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I have had the worst of the Section 8 properties in the US and another where 80% of my res ...Thanks for the wonderful responses, Anne and Nadeen. And Anne, don’t worry – you can call ...If we reduce Fair Housing down to its basics, it is a law created in response to bad (i.e. ...
Darling Brent…my first thought was “he is such a nice naïve young man” but I can do bette ...
Customizing the tour is the most important part of being a leasing professional. However, ...
Insider Blogs Tags Search Engine Optimization SEO
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May 16
2012
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If your business has multiple locations, some new Google Places features will be music to your ears.
The changes are designed to simplify the upload and management processes. With the new tools, you can:
- Edit several listings at once
Last week Blackberry/RIM and Best Buy were two businesses that went on a list of dying companies. It's often hard to predict what the future holds, and we have a tendency to get tunnel vision when it comes to our own businesses. It's unfortunate these companies have found themselves to be in dire straights, but for me I look at situations like this as an opportunity to reflect on my own business and industry. What may look like a solid model today, may not be tomorrow. With that, I'd like to share my list of five multifamily marketing/tech models that may be in trouble.
1. The ILS - I've actually been known to say that the ILS is an absurd marketing idea. While I may have been trying to generate some controversy with that statement nearly 3 years ago, it's interesting to think today I actually believe the ILS model is in trouble a bit. At least the way the big players look today. If you look at Apartments.com, ApartmentGuide.com, ForRent.com, Rent.com, Move.com, etc., you'll find their models really haven't changed much since they started. However, the way people search online is changing. We may see a few fall off over the next 5 years if they don't evolve in an aggressive way.
2. Pay Per Lease Marketing Model - As tracking becomes more sophisticated we're finding (and concluding) renters are using more than one source to find an apartment. Is it fair to give all the credit to a single source and pay them a premium for it? I say NO FRIGGIN WAY! Marketers are getting smarter and this model is a gimmick that has taken advantage of people for too long. I think this fad will most definitely pass in the near future as pay per lead or flat subscription pricing will win.
When’s the last time you Googled your property? What did you see? Harmful reviews that you didn’t know existed? Outdated property photos? Incorrect information?
Oftentimes we get so caught up in the day-to-day operations and running our apartment business that we fail to put ourselves in the perspective of the consumer (or apartment prospect), the true reason we exist and ultimately the factor that will contribute to our successes or demise. I want to offer a suggestion—er, or rather a challenge—to all on-site professional property managers and staff: Google your property. What do you see?
What might be more fascinating is what you don’t see. Generally, when a potential renter finds us from a traditional ILS (i.e. apartments.com, apartmentguide.com, etc.) and expresses interest, he or she will most likely Google that property, look for reviews and other insightful information that will guide their decision. On the flipside, prospects already aware of a community’s name might bypass an ILS, and Google a property’s name to gain knowledge. This is where savvy on-site staff can truly shine by utilizing all outlets available to flood a search engine with pictures, amenities, and language that can sway a prospect to rent. So, what will you find when you do a Google search?
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Feb 17
2012
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Alright. Confession time: How many of you haven’t touched your Google+ profile since 2011? Go in Peace. You are forgiven. *Unless* that is, you have neglected your Google+ Business Page. The opportunities awaiting you in Google+ are far too great to be forsaken.
And I'm not talking the married kind of engagement. (although that can be pretty pricey too)
I'm talking the price of engagement in regards to social media. I was not a bandwagon social media user. I wanted to understand how to engage and converse with our residents and potential residents before I jumped on the social media train. I also wanted to understand how to measure engagement and then translate that to value for our clients.
For me, the issue with social media is not the time it takes to post, blog or tweet, the issue is engagement. Are you maximizing on opportunities of engagement? Are you talking at your residents and prospects are talking with them? Having thousands of fans or followers are great but what are you doing with them?
What gives you the best engagement bang for you buck? I have included my top three.
DON'T BE A NEWS FEED HOG
Posting and tweeting are a marathon, not a race. If you clog up their news feed, they are sure to unfollow or unsubscribe. Studies show a post every 3-4 hours is the sweet spot.
