PARK CITY, UT - “When LinkedIn® first launched in May 2003, we were one of their first members,” says Ernest F. Oriente, Founder of PowerHour®. Today, a decade later, LinkedIn® is the world’s largest professional network with more than 600 million members in over 250 countries.
“Our 20 Property Management Professional Groups on LinkedIn® have 130,000+ leaders who post educational ideas, ask questions and share solutions. Our 20 property management groups that are free to join include: property management leaders, industry vendors/suppliers, those focused on furnished apartment rentals, marketing directors, apartment association executives, training directors, regional directors, those searching for a new job/career, those focused on affordable housing and C-level property management executives,” continues Oriente.
“Currently we’re reaching over 48 million industry leaders on an annual basis,” says Oriente. “And it’s growing fast! This time last year we were adding about 1,000 new property management leaders a month. Now we are racing along and adding 5,000+ new leaders a month — almost unbelievable! Based on our group size today, we’re number #176 of 2,176,785 worldwide LinkedIn® groups with an annual reach of over 48 million property management leaders.”
The goal of PowerHour®’s property management LinkedIn® professional networking services groups is to facilitate connections between industry leaders, to help improve their professional development/skills and to serve as a learning resource for the property management sector. “Within our 20 property management LinkedIn® professional networking services groups,” comments Oriente, “you will find industry questions being asked/answered, emerging/leading trends that are impacting our property management industry economically, invitations to join monthly property management educational conference call webcasts, sales/marketing strategies and property management job postings.”
Why is PowerHour®’s presence on LinkedIn® so successful?
PowerHour® maintains personnel on eight-hour shifts who moderate those who are making posts on their Industry Knowledge discussion threads, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And PowerHour® has very strict posting guidelines within their 20 groups: No commercial messages. No sales posts. Business networking is the focus, with expectations of educational and informational posts only. “There will be no posts made that read: ‘Hi, I’m Larry, here’s my website, buy from me.’ We’ll have none of that!” states Oriente emphatically. “In fact, for those who choose not to follow our group posting guidelines, after issuing two warnings we remove these members and they are not permitted to rejoin.
“I’ve been in the property management business for over 31+ years, and I know what property management leaders and professionals are seeking. Our posts are categorized so that accessing industry information is really simple — everything is very topic-specific. For example, there are over 500 posts on selecting the best property management software, 300 posts about resident screening and criminal/credit checks, and over 600 posts about crime prevention and security — among a huge list of 108 categories that are very relevant to property management success.
“Our 20 LinkedIn® property management groups are like the Wikipedia for property management professionals, sort of like finding a gold mine of information all in one place. Whatever your question, there’s bound to be a stream of posts addressing just that subject — and these posts are being made by industry leaders. We have specific Industry Knowledge discussion threads that are now surpassing 3,000+ posts and growing,” reports Oriente.
So, how does this work as far as archiving these Industry Knowledge discussion threads?
For instance, you may not need to know about Fair Housing today, but a month from today you now need help. Everything to do with Fair Housing has been stored and archived within our 20 LinkedIn groups, and more than 200+ posts will always be available for your reading and research on this subject matter. There are more than 15,000 posts that have been made on our Industry Knowledge discussion threads that make it easy to find what you need, ask questions and get answers. At any future point when you might need help, there are a wealth of topics available at any time.
“Moderating and running our 20 LinkedIn® groups is a large enterprise, no doubt,” comments Oriente, “but I’m proud that PowerHour® can make this contribution to the property management industry. I’m equally proud of our team that oversees the posts, contributes information, organizes the categories within our Industry Knowledge discussion threads, and guides our industry leaders on how to best use this remarkable resource. It’s much like a Wikipedia site for property management. ”
“In fact, we’re the ultimate electronic library for property management industry knowledge, with all the reference information filed in the proper places!” smiles Oriente.
To view a master list of Industry Knowledge discussions threads within our 20 property management groups, visit the PowerHour LinkedIn Groups