When was the last time you heard a really good story? I’m talking about one that absolutely captivated you, one that evoked genuine emotion, or one that made you really think or question something. Storytelling is an extricable part of almost every culture in the world, and, in most societies, verbal artistry is revered because entertainment is a high value experience, despite the intangible nature of it.
We chatted with FPI Management’s Jill McNiesh, Social Media & Reputation Manager for the Pacific Northwest, and asked her for 5 things a property can do to directly and positively impact their online reputation management efforts.
While autumn brings beautiful colors to the foliage on our properties, it also ushers in some new opportunities to make a unique impression, particularly around Halloween! Pumpkins are prime this time of year, and they can make a festive addition to your already great curb appeal. Most properties will put out an iconic Jack-o-Lantern, but here are some ideas to take pumpkins beyond the usual your property this year:
Make the most of your R&R subscription with Our Books and Magazines!
Many marketing/training directors are using our books and copies of Rent & Retain Magazine as training manuals for their monthly meetings.
Super easy to implement, just bring copies of the books and magazines to your next meeting (or do it via email) and ask managers to choose an idea they’ll implement right away.
(Part one of a two-part series)
You get back what you send out.
I am a very “up” person and people frequently ask me how I maintain my enthusiasm. I do several things, including reading an average of three hours each day for the past 26 years. One of the fun things I do is to give people my special greeting. Whether it’s eight o’clock in the morning or eight o’clock at night, I always try to greet others before they have a chance to speak to me.
How is your occupancy these days? A New Year brings new opportunities to raise rents, retain more residents, increase traffic, and close more leases. But how many leases are you really closing? Are you closing 50% of your prospect traffic…25%?… even less? Are the challenges of increasing costs, online reputation, and market competition driving your closing ratio down? It doesn’t have to be that way. Raise your closing percentage back to amazing with these Take5 closing tips.
There is a fantastic old Saturday Night Live skit that centers around the need for more cowbell in the Blue Oyster Cult song, Don’t Fear the Reaper. “Fellas,” says a brilliant Christopher Walken, “I’m tellin’ you, you’re gonna’ want that cowbell.”
It’s true folks. You’re gonna’ want that cowbell. Those little things that you do that make your community stand apart – chilled towels in the fitness center, package delivery, truly great resident events, an active and interactive Facebook page – they’re as signature to you as the overindulgent cowbell beat is to Don’t Fear the Reaper.
Pop culture is a powerful ally in marketing, but all too often we try to tug on the most common cultural thread that we can grasp, only to find that our carefully woven marketing plans unravel when wrapped around the lowest common denominator of resident. While this type of broad shotgun approach has been shown to work, it is hardly what could be considered a targeted approach. Tightening in our marketing sights will help us achieve a higher rate of success – this isn’t a case of a good idea versus a bad idea, but rather a good idea versus a better idea!
The most important thing to consider with Pinterest is how people use the site. It’s virtual window shopping, so anything you do on Pinterest needs to center around extremely strong visuals — the goal is to capture someone’s attention and draw them into your “storefront” (click through to your website).
Apartment companies can create their own Pinterest pages (business.pinterest.com), but they should also be thinking about how they can create their own “pin-worthy” visuals. What can you showcase on your website that looks so great that your visitors might want to pin it to one of their boards?
We love companies that spend time on training and professional development, but we also know that some companies just don’t have those resources quite yet. We’d like to help you with that by continuing with Rent & Retain’s Book Club! In each edition of Rent & Retain, we’ll be posting three books, one for each month in the quarter, which we think are great professional development reads for people in the property management industry. Join us in reading these books, and tell us what you think of them on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rentandretain during our book post each month. We want to know what was useful to you, what good ideas you found, or what behaviors that month’s book inspired you to change or begin. Did you agree with the author or not? Was it a good read? We want to hear from you!
