Apartments in St. Louis

Apartment Content Relevancy

May 4, 2012 By Mike Brewer Leave a Comment

What makes content engaging is relevancy. You need to connect the contact information with the content information. – Gail Goodman

Ever wonder how to make your content compelling enough for people to want to connect with and share it? It’s a topic I think about all the time. And, one that our digital media team at Mills Properties recognize as key to our success. The short answer – relevancy.

Over the past year we have been busy hacking away at our online strategy and we are very excited about the fruits of that labor. Melissa D and Jessica H along with a whole host of crazy awesome blog post authors have put together something really special in my opinion.

A big part of that strategy centers around apartment content relevancy. Content that up to now I purposefully thought should have nothing to do with Mills Properties or the apartments that we market and sell.. As of late my mind is shifting away from that sentiment but not in a way that you might posit.

Apartment Content Relevancy

Our content strategy will remain the same. It will have nothing to do with our company or our apartments but in essence it has everything to do with both. The content is real, runs the gambit of emotions and speaks to relevant and for the most part very local and very people-centric happenings.

I see all of the content being created, be it on the blog or otherwise, as an extension of our people, our respective apartment communities, our company and the neighborhoods we participate in. It’s our way of weaving apartments, apartment community amenities and the people that live there into the fabric of the neighborhood. It’s a way, if you will, to bridge the gap between your contacts and the content people what to participate with. And, if executed with precision, it will begin to really define the interests of our respective audiences as it relates to the current day neighborhood and the neighborhood they want to see come to fruitiion in the future. Interests that will further define the relevancy which will in turn further define the content. Such a beautiful cirle if you really think about it.

Your – always looking for relevancy in the content – multifamily maniac,

Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing Tagged With: Apartment Content Relevancy, Apartments in St. Louis, communities, community, Mills Properties, multifamily, neighborhoods, relevancy, St. Louis Apartments

Mills Properties: Blog Stats

June 9, 2011 By Mike Brewer 2 Comments

Thought it would be fun to share our Neighborhood Blog stats from time to time in a snap shot view.

Melissa P wrote about the team in her post titled: (B)usiness (L)ove and (O)ther (G)uts whereby she laid out the overarching premise of our new marketing strategy.

Our first blog post went live on November 24, 2010 and since that time we have achieved the following.

Stats are accurate as of lat May, 2011.

Filed Under: Apartment Blogging Tagged With: @mbewer, @mbrewer, Apartment blog, Apartment marketing, Apartments in St. Louis, Mills, millsapartments.net, millsproperties.net, Multifamily Blog, Multifamily Marketing Social Media, St. Louis Apartments

Multifamily Leadership: Relentless Courage

May 18, 2011 By Mike Brewer 5 Comments

Relentless Courage

We have all been there; sitting around the conference room table discussing the latest property management opportunity, issue or otherwise and you just know in your heart of hearts that no one including yourself is saying the tough stuff. Just this week I posted over at propertymanager.com about courageous conversations and moments of truth. In my head, it is the only way to grow an organization.

I love the way Hugh captures it visually over at gapingvoidgallery

Back in my early corporate days, this came as quite a shock to me: that people sitting around the table didn’t always say what they were REALLY thinking! Shock! Horror!

The sting of unspoken words gives cause for what Hugh calls, complete agreement. On the backside we have; 1. That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. 2. That will never work. 3. I am doing my own thing. Or, worse yet – 4. I’m not changing a thing.

Take away: Don’t be “That Guy” or “That Gal” Instead be – “Not Afraid”

Silence or compliance cheats the group out of being a better organization and you out of being a better leader.

Your ‘Not Afraid’ Contributor,

Filed Under: Multifamily leadership Tagged With: #aptchat, @mbrewer, apartment leadership, Apartments in St. Louis, mbrewergroup, millsapartments, multifamily, Multifamily leadership, St. Louis Apartments

Multifamily Management: Release

May 15, 2011 By Mike Brewer 2 Comments

Details

“My motto is ‘release’ I have it written in my violin case. ‘Release’ , meaning, ‘Step back a little’. Those are the words of world renowned violin virtuoso Charlie Siem. It struck me as I was reading through the latest copy of Monocle magazine. So many times in life and in the multifamily business we get caught up in the detail of things. We major in the minors making huge mountains out of what should be considered but mere speed bumps in the path of progress.

Major in the Majors

Charlie goes on to say, “Because when you hone in on all the tiny details, it’s natural to tense up – and then nothing flows.” Suffice it to say that everything moves at the speed of light anymore. Not when you tense up and take time to focus on the minutia at a very granular level. It stalls flow, it mitigates advancement and it stifles trust.

Granted mistakes can be and always are traced to the details of things and more astutely to people. Causes are often found in flawed policy and or application of business practices by teams or individuals. It’s still, at least in my head, not cause for alarm but rather time to address the mess and move on; a teachable moment.

I rather think you pick a course, put your metrics [budget] in place, gear yourself up [get the right people on the bus] and run the marathon set before you. Understand that you will experience adversities along the way, just make sure you have plans in place to address them quickly. But overall, stick with the majors. Sticking with the majors as it relates to a marathon would be to pace yourself, keep yourself hydrated and feed yourself mentally and physically along the way. Do that and the rest falls into place.

In contrast, focus on the nagging toe nail pain, foot pain, side cramp or bleeding nipples caused from friction between your shirt and skin and all of a sudden you stall your pace. You forget to hydrate and your mental and physical faculties give way to fatigue. It’s just not worth it.

My word this week – ‘Release’

Your releasing contributer,

Filed Under: Property Management Tagged With: @mbrewer, Apartments in St. Louis, Leadership, major in minors, mbrewergroup, Mills, millsapartments, Multifamily leadership, Multifamily Management, Property Management, Release, St. Louis Apartments

Get Social with Mills: The Journey Begins

March 31, 2010 By Mike Brewer 15 Comments

It’s official – Mills Properties is taking the plunge into new media. For the past three years we have been at work producing real results with simple tools like Craiglist and vFlyer. One example, which I will fully detail in a later blog post, includes a manager that used CL exclusively to add 23 points of occupancy in just seven short weeks. It’s an amazing story but it is not where we wanted to be. We wanted to be fully immersed in the use of new media as it relates to marketing apartments.

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step

I am jazzed to report that Mills Senior Leadership has given blessing for me to document the entire journey from soup to nuts. In doing so I hope to utilize all the rich media out there in order to produce some massively cool dialog. The chief aim is to bring real meaning to the word engagement as I am fully convinced that the word is very often misplaced and misused in the world of marketing and new media specifically.

All that being said, I invite you to join us as we take the first step to Get Social with Mills.

Update: And, if it starts to look and or feel like a ton of self promotion, company promotion or ego-centric rhetoric, say as much. Our intent is to tell a story that may add value to your new media marketing efforts.