Apartment Social Media
Apartment Marketing: Gather the Group
Over the next month or so, I will be reaching out to some of our apartment Facebook friends asking if I can enlist them in a virtual ongoing open feedback Tell Dell like mechanism. The intent is to prompt the forum in the coming weeks, months and years as we move forward in building out Mills Properties improved web strategy. The friends are coming from a mix of our like pages that span across our 43 communities [Note: not all are published as of this writing] in Saint Louis. The only catalyst to their selection is – on balance – they participate more than others. Our real hope – as part of a much larger strategy – is to build on the success of others in and out of our industry by including consumers in the process. That said, it never ceases to amaze me just how easy it really is to get acquainted anymore. This quote below is part of a response I got to reaching out just this past week –
…..been here just over 5 years and really like it. My main interests include Conservative talk shows and Trance/Techno music. Odd combination……
I can’t wait to get some discussion going with this resident. 5 years – can you imagine the change she/he has seen in five years? Can you imagine the potential value he/she might add on the premise of that 5 years of history?
What are you doing to leverage the power of your networks?
Apartment Talent: The Price of Waiting
Hey there! Nice to meet YOU! This post is for those of you that serve on the stages of our industry. That is to suggest the leasing, assistant managers and property managers out there. I like what Seth had to say on his blog a couple of days ago about waiting for validation – here is an excerpt:
If you’re waiting for a boss or an editor or a college to tell you that you do good work, you’re handing over too much power to someone who doesn’t care nearly as much as you do.
Keep Cool Keep Control
Some time back, I attended a group counseling session that described it this way, when you lose control, it’s like you have a string attached to your heart and you give the prompter the string and you allow him or her to pull that string at will. In other words you give up the very control that was given to you on the day you loudly pronounced your place on earth. It’s frankly a travesty of monumental proportions. It’s not unlike that in business – be it sales, marketing, finance, transaction, operations or the such. You cede control under the guise of waiting for validation and you cede control of your future.
Relating it back to Seth’s post and also to caring about what you do in the apartment space – beat your own best self everyday of the week. Remind yourself daily that no one will challenge you more than you will challenge yourself. No one person or thing has control over you unless you cede it to them. There are so many opportunities to build Your Personal Brand today – so many ways to take control of Your Future –
Using Social Media to Market Apartments – Ripe with Opportunities
For all intents and purposes – new media in it’s concerns with marketing apartment homes is in its infancy. It’s the perfect space to join in the conversation. Blogs not unlike this one are the perfect place to; come and observe – start to participate – use for a catalyst to start your own blog and reference back to now and again once you are up and running. Rest on this notion – not even the best of the best in this space know where the platforms and mechanisms will be two to four years from now. It’s any one’s best guess at this point. In spite of that they keep innovating – they keep plugging away – steady trying, refining and trying again. You can too. It’s the way Brand You is made. The alternative – the price of waiting? – Your Future.
What are you going to do today?
Multifamily Troublemaker
Check out this byline from Engrain
A design and technology consultancy dedicated to helping organizations make their brands and technology relevant, usable and beautiful. We are trouble making, data pillaging idealists obsessed with usability and design that works.
I like troublemakers! Anyone who is willing to put it out there like that is worthy of some press in my opinion! I do wonder what a data pillaging idealist is. A swag realist? Seems not to go together – sounds cool though.
I’ve never heard of Engrain and only ran across them because of a Google Alert I have set up for terms related to multifamily. So this in not an endorsement of any sort, neither is it an invitation for Engrain to solicit business – I just love the gumption and could not help but to say as much.
Does anyone have experience with the group?
One item of note: I tried to follow them on Twitter but got the protected tweets message – kind of a #fail but maybe there is good reason. And, the post I made to their Facebook wall letting them know I wanted to follow them on Twitter but could not was removed – kind of a uber #fail. Maybe that has to do with that data pillaging idealist thing – swag it in the spirit of perfection. It is – after all – all about appearances.
That aside – I love the spirit of this organization and look forward to tracking their successes. Check out their website – they show off some pretty cool stuff related to our space.
Your safeguarding ignoblist [Read: tongue in cheek]
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]Apartment Marketing: Where is your money going?
While 2010 has been the year of dipping more than just your toe in the SM waters – it looks like 2011 will be a year where mass adoption might be a more appropriate description as it relates to small business taking the plunge.
As it pertains to Apartment Marketing – I would say the trend is in concert.
Apartment Blogging
When I started blogging in 2003 there were very few Multifamily types in the space – today, it seems like everyone has a blog and Twitter is a near household name. We were also early adopters of MySpace as a way to market apartments [back then we were still in post your floor plans, features and benefits mode].
Apartment Facebook Marketing
At the time, I recall seeing very few people participating in that space – today Facebook rules and the masses are adopting the platform as a way to market. [As an industry we still have to work on setting it up via FBs TOS]. Nonetheless adoption is happening and now the dollars are flowing that way as demonstrated by the stats below. All that being said, I still think it is interesting to see newspaper with such a high mark -That is not to mention that five out of the seven spends are print media related…
Enjoy the stats – would love to hear your thoughts and I hope the balance of your week is compelling!
Survey Says: Businesses Spending More on Marketing, Tech – AOL Small Business
Forty-two percent of small-business owners are likely to spend more on marketing and advertising this year, according to the latest FedEx Office Signs of the Times national small-business survey. So where will most of their money go?
* Improving online presence (46 percent)
* Print materials/newsletters/direct mail (44 percent)
* Brochures (43 percent)
* Yellow Pages listings (39 percent)
* Fliers and signs/banners/posters (37 percent each)
* Social networking sites (36 percent)
* Newspaper advertisements (32 percent)
