CLASS Leasing: G+ Versus Facebook

Google G+ Versus Facebook...this battle of social media titans is only in the beginning stages of what will surely be a drawn out, epic, technological, masterminded duel. G+ versus Facebook is like pitting Batman versus Superman (I couldn't resist the analogy), in that both forces strive to do the most good for their respective societies, but ultimately in the end there may only be room for one powerhouse, or superhero.

Obviously Facebook has the upper hand with over 750 million users, compared to G+'s 18 million, but consider also that Facebook has been around for over 7 years while G+ is still a baby of only a few months. Despite the difference in time in circulation, it must also be taken into account that G+ is still only on an invite only basis and is only now in the beginning stages of potentially becoming available to all parties interested.

To really get a good grasp on the similarities and differences between G+ and Facebook, it is important to breakdown each social media player individually. This schematic goes into great detail about both G+ and Facebook, but there are a few key characteristics that set the two apart. Both Facebook and G+ allow users to group friends by topics, but G+ is exponentially easier to manage each of the individual groups. Facebook has a much more interactive news feed allowing its users more options of convenient upload with pictures and videos, which G+ is not yet capable of doing. Both sites allow for social chat, with Facebook teaming with Skype, but G+ is compatible with a much broader list of internet browsers. The business end of the spectrum is presently heavily favored towards Facebook, because a Facebook Page can actually serve as a business's webpage and be their top producer of traffic. G+ is still in the process of producing a business relevant option and could pose some serious competition to Facebook in this department. The main reason behind this potential problem for Facebook is that since G+ is a product of Google, they are already and will be able to continue to incorporate much fewer ads than Facebook, since in probably one of the largest understatements imaginable, Google really doesn't need the money.

These are only a few key differences amongst the two sites and the schematic in the previous paragraph does an excellent job breaking down the positives and negatives to G+ and Facebook. One interesting and quite honestly, intriguing aspect of G+ right now is in regards to its number one followed user...Mark Zuckerberg.

It will be interesting to see how G+ progresses in its development into a social media force. There will be some glitches along the way and only time will tell if G+ will be the next Facebook, or just another firework website, such as Friendster. Either way G+ is in an element of its own being a byproduct of Google and as one such article puts the potential into perspective, "it is not the beginning of the end for Google but it is the end of the beginning."

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Utilizing Space

I would be willing to bet that one of the universal objections that occurs at nearly every apartment community nationwide at least once a day is that the apartment a prospect is interested in is too small. Often times this objection is made before the prospect even lays eyes upon the apartment, because their last apartment was X amount of square footage and they need at least that much, if not more. I am guilty off this as well in that my most recent apartment is right at about 800 square feet and I immediately thought that sounded small based upon my previous apartment. The square footage of an apartment is an important detail, but it is really how the area of the apartment is utilized which dictates how large an apartment feels.

I always enjoy finding videos of small apartments of how the resident has managed to either find unique ways to make the apartment feel larger, or have just decorated the apartment utilizing every single square foot of the apartment. Here is another such video from Apartment Therapy that shows how this individual was able to transform a small Brooklyn apartment into a unique and accommodating home.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Tiger Woods And Negative Reviews?

For any person that is in business, at some point in time they have probably had to deal with online comments made by a customer, whether they were positive or negative (i.e., ApartmentRatings).

Obviously handling a positive comment is significantly easier to address. A "thank you for your business and positive feedback" will suffice as a great way to follow-up the comment, because you always want to show that you are listening to your customers, especially when they are positive.

Now, in the event that one is attempting to address a negative comment, then the situation must be dealt with much more carefully when it comes to addressing the disgruntled patron. The worst way to handle a negative comment is by getting in a war of words with the customer accusing them of making false accusations attempting to deface the product or company. It is best to let the individual know that as a company, you are sorry that the person's expectations were not met and hopefully they will give the company the opportunity in the future to make up for the unfortunate transgressions that occurred during their first experience with the company.

