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@aptguide "ApartmentGuide.com" Shot Itself in the Foot: Brand dilution w/FB feed #multifamily #aptchat

ApartmentGuide.com recently launched its new search feed at www.Facebook.com/aptguide. While I commend them for creating a pretty FBML page they claim is a great value-add, I have to disagree from a strategic development outlook. I have posted this blog commentary elsewhere, but I believe it warrants a blog post as ApartmentGuide.com will be a lithmus test on the demise of a great brand because it too quickly jumped into what it thought was strategic. So, with that being said, from a strategic development perspective to me it appears that they just shot themselves in the foot. The reason? Well, they have immediately diluted the brand. Some would argue differently and I look forward to their discussion, but let's review the facts. 

ApartmentGuide, an internet listing site (ILS) serves its customers, the property management companies that buy ad space to showcase their listings, by ensuring that this portal remains THE source, THE clearinghouse to all things related to apartment rentals. They sell the ad space at a premium because they know that their marketing dollars spent on pushing the apartmentguide.com brand and site to prospective renters guarantees strong volumes of visitors that will review these listings. Because they have now created a competing mini-feed, they have created a fracture in their brand and given an opportunity to confuse the prospective renter who will potentially never visit the actual site thus preventing paid apartment listings from being seen. So, the dollar that a property management company has spent has been inversely affected, thereby creating a higher cost/rental than what was earlier realized. 

So, how can ApartmentGuide.com fix the situation? To stop thinking of the feed as a value-add and immediately charge apartment companies a premium to feature their apartments on the feed. They make ancillary income, apartment companies feel more social and that they are doing what they can to use these tools to their best ability and those that don't want to pay for the service are still benefitted with a strong rental source: ApartmentGuide.com (not www.facebook.com/aptguide [which is also a confusing vanity url but can be because the name was potentially taken]).

 
Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
 
Carmen Krushas
Fetch Plus, Inc.

Filed under  //  apartment marketing   apartmentguide.com   fetch plus   www.facebook.com/aptguide   www.fetchplus.com   www.twitter.com/aptguide  
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Corporate Outreach #AptChat The nitty and the gritty in nine easy steps

Okay Apartment Peeps. Here are some additional corporate outreach steps to take that you can quickly put into place to get a solid program running at your community. How do I know that they work? Because I've worked them time and time again and I can promise you, set up the foundation right and you will run for miles without the blisters associated with such an adventure.

  1. First, before you start you have to get buy-in from your head office that the return from spending time on the field meeting with groups to promote and lease your apartments is more resourceful than spending time doing other things that can produce a rental. 
  2. Outreach is a hybrid of sorts. You can make a splash and generate solid leads right away when you break your outreach groups into levels of interest and buy-in, but it is always a marathon and you have to stay committed to it and be continuous.
  3. Outreach requires a schedule and a plan. Do not send leasing associates out on the field without the proper training. Explain to them that when they schedule one appointment, they've actually scheduled three. The before the appointment cold-call walk-in to neighboring business and the post appointment cold-call walk-in to neighboring business meeting.
  4. Outreach requires a solid marketing program with marketing collateral.
  5. Segmentation of marketing collateral (and how to train a leasing associate on conversation with groups) is key. Speak the language of who wants what from you. You know what you from them, now listen and speak to what they want from you.
  6. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.
  7. Authenticity is key. It speaks volumes over any gift or chotsky that is left behind (though those memory points reinforce your genuine approach and sincerity)
  8. Ingratiate yourself with your community. Know it and connect your groups with one another (this happens once you build your network). They will respect and admire you for your willingness to connect them with others and vice versa.
  9. Make sure that your office has a supporter/champion of those that are on the ground gum shoeing on what can be a very profitable way to build and maintain your occupancy.

Thanks,
Carmen Krushas
Fetch Plus, Inc.

Filed under  //  apartment marketing  
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What happens when we seek only traffic?

There comes a time when consultants need a good correcting. And that time happens to be now. I have no regrets for these statements as I don't speak to the consultants. This post is directed squarely for the business owner seeking some sort of clarity from the hoopla of social media.  First, I am very tired of reading the words "engagement", "conversations", "evangelist" and  "monitor" as being the miracle drugs for all things marketing via social media. If you can't follow up those words with a sentence that makes sense to the business person looking to make a return that is greater than the amount of resources put in, then please sit down, mind your manners and let others explain.
 
So here it goes. Yes, engagement is smart. Yes, having conversations is smart.  Yes, evangelists are smart and yes, monitoring CAN be smart.  But what is considered productive engagement? Or for that matter productive conversation? As a business owner, who happens to build social media applications for our clients (and not just harp the same story like the paid consultants who happen to have easily found their flavor of the day for free on Mashable, Social Media Today, WOMMA, and the many countless other sites and blogs) I know that analytics get quickly skewed by their own reporting. 
 
