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“Professionally Managed by…” What does THAT mean?

Dec 28th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
2 comments

Recently, a close friend of mine asked me, “what does professionalism mean to you & how does it pertain to our apartment industry? I want our company to be more ‘professional’ and I want to better understand what that means.” THIS – from one of the smartest most professional people I know? I took the question seriously.

My first attempt: Duh! Professional is… you know, someone who conducts business in a professional manner – you know – a professional!! It’s one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot, but what does it REALLY mean?

I pondered some more and I realized it was a VERY relevant question to our apartment/property management/real estate development industry. There are numerous property management companies out there:  from the biggest of big – the HUGE REITS, to the smallest of small – the “mom & pop” duplexes managed by (you guessed it,) ”mom & pop.” How do we define “professional” and “professionalism” in an industry that is so wide? And, maybe more importantly, you are wondering – why would we want to? And who cares?

YOU SHOULD care. It matters to your customer. It matters to your clients. It matters to your existing and prospective employees. It is your reputation. It matters to the industry as a whole, as it is those few “unprofessional” landlords that make the rest of us look like ogres. If you claim to be “Professionally managed by ABC Management Company,“ what exactly does THAT mean?

The first image that popped into my mind when the word “professional” is mentioned is men and women in suits. But just wearing a suit doesn’t mean you are professional. There are plenty of unprofessional things done in suits these days! 

Then I thought about professional athletes – these guys do NOT wear suits at all! YET, they are definitely professional athletes nonetheless. So maybe, being “professional” means your talent is worth a lot. Then my thoughts wandered to McDonald’s – they serve burgers. The burgers are cheap. It doesn’t take talent to make cheap burgers. BUT, McDonald’s is definitely a professional organization – and a very successful one too! Not only do they sell cheap burgers where no talent is required to make the burgers, they don’t wear suits. Suits. NFL. McDonald’s.

 What did these have in common that could help me to define professionalism and how does it pertain to the apartment industry?

 It finally dawned on me, what all these had in common, and why it should matter to you:

 1.) Professionalism is all about expectations and standards. As an organization, one of the best things you can do for yourself, your clients, your employees, AND your reputation, is to set a standard. The NFL has standards for their athletes – and each team has its own standards. Everyone is expected to play at or above those standards. For McDonald’s, the standard is a very small narrow window of what the customer can expect from the restaurant, the food, and the service. Customers expect their experience to be the same or very similar at every McDonald’s whether it is a McDonald’s in downtown LA or in suburbia: It’s a McDonald’s burger. Having standards can contribute positively to your customer experience. If customers know what to expect, and they receive it (whatever THAT standard is that you’ve set) this results in a positive experience. McDonald’s has a standard, and their customers know what to expect from them. A person wanting a gourmet steak burger is not going to wander into McDonald’s and then become disappointed at the burger experience.

 What is the standard at your property or management company? Do you customers, vendors, and employees know what to expect? You have the ability to set those expectations – and more importantly increase the likelihood that the customer experience is positive – by setting realistic expectations that you have specifically trained your employees to attain.

 2.) So then, what’s up with the suits? I realized that it wasn’t about the SUITS as much as what the suits represent – it represents an image. In the NFL, each team has a uniform – which they all wear proudly. At McDonald’s – there is a uniform that serves a dual purpose – to project a consistent image of McDonald’s as well as to provide clothing that can be abused in a restaurant setting and still fit into the McDonald’s image. Does your image project “Professionally managed by ABC Apartments?” or does it say, “the uniform stinks, I hate this job, and I don’t care enough about my job to care how I look?” What image are you portraying, and does it fit into the standards that you set in #1 above?

 3.) Lastly, for an organization or a site to be “professional,” the standards of conduct and the “professional” image need to apply to everyone. – Whether it is consistency in behavior, or consistency in image, or consistency in the treatment of staff, or consistency of how residents are treated, – professional in an organization is as much about consistency as it is about standards and image. I’m not advocating that you require your maintenance staff to wear suits. What I AM advocating is there is consistency in the messages that you send. Everyone on your team needs to have the same consistent (hopefully high) level of customer service that your residents can come to expect out of their “professionally managed” apartment building.

