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In search of that shiny new penny

Oct 10 2014

Over the years, I’ve always felt that industry marketers have always been on the lookout for the shiny new penny. They lift rocks, scrape off the moss, roll it around in their hand, stare at it and hope it’s the next thing that will bring the new residents in. If you think I’m just being curmudgeonly by saying these things, think about the new concepts that have been discussed over the years: Should you go all in on the ILS’s? What about SEO? Are there any more acronyms we can make up? How do you utilize email drip campaigns? Is posting to Social Media the answer? Will I rent more apartments by using Facebook? What about reviews? Do they matter? Will[…]

Jul 02 2012

This is a combo post written by Bill Szczytko and Peggy Hale: We weren’t fortunate enough to travel to Boston for NAA this year. Honestly, watching our Facebook friends post status updates about their travel and arrival at Logan Airport, photos from hotel room windows with great views (like Israel Carunungan’s) and not so great views (sorry Kim Adams!) was heart wrenching. We saw pictures of old friends at Fenway Park, The Beach Boys Concert, Cheers, The Boston Harbor, tons of lobster dinners, in the educational sessions and networking on the awesome EXPO floor. We even saw #NAAEduConf actually trend on Twitter on the opening day! Very cool. As we sweated out another hot summer week in the Mid-Atlantic, we[…]

Multifamily in transition: The future of the ILS

Apr 13 2012

Ask Rent.com, Callsource, Lead Tracking Solutions, Vaultware, RentWiki, and MyNewPlace what the past year has been like. Mergers, acquisitions, and rebranding have been the theme. The top of the sales funnel has never seen such turmoil before. Change. It’s a sign of evolution within the industry. RentWiki represents a good case study. Back in 2009, their mission was to try to get residents to engage with each other and share their experiences. It’s a good concept. The problem? Residents and prospects aren’t passionate about apartments. Apartments are boring. RentWiki has noticed the shift to ratings and reviews and are rebranding themselves as RentAdvisor soon. So what do people want then? When shopping around, they want to read comments from other[…]

The 2011 Best of BSitko.com

Dec 22 2011

It’s amazing to think that this blog is nearly a year old. I’ve written far more words than I could have imagined writing back in January. This year I’ve created lots of conversation, turned some people off, and maybe… just maybe…inspired others. Here’s a list of the top stuff that people have read on this blog this year. Enjoy and here’s to a great 2012. Top posts from 2011. Reasons why managing apartmentratings.com is no longer optional This is just a little post that got published in several trade magazines, generated several TV appearances, and got my photograph on the cover of Time magazine. Okay only none of those is right but it was my top post this year. Hope[…]

For personal or for brands, why the Facebook ticker is a home run.

Oct 24 2011

It’s been nearly a month since the new features were released to Facebook users. The outcry has calmed down and people have adapted to how Facebook has changed. These new features, we’ve come to see, are changing the way you use the social network. Top stories and the timeline (which isn’t officially out yet) are all great things but I feel that the ticker’s impact is far greater. Let me explain, for those that don’t know, how the ticker works. The ticker is that pane on the right hand side of your Facebook page that shows you, in real time, all of your friends’ latest activity. The activity you see is based on one of several things: 1) If you’re[…]

Oct 12 2011

“If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships. ~Bertrand Russell We are all pathological liars. The average number of lies they say you’ll tell today is 4-7. Hard to get an indication of how reliable that data range is because the people they surveyed were probably lying. Don’t start to deny. “Bill I don’t lie.” Yeah right…sure you don’t. We’re human beings and we’re flawed. We make mistakes, we try to cover them up with small white lies or deceits. We learn to lie as small kids and by the time we become grown adults we’re superstars. In real life, it’s easy to[…]

Why the new Facebook insights might make you rethink your Facebook strategy

Oct 07 2011

There goes Facebook changing things again. Due to these recent changes, the big question businesses have been asking over the past few weeks is “What’s in it for us?” or more specifically – “How will all of these changes affect our pages?” We’re beginning to figure that out as Facebook today has rolled out their new insights panel and the “…are talking about this” metric. Let’s dive into what these changes mean. According to Facebook, this new metric scores engagement based on the last 7 days using this criteria: The number of unique people who have created a story from your Page Post. Stories include liking, commenting on or sharing your post, answering a Question or RSVPing to an event.[…]

Why the Facebook news feed changes are easy to hate but why you shouldn’t

Sep 21 2011

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” ~Arnold Bennett After logging into Facebook this morning, I realized that the world as we know it is going to collapse in on itself. Facebook changing something fundamental like how you view your news feeds? Blasphemy! In case you hadn’t seen them yet here’s a quick run down on everything that Facebook changed: What changed? According to the Facebook blog the news feed is now your own personal newspaper, showing you relevant content based off the last time you logged in. What do I mean? Rather than allow you to sort your news feed by your Most Recent, it combines your top stories and most[…]

New Facebook features, iPhone 5 announcement, Google+ API launched?…Friday wrap-up time!

Sep 16 2011

Been a crazy week with the Facebook changes, Google Plus API release and iPhone 5 metallic case announcement. Grab your cup of coffee or tea or road soda and let’s do a quick overview of the new stuff this week. Facebook adds subscriptions. BOOM. Twitter is great for lots of reasons but one is the ability to follow other people’s tweets. I’ve always thought that there should be a happy medium on Facebook rather than the full “friend” commitment currently required. There was a “hack” to follow someone on Facebook. It required you to friend request someone and if they didn’t accept your friend request (and didn’t block you) their public posts would still show in your news stream. This[…]

Checking In: Foursquare, the new Facebook locations and why it doesn’t go far enough.

Aug 26 2011

Facebook has changed the game with location based services but I still think there’s more to do.

Category - Facebook

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