Apartment marketing
Geolocation opportunities for the multifamily space
Where are Twitter and Facebook’s Geolocation Features?
Here’s how a solution like that would operate: imagine you’re a local pub – with an AdWords like platform for geo-based ads, you could buy ads – on your own via the Web – that run from 6-10pm, promoting a drink special, that broadcasts only to people within a 5 mile radius of your location. That’s powerful, and for companies on the scale of the top social networks, a huge potential revenue driver, even in a bad economy.
I could not help but to think there is a multifamily application here. To think we could position our communities such that we could target anyone shopping properties within a five mile radius of ours, is simply awesome. Creepy – but awesome. I wonder what the 30 lines of the world are thinking about this platform.
Your multifamily fellow manic,
M
[Update]: Techcrunch put out the follow on 11.28.9: Watch Out Foursquare, Facebook is Poised To Dominate Geo We have taken a wait and see approach to the Foursquare model as it relates to renting apartments. It seems to me that over time people will settle on one to three major apps where they will spend the lions share of their time. Renting apartments as it relates to Foursquare, Loopt Gowalla, Simple Geo, GeoAPI and others will be a function that aggregates to Facebook or other major players. My question is will the numbers be big enough to warrant creating a full out apartment marketing idea using the Foursquare like applications? It will be interesting to see.
62 Homes – A case study
Yesterday we did due diligence on an apartment community that we will begin to manage on 2.1.9. I hesitate to add too many of the specifics at this point as I have not discussed the use of social mediums with ownership. However, I do hope they allow me the opportunity to create a real time case study via this blog and the Twitter community. If all goes well this study will play favor to a number of advantages. Here are two of my thoughts for starters;
Increased Visibility
The use of social mediums and the creation of a real live and in the moment case study will bring attention to this otherwise lackluster (I use that term with all due respect) deal. The property is a classic destination deal located at the end of apartment row in an out of the way Saint Louis suburb. The city restricts the use of banners, bandits or any other free standing signage. Additionally, there is no monument sign of any sort. I think the use of social media will certainly augment our efforts to market the community and ideally it will mitigate our spend.
Community Builder
As we all know the real beauty of social mediums is the ability to communicate openly with our consumers. And, I think involving the current resident base in our turn around effort will bode huge in building the community. My thought here is to capture material in off-line spaces to build inventory for the various on-line spaces. Any and all offline events will be Flip’d and pic’d so as to provide material for a Facebook fan page and a community blog. Resident testimonials will be the keystone in building what will come to be vibrant place of social interaction. Over time the thought would be to harvest a community brand that residents, employees and prospects rave about. Ultimately the community will become self sustaining. Quixotic? Maybe. But, never underestimate the power of an energized crowd.
I look forward to providing some benchmarks in the very near future that we can measure our successes against. And, by all means, feel free to chime in with comments, suggests and constructive criticism.
Your looking forward to putting a dent in the multifamily universe collaborator,
M
Video Chat and the 24-Hour Call Center
As we adopt what will likely be the next wave of customer-centric tools, time and attention must be paid to what we do after hours.
There is a lot to be said about the leasing experience and enhancing it as a point of differentiation. Moreover using it as a strategy to create new and untapped markets. Video chat will certainly do it and if done really well it will move the consumer experience to the next level. Outside of a face to face interaction, it is likely the next best thing. The advent of the internet made apartment shopping a 24/7 experience and video chat will certainly enhance that but what do we do after hours? Even the most dedicated full time apartment maniac must sleep. Who takes over at that point?
I think this is a real opportunity for call centers that cater to the apartment industry. That is not to mention the major ILS’s. I have to believe someone out there is working on an offering. Are you aware of one? If so, please share.
Have an amazing Christmas week. M
Video Chat coming to a leasing center near you
There was an interesting conversation on Twitter last night between @Eric_Urbane, @ltrosien, @30lines and @artchickhb (forgive me if I left someone out). The topic, Social Media Predictions 2009, started with this tweet from @Eric_Urbane;
“@mbrewer, I am VERY interested to hear YOUR predictions for 2009, The floor is yours, What are your recommendations”
and where I responded with;
@Eric_Urbane Those who figure out and master the rapid response via a real live person will rule the day.
@ltrosien pointed us to lisapmaxwell which leads me to this;
Some time ago we wrote about yellowbook.com commercials on this blog. Specifically the commercials that depict a woman about to get married but she has a little problem. She has Mike tatooed across the low mid section of her back. Cool but she is marrying Tom. In the commercial she walks over to a spot in her living room, appears to push a button in air and down comes a virtual screen. She scrolls through the yellow pages, finds a tatoo removal practioner and proceeds to have a real time conversation. Side note: there is some very cool GRID technology being employeed by the Europeans that will make this kind of interaction come true in the near future.
While we wait for the GRID, there are some some very simple tools that make this kind of interaction possible and as you can see with lisapmaxwell’s site; very successful. There are two very simple steps;
First, set up a Gmail email address: Gmail Account
Second, set up a Gmail: voice and video chat account
Now clearly you and the user on the other end would need a webcam. Furthermore, the user would need to have both of the above mentioned account/services. That said, it won’t work for everyone and in the same respect not everyone would want to interact in this manner. For those who do and for those of us who want to provide an very unique experience, it is an option.
Thanks to each of my twitter friends who started this conversation, it really got my mind moving last night.
RT: RB
You knew it was a matter of time before reblogging would find its way into our vernacular. The very popular Twitter is full of retweets (RT) born from an tweeters previous tweets. It is way of recognizing and drawing attention to a good tweet when you read one.
Will Zemanta make reblogging as easy as retweeting? That remains to be seen but I do think it is a cool concept and one that could send your community blog posts viral.