 Is your apartment community “Professionally managed by … ” What does this mean to you?

 Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

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Image provided by Jesse Draper on Flickr through creative commons license.

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TWEET TWEET: Twitter for Business Users and Apartment Marketers

Dec 23rd, 2009
by daisynguyen.
11 comments

I’ve been following the whole TWITTER phenomenon very closely. At first, I was VERY confused. Who would use twitter and why? More importantly, why would I use twitter, and what would I tweet? After months of following tweeters, tweeting, searching tweets, reading tweets, re-tweeting, something dawned on me: Not all twitter users are created equal! In order to best understand and utilize twitter, I had to decide what kind of twitter user I was or wanted to be.

Most twitter users fell in the following 4 categories:

Tweeters – These guys have something to say, and they are out there sharing IT with the world, or at least, the twitterverse. In the real world, these would be your authors, writers, politicians, radio personalities, teachers, educators, speakers, advocates, socialites, personalities, class clowns, etc. Instead of a book, magazine, stage, forum, class, radio, soapbox, etc. – they use twitter to get their message out.

Followers – are exactly that. They follow the tweeters. They are the audience. In the real world, these would be readers, subscribers, students, supporters, etc. In the twitterverse, there is more opportunity to INTERACT with their tweeters than in the real world. AND, almost more importantly, that INTERACTION is shared with all fellow followers AND the twitterverse.

These are the TOP 2 types of twitter users. In the business world, and in our multi-family apartment industry, the following 2 lesser known types are KEY to marketing and sales:

Listeners – these are not just followers – these twitter users are out there listening for very specific topics or trends. In the apartment industry, we must learn to listen on twitter. Find out what our customers, clients, competitors are saying – especially what they are saying about our apartment communities, our markets, and our competitors! That’s a LOT of listening! Listening is one of the KEY components to effective communication, and as an interactive communication tool, it PAYS to listen on twitter. Listening is akin to being in a busy restaurant and overhearing someone at the next table talking about your apartment community! Except on twitter, the next table is the entire twitterverse. Listeners who are active and respond to the needs of their customers can help in strengthening an apartment community’s brand, image or message and extending the customer service arm. You listen, you respond = YOU CARE. Now THAT’s something to tweet about!

Miners – these are the most diligent and proactive business users. These guys, not only listen for specific topics or trends, they are mining the twitterverse to FIND prospects and leads! In the real world, this would be similar to standing in a busy restaurant and hoping to hear someone mention they are looking for an apartment – being the diligent manager/leasing agent you are, you quip in and let them know that you work for an apartment community down the road and give them your card and contact info. On twitter, you don’t have to be anywhere and wait for the stars to aline to catch this conversation. You can use twitter search engines to mine for prospects and leads by searching for key words such as “apartment hunting new york,” – and then sending those prospects a direct message with a link to your property’s website.

I should mention: I don’t think mining for prospects should be an apartment community’s only marketing plan – however, there probably aren’t that many prospects out there who just happen to mention your key words “apartment hunting new youk,” but if your traffic is slow or nonexistent, being proactive and mining instead of waiting for propsects to walk in the door, might not be a bad option.

I’m still learning more and more about twitter every day, and have learned to LOVE it. Love how fast it moves, LOVE all the random and not so random things I have learned following others, listening for trends, and when it DOES happen, finding those leads.

The most active twitter users participate in all 4 categories. Everyone is focused on tweeting and following. For apartment marketers & leasors (or any business’ marketing/sales personnel for that matter!) the biggest opportunities are in listening & mining.

How have you used twitter for marketing your business, apartment community or services? What type of twitter user are you?

tweet tweet? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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How do you FEEL? Success – It's all in the details.

Dec 18th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
3 comments

Consider these 2 statements:

1.) Things happen to me. 2.) I make things happen.

