Friday, July 31, 2009

Episode 11 - Your Brand, It's Not Just About 1 Community

I've had some conversations lately about our Corporate Mullet presentation, and Duncan recently presented the concept again to the Social Media Club Philly on the invite of Beth Harte. In our apartment space one thing that I think many companies are missing with the business up front is a good brand foundation. At J.C. Hart we've been working hard on building our brand name and making sure it is associated with all of our properties. In Episode 11, I'm asking everyone how they feel about the concept and where you think your brand is from a recognition standpoint. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Interview with John Hinckley of Irio Mobile Marketing

At NAA I met with the guys of Irio Mobile Marketing and here's what John Hinckley had to say about the offerings of Irio.

Interview with Ed Spiegel of RentMineOnline

At NAA I was able to meet up with Ed Spiegel of RentMineOnline. Hear what he has to say about his company and check them out at www.RentMineOnline.com.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Episode 10 - It's Happening So Fast & The Topic of the Day

I'm sure many of you agree with me that things are moving quite fast in the online marketing word. While it's overwhelming at times, it's a lot of fun. So let's have some more fun with it. Two things today. One, I'm going to try and bring more frequency with the vids. The feedback I'm getting is that people like the concept, so I'll try to dream up some more topics. Two, have you seen the @AptGuide Twitter contest? I give my thoughts and would love yours. Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Building Your Online Corporate Mullet

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Realpage was very gracious to invite us to speak at their 2009 user conference, and we ended up having standing room only for our presentation. Very humbled for the excellent turnout and kudos to Kate Good and Lisa Trosien for recommending our session during their presentations.

When thinking of what to speak about I somehow immediately thought of this concept my good friend Duncan Alney, with Firebelly Marketing, had been brainstorming about, The Corporate Mullet. It's a metaphor for your business and how wearing some business up front and a party in the back is a great way to build a brand and relationships offline and online. We focused on building the corporate mullet online specifically for the apartment industry, and used case studies from Urbane Apartments, J.C. Hart Company, and some non-apartment industry companies. Below is our slide show sharing some of our data. If you have any questions about our presentation please feel free to write a comment or email me directly at mark@theapartmentnerd.com. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Episode 9 - Realpage User Conference

Hello everyone. This week I'm at the Realpage User Conference in Dallas, TX. I get to see some of my favorite people like Lisa Trosien and Kate Good, as well as have the opportunity to speak with my good friend Duncan Alney about "Building Your Online Corporate Mullet." We'll be sharing our slides and possibly have some video clips for everyone in next week's post.

Anyway, I did a quick video regarding todays's keynote presentation. If you have any questions or comments let me know. While I'm not an expert in Realpage products, we do use a number of their offerings and I'm happy to help. Enjoy your week!

Monday, July 6, 2009

The Corporate Mullet

Wow, the past couple weeks have just flown by, and I'm ready for another whirlwind tour. My good friend Duncan Alney (Firebelly Marketing) and I are speaking at the Realpage User Conference next Tuesday. The topic, "Building Your Online Corporate Mullet." Yes, you read that right, Corporate Mullet. It's an interesting metaphor for how to look at your business. Yes, there is a corporate image with clean logos, bullet points, copy, legal, etc., but there has always been a social aspect to business and now even more so with the online tools at our fingertips. After the presentation we'll share with everyone some highlights and our slides.

So, with the idea of the "Corporate Mullet" I ask the question, "Do you have a policy or a strategy?" I believe too many businesses are waiting around trying to develop a policy so that the business up front doesn't get associated with the party in the back. Why? Do we have a policy for how to talk with our customers face to face, or is it a strategy? How is using facebook, Twitter, blogging, or replying to ApartmentRatings.com reviews any different than emailing, talking on the phone, or meeting face to face? You do know that email is a form of social media, right? Social media, or whatever you want to call it, (as I agree with Gary Vaynerchuk it should just be called business) is what we do. We are social beings, especially in real estate. We interact, we discuss things, we debate, we sell, we give, we care, we use new communication tools, we do business. What's your strategy?

Friday, July 3, 2009

How Can You Help Turn Our Industry Upside Down?


I was fortunate enough to meet Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com last weekend at the NAA Conference in Las Vegas. What an incredible mind and an incredible business model he's helped build. He shared some tidbits about his company culture and offered to send anyone in the audience a book containing stories about company culture that every associate at Zappos has contributed to. Just amazing. So amazing, that right now they want to include 20 fortunate individuals in a 2-day bootcamp to learn how to apply elements of that culture to their own companies. Here's some details:

Our core curriculum will show you:

  1. Instructions in how to discover and create your culture

  2. How to know, live and track your values

  3. How to deliver WOW! service

  4. How to get your customers talking about you

  5. Superior Management Techniques

  6. Inexpensive ways to reward your employees

  7. Much More

Who's in?