#apartmentmarketing
Apartment Marketing: glancee vs. highlight
Hi all
Rarely do I do two posts in a day but I could not pass this one up.
I think it goes without saying that the proliferation of platforms that draw us more and more near the people that we want to touch in some way is just crazy. And, that trend is forever taken to new heights this time of year when the famed SXSW technology and music conference in Austin, Texas kicks off. This is the conference where tech and musician startups jockey their way to internet and main stage stardom. Remaining on the tech side of things, it was in ’07 – that Twitter was the darling of the event. And, in ’09 it was Foursquare that stole the show.
Over the weekend, I caught a piece written by Robert Scoble about two companies that, by his early estimations, are the show stoppers for ’12. glancee and highlight are two to watch. The detailed piece on the two companies is over at TNW.
Apartment Marketing
A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece on the future of apartment interest graph marketing where I talked about IGs becoming the route to deep and meaningful relationships that lead to more fruitful business.
glancee and highlight speak to right to that vision. Scoble describes the two services like this;
So why will these two apps be so hot at SXSW? Well, when you’re walking down Sixth Street in Austin, new names will pop up on Highlight. You can see their titles. Their hometown. Their interests, er, Facebook likes, and how many they have in common with you. Where they are. Which friends you have in common on Facebook. Then you can message them with something like “I noticed you like the Next Web, I’d like to meet you, can we do that?” I’ve done this dozens of times walking around San Francisco and it hasn’t failed yet to get a meeting.
Apartment Marketing Gone Creepy
I will admit there is a creepy factor at play here. There is something innately weird about these kinds of services. And, in the same respect, maybe not. We do sign up to participate, right? We throw creepy out the door by opting in. That said, it might turn out to be a very cool way to speak to people who have similar interest to you and more important – your community.
It makes finding that community personality that I mention in the interest graph piece even more important.
I mean, can you imagine strolling in front of a downtown apartment community only to have our team give you a shout out as it relates to your love the Saint Louis Rams? (The community in the link above sits right in front of the Edwards Jones Dome where the Rams play) I know, I know – it’s hard to believe anyone would care about the Rams. But, if you did and we were able to strike up a conversation that ultimately lands you in our office then we both win. If the creation of that bond is crazy compelling – it will be shared.
So much flying through my mind on this one – would love to hear your thoughts if you get a minute today. Hit me up in the comments.
The world of marketing is shifting once again and Interest Graphs are – well – interesting.
Your always interested in the interesting multifamily maniac,
M
pic credit to TNW.com
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
#apartmentmarketing: Clarity
Clarity trumps persuasion. – Dr. Flint McGlaughlin
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.
#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?
#apartmentmarketing: Vision
You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new. – Steve Jobs
For the span of my professional life; I have believed in the act of getting your companies vision down on paper. It’s a must in the way of creating a proactive culture as opposed to a culture of reaction. It’s also a way of making sure that you are out ahead of your constituents.
Random thoughts on creating vision
Penned in no particular order and in no exhaustive manner…
– It creates the ‘bigger than self’ that motivates people to get juiced about the work they do. In other words; people in the multifamily space, like people in other industries, want to know they are working on something bigger than anything they could accomplish as an individual. And, they want to know their time is spent in a meaningful way. And, if you are lucky enough, they think it’s cool too
– You spur a proactive approach to all aspects of your business. In the absence of vision people just make it up as they go along. Zig Ziglar sums it up like this; “you can not hit a target you do not have.”
– It sets the stage for future-casting. In other words, you give your team the ability to look out into the future and anticipate, with a good deal of accuracy, what your constituents really want
– You build meaning stuff
– You build tough stuff in an simple and efficient fashion
– It becomes your battle cry
– It is the way in which you imbue an owner’s mentality on the minds of the masses
– It is the way you evaluate talent
– It is the beacon of light when times get tough. And, times will get tough
Would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below
And, thank you for taking the time to read…it means a great deal to us.