A small change in a statement can make a STATEMENT! A very subtle change to the sentence, but the way you FEEL when you say sentence #1 vs sentence #2 makes a WORLD of difference.

We are all so concentrated on the BIG picture and global problems of our businesses that many times, the little details can become forgotten or lost. Everyone is worried about their vacancy rate and their cash flow. You might have 20 apartments to lease, you’re thinking about how to stretch your budget, put together a resident party and conduct employee reviews. Who would have time for the little details – especially RIGHT NOW?

But, consider this: It IS the little details that can get you from good to GREAT, it is the little details that can make you FEEL good or feel NOT so good. If a small change in a sentence can make you FEEL so different, what kind of small changes can you make in your business that can make you, your customers, your vendors, and your staff FEEL as empowered as statement#2: I MAKE THINGS HAPPEN ?

The most basic detail we are overlooking is how we feel. Take a fresh look at everything that effects your business, and ask the question, “How do I feel when I look at this?” Because if you ask that question and can find a truthful answer, how you feel may very well be how others feel when they look at you, your product, your office, your apartment community, your business.

Let’s take for example your office/leasing space. Clear your mind and stop thinking about the million of things you have to do, need to get to, or wish you could do. Instead, clear your mind and walk into the front door of your leasing office and ask yourself, “how does it make me feel?” Does it feel warm and inviting? Does it feel cluttered? Does it feel peaceful? Is it noisey?

Take a look at these three pictures of leasing offices and see how you feel about the office and desk:

PIC#1:

 If this looks like your desk, we need to talk. The good news is, some small changes can make a HUGE difference. When I look at this picture, I feel ANXIOUS, CLUTTERED, claustrophobic, disorganized, overwhelmed. What do you feel? If your office looks even remotely like this, just think how difficult it is to lease apartments when your prospect feels anxious and disorganized when sitting in your office? Additionally, they could be thinking, “If I turn in my rent check, is she going to loose it? If I have a maintenance request, will it get completed on time?”

PIC#2:

This office looks better, but only when you compare it to office #1. There is good lighting (which makes a HUGE difference on how a space FEELS), there is seating available for prospects, BUT, the seat is covered with “stuff.” When look at this picture, I feel UNWELCOMED, BUSY, confused. This person clearly knows what they are doing, as it is somewhat organized, but it makes me feel like an intruder, as I’m not sure how I fit into this setting. (Where do I sit? If I DO get to sit in the green chair, I feel like I could be disrupting this person’s “organized chaos.” If I am a resident here, I would still feel unwelcome in this office. This is not how a prospect OR resident should feel when sitting in your office.

Pic#3:

This office is the best one of the bunch. Any clutter is neatly organized in drawers or behind screened cubes. The color pallet is soothing. The lighting is good. When I look at this picture, I FEEL calm, organized, welcome. This would be a great office to ask for that sale, sign leases, meet with residents. You can’t tell from this picture, as this office is so small that we had to get into the closet to take this picture – there IS a desk that fits and feel as calming and soothing as this office wall. There are a few small details I would recommend on this office to create an even greater sense of calm and welcome – 1.) Paint the wall space between the credenza and upper cabinets the same calming blue/teal color that is in the upper cabinets. This will create a focal point away from the printer/scanner, and away from the overhead files. 2.) Hide the wireless router. It’s wireless, it should still work in a drawer or even under the credneza. 3.) Hang the art horizontally along that wall – centered between the upper cabinets and the credenza. Again, to create a calm, soothing focal point that leads the eye away from anything that can be percieved as not calm – i.e. the printer & scanner & hole punch. Just think how many apartments can get leased in this office vs #1 or #2?

Do this exercise with your models, your print ads, your curb appeal. How do these things make you FEEL when you are looking at it? However YOU feel, you can expect your prospects, residents, visitors, and vendors to feel the same way when they walk in. It’s hard to do business, conduct business, sign leases, if people feel anxious, confused or unwelcome. Make the changes necessary for your business to be successful.