INSIGHTS
Are you looking at your insights page? Your insights page has a wealth of information and demographics. Use that to your advantage when posting.
FEEDBACK SCORE
Look at your most successful post (in terms of likes, comments, impressions, re-tweets, etc) and figure out your feedback score. For the posts with the highest feedback percentage, do you see a pattern of posts people engage with most... sports, fashion, decorating ideas?
I benchmark everything. As a Director of Marketing, making sure my marketing team's time is well spent requires just that, benchmarking everything. Have we figured out the secret formula to social media, engagement and ROI.. not yet but I'm working on it. :-)
Happy posting!
Sparkle Hammond, M.Ed. First Communities | Director of Marketing
shammond@firstcommunities.net
www.century-apartments.com | www.facebook.com/centuryapartmenthomes
It seems like over the past five years or so, an infinite number of marketing channels have emerged. We bought pages on listing sites, then we created our own property websites. Now web pages are generated for our property just by having a resident “check in” on Facbook or Foursquare. Seriously!
This makes it extremely challenging for an apartment community to have one coherent brand on the web. So what’s a marketer to do?
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Jan 18
2012
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Last week Google announced on their blog that they would be transforming their search experience into something rich with people and personal content. Google claims search is limited to public webpages that are created by people you’ve never met. At the heart of this new ‘search,’ Google is looking to bring your social world closer to you than ever before:
“Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box.” – Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
Google will be bringing this content directly to your browser by personalizing your search results page in three very specific ways:
What is Google telling me?
Google will continue to show all of the natural results and ads you would normally see on a results page, but now you will also see websites that your social circles have shared as well. Just like Google did when they rolled out Universal Search, they are now pushing content from Google+ into the search results along with Google News, Images, Maps and Video. You will no longer need to leave Google search to find information your friends or family have shared.
What kind of impact will this have?
It is no secret the tiny component tying this new search experience together is Google+. If you ever questioned whether a Google+ account was needed, you may find it more vital than ever, especially if you are a search marketer. Think of this new search environment as search results sprinkled with Google+ suggestions. This format of search is not new, but rather an update to the current Universal Search in which all Google products are being represented on one page.
As with any Google update to search (remember the Instant Search craze?), this new approach has caused quite a stir in the search marketing community as Google critics and enthusiasts alike are alarmed with the direction Google is taking. Danny Sullivan, one of the most respected people in SEO, has written several great articles on this subject. You can read about his concerns with this new search format on his post Search Engines Should Be Like Santa From Miracle On 34th Street.
What Can I do?
For starters, create or update your Google+ profile. You should also spend some time to build a strategy around the messaging you want to deliver via Google+. The idea is to be engaging, so people can share your content, which gives it the most reach. In a world where search is now personalized by what friends +1 or re-share to their circles, engagement levels should become a top priority.
I’d love to hear your take on this updated search. Do you like this new direction Google is taking? Feel free to leave a comment or take the conversation to Twitter (@AmadoCan).
Happy searching!
Note: This was originally posted on the Apartments.com Blog - http://www.apartments.com/blog/uncategorized/googles-latest-search-plus-your-world/
So, you've read through countless fun blogs from within and outside the industry and yes, you've smiled to yourself as you've had to thumb through silly posts about the author's dogs or sunglasses and/or other gimmicky things to keep you reading. And yes, you've gone a step above and read through more authoritative beats like Mashable or TechCrunch or HBR to yes, still find yourself having to smile and get through gimmicky articles on social media.
And in that time frame of lost minutes (and yes, hours), you were trained over and over to think that social media was about #fans #followers #tweets #comments #posts and other "measurements". Well, guess what they were wrong and you were wrong to believe it. These vanity metrics simply don't add up to leases or renewals. At the very stretch, they are ONLY good for brand lift, which you likely will ONLY consider once you can DEMONSTRATE you have a handle on building true marketing and leasing ROI. Otherwise, I give it to your boss to tell you to eat it and find something else better to do with your time.
