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Jan 31
2009
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CORPORATE GIANTS ARE OFF AND RUNNING
Attending BlogWell in Chicago last week was a refreshing and pleasant change to most of the Social Media seminars I have attended the past couple of years. The participants were very different. It was not about Marketers talking to Marketers or Social Media folks talking to Social Media folks. The presenters were all large corporate organizations, such as Proctor and Gamble, Home Depot, Mayo Clinic, Molson, Sharpie, H & R Block, and the US Coast Guard. They were all highly passionate, just like the Social Media folks we have come to know, but all, bar none had traversed the long and arduous journey of convincing their corporate marshals of the validity and worthiness of Social Media.
GETTING THROUGH THE DIP
Their stories were varied, but all of them had a common thread, they no longer are expending energy to convince the executives at their respective companies about the viability of Social Media, they had gotten through the dip. They are working hard to figure out how and where to apply it, and they are all learning as they go. None of them talked much about metrics, but all had a knowing that they embarked on the right path. I wonder just how long it will take for the executives in our beloved industry to stake their claim with Social Media?
A CONDUIT TO A CONVERSATION
Social Media is not about the various tools and venues such as MySpace, facebook, and twitter. Those are the tools, or the means of connecting. Social Media is about connecting and creating relationships and participating in the conversation. Participating in those conversations can and will help you dramatically improve your Resident Retention results. Our residents WANT us to communicate, but on their terms and timing and only AFTER we have been granted Permission to Do So.
CONNECTION PAYS TENFOLD
The apartment business is and always has been about connecting with our residents. Unfortunately we haven’t done such a good job. Based on the dismal Resident Retention results in our industry, there is a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps we give it lip service, but very few companies actually have a successful retention program in place.
Has your company earned bragging rights to Resident Retention? If so, we would love to hear your story, and what was in your bag of tricks!
Attending BlogWell in Chicago last week was a refreshing and pleasant change to most of the Social Media seminars I have attended the past couple of years. The participants were very different. It was not about Marketers talking to Marketers or Social Media folks talking to Social Media folks. The presenters were all large corporate organizations, such as Proctor and Gamble, Home Depot, Mayo Clinic, Molson, Sharpie, H & R Block, and the US Coast Guard. They were all highly passionate, just like the Social Media folks we have come to know, but all, bar none had traversed the long and arduous journey of convincing their corporate marshals of the validity and worthiness of Social Media.
GETTING THROUGH THE DIP
Their stories were varied, but all of them had a common thread, they no longer are expending energy to convince the executives at their respective companies about the viability of Social Media, they had gotten through the dip. They are working hard to figure out how and where to apply it, and they are all learning as they go. None of them talked much about metrics, but all had a knowing that they embarked on the right path. I wonder just how long it will take for the executives in our beloved industry to stake their claim with Social Media?
A CONDUIT TO A CONVERSATION
Social Media is not about the various tools and venues such as MySpace, facebook, and twitter. Those are the tools, or the means of connecting. Social Media is about connecting and creating relationships and participating in the conversation. Participating in those conversations can and will help you dramatically improve your Resident Retention results. Our residents WANT us to communicate, but on their terms and timing and only AFTER we have been granted Permission to Do So.
CONNECTION PAYS TENFOLD
The apartment business is and always has been about connecting with our residents. Unfortunately we haven’t done such a good job. Based on the dismal Resident Retention results in our industry, there is a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps we give it lip service, but very few companies actually have a successful retention program in place.
Has your company earned bragging rights to Resident Retention? If so, we would love to hear your story, and what was in your bag of tricks!
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Comments (3)
Great post, Eric. In addition to people responding to your post about communicating with residents, I wonder what ideas people have for a software vendor to implement such tools--whether to chat with its customers or including social media tools in the software itself. Perhaps this separate discussion, but one I'd love to have.
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Thanks for the post! I feel like so many of us are screaming for this and its nice to have others feel the same. I LOVE the idea of a software program to link these social media tools together. I'm sure it will be just around the corner.
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One additional comment, I have worked for a company that had bragging rights about resident retention. I don't think there is any big golden key to resident retention. Its all about service and communication. Do what you say you are going to do and do it in a timely manner. Really care about your residents and always push to yourself and your employees to raise the bar. So many times leasing staff is "annoyed" at residents for their requests instead of genuinely caring. In addition finding quality maintenance professionals that are willing to go the extra mile and fix things right the first time is extremely important. Quality maintenance personnel is very hard to come by, if you have a good one make sure to keep them!
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