If you are having a hard time clearing your mind and doing this exercise, take pictures of the space in question, and show it to your friends, co-workers, business network, and ask them how THEY feel. From there, work on making some small adjustments to get your spaces feeling calm, inviting and soothing. If all else fails, call in an expert like an interior decorator or feng shui expert. It is amazing how some inexpensive adjustments like rearranging furniture, creating focal points, creating mood with paint, hiding/organizing clutter in drawers/behind screens, etc can make you feel. This doesn’t need to be an expensive exercise by any means.

If you still don’t believe me, repeat these statements again:

1.) Things happen to me.

2.) I make things happen.

How do you feel? What will you choose? Make something happen TODAY!

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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Leasing: 10 Steps From SAD to RAD!

Dec 6th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
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Here in Minnesota, we blame the leasing slow-down to the weather – we tell ourselves that no one wants to move when there is snow on the ground. (And who would really?)

It’s not the snow. It’s SAD. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) And it happens EVERY year, EVERY where. So let’s not get our undies in a bunch! If you can plan it right, you’ll forget about being SAD and become RAD (Rocking All Day!)

Below is RENT SODA’s 10 step program from SAD to RAD:

  1. ACCEPT that SAD does happen. Your prospects get SAD, and they don’t want to move. Your office is afflicted by SAD, and it’s hard to keep a positive attitude. First step is to ACCEPT that SAD happens!
  2. The second and MOST important of the 10 activities, is to GET OVER IT. SAD happens to good people! Let’s stop whining about how bad it is, how bad it might be, how bad it’s going to be, how bad the economy is, stop worrying, stop attracting that negativity! It’s one thing to accept it, but let’s not wallow in SAD-ness! GET OVER IT.
  3. Every time you accomplish one of these steps, cross it off your list! Now that you’re over IT, breathe in, breathe out, and print out this list to be used as your CHECKLIST.
  4. Update, refresh, renew your ILS listings: This is a great time to look at all of your ILS’s. Who are you using? What new features have they implemented that you may not have taken advantage of? Many times, our ILS vendors are responding to our feedback and requests. They are constantly changing their programs, adding features to meet our needs. TAKE ADVANTAGE of their new features. Don’t just glaze over something. Look over it, review it, assign it to someone on your team, and take advantage of all the new features your ILS has to offer!
  5. Evaluate if your current ILS’s are doing what you need. If not, change it up. Add new ones. There are new listing services coming on-line all the time. Many are extremely affordable. Some are free!
  6. Take a look at your Craig’s List adds. NO, STOP, take a REAL GOOD look at them. Some of those craig’s list ads are embarrassing. These look nothing like your brand, your image, or your other internet listings. Now is a good time to design, tweak, and change those ads to match your image and brand. Tired of posting craigslist ads? There are a TON of services that will post them for you ALL at an EXTREMELY affordable price. (Usually under $40.00/property/month!) If you need a list of providers, email me.
  7. Join a networking group in the industry. You local apartment association is a great place to start. Getting involved in a committee or group is an awesome opportunity to be around other people in the industry. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own thing and forget there’s a WHOLE world of ideas out there! Get out there and collaborate, share, and learn through your participation in a group other than your own employer. If there isn’t a local apartment association in your area, join a networking group that interests you. There are tons of marketing groups, young professionals groups, political groups, etc. You name it, there’s a group out there that you can join, share, learn from and grow with! Ask around for recommendations, and if all else fails, try http://www.meetup.com/
  8. Refocus on resident retention. During the spring/summer months, your leasing agents spend a lot of time doing call-backs to follow-up on ALL those prospects. Now that the prospect list has dwindled to a few a week, use that time to have your leasing agents call on current residents. Call them to follow-up on maintenance items, call them to say thank you, call your residents to wish them a happy new year. Whatever the reason, your residents probably don’t hear from you very often – except during an emergency or if rent is overdue. Use this opportunity to create a positive, no pressure interaction.
  9. Work on boosting your apartmentratings.com ratings. If you have had any positive interactions with any of your residents during this time, follow-up with a personal phone call (don’t just send them an email) and invite them to write a review on apartmentratings.com.
  10. Shake it up and shake SAD out. Smile, shake hands, hug someone, wave, say “Happy New Year!” dance, laugh, giggle. Shake it up and shake SAD out.