For example, take my blog. The moment I post I can go back and see the page views. Guess what, my blog DID NOT get 18 page views in less than 30 seconds. How do I know? I spoke directly to Garry Tan, the developer of the platform and he informed me that the crawlers were responsible for the immediate page view. I also know that if I log out of my account and click onto my blog, that the IP is not marked, and it will continuously mark the site as viewed over and over again. So, traffic analytics are not as reliable as a business person would want to think. Second, what about increasing traffic to the site? Does that always equal more transactions? Empirically, yes it does. It is a positive correlation, but a good statistician doesn't study just correlational reseach, but includes experimental research, which takes into accounts the many variables to such empirical statistics. So, to dig deeper, we need to define what the real variables are. What are your bounce rates from each of the sources to your "home page"? What was the initial cost associated with that source (including human capital)? Of the remaining that did not bounce, what was the percentage that drilled into further interior pages to the point of conversion? If you can associate your "engagement" and track it through these questions (and some others apart from these), coupled with seeing the cost associated with the effort hitting at or below your other cost/traffic and cost/sale, then you have done your job effectively. You "did" your job. Did you strike a home run? Maybe, but you may be surprised that the amount of human capital used doesn't hit the same targets had you expensed that resource elsewhere.
 
Social media has us worried about our "conversations" as well. I've read everything from "don't sell" to "talk about things other than your product or service". Um, hello? That's great for small talk, but how often do you go to your customer and devote an hour of their time talking about cooking salmon? Maybe you can get away with that EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE...but not once a week (or even every other day). To have someone click onto your website for that purpose is simply erroneous. I find that the redemption rate from such effort is nominal and counter to what was inputted. Seriously, why would you want someone to click onto your website to get a recipe? Now, if you were a restaurant that had the chef hosting a weekly cooking series and this was one of the dishes being plated, then yes. I could even see the stretch of having a property management team hosting a cooking class from one of their apartments to show off the ease of cooking in their apartment kitchen as this provides a unique perspective of living in the apartment. But, for the property management company conducting such a program, they must absolutely tie that into a strategic plan that is not to just demonstrate how to cook salmon, but why cooking from their style of kitchen is a value proposition over their competitors. 
 
Social media is both a splash and a marathon. Like any good marathon runner, you don't just go out and start running for the hell of it, you set out with a focused plan of running the marathon along with wearing the best shoes meant to run those miles. Make sure your social media is run in similar fashion.
 
 

Filed under  //  BAD social media techniques   Social Media Strategies   attribution marketing   fetch plus   social media communications  
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What a great university

via northcentralcollege.edu

This is a great university.

Filed under  //  naperville  
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The scope of location-based social media

We, as a company, are very excited by the future of location-based social media. We are first careful not to exploit a person's right to location privacy. Instead, we always build from a subscriber perspective and think of ways that they would want to interact with location-based applications. Does location-based applications only equal geo-tagging and showcasing your current location? Well, far from it. What it does mean, from a broader perspective, is the means for a subscriber to better interact with their specific buying/content wants/needs they seek. Location-based social media's scope reaches far more than current novelty applications. It is equally effective for B2B as it is for B2C. In the next few weeks we will be launching two applications that take a twist to the current location-based social media model. One application is built for B2B/B2C use on Twitter, whereas the secondary is built for a C2B/B2C (a fundamental shift is to a consumer to business model, more on that topic later) enhanced online/mobile location-based application.

We look forward to each of these launches and will see how ready the future is to such new applications.

Filed under  //  BAD social media techniques   Social Media Strategies   fetch plus   geo-tagging   location based social media   social media advertising   social media communications  
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We're Hiring: Mobile Media Sales Manager NYC-based position

Fetch Plus, in partnership with AMC, Inc., is hiring a Sales Manager based out of our NY office. The role requires a strong verifiable track record in sales management with a skill set that is versed in mobile media applications and advertising sales. Compensation ranges between $72K-$98K. We look to hire immediately with interviews starting Wednesday, March 27, 2010.

Requirements:

  • Verifiable track record of recent success achieving sales goals in a high performing sales environment; please be prepared to share documentation of past performance 
  • 5-7 years of consultative sales experience with a strong preference for online advertising, mobile media or technical sales experience
  • Excellent relationship building skills; ability to build and manage relationships at all levels across an organization, including senior leadership
  • Ability to maximize revenue with the ability to develop and nurture new prospects and convert at a rate that exceeds current benchmarks.
  • Expertise with the strategic development of an under-performing or untapped territory a plus
  • Ability to self-manage; excellent time management skills and a strong work ethic
  • Strong professional skills; ability to work independently and in teams
  • Ability to gumshoe it. -Ability to deal with a high-stress, fast moving environment. The queasy and squeamish will not cut it.
  • Ability to really smile because you love coming to work every day. 
  • A bachelors degree at a minimum is required. 

Should you be selected for an interview please be prepared to have a game plan in hand prior to the initial person-to-person interview. We will prepare you with an overview of our current needs, to help you devise the right mode of attack. Serious inquiries only. A complete background check is required. Please send resumes to carmen@fetchplus.com for consideration.

Thank you!

