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It is wise and acceptable to use a criminal background check to eliminate any candidates with a criminal record prior to getting to final interviews when hiring.
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May 18
2012

GM Pulls Ads From Facebook

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Social Media , Facebook , Facebook
Ellen Thompson
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On Tuesday, General Motors pulled its ads from Facebook.
 
The auto giant had a $10 million ad buy on the site, a tiny fraction of GM's $4 billion global ad budget; but after determining their ads had little impact, they walked away from paid Facebook advertising. GM will continue to promote its products on Facebook using free business pages.
 
In light of Facebook's IPO, the incident has sparked questions about the limits of Facebook advertising, and whether other companies will follow GM's lead.
 
What does this mean for you?
 
Keep an eye on how your marketing dollars are working, and always be flexible in your strategy. GM is one of the world's biggest brands, but their pulling out of Facebook is no different than a property manager canceling an underperforming ILS listing. Our experience with Facebook ads is similar to GM's, and we think your budget is better spent in SEO, Google AdWords or content development. But your results may differ, and you don't know until you try it out.
GM's new Facebook plan -- focusing on their business page as a customer service portal -- is what we recommend to our clients. Our metrics show that this, combined with a dynamic marketing strategy elsewhere, is the strongest course of action.

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May 16
2012

Google Places Debuts New Features

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Video Tutorials , Search Engine Optimization SEO , New Features , May 2012 , Google Places , Edit Multiple Listings
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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

What Do You Think? (0) | Read More...
Apr 27
2012

3.6% of Social Media Comments are Apartment Leads

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Tracking Traffic , Social Media , Customer Service
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For two months, we’ve been categorizing every social media comment and mention for clients that use our content moderation services. During that time, we categorized over 3500 users comments and have calculated our preliminary findings.

 

What Do You Think? (0) | Read More...
Apr 25
2012

Facebook Breaks 900 Million Users

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Social Networking , Social Media , Facebook , Apartment Marketing
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By Justin Sherin

In documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in advance of its initial public offering, Facebook revealed that it now has 901 million monthly active users, compared with 680 million just a year ago. The documents also state that over 500 million users engage with the site on mobile devices.

What Do You Think? (1) | Read More...
Mar 26
2012

Breaking News: Responding to Criticism, Pinterest Changes Terms of Use

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Social Networking , Social Media , Communication , Apartment Marketing
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I recently posted about a clause in Pinterest's Terms of Use that allowed the service to sell your content. Last week Pinterest announced that the clause has been removed, saying that 'selling content was never our intention.' However, the updated Terms of Use, which take effect on April 6 and can be viewed here, still grants Pinterest the right to reproduce or adapt your content however they wish, creating a potential copyright liability issue.

I'm following this story and will keep reporting changes as they occur.

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Mar 16
2012

Pinterest’s Copyright Problem: Part II

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Social Networking , Social Media , Communication , Apartment Marketing
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We recently discussed how Pinterest might enable copyright infringement, and how to ensure your business is protected from liability. Before getting a Pinterest page, however, you should also read the site’s Terms of Use.

Read this passage twice:

‘By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.’

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Mar 07
2012

Pinterest's Copyright Problem: Part I

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Social Networking , Social Media , Multifamily Insiders , Communication , Apartment Marketing , Apartment Community
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Pinterest may have a copyright problem.

With a recent infusion of venture capital and an explosion of popularity among women, the social network is poised to break into the big leagues. But Pinterest’s selling point – users ‘pinning’ online images onto personal bulletin boards – could also be a major weakness.

What Do You Think? (3) | Read More...
Jan 18
2012

Why is Wikipedia Down Today?

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Technology , Communication
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Editor Note:  We wanted to highlight Ellen's blog because it is so important to how the Internet operates.  Sites like Multifamily Insiders would likely not last long if these rules were in place.  And like "J" replied below, if you like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc, they will be negatively impacted as well!

Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing and other websites went 'dark' at midnight EST on Wednesday, January 18. The outage will last for 24 hours. The effort protests two bills currently before Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), which aim to combat online intellectual property theft. While the sites condemn internet piracy, they feel that the bills, if passed, would unduly punish content providers and chill the flow of legitimate information worldwide. Opponents hope to encourage discussion and revision of the bills.