Use this SAD time wisely, and in doing so, you can turn leasing from SAD into RAD! (Rocking ALL DAY!)

Do you want to add steps to Leasing: From SAD to RAD? Post a comment or email me and add to the 10 step program.

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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Dear Apartment ILS: KISS! (Keep It Simple Silly!)

Dec 1st, 2009
by daisynguyen.
3 comments

We all have a love/hate relationship with our apartment ILS’s. We love them for everything they do, and we hate them for everything they do. Yes, I’m talking about Rent.com, ForRent.com, Apartments.com, Move.com, ApartmentFinder.com – those are my big ones, but I’m sure I’m not mentioning dozens of other ones. I’m talking about ALL of them! Don’t get me wrong, I love all my providers! They bring me traffic. Traffic is king these days. The provider’s sales agents are great – friendly, helpful, a HUGE resource to apartment communities. But, the actual services all lack something EXTREMELY important - make it easy for the prospect! KISS! (Keep-It-Simple-Silly!*) (*I hate calling anyone stupid, so have replaced stupid with silly)

A recent blog post I did and two recent discussions on Multi-Family Insiders got me to thinking:

Give the prospect what they want. In the end, they are our customer.

To read the recent RENT SODA blogpost and discussions on MFI that got me to thinking, click below:

There’s a MARKET for THAT! (my RENT SODA marketing blogpost)

Advertising on Yours (and Others’) Good Names : an MFI discussion started by Mike Whaling

The ILS Conundrum – an MFI blogpost by Mark Juleen

Why can’t the ILS model be more simple, and cater to the prospect? Make it easier?

If they get THEY want, you get more traffic, and you drive more traffix to US, and we get WE want…everyone’s happy!

I’ve been a renter before, and as a renter, or anyone looking for a service for that matter, I love it when:

  1. …someone else has aggregated all the information for me into 1 BIG list. i love LISTS! I’m lazy, I have limited amount of time, and I need to find the RIGHT apartment without spending all my free time looking for an apartment. Come on, I have a life that I want to live. Being a professional apartment shopper is not my gig!
  2. …once I’m on your site, make it simple for me to find my dream home. (i.e. if I’m looking for Minneapolis, don’t give me all the listings out in the suburbs! REALLY? Do you think that providing me with listings all the way out to Timbuktu serves me in anyway?) The more time I spend frustrated on your site, the unhappier I become.
  3. Provide me with reviews. REALLY. Amazon does it, ebay does it, Best Buy does it – everyone and their dog allows for comments and reviews. I want to hear what other people like me who have done this before think.
  4. Link me to the property. Come on, I know you want me to stay on your website so you can provide a report to those that pay you on how long the average user stays on the website. But REALLY? Once I have narrowed down the list of who I want to visit, I want to VISIT them. Make it easy for me!

What do YOUR prospects and renters want from an ILS? As a renter, what do they want to make the experience easy and enjoyable? Please leave a comment with your thoughts. In the end, we should give the customer what they want, and they’ll continue to come back for me. Let’s see if we can get the attention of the ILS’s!

Dear Apartment ILS: KISS!

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

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What should we be "facebooking?" in the Multi-Family industry?

Dec 1st, 2009
by daisynguyen.
1 comment

OK, so now that we’ve established that facebook does have a positive ROI, that we SHOULD be “doing it,” the question naturally becomes, how/what should we be “doing” on facebook?

This is PART III of a 3-part series. You can read the intro here:

Intro: 3 facebook questions everyone asks when starting out… 

OR Part I: The ROI of Facebook – the Value of Creating Community

OR Part II: Facebook-itis: Addressing the Fear of Facebook head-on!

This is a loaded question, as many times, in our industy, we are focused on leasing apartments. We naturally want to tout our advatanges and post our specials – the way our traditional marketing avenues with print advertising and ILS’s have allowed us to do. Please keep in mind that for our industry (as we have now discussed on the ROI of facebook – the Value of Creating Community), facebook CAN be a marketing tool, however, it is first and foremost a connecting and communications tool to creating and fostering community. Facebook is NOT traditional, so to be able to use it as a marketing tool, we will need to think about it non-traditionally. Throw away those ideas of just blasting what your community is about, “advertising” specials, or listing prices. To better help you determine what you should be “doing” on facebook, let’s address a couple of basic questions:

  1. Who do you think your community’s “friend” or “fan” is?
  2. Why do you think they are would accept a “friend” or “fan” request from you?
  3. What do you think your “friends” or “fans” are there to see/hear?

These are the questions you SHOULD be asking and answering to determine what SHOULD go on your facebook page. IF your facebook page consists of 100 eager prospects just waiting for a rent special so that they can finally sign a lease with you, than by all means, advertise your rent specials.

I don’t think this will be the case for 99% of sites out there!

I’d like to open this up for discussion. Please leave a comment that answers the 3 questions noted above. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving a public comment, email me! (Daisy {at} rentsoda(.)com) My next article will compile all your private and public comments to share with all. (If you email me privately, I will leave include your comment, but won’t quote you. If you leave a public comment, I may quote you & link to your company. – OR tell me how you want it handled!)

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

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Call for stories!!!

Nov 24th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
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The response to my blog has been overwhelming! Thank you so much for the support AND, the most rewarding surprise: I have received tons of emails and comments (sometimes a call too!) about YOUR stories! Reading and listening to your stories has made me laugh, cry, sometimes even gag a little – the full gamet of emotions. As more and more of you contacted me about YOUR funny, heart-warming, odd stories, I realized that for an industry that has some of the smartest, funniest, most caring people I have ever known, YOUR voices and YOUR stories are seldom heard or shared. (Except maybe behind closed doors.)

Why is this? Usually fear. Fear of our bosses, fear that somehow, we are the ONLY ones that have ever experienced something this crazy, fear of violating fair housing regulations, fear of our competition, fear of the unknown. Well, fear no more.

It was obvious to me that even though you FEARED telling someone, you didn’t have  a fear telling me. Perhaps it was because you saw my post about me, and realized I wasn’t some scary, crazy, one-eyed blogger? Perhaps you identified with my stories? Perhaps you heard something in my blog that rang true? Perhaps you knew I would read, laugh, cry and listen with you? Well, ALL of the above!

So, this brings me to some very exciting news. I have registered the URL RENTERTAINING.com. RENTERTAINING.com will be a sister company/website/blog to RENT SODA. RENTERTAINING.com  showcases YOUR stories. You can be anonymous, or you can identify yourself. Whatever your comfort zone is. Any incriminating details will be removed to protect the identities of the innocent. (GRIN!) But the content -  YOUR story will shine through so that others, real people in this very real indsutry of ours, can laugh and cry with you. Just as I did.

So, with that, I am putting out a call for YOUR stories. Email me at daisy {at} rentertaining(.)com. Over the next few weeks, I will be working on RENTERTAINING.com (don’t check it yet, there’s nothing up yet), and hope to launch it for New Year’s. Just in time to start off 2010 right.

Your partner in pursuit of laughter,

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

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The ROI of facebook – the value of creating community

Nov 16th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
7 comments

OK, so the million dollar question is:

What is the ROI (Return on Investment) of facebook for my site? Usually followed up by – how many leases can I get from facebook? Serious questions, and just like an owner/investor/upper management to get to the point – eh?

Well, short answer is your ROI is either 0% (yes you read it right, ZERO) or 100% depending on how you look at it. Intrigued? Read on…

This is PART I of a 3-part series. You can read the intro here:

3 facebook questions everyone asks when starting out… 

Facebook is all about creating community.  It’s all about people connecting with other people because they have at least one thing in common. There is a group for just about anything and everything, from politics, to sports, to music. Some as broad as “I Love Music” fan page which has over 2.4million fans, to the more specific, like “Sting” fan page that has over 300,000 fans, to your local band, who may have 100 fans.

