Blogging
Multifamily Blogging
As you have likely noticed lately I’m writing very short pieces on a fairly broad range of topics with great frequency. For the why-behind-the-what (at least at the time); here is a piece I did earlier this year. But the more I think about it I believe in my heart of hearts that people rarely read full pieces anymore. Even when they read books they don’t read the entire book. They don’t blogs word-for-word. Nor, believe it or not, they don’t even read tweets to the end.
Easy Reading
Easy is the theme of the week. Despite the under-current of the mindful movement – people don’t have time, they don’t make time or they don’t care to put the effort into long form reading anymore. It’s a shame but it’s true.
Results
I have seen my daily stats go up threefold since the beginning of the year. Now I realize that is in part to the frequency with which I am posting. But take that out of the equation and I’m still up over last year at this time. I think that is in part because people know that I’m writing very brief pieces so they will take the time to actually read them.
Translation
For those property management companies that are well into their content practices or for the new kids on the block – Write with Brevity and Clarity in mind…
Your writing for the easy read Multifamily Maniac,
M
The New Content Creator
Is my strong belief that any new hire that comes to work for a property management company in 2014 and beyond be a producer of content.
In addition to
I think leaders must continue to reorganize the way work is structured so that every person from Porter to President has time to create content.
Content can range from “a day in the life of” to the intricacies of how to set up financing for a Multifamily Property acquisition.
I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t hire for competencies related to running the day-to-day activities of a property. You should hire for that. But, in addition, hire for bringing your business to life through meaningful content creation.
You’re – on a mission to find content creators – Multifamily Maniac
M
Bad Grammar No Hire
I typically see two camps when it comes to bad grammar. The call-you-out-on-twitter-in-front-of-the-world-grammar-masters-of-the-
universe. And the people-who-couldn’t-care-less-on-Tuesday-after-5p-masters-of-fluidity. Count me in that group for the most part. It’s just not something that rings my bell. It doesn’t make me think more or less of you if you can use the word circumlocutory property in a sentence. Or if you misuse its where an it’s should be. I don’t judge your ability to be exact or precise based on your ability to put to words together in a sentence. But some people do.
I ran across a post over at Harvard Business Review titled I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why. and it took my head spinning in a thousand directions. No offense to the author but I did hurl some insults. Not attacking him personally but rather self-remarking on his premise. A premise which is very sound by the way. At least as it relates to the line of work he hires people for. But the article is not the truly interesting part. The sum 3000+ comments the article has loaded up is fascinating to me. They are all over the board grounded in both awesomeness and masterfully inane anti-brilliance. I really urge you to click over and read a few hundred of them if you have the time.
What Would You Do
I’m not the first to admit that grammar is important. More well put, it would likely rank very low on my list of qualifying attributes for deciding to hire someone. Call me crazy but some of the hardest (smartest) property management people I have ever worked with or for are grammatically challenged. That is up and down the chain of command if you believe in such a structure. And I would not deduce it to lack of attention to detail. They just have a challenge with the written word.
How about you? Would you take the hard-line approach that the author of the article takes:
On the face of it, my zero tolerance approach to grammar errors might seem a little unfair. After all, grammar has nothing to do with job performance, or creativity, or intelligence, right?
Wrong. If it takes someone more than 20 years to notice how to properly use “it’s,” then that’s not a learning curve I’m comfortable with. So, even in this hyper-competitive market, I will pass on a great programmer who cannot write.
Or do you take a more relaxed all-encompassing approach in your hiring decisions?
Your really curious about the grammar conversation multifamily maniac,
M
Writing Tip for Apartment Bloggers
Are your spelling and grammar skills on the downside of good? Do you struggle with the use of its, it’s, affect, effect and other words?
Guess what Apartment Bloggers
Your not alone.
Not to long ago I had a conversation with someone about this apartment blog.
They told me that they read nearly every post. I thanked them and asked why they did not chime in with a comment from time to time as I admired their contributions in the property managment field.
Well you see I am not real good with words. I retorted – are you kidding me – have you really read my stuff? It’s ripe with bad editing. Missed grammar, spelling and inane mistakes born out of a rush to deliver.
Back in the day – I really fretted over it. Today I file it under the remark in the pic above.
Every article that I post is as much about my desire to be a better writer, thinker and doer as it is about displacing some value on the industry I love.
Want to be a Better Apartment Blogger?
Get busy writing, publishing, commenting, correcting and doing it all over again the next day.
Your getting sharper every day that I take the time to write Multifamily Maniac,
M