For more information about SOPA and PIPA, click here.

 

What Do You Think? (5)
Dec 29
2011

Is All Social Media Engagement Created Equally?

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Twitter , Social Networking , Social Media , Multifamily , FourSquare , Facebook , Customer Service , Communication , Blogs , Apartment Marketing
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It’s the question every property manager and industry partner wants to figure out: just how much does social media help build our brands, improve services, save money, and create new revenue?

I think it’s especially difficult to calculate social media’s rewards because they flow into many different buckets. I’m not implying this means we should shirk the responsibility of measuring ROI—but remember that there are benefits beyond leads, like branding, customer service, and SEO lift to marketing pages with proper social media integration.

It can take a long time to see that social media is generating leads, leases and sales, so we naturally try to justify our investment with other data, including increased page views, inbound traffic generation, SEO, and engagement.

What Do You Think? (4) | Read More...
Dec 19
2011

That Guy, The Drunk, & Casanova

Posted by Ellen Thompson in Communication , Apartment Marketing
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The holiday season has arrived—and with it, invitations to parties.
 
You can take them as a chance to build relationships with customers, prospects and industry partners, or to be the person that everyone gossips about the next day. Here are three people sure to be at your next gathering. Try not to be one of them!
 
That Guy. Every business association has one—the vendor who just doesn’t get that it’s a holiday party, and that he should put his sales pitch away for the evening. I once had a new industry partner ask me to introduce her to the incoming president of our association. Since I knew the prospect very well, I thought to give her some sisterly advice before I made the introduction—just say hi, exchange cards and keep it light. She just couldn’t help it, though, and started pitching right away. Guess who never got a meeting with the president or another meeting from me?
 
The Drunk. For an hour or so, the Drunk will usually be the life of the party. Then things go quickly downhill. Slurring words, stumbling in heels, falling into people and spilling drinks won’t help your reputation. Let people talk about your ideas and sense of humor, not your taste for red wine.
 
Casanova. We can’t fight biology. Everyone has a crush now and then, and as long as we’re smart and treat people with respect, it can be harmless. But alcohol never helped anyone be reasonable. A drink or two can blur boundaries, and one more can push you across them. Two consenting adults can do whatever they like, but if you plan on asking someone to sleep with you, be certain they’ll say yes. If you’re not sure, then walk away. You’ll spare yourselves a year's worth of embarrassment.
 
Remember—a business association holiday party isn’t exactly work, but it’s not kicking back at home, either. So relax, laugh, and have a drink. Talk about sports, or your kids, or why you've sworn off dancing. Sometimes a human face is the best calling card for your business.
What Do You Think? (2)
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Insider Blogs

Ellen Thompson GM Pulls Ads From Facebook written by Ellen Thompson
On Tuesday, General Motors pulled its ads from Facebook.   The auto giant had a $10 million ad buy on the site, a tiny fraction of GM's $4 billion global ad budget; but after determining their ads had little impact, they walked away from pai ...   (Read More)

Ellen Thompson Google Places Debuts New Features written by Ellen Thompson
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 - Search your ...   (Read More)

Ellen Thompson 3.6% of Social Media Comments are Apartment Leads written by Ellen Thompson
For two months, we’ve been categorizing every social media comment and mention for clients that use our content moderation services. During that time, we categorized over 3500 users comments and have calculated our preliminary findings. ...   (Read More)

Ellen Thompson Facebook Breaks 900 Million Users written by Ellen Thompson
By Justin Sherin In documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in advance of its initial public offering, Facebook revealed that it now has 901 million monthly active users, compared with 680 million just a year ago. The d ...   (Read More)

Ellen Thompson Breaking News: Responding to Criticism, Pinterest Changes Te ... written by Ellen Thompson
I recently posted about a clause in Pinterest's Terms of Use that allowed the service to sell your content. Last week Pinterest announced that the clause has been removed, saying that 'selling content was never our intention.' However, the updated ...   (Read More)

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