Your apartment/site IS a community – whether you are 30 units or 300 units or 968 units, your apartment IS a community. Your #1 person on site – their title is “COMMUNITY MANAGER.” hmmmm….

Before facebook, and it wasn’t so long ago, most sites had a bulletin board of some sort. The community manager &  staff would decorate this board, organize it, and make sure it fit within the guidelines of your community in appearance and postings. You allowed residents to post random things on there, like “looking for roommate,” or “need a pet sitter from Jan 1 – Jan 8th, willing to trade services,” to “Lost Camera – gray, please contact Jon,” to “Superbowl Party - come join us in Apt#101!” Does anyone know what the ROI of this bulletin board was?

Before facebook, the savvy community manager created that sense of community with their interactions, their presence, their personality. What is the ROI on creating a sense of community?

Today, FACEBOOK. And its not just a little bulletin board. It’s BIG, in a BIG BIG way. Instead of that physical board, or the need to be physically AT a site or physically interacting with a community manager to get that sense of community, facebook helps you streamline that process. With a few clicks, your site has a central communication tool for your residents. Who better to control that tool than YOU? As before, you control what it looks like, what is said, and what is allowed. YOU get to set that example of community, nourish it, encourage it. You create that sense of community, you ARE that personality. Unlike that bulletin board, this online community can reach more than just your current residents. It’s out there in cyberspace – and guess what? Your prospects are going to check out what kind of community you allow, encourage and nourish. Sure, your prospects will visit your website. AND, they’ll also visit apartmentratings.com. But more importantly, they WILL look for your facebook page. What will they see?

So now, all the sudden the online community that you’ve been nourishing, encouraging, allowing, is not just a communications tool for your current residents. It is a marketing tool that you can use to reinforce your community image. People want to see who you (ABC Apartments) are and how you interact. They’ve already seen your website, they’ve already read the reviews on apartmentratings.com (and still interested!) and now they are serious. They want to know you, your apartment community. They are ready, eager, and willing to learn. This is your prospect who is ready to make a decision. And this is the best time to capture them. Are you ready?

So then the questions become: Why facebook? If I’m not really getting hard leasing numbers from using facebook, why do it at all? Why can’t I just direct people to my website? Its better designed, it looks great, it has a lot of information, THAT’s the image we want to project!

Because your residents/prospects are ALREADY on facebook. YOU want to connect with THEM, in a way that they prefer, are already used to, and feel safest. If you’re not already doing it, who’s to say, they won’t go ahead and create their own group? What if someone created a group called “The residents of ABC Apartments,” and you weren’t a part of that? Worse than not a part being a part of that – you would have no control over the group if someone else sets it up.

GET THIS: Today, you may not be able to measure exactly how may leases you will get from facebook. How do you measure all the leases you are missing out on? How many times did you miss an opportunity when your prospect was, ready, eager & willing?

GET THIS: You should already be using facebook as a communications tool for your current residents. If it also serves a marketing purpose … well then the ROI just doubled. (This is truly killing 2 birds with 1 stone…)

The ROI of facebook is all about the value of creating community. Emphasize the “community” in “apartment community.” Emphasize the “community” in “community manager.” Create that community. That community suddenly doubles as a marketing tool.

So, what’s the ROI on facebook for your community?

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Web: RentSoda.com

Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Blog: RentSoda.Wordpress.com

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3 Facebook questions everyone asks when starting out…

Nov 16th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
5 comments

People ask me all the time about facebook. Some people are just confused, some are scared, some are excited, some are clueless, still others hesitant, and then there are those who FAKE it! (You know who I’m talking about!) Why all the confusion? Why all the ruckus? I just don’t get it, and if you have been reading my posts and know my tagline, well, I GET IT. But all this confusion is…confusing!