One great venue that a responder can put together is a video response that addresses the negative comments of the critic. This will show that some real thought was put into the response to the customer and it also allows for some creativity to flow in the response. I found an awesome example on Social Media Examiner of a response EA Sports collaborated that not only addresses the critic directly, but does so with some humor and creativity.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Additional Craigslist Tips

In follow-up to my blog from yesterday, I came across another helpful page of information that I wanted to share with everyone for posting on Craigslist. This site provides some additional tips that can be used in order to test the waters of Craigslist to determine what potential renters respond to. The thing to keep in mind is that Craigslist response will vary from city to city, so it's important to try many different ads until you figure out what draws the most attention. If you have a tip to posting, or something that you have had success with in a particular area, then feel free to share!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Social Media Mobile Apps

With the advancement of today's technology, just about anything can be accomplished from the convenience of a user's mobile phone. The Iphone has basically revolutionized the business world allowing important tasks and decisions to be made out of the office setting with a touch of a button on a phone screen. Mobile applications for the Iphone, now at over 500,000, have engulfed individuals' lives with endless possibilities of business, as well as pleasure, tools available for the mobile devices.

I am probably one of the remaining few individuals (thanks Sprint) that does not have an Iphone, therefore, I am still locked out of the endless application stratosphere. I am not completely convinced that me not having access to the mobile applications is a bad thing, because I know myself and I would probably have every possible application that could fit on my phone downloaded.

There are so many great mobile applications, but I find that the best ones are the social media apps that can be used in day-to-day life, allowing the user to accomplish work and stay connected outside of the formal business setting. Social Media Examiner put together a great list of the top 44 useful social media apps that really highlights all realms of social media one would need. Many apps on this list are apps that I have definitely heard of (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Flickr), but the best part about the list was learning about those that I have not heard of (i.e., Dragon Dictation, DocsToGo, Chomp).

This is a very useful list if you are involved in any aspect of social media and will make it tremendously easier to stay connected in a multitude of ways outside of the office environment.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Craigslist Posting Tip

It is always beneficial to not only post on Craigslist all throughout the day to get a gauge for when prospects are searching for apartments, but it is also very advantageous to post numerous types of ads as well. In posting many different ad types, the poster is able to see which ads are drawing in the attention of the potential prospects. Therefore it is very important to determine the specific ad that the prospect saw that made them pick up the phone and dial your community.

One of my favorite templates to use for posting Craigslist ads is the javascript editor TinyMCE. TinyMCE is basically a template upon which a Craigslist ad can be designed and simply copied and pasted, via html format, into the body paragraph on Craigslist where one would normally type the wording for an ad. Once the wording is typed into TinyMCE, then with the collaboration of Photobucket, pictures can be added after the wording on TinyMCE since Photobucket provides an html format option for each picture as a copy and paste function into TinyMCE. Upon completion of the wording for the Craigslist ad and the placement of the pictures from Photobucket, the TinyMCE html can be copied and pasted into the Craigslist body paragraph and the ad is complete.

When the ad is finished, the publisher will immediately notice that TinyMCE allows for the inclusion of many more pictures than Craigslist normally allows (4) and also provides a forum for the pictures to be vastly larger. These two features are what allow for a more innovative and attention grabbing posting since pictures are the most important part of a Craigslist ad.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Facebook Tip Of The Day

When setting up an apartment community on Facebook, it is important that the property be listed as a Page and not as a Profile. Facebook will actually erase your page once they realize that you are listing a business and not an actual person. The main reason that this is a requirement Facebook enforces is for the safety of any individual that is following your Page by liking it. Whereas with a Profile in that anyone is able to pull-up who is friends with your community, when a community is listed as a Page, the only people that are able to view who likes the page are those individuals that are administrators of the property Page. If you have already created a Profile for your property, you can still switch the Profile to a Page without losing any of your followers, but you will not be able to retain anything information that has been posted previously to the community wall.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing