Mike Brewer's Blog

I am sure everyone has heard or read the buzz about Google's latest offering, Google+. Call it the first real challenge to Facebook's rein or call it Google's next flop [Read: Google Wave]; I think it has a shot to make a dent in the social media universe and thus the multifamily space. But, it’s way too early to speculate an end game.

Thanks to an invite from Mark Juleen, I've had the opportunity to play around with Google+ for the past four of five days and I must admit I like it. On the surface it seems like a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook with a few additional touches. It doesn't have great aesthetics but maybe that is part of the appeal. I do like simple, clean and easy. 

One key differentiator is the ability to segment the various audiences you speak to with ease. Be it family, friends, co-workers, multifamily maniacs, biker buddies, consultants, thought leaders and the list goes on and on. You simply drag and or toggle them into Circles that you can give specific names to. It seems to add a level of security that FB makes you work for.  It also does a good job of recommending people that you might want to connect with or Circle up with you will, a feature I think will get better over time with more users and more personal data points.

You will hear it again and again in 2010 – what started out as a simple and subtle tap on the window has become a crashing of such proportions that you can not ignore it anymore. Business as we know it has changed and like it or not social mediums are here to stay. The question for the coming year is, will you embrace change [embrace engagement] or will you be comfortable with irrelevance? Harvard Business Publishing posted a story titled: The Uber-Connected Organization: A Mandate for 2010 In it, Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd bring notice to a number of companies embracing business as it relates to social media. They really drill home the point of access and I would like to expand on that in the context of the apartment industry.

Apartment employees access to social media

As a preface to my original post over at mbrewergroup.com - I am by no means implying not to disclose price if your new neighbor asks for it. By all means give it up but get hyper-local first...

Don't tell prospects and residents how much your apartments are - tell them how much you are moved by the neighborhood.

 

Looking back

 Back in October of 2007 we wrote about participating in the conversation via rating sites and even suggested incorporating a mechanism into your property management website to make it easier. Here is a bit of a revised excerpt from that post;

 "If you are still of the mind that dismisses the value of sites like apartmentratings.com, listen up. The feedback outlined in the brief above [Deloitte] should move you to action as soon as possible. I truly think we should all open up our company websites to include a consumer and resident feedback mechanism. Instead of internal score keeping, make it completely transparent. My only suggesting is that you have an editor just for the sake of carving out names and character attacks as we know they will come despite our best efforts. Even with that in mind you have to be courageous enough to leave the meat and more importantly act on it."

 Two years later

 Here we are nearly two years later in the midst of the conversation marketing buzz and while a good many of us are participating there is still a hesitancy to move that conversation to our websites. Even those that have don't really have a great deal of participation in terms of consumers reviewing them.

What is the difference that makes a difference when it comes to your multifamily management brand? The standard textbook answer might include words like awareness, trust, regard or esteem. Settle there however and you miss the key ingredient. Energy.

It’s All About Energy

John Gerzema and Ed Lebar discuss energy and what it means to a brand in their book:  The Brand Bubble. In chapter two they use a poignant quote from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall to set the stage for the difference that energy makes to a brand “A relationship, I think, is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And what I think we got on our hands is a dead shark.”

Why is Energy Important

Read the following tweet this morning [RT @[xyz] @[abc] Suggest that you give away a free Flip to every prospect/resident that creates a [management company] Experience Video, Beats  free rent] - it really got me thinking.

I have read both sides of this issue and have taken the position that if you disclose that you are paying for and or giving something away in exchange for an endorsement then frankly it's okay. It really comes down to what is in the eye of the beholder.  And, I think, at the end of the day, if a person really wants a product/experience they will go and get it/have it despite the persons of influence in their lives. They may read and listen but if they want it - they want it, period. 

Microsoft debuted a new search engine on May 28, 2009 called Bing. Head on over and Bing yourself, your company and or your apartment community. You might be surprised by the results.

Dubbed the decision engine, Bing is suggested to help users search the web more intelligently. It does so by grouping or organizing search results according to users preferences. You can learn more about Bing by watching this informative video.

Can you imagine a service that combines email, instant-messaging and document sharing? Well now you don't have to;  Google Unveils a Conversation Service called Wave - WSJ.com. This struck me as I am currently working on a piece that is relative to the next generation of the Internet; Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web and in my opinion this speaks directly to it.

This is a fascinating topic in that it really boils down to search engine sites racing to organize web content around a set of standards - standards that would ultimately give meaning to web pages. Meaning so precise that any search term you typed in would yield the exact person, place, thing or in our case apartment that you were looking for. Imagine searching for a $612 second floor one bedroom apartment facing Forest Park in Central West End of St. Louis and boom you get it. Add the words; near someone I know and boom you find one right next to one of your Facebook friends. Google's Wave is for all intents and purposes a way to organize conversations in such a way that they have a more precise meaning to the end user. How might something like this be useful in our space?

Using Wave we could generate a message on the topic of a recently vacated apartment home and the need for a new resident. We could then send it out to our permission based user set [read: resident evangelists]. Maybe we tie an incentive to it or maybe we don't. The point is the evangelist would then go to work finding their next neighbor all the while content is being organized. Each time that happens Wave gets smarter and each time the end user gets a richer experience in yielding exactly what they search for. And, over time the scenario above becomes more realistic. It all makes my spin. You think social media is fun? The Semantic web will bring a whole new meaning to apartment marketing. And, just when you think you can't take anymore the Web in things will be in full force.

And, with that I must hit the publish button as it is 2:33AM and I have a big day planned with my kids.

Have a famous weekend.

M

Tom Peters has carved out a very unique niche in the business consulting arena and rightfully so. His ideas, dating back 25+ years are as relevant today as they were back then. Many of them are still cutting the edge that we all innately yearn for. Over this Mother’s Day weekend I managed to read a post that really hit home in a simple but important kind of way. The following is an excerpt from the blog titled: Wrong Answer!

When I got back from the field, covered with mud (it was rainy season), I was sent directly to the Commandant with no time to change into a respectable uniform—a great embarrassment. General Chapman engaged in all of about 15 seconds of chitchat, and having done his duty to my aunt, sent me on my way. As I was literally walking out of his temporary field office, he summoned me back, and said, out of the blue, “Tom, are you taking care of your men?” (I had a little detachment, about 20 guys as I recall, doing the work described before.)

 

I received the following message on 4.20.9 from a person I would consider a treasured mentor in my life;

Subject: So I'm worried about you

I would like you to read "The Mindful Brain" by a guy named Siegel.  I think you are dis-attuning yourself to a deeper level of awareness and consciousness with this twitter/30 second thought process/Facebook life.  These are cruise ship recipes, not intimate meals where the provenance of your food is known.  This must seem so contrary on my part to say and I surmise you think your are enjoying the height of a social media experience.  Maybe so but I say this only with concern for you.  Take stock, my friend, and when you do be sure you still have long walks and ample period for reflection.  If you can do that and do this, more power to you. [End]