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What I've learned from Twitter

Oh Twitter, how you've taught me the following:


  1. That I adore and hate the use of 140 characters
  2. That my presence has an impact (hello blog views)
  3. That my presence has little significance (hello [and good bye] fake followers)
  4. That my presence keeps me connected to people I want to connect with from around the corner to the other ends of the earth.
  5. That my clients have seen the value of the space via new transactions that are attributed to their campaigns
  6. That many charlatans exist devising and scheming up new ways to bill clients
  7. That innovation can exist from a novelty and can potentially help business grow

I could go on, but seven seemed like a good number to end it on. Maybe I should have ended it on point 140. I don't think I'm clever enough to concoct 140 lessons, so I will leave that to the charlatans instead.

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Social Media: a revolutionary ethos

I was greatly inspired by a dream that I had this morning, which I will share (although I already shared with another):

"I awoke from a dream that I was watching some Greek demigods contemplate ethics and word choice. They sat for years in the same wooden chairs on this one cloud and the clouds/surroundings modernized while they just grew old. And they never realized until the point that the elder, who was close to dying, finally made his point. But they were indifferent  to the advances bc they were so engrossed in the discussion. And they were flung to reality and their lives ended. But the case in point was their reality was not on their surroundings, which advanced and could have been great had they experienced it. Their reality was on them and their search for truth between them." 

Which brings me to this point...social media will continue to be the modernization of our surroundings. But, we will never be great because of it. Instead, greatness comes from the undivided attention we give to one another in this rare renaissance of a communication shift. With that said, please stop harping social media for its grandeur. Instead, thank it for giving you the capability to engross yourself in singular and meaningful conversations. And start having those without the world knowing them.

As Socrates wrote, "In the world of knowledge the idea of the good appears last of all, and is seen only with effort."

Thanks and I hope you appreciate my thoughts on the matter (and my dream, too).

Carmen B. Krushas

Filed under  //  BAD social media techniques   Social Media Strategies   carmen krushas   david john cleveland hodge   fetch plus   social philosophy  
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Social Media and MF/ RE Fair Housing Compliance

So like most people in all industries, multifamily and RE execs are enamored by social media. They love it for being able to connect with current and future residents. What they forget though is the need to comply with fair housing. Fair housing and social media can mix, but policies must be developed and upheld from the top down to ensure that all protected classes are treated equal. I've reviewed a number of MF/RE social media networks and found breaks in fair housing. To point out just a few...

  1. The easiest (and dumbest) mistake made when breaking fair housing is improperly setting up networks as closed networks. For example, a community sets up a Facebook friend profile or a closed group on behalf of the community rather than a public page. If an African American were to request friendship or admittance into that profile or group and admittance wasn't granted either from oversight or neglect, yet a non-protected class was admitted, well the community has broken fair housing.
  2. If a community or PM company monitors the space and doesn't properly train the team to engage in a way that is equal to those being monitored, well then the community has potentially broken fair housing laws.
  3. If a community scrapes information on certain audiences without consideration of fair housing, then the community has potentially violated in fair housing.
The list goes on and the capabilities of breaking fair housing laws are real. Please ensure that you continuously train your teams on fair housing (both on and off the social space). Ensure that you have policies established on how to protect all classes when conducting business and address breaks in fair housing promptly should such a situation occur.

Filed under  //  Social Media Strategies   social media fair housing   social media property management  
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Case Study 4: Where are you on the social media curve?

It's been a fun ride for a bunch of people trying to reinvent themselves through social media. Everyone from PR professionals to graphic designers are sounding pretty remarkable to many in this new media. I find it humorous and at the same time short-sided. Why? Because social media isn't anything new. People have been social for as long as we've craved power and sought a stake or an interest in something. We align ourselves with others to strengthen our cause or position on items we find important, and we hope others will strengthen that case. I find that to be common sense business social media. Instead, as the person responsible for my company's overall growth, I look to see how the macro-level methods level of communication translate into successful dialogues between even the largest brands to the individual, and more importantly vice versa. We call that leveling the playing field. And so, we as a company are guiding ourselves on a foundation centered on how to develop technologies to steer that sort of interaction. 

We are not talking about simply designing applications and programs built for better user experiences. We are talking about developing applications that really do improve the brand/customer interaction for the sake of bettering the response from the customer. First, the customer only becomes a customer when they want to be a customer. Never before. So, we know that by the time we get a customer to be a customer that we have to create compelling reasons through content controlled programs to engage that customer. 

We have two applications on the verge of going live in very controlled environments. These are not just social programs, though we've built what looks to be a capped viral loop into one of the programs, but they're more about leveling the playing field. They each take advantage of the social space capabilities and offers the end user the functions to deliver and receive more from the space. The noise is cut, the focus is user-centric and the results will be (hopefully) beautiful. 

So, for those of you preaching social media. Well, good for you. But better are those that preach what's ahead of the curve.

Anyway, enjoy your tweets and your status updates and everything else you do that's social.

Carmen Krushas

Filed under  //  prsnaps.com   social media   social media case study  
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