Mills Properties
Apartment Marketing: Mills Social Media Principles
Mills Properties is making a thoughtful integration of social media principles into their Get Social with Mills Initiative. And, in doing so we decided to craft a document of social media principles for our apartment management company as a whole using thoughts, ideas and original works from in and outside of the industry.
Social Media Principles for Apartments
The four companies we have elected to draw from are:
There are hundreds of examples out there to choose from if you are thinking of writing your own. I can’t tell you that we used some magic formula to pick the companies we did. That is with the exception of JC Hart – we know Mark Juleen and admire the efforts he and his team have put together in executing a great strategy. With that, we also look forward to feedback along the way as we believe that there is no perfect science to the process.
If you have a set of Social Media Principles for your organization and wish to share – link it up down in the comments. We would love to read them.
Have a great weekend –
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Apartment Case Study: ZAZ Apartments
With agreements in place and logistics worked out Mills Properties started to manage ZAZ on June 16th, 2010. ZAZ is an 80 unit community in Maplewood, MO located right across the street from City Hall and Maplewood High School. It is a distressed asset boasting a physical occupancy in the teens. If you factor in the delinquency of the current base – well let’s just say there is a ton of upside.
The property has zero amenities outside of it’s location which is just minutes from good shopping and killer night life venues. It’s aesthetically unappealing having been fashioned after a road-side hotel – exterior entries and all. It’s brick construction, has tons of asphalt and has a name and signage that would fit as a good frat house.
With occupancy in the tank and amenities as sparse as water on hot summer day on the Sahara – Mills Properties has its work cut out for it. But on the downside of any adversity lies the seeds of greatness. As long as you know how to look for them. The good news is that we don’t have to look to far in this case. Just eleven months ago we transitioned management of an asset right around the corner from ZAZ called Oxford. I like to refer to it as the Oxford Files. The occupancy was not quite as bad – sitting at just over 70% when we took over in August of 2009. It took us just over seven weeks to put on 20+ points of occupancy and swing the cash flow positive. The coolest part – $0 real dollars were spent on traditional means of advertising. Demand was created nearly 100% by Craigslist posts which were done on a daily basis without fail. I have a strong feeling that the results at ZAZ will be no different –
Hold tight for this ride – as we intend to record the ups and downs right here on the M Brewer Group Blog. Call it an exercise in real time results with the world watching. My hope is that we end up calling it an exercise in results on a shoe string.
As we roll along feel free to chime in using the comments section –
[Disclosure: I work with Mills Properties]Share this:
Apartment Marketing: Cinema on the Lawn – Redux
We wrote about this idea back in the summer of 2007 when we experimented with it at Park Station Apartments in Saint Louis, MO. It was a big hit not only our residents but with the community at large. Park Station is set in the historic DeBaliviere Neighborhood near the popular Central West End. It is surrounded by condominiums and 100+ year old mansions. The one amenity the neighborhood lacks is a reason to get together. There is no cool factor.
Create the Experience And They Will Come
That was and still is the reason we host the outdoor movie series in the summer time. We team up with the neighborhood home owners association, DeBaliviere Place Association along with Frontyard Features to organize and execute the event. It’s set one of our parking lots near a large grassy knoll with provides for comfortable seating. Our team also provides chairs, drinks, popcorn, pizza and hot dogs to movie goers. The movies are new release features which we purchase license for via Swank [make sure you get the license as the fine is very hefty if you don’t].
Invite The Neighborhood
In the spirit of marketing apartments – Cinema on the Lawn was a project targeted at the neighborhood at large. The implied effect that we were after was to get the neighborhood together – stimulated by a cool experience that they would have reason to talk about. It worked as evidenced by the growing number of attendees. The last movie we presented was attended by over 100 people more than half of which did not live in our apartments. While I can not prove out a number as it relates to leases, I can say with confidence that we enhance the experience of living in the DeBaliviere Neighborhood and as such we were raved about.
Build Your Own
I caught this on my train ride back from Chicago on Sunday – it’s not all that hard to build your own outdoor theater.
What kind of things are you doing this summer to draw in the community at large?
Technorati Tags: @mbrewer, mbrewer, mikebrewer, mbrewergroup, experience marketing, outdoor apartment cinema, outdoor movies, frontyard features, debaliviere, park station, mills properties
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Apartment Marketing: Facebook Like Page – Race to 10k – Good or Bad Idea?
The core of Social Media is not “eyeballs and ears” but rather “hearts and minds.” Go for quality, not quantity. – As tweeted by @NW_Mktg_Guy
I have read a few blog posts as of late that promote the thought of racing to certain thresholds of users on the various Social Media platforms, i.e. – 10k Facebook Likes. Despite FBs flip-flopping position on the 10k number as it relates to the Like page – I am baffled as to why that would be a strategic aim. Outside of understanding the would be advantages – if FB flops again – I would have to question the quality of such a forced end result. That is to suggest that if the number grows to 10k organically via rich experiences then hooray but if the number is achieved by coercion then – booray. Simply put – don’t race to 10k just because you can.
Quality vs. Quantity
Let me preface this section by saying that I’m the last person that should be writing a post taking sides on this subject. One could move right to my personal FB profile and question – why I friend everyone that comes across the recommendation page [it is not exactly everyone – only if there are multiple mutual connections between the networks]. The somewhat akward and funny answer is that I love defending myself from indefensible positions. That aside, the real answer is – despite the overlapping networks – I don’t know but I have been thinking about it for a couple of months now. I will admit that I am closer to deciding that quality is the better aim although I don’t have a premise for that position as of yet. And I would not suggest there is a right or a wrong answer.
All that being said, the tweet above really resonated with me concerning Like pages. If you take a strict interpretation of the word engagement – it really does boil down to the soft stuff. Like the quote suggest – heart’s and minds. In my head – that translates not to – Like your organization but rather Love your organization. I think there is a difference but that discussion is for another day.
What are your thoughts? Race for the thresholds despite quality – or, slowly grow to the threshold through remarkable experiences that people naturally invite their friends to be a part of? Or, do you have a completely alternate position on the subject?
Photo credit scs.ryerson.ca
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Multifamily Rehab: Mills $4m CityView Rehab Kicking Off
After ten long months of living in flux – residents of CityView Apartments [formerly known as Plaza Square] in downtown St. Louis are going to see the property rehabbed. This is especially near and dear to me as it is part of a portfolio of real estate that I manage for Mills Properties – the place where I spend most of my day time and a good deal of night time hours.
We actually transitioned the property management piece to Mills some ten months ago in August of 2009 after a bank foreclosure. Since that time we have worked to position the property for this eventual rehab are no less excited than the Laker’s will be when they take the NBA title this year and or when the Blackhawk’s took the Stanley Cup just a few days ago.
The property has a rich history but had fallen on hard times especially in the past three to five years. We are really looking forward to being a part of something bigger than ourselves with this project. It’s right on the fringe of one of the hippest neighborhoods in all of downtown St. Louis and as such will cater to a number of different target markets.
As we move through the rehab – I hope to post many of the before and after pics, vids, social efforts, etc..
Should be an uber over the top awesome experience –
Mills Properies spending $4 million on CityView upgrades – St. Louis Business Journal
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