Four marketing trends for 2022 /What's new in old buildings
Marketing insight and curated news and cool projects for architects, developers, and community builders.
Happy New Year.
It’s that time of the year when all of the articles come out on what marketing trends will be hot in the upcoming year. And, here’s mine, not really trends, more like advice on how to connect better with your clients, buyers, or whomever you’re trying to connect with.
Write like a human. Corporate-speak is so 1990s. Unless you’re writing a shareholder statement, write like you’re having a conversation with your friend. I’m not saying write something like, “our services are rad, dude,” but keep it real.
Stay ahead of tech. If you’re just now thinking “ya know, my kid loves it, maybe we should do a TikTok account,” you’re already behind the curve (trust me from personal experience). Be curious, keep an eye out, watch the trends. Hire someone like me. And read this piece on how NY Realtors are killing it with TikTok.
This one is very specific but try to engage more on social media. Just don’t post and ghost. Comment, like, retweet posts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to engage with brands and have heard zilch back. That’s just weird.
Think short, bite-sized pieces of content instead of long-form pieces. Sure, white papers will still be around, but with fewer attention spans you’ll need to grab a reader’s attention quickly. Just like these four bits I just wrote.
And now, my favorite part of the issue: What’s new in old buildings
Fast Company lays it all out on why we should be using old buildings for new uses.
There is no stopping new buildings in 2022, but if we have to build anew, then let us build to last, so that in 50 years, developers will look around and find creative ways to adapt what we are building today.
PS: They’re tightening the reins when it comes to free articles, too. I’m totally fine with that and in fact, that’s a trend for 2022 across most media brands - it’s time for all of us to cough up and start paying for all that great content. (I digress.)
This piece fired me up for more adaptive reuse projects. It’s an interview with Rainey Shane, an Atlanta-based vice president of the international real estate firm JLL, who founded its Adaptive Reuse Unit. She touches on older “distressed” properties being repurposed (instead of building new), older suburban buildings being reused, and how repurposing a building can simply be more fun than bulldozing it.
“I’ll tell you what, if someone would do a reality show on an adaptive reuse project, it would be the highest-rated show on TV,” she said.
Hello, buildings from 1972. It’s 2022 and that means buildings built in 1972 are now eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. There’s going to be a lot of concrete and vinyl! And I’m OK with that!
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