Apartment Blogging
Neighborhood Blog Stats
Just a quick Mills Apartments Neighborhood Blog stat update – courtesy of @mkdecicco
#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.
#apartmentmarketing: Content
Focus on the core problem your business solves & put out lots of content & enthusiasm, & ideas about how to solve that problem. – Laura Fitton
Want tons of followers or fans? Write compelling content that is easy to read, packed with good actionable advice and be personable.
No sage advice there, right. I concur.
Apartment Content Marketing
As it relates to marketing apartments; I subscribe to the school that thinks you provide content beyond the good or service. In this case the actual apartment itself.
Rather look for opportunities to provide content that solves the following [no premise for the categories or the order of]
1. I can’t decorate to save my life
2. I need access to solid and reliable transportation
3. I want to walk to work
4. I want to walk to the coolest pubs in town
5. I need ideas on what to do tonight
6. I need ideas on what to do to this weekend
7. I want to be the first to know about the next ‘thing to happen in my neighborhood’
8. I want to know where to take my dry cleaning
9. I want to know where to get a good glass of wine
10. I want to know about a good alternative to Starbucks
11. I want to what I did last night….hmmm, maybe I don’t want you to solve that problem
12. I want to know how much you care before I buy from you
Have a smashing and amazing weekend; make it compelling too…
M
Apartment Marketers: Afraid to Blog?
Below is a link to a story that resonated with me relative to a conversation that was broached on Mike Whaling’s: Apartment Marketing Gone Digital’s last episode. I believe it was Eric Brown that made the point about the lack of conversation about blogs as it relates to apartment marketing at NAAs 2010 convention.
Apartment Blogging: Fear
I agree to some extent with Eric that there is a dearth of examples with apartment blogging in the Apartment Space as I think the offerings are growing everyday. For example – Mills Properties – is on the verge of launching seven regional blogs in addition to revamping the Mills employee-centric blog. In addition, JC Hart, Trillium, Paragon, Village Green and PCMG have ventured down the path of blogging and from my perspective are doing a good job of it. I applaud the fact that these firms have taken the endeavor on as an in-house marketing function.
With that, I feel it necessary to make the point that I am not an advocate of ILSs that offer blogging as a part of their advertising package. And, time should be of no excuse. I would rather hear the fear stuff like; I am afraid of what others might think of my choice of topic, my grammar, my spelling or what if I can’t think of anything to write about. Not that those things are not important but – time as an excuse – save it. This is something you make time for at the expense of other things.
Apartment Non-Blogging
To the topic at hand – the following post was offered up on the Conversation Agent Blog a couple weeks ago. In it Valeria Moltoni suggests alternatives to blogging that could and are effective in building your digital footprint. If you are not into creating original and or mashed up blog content – this read is for you. The premise is that participation is an equally compelling form of content creation. She offers some real practical applications using LinkedIn, Twitter and others. So – if you just can’t bring yourself to do it and you elect not to farm it out to a third party, try this method.
Enjoy and let us know your thoughts in the comments below –
Conversation Agent: Blogging at Work if You Don’t Have a Blog
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Participation is content because it is what will activate your content in the context of the conversation. Remember when you worried about nobody coming to your blog? It’s the same with content in other places – you’ve got to interact to activate it.