So, let’s talk it out, or should I say, blog it out. I’ve narrowed down the top three questions I get asked most often:

1.) What is my ROI when using facebook as a marketing tool? – This is usually asked by various levels of upper management – your CEO’s/COO’s/VP’s/Director’s. Occasionally a very business-minded manager also ponders this out loud.

2.) Should my site(s) “do” facebook? – This is usually asked by someone who realizes that they NEED to be on Facebook – because everyone ELSE is thinking about it or already “DOING IT.”

3.) What should we (as sites) be “doing” on facebook? – This is usually asked by someone who has just opened up a facebook account and realizes they don’t know what to say or “do.” Their friend list consists of 22 people - 10 of whom are vendors, 8 are competitors, 1 is their mother, and the last 3, they *hope* are residents or prospects of their apartment community. OUCH.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a TON of other questions, but these are the ones I get asked most often. AND, very relevant questions for beginning users, intermediate users, and advanced users. As an industry, we need to understand these 3 questions – and GET IT – right.

HEAVY questions – this week, I will be writing a series of 3 posts to address each of these questions in a little more depth, but keeping each post at a reasonably short length. Hopefully I can make light of the  questions and have some fun while I’m at it! The good news: by asking these questions, you are on the right track to GET IT!

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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There's a MARKET for THAT!

Nov 10th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
4 comments

More often than we’d like to admit, we don’t like who we are, we try to be more than what we are, and in the end, no one is happy. This is the way it is both personally & professionally. To top it off, in the professional circuits, they call THAT “marketing.” I call it “bait and switch,” and as a consumer, I hate it. So why do companies do it? And more importantly, why do WE, as multi-family housing providers market this way?

Don’t think you do this?

Take for example a recent advertisement I saw in a typical apartment advertising magazine, imagine: a beautiful, tranquil pool, nice pool furniture arranged perfectly and a tagline along the lines of “live at ABC Apartments and you could be relaxing at your pool!) Then imagine making an appointment and driving up to a property that looks nothing like the picture, EXCEPT you DO recognize the pool. You thought this was a classy mid-range apartment complex, but it ends up being in a questionable part of town. You are disappointed, and the whole time during your tour, the leasing agent looks apologetic, avoids looking you in the eye and tries to sell the pool, as if you are going to be LIVING at the pool 24/7! You realize that this is not for you, and politely decline their offers of 2 months free rent if you sign TODAY! The big mistake with this scenario is that the people who placed the ad (whether it was a marketing company or a marketing department) assumed that the best thing about this particular property was the pool. Sure, it was a nice pool, and it was obvious they spent time to make sure the pool looked nice. HOWEVER this is not the reason why people lived at ABC apartments. (At least not the #1 – #5 reason)

When I visited this property, talked to a few residents, the leasing agents/staff, these were the reasons why they stated they lived at ABC Apartments:

  1. The rent is affordable. It is at the lower end of the rental spectrum, but its what I can afford.
  2. They do not let criminals live here. It is safe, and even though it is an “affordable” property, it is safe. I feel safe.
  3. Even though it is an affordable property, it is clean.
  4. Even though it is an affordable property, it is well maintained, and the staff respond to maintenance requests timely.
  5. It is in my price range and very centrally located so that my girlfriend and I can both commute to our jobs without a long drive.

Notice how many people mentioned the affordability factor and not a single one mentioned the pool! (Please note, this particular property is not a subsidized property, just a property that had low rents.)

KNOW your property, and KNOW why people REALLY rent from you. START THERE – and advertise the HECK out of THAT! For this particular property, I would have recommended advertising the affordability factor, advertising the “WE DO NOT ACCEPT CRIMINALS” factor (sure as a professional management company you might think this is standard, but don’t assume your residents know this or that your competition is doing this), and advertise the cleanliness! There is a market for affordable housing that is clean and criminal free. The people who ARE going to rent from you CARE about these things, and they could care less about that outdated pool. AND, if you surprise them with a fantastic pool – well then, that WOULD be impressive! No switch and bait. Instead of trying to be something you’re clearly not, why not try to be EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE? There’s a MARKET for THAT.

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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