And the reason is simple, we as an industry need to spend the very little time we do have to market (how many of you truly have a full-time dedicated marketing manager on site???) on getting a return from it.
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Dec 01
2011
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Budgeting for a Social StrategyPosted by Mark Juleen in Twitter , Traffic , Technology , Social Networking , Social Media , Search Engine Optimization SEO , FourSquare , Facebook , Checklists , Blogs , Apartment Residential |
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I was chatting with Mike Whaling yesterday, and we both agreed there are definitely some quick wins out there to help optimize your brand, stores, properties, etc. online. It can be time consuming, but claiming your business's pages on Google, Bing, Yelp!, etc. can be quick ways to get some SEO juice for your websites and help promote your business on those additional channels. Where I struggle from there is with a content strategy ongoing.
Here’s the honest truth, you can’t half-ass it anymore. Search as we know it today is changing, and if you aren’t trying to be part of or help create conversation then I will predict that drive-by may become your best lead source. OK, that could be extreme, but the algorithm is changing from a keywords model and more value is being put on conversation and connections with real people to a brand. Criticize Google+ all you want, but even if that doesn’t do exactly what they hoped it most definitely highlights how Google is giving more credit to social connections.
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Nov 22
2011
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I recently heard someone say that duplicate content will get your site banned from Google. It simply isn’t so. If it were, every single ILS would have been out of business years ago.
Most larger property management companies are interested in maintaining a consistent message and rely on products like Lead2Lease, ILS Portal, Dynamic Lead Solutions or other lead management and tracking solutions to automate feeds to ILSs, craigslist and other online marketing vehicles. Among other things, this results in the same community description text being in hundreds of places on the web.
Let’s look at 1500 Locust as an example, which is managed by The Bozzuto Group, one of the top 10 multifamily developers in 2011 and one of the largest property management companies in the East. Its community description is 199 words long. According to Google’ Webmaster Tools, “Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. ” I think most people would agree 199 words is a substantive length. Doing a Google search for a snippet of the text reveals they are sending this description to (or in some cases, it has been unknowingly syndicated to or scraped by) ForRent.com, Orbitz.com, 4WallsInPhilly.com, BridgeStreet.com, Oodle.com, ApartmentRatings.com, YouTube.com, RealEstate.com and olx.com. Clicking through to the second page reveals another ten results. After looking at the 5th pages, I got bored. I’m sure if I continued clicking I’d see Google has omitted some results, but I rarely click beyond the first pages when I’m searching anyway.
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What does the Satisfacts Research survey on “All That Apply: ...
written by Judy Bellack
NAA’s UNITS magazine published a Satisfacts Research survey in their April issue titled “All That Apply: Residents’ Leading Marketing Sources.” The web-based survey queried 34,000 apartment residents who had m ... (Read More) |
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Fair Housing Does Have “Costs” And Should Be Part Of The Dis ...
written by Brent Williams
I have a one year old daughter, so when I think about where I want to live, one of the major elements is simply whether there are other families with young children in the area. So imagine me touring an apartment community and asking if there a ... (Read More) |
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Why Should You Get a Property Manager?
written by Buildium LLC
A guest post by Gabriel Knight, Mortgage Fit, Chicago, IL While rental property investment might look like a rewarding and positive venture, managing both tenants and properties can be overwhelming. As such, you may need to hire a professional proper ... (Read More) |
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Kids and Pets- A Key piece to your Resident Retention Puzzle
written by Talisa Lavarry
Let’s face it. Major media moguls have known for years that the best way to evoke emotions…I’m talking warm and fuzzies is with kids and animals. Children and pets are a universal symbol of pure love. It’s just understood tha ... (Read More) |
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A horse is a horse, of course, of course...
written by Nadeen Green
And now you will have that lovely ditty in your head for the day. (You’re welcome – LOL.) Today’s post is about the use of miniature horses as guide animals for the blind. I have found when teaching that I often get skep ... (Read More) |
