Toni Blake's Blog

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."

~ Mother Teresa

Foursquare just announce the first check-in from NASA Explore Badge was received by Commander Douglas H. Wheelock of Expedition 25. He checked in using Foursquare at the International Space Station unlocking the NASA Explorer badge in the process. Checking-in using Foursquare's mobile site from the space station venue the commander received the following message.,  "You are now 220 miles above Earth traveling at 17,500 mph and unlocked the NASA Explorer Badge! Show this badge and get a free scoop of astronaut ice cream." To make an even bigger social media statement -  he then tweeted his success!

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/oct/HQ_10-273_Foursquare.html

http://theweek.com/article/index/208384/is-apple-planning-to-buy-facebook

Today I have had an epiphany. Several things happened that made me see the light.  First, SocialTimes.com reported that 71%  of tweets do not get a single reply. I have often wondered why my tweets drifted off into thin air, like I was only tweeting into the wind. I’m not big on tweeting, but others are, so I do it to stay cool. :) I have followers, so often I tweet out of “Twitter guilt”! I also realized today that 2 people are following me on Slideshare. REALLY - you can follow people on slideshare. Today I also learned that you can "check in" to local businesses on Yelp and become a Duke! That's right - I was really proud to be the Mayor until I leaned my buddy was a Duke! I am working to build friends on MFI, Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare and everywhere I look is my profile! I just think I am at the end of my preverbal social media rope.

So, to all my friends. I apologize for all the request, updates, unnecessary tweets, group invitations, check ins, shouts and status updates. It’s ok if you don’t follow, lead, comment or share, I am just really happy to be your friend. I apologize if you have felt obligated to follow me because I quote Elvis (like I did last week on Facebook). If you are my friend and I hope you are, I would like to publicly apologize for the expectations of social media. I will try to reduce my expectations, stop looking at numbers and focus on the quality, love, life and great opportunities we have to stay connected. I really do feel so blessed to have so many friends. I hope you will forgive me for my zealous passion for social media, competitive nature and exploration of all that is possible. I will continue to share, post, comment, check in, shout, upload and follow, it’s just ok if you don’t jump on my bandwagon! If you show up - I will see it as a gift - not an obligation!

So, I guess in closing I will just say . . . I am sorry!

Foursquare's gorilla marketing has turned geotagging into marketing juice for local businesses. More than 3 million people have become active players on Foursquare, with over 20% pushing their "check ins" to their Facebook page and Twitter accounts. This is one of the most powerful "local" social media tools available. I downloaded Foursquare to my iPhone and have really gotten caught up in the game. I find that it has awakened the sleeping "girl-scout" in me. It has been a long time since I have earned a badge and I was quite thrilled when I did!

Today you can go to Skype.com and download FREE application to turn your laptop or desktop into a Video Call center, plus the call is FREE through the internet. Talk Face-to-Face with your regional, president, mother, sister and friends on Skype. You can read your little girl a bedtime story from your hotel room on the road, Doug and I often share dinner together on Skype and enjoy real-time conversations. I took this screen shot not to long ago. Doug Skyped American Idol on one computer and then set up an Ichat with me on the other so we could watch Idol Gives Back together. He made a sandwich and I ordered room service and we were online for free for a couple of hours enjoying a meal and TV. This is an amazing tool and I am having a BALL!!!!  I am excited to begin to use this program to share training, inspiration, motivation and ideas with my clients and industry professionals.

I had a Fan on America's Top Apartment Leasing Best Practices ask for an idea that would incorporate a Bingo theme into a leasing incentive!!! After a little help from Google I created the fun idea of hiding Bingo balls throughout the tour route, clubhouse, amenity areas, and mini-modle! Each time they find a new ball they are one step closer to winning! I found the balls for only $17.99 for a Wooden 7/8" diameter with burned in numbers that won't rub off!

Then I found bingo game supplies for less than $20 that includes 1000 playing cards from us-bingo.com! This looks really cheap and easy! Hide & Go Seek Apartment BINGO - check out your new apartment & community to WIN!!!! I am cracking myself up today!!!!! :  )

Facebook has created a new page type called a Community Page. Just because it was launched on April 1st, don't be fooled by the language to think that it is the right type of page for your apartment community. When you click on "Create a Page" you will now see the option of the "Community Page to the right. This is NOT what you want to build. Your business fan page should be built by selecting "Create a page for a - local business" seen on the left side of the page.

Community page are for "causes" and groups of people passionate about one thing. This is Facebook's answer to the  "unofficial" pages.  Facebook has announced that these types of pages will be administered by the Facebook community.  You can read more at AllFacebook.com and Mashables.com. People have created pages for a variety of topics. You can check out some of the examples like "I don't care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia - it has 5.82 million fans. 

It seems that most companies are still buying URLs that promote themselves. Even though many of us have read "the cluetrain manifesto" and are working hard to use our "human voice" in business. Many of the best resident oriented URLs are still ripe for the picking. If we are going to be "found" in the new marketing world, the content must attracts renters when they are looking (Googling) for answers and information that mattes to them. While in Canada I searched for the availability of the follow URLs and found everything I could think of AVAILABLE! 

I just heard that $200,000.00 was paid for Multifamily.com. How valuable will the best resident oriented  site names be once everyone begins moving in this direction? If I had a ton of cash laying around, I think I would pick up a few of these and see what happens.