through their LevelOne service, and utilize their already robust leasing side package including 2D and 3D floor plans, some interactive site maps, beautiful pictures and a booking engine that can help check availabilities. MyNewPlace will be the lead generation channel that will power the LeaseStar Marketplace.
Press releases are lame.
The truth is this latest press release and acquisition from RealPage will attract plenty of attention but will it all be positive? Is RealPage becoming a little too big with too many product offerings that have the ability to shut out the competition? As with a lot of RealPage purchases, they will probably leave the MyNewPlace name alone but make the normal branding and integration changes so it plugs into their other offerings. That’s the way they’ve done it for most of their previous acquisitions, namely LevelOne, OpsTechnology and Lead2Lease. Is RealPage willing to change the ILS game? Will they use their power and money muscle to give Property Management companies more flexibility in branding and choice? Will they utilize social media to CHANGE how people find apartments? How successful will their SEO efforts be? Can they jump the organic board and launch MyNewPlace into the top 5 for results in lots of major markets?
What does this all mean?
I wish I had a crystal ball to get these answers, as well as the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow. I’m more interested in hearing what you think about it. Will RealPage change the game or will they just conform to it? Will this just be something else for them to monetize and charge a little extra than everyone else for or will they convert this service into something more powerful and revolutionary? Stay tuned…
Want to read the RealPage/MyNewPlace marriage vows? You can right here.
Happy renting everyone.
Share this:
Apartment Marketing: From Debate to Decisions
Mike Brewer · · 1 Comment
A big thank you to Jonathan Saar over at The Training Factor for today’s guest post…
It seems like just yesterday I was at a couple of conferences and reading various blog posts on social media, internet marketing and seeing a vast amount of people who were so negative and would make statements such as “It won’t work”, “It’s a fad” and other similar comments. Look how far we have come! Thank goodness for the many pioneers and forward thinkers we had and continue to have that pave the way.
I feel that many lessons have been learned over the past couple of years. First off did we not learn the value of collaboration? There were those who were on the fence. There were those who threw stones. Then there were those who were willing to put themselves out there and provide meaningful dialog that contributed to the growth of the multifamily industry. Look where we are now. Numerous property management companies now have hard data on the impact social media has on our businesses. Decisions were made. They were also adjusted based on how data shifted.
I really believe multifamily was given a huge wakeup call. When I first came into this industry I heard numerous comments on how behind our industry was and how it seemed to take forever for anything to change. With the advent of social media marketing we learned there is very little time for debate and there is a pressing need for clear decisions. Would you not agree?
What does the future hold? Based on my observations I really believe that apartment marketing will continue to shift. There are still many tools available that have not been fully tested but the pioneers are working their magic and are diving in. Mobile marketing will continue to have a huge impact over the next couple of years. The drive towards establishing a better community atmosphere will continue to shift forward. I will say that in recent months the overall debate has died down and there are a lot more decisions taking place. When I first started consulting with property management companies the question used to be “What is this all about?” Now the question is “What do we need to do?” A big difference would you not agree?
Though there will continue to be minor debates over some of the new tools available it is definitely refreshing to see positive forward action by our industry. It is also encouraging to see how the collaboration that has been taking place that has served our industry well. By working together and testing out the waters it has served the purpose of making the apartment industry that much stronger.
So give me your feedback. Do you think the debate has died down? How is your company implementing decisions quicker? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Written by Jonathan Saar- The Training Factor
Share this:
Good or Bad Strategy: Kenneth Cole
I really like the Kenneth Cole brand and have been for a long time. There was a stretch of six years where I purchased the same black KC Reaction dress shoes because they were perfect. As of late they shifted a piece of their marketing strategy to include some real hot bed social issues –
I am even more intrigued with their brand as a result…
How about you? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
Share this:
#apartmentmarketing: Twitter
The biggest mistake we see companies make when they first hit Twitter is to think about it as a channel to push out information. – Tim O’Reilly & Sarah Milstein – The Twitter Book
For those veterans out there in the media space this seems like a no brain-er but in a world steeped in tradition, it seems like the right thing to do. Take a new medium, insert old practices and principles and voila, we experience success. Except that we don’t.
Apartment Twitter Marketing in Saint Louis
Just this week, I followed up some new #STL Twitter handles [new apartment deliveries in the city proper]. I will admit, I was very encouraged to see their use of the medium included push marketing. Special after special, floor plan after floor plan, us – us – us & look at me copy – it all makes me smile inside.
It makes me smile because I don’t think it’s what those who use the space expect or even want to see. In other words, it’s a big turn off and at best it’s ignored and left to rot in a digital dump-ground way off over there in the dark ‘Cloud.’
Not that we at Mills Properties have it all figured out and are knocking it out of the park as a result. That being said, we do seem to experience a ton of participation from the people that work with and for us, the people that they serve in our some fifty properties in the Saint Louis Apartment Market and our coaches and mentors in the multifamily industry. All by using just the opposite approach and all for which we are immensely thankful. We keep experimenting, failing, learning, tweaking, experimenting & thanking those who give us feedback along the way.
Push Marketing on Twitter
Back to the point at hand; is there a time and place where this works? Have we reached that point or are we approaching a time where the masses that frequent Twitter, Facebook and the like expect, heck even desire to see some push marketing for goods and services?
Share this:
- « Go to Previous Page
- Page 1
- Interim pages omitted …
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Interim pages omitted …
- Page 19
- Go to Next Page »