Triggers:

1. People want to look good. Is it that your address or your building one that will give them celebrity status?

2. Does it save them money?

3. Does it shave their commute time?

4. Does it help them worry less?

5. Is it comfortable?

6. Does it help them feel accepted or included?

Who out there asks, ‘why they did’ in lieu of ‘why they didn’t?’

What did you do with the information?

Your wondering why contributor,

M

The Value of Being Human.

In order to examine the role of self-disclosure in perceived credibility, 120 students between the ages of 18 and 23 were split into three groups. Each group followed the tweeting of a supposed professor. One group saw only scholarly tweets, one group saw only social tweets and the last group saw a mix of the two. Each “professor” included the same number of tweets and hyperlinks. Students were asked to rate the credibility of the professor they followed based on the tweets they observed.

The highest ratings were given by students who saw only personal tweets. Mixing in scholarly tweets had no effect on the score.

It’s Time to Shine

Imagine for a moment; you meet a cool guy or gal at xyz function and decide that the two of you should get together again sometime. You agree to call in a couple days to see about a time and place to meet. When you call you let him/her know that you have appts stacked on top of appts but you can squeeze them in around six two months from Tuesday. Oh and, by the way, don’t forget to bring your credit card.

It’s a bit tongue in cheek but in the same respect it is how we treat the human beings that are reaching out to befriend us in our businesses. “Thank you for calling Hidden Treetop Village on Golden Pond Apartments; this is Suzy Trying to Hard to be Cheery Cardwell; how can I be of service to you today?” People see right through the lipstick.

Do we talk to friends like that?

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?

So here it is -

How much is unfriendly costing you?

I wish I could suggest that this post was inspired by an experience of mine outside this industry but it was not. It was inspired by a couple of emails I received this week suggesting as much about our firm. Yikes! But but but… In my position – it is sometimes hard to separate the juiced up aggressive nature of a hostile prospect or resident who just had a bad day and or the position of the – more times than not -pushed to the limits on-site leasing and management heros. My bias always leans to the on-site team and in the same breath I would say – I have read some compelling prospect and resident statements that made me wonder. That said, it all comes down to delivery – in my opinion.

More times than not – the statement: they are not friendly – comes up.

So, I wonder – How much is unfriendly costing you?

And, have a very friendly day -

Also, a quick shout out to the NAA bound folks from the Multi-family world. Have a great week in NOLA -

I agree with @TamiMcCarthy -

“@mbrewer Check out the link I re-tweeted to the IKEA Facebook campaign. Brilliant buzz marketing.”

This is just that – brilliant buzz marketing. That being said,  introducing the notion of being the first to tag the photo of a product and win it tosses engagement out the window for me. It crosses the threshold of authentic. In terms of risk/reward – the upside was to good to pass up. I believe true engagement is when people of influence [Evangelist] share for no reason other than they really like the experience.

In the way of apartment marketing, I think I could achieve a similar result if I filled an apartment full of furniture and suggested the potential fans be the first to tag the items to win them. Moreover, I could give away free rent for a year for the first person that tagged a photo of a vacant. And, hey maybe I throw in a second set of products [furniture] to that winner. Buzz!!!! Love this idea – think it is time to propose it as a way to kick off a Mills Properties Facebook Fan Page [Fan building campaign]. But engagement?  Not so much – not in my book anyway. You can’t purchase real engagement.

Peter was less than happy that the lighting in our parking lot was not as bright as he thought it should be. It rocked that I could tell him that we approved some lighting improvement proposals the day before but he was not satisfied. He really wanted to discuss the fact that the new parking policy was not accommodating for he and his daughter. You see they are taking a trip to Boston next week and past management allowed him to park in the open reserved parking spots for a mere $5 a day. I said, “no worries” – let’s go get you a spot now. “Okay, but did you know the reason that I moved into this apartment was that my employer is right across the street but….at that moment he raised his hand to the sky and exposed an New England Patriots watch. I stopped Pete mid speech and said, “you’re not a Pariots fan, are you?” He said, “You’re damn right I am, let me tell you a funny story.”

Pete went on for the next fifteen minutes [fifteen minutes I really didn't have but I knew would yield huge dividends] telling me a story about Saint Louis sports teams losing every sporting event they were involved in to a Boston area team during a certain week back in 1994 – he knew it was 94′ as it bared some significance to a major family event. Pete ended his story by telling me that Mills was the best thing that ever happened to the property and that he sees the things we are doing to make the place better. I have to believe it was the fifteen minutes of listening that matter most to Pete.

Is Pete a fan? I venture to say he is still in the wait and see stage but I guarantee you he will be over the next year. And, if the Patriots ever come to town – Pete will have a pair of tickets – on me.

Tell them about waking up on a crisp fall morning and taking a run in Forest Park just one block over from your apartment. Tell them about stopping back by Velocity Coffee Shop to have a cup of coffee – served by a friendly Barista named Tracy who rarely smiles but wants to. Tell them about the free copies of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the St. Louis Dispatch. Tell them about the free wifi. And, oh – it’s a bike shop too with cool bike motif everywhere. The bathroom even has a cool chalkboard where you once drew a giant dragon that looked as if it were eating the giant flower someone else drew.

Tell them about Papa John’s pizza and Subway at the end of the block where Tony and Charles remember your name and serve you with a smile. Tell them about Atlas Restaurant located in the heart of the neighborhood and the amazing food and desserts that they serve. Tell them about The Loop and The Central West End [very cool Saint Louis neighborhood hangouts] being just one mile away and don’t forget to mention the friendly cab driver resident who will drive you over while entertaining you with great conversation. Tell them about all the fun nights you had in those neighborhoods.

Tell them about Mr. and Mrs. Wang who own the dry cleaners right next door to Papa John’s and how they wash and fold clothes for $0.75 a pound. Tell them how much you love the fact that each Christmas they give your children big canisters of candy as a thank you for your business.

Tell them about the dog park even if you are not a pet lover – not even in the least.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is the neighborhood that I fell in love with in Saint Louis. Oh yeah, and I lived in a great apartment that overlooked a tree lined street that looks amazing in the fall.

Tell them with conviction how much you love the neighborhood the rest will fall right into place.

Coming to a leasing office near you…GestureTek

As I understand it there are a select few communities out there that employee this kind of technology and I assume it won’t be too long before we see some mass adoption. Can you imagine the cool factor this brings to a leasing office. I imagine it brings a whole new meaning to virtual tour.

Source: CrunchGear via TechCrunch via Twitter – I hope I got them all.

Microsoft Surface, GestureTek, apartment leasing, apartment marketing

I say all that to suggest that some of the key fundamentals of our business are turning the wrong way. At least that is my view.

Let me know what you think.

Your trying to remain optimistic apartment maniac,

M

Apartment household formations

Dale Carnegie: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming
interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get
other people interested in you.”

Apartment leasing, apartment marketing, Dale Carnegie