Julie Simmons

JUNE 2018 THE CREIGHTON REPORT CHECKING IN FROM CHECKING OUT by Steve Gothard -- IN THIS ISSUE CHECKING IN FROM CHECKING OUT Last month we spoke to you about our upcoming trip to the Yardi Conference but this month we thought we would share our thoughts about the other side of the property management coin and talk about our trip to the CAI National Conference. During the week of May 7th our industry gathered in Washington D.C. at the Marriott WEB DESIGN – SIMPLICITY Wardman Park to check in, check out, and check off. You OR STYLE? see we checked in with vendors and management company friends from across the country, we checked out over 130 CALIBER CORNER different vendors selling everything from pooper scoopers to fencing supplies, and if you attended a continuing education class or 3 or 5 you can check off that NOTABLE NEWS requirement so you can maintain your industry ASK AN EXPERT and every year I think it gets better. For years and maybe credentials. We have this large central meeting every year even decades we went unnoticed but those days are long YARDI SAIL gone. There were approximately 1,500 conference attendees from as far away as India and South Africa. I don’t think I ever took notice at a prior show of exactly CREIGHTON FINANCIAL 1204 BALTIMORE PIKE CHADDS FORD, PA 19317 CREIGHTONFINANCIAL.COM - JUNE 2018 how many banks where there in attendance. our industry. In a world that strives to be This year, I didn’t have any choice because inclusive, isn’t enabling more people who are they were everywhere. There were some new lawfully registered and rightfully entitled to categories attending this year as well. It seems vote in line with those values? As a like Vendor and Compliance Management is a growing area. Community communications is also a growing area as is security and the one everyone loves to laugh at, Doody Calls, a pet waste solutions provider. For me I personally I was looking for a sign that some new technology is on the horizon technologist I look forward to helping our clients embrace this new era in letting the people voice their opinion. Over all for me the trade show is an opportunity to get some face time with our vendor partners. To learn what they’re working on, to see what others are doing, and and I am very happy I found that it is. For the first time ever, I am seeing vendors pushing Electronic Voting (or e-voting). This is a technology whose time has come and its much safer than paper based voting. Most people aren’t aware that many of our voting laws have been in place since the turn of the 19th century and they’re considered safe and secure. We forget events like the election of the 43rd president and the addition of the phrase “hanging chad” added to our lexicon. Five Hundred and Thirty-Seven votes separated the winner and the looser in that election. There were more people on the CAI CALIBER CORNER Managing Violations, Work orders and Delinquencies and Architectural By Mattrese Foster tradeshow floor than separated the 2000 Managers: it is time to review your presidential election. Fast forward almost 20 status reports for Architectural, years and our technology has hyper-spaced us Maintenance, Work orders and to the point that e-voting is not only possible, Delinquencies. Run reports for each but if we want to continue to embrace voting of the above titles and update their methodologies, the time for e-voting has statuses for any that require. Make arrived. sure any status that needs to be closed is set to CLOSE. We do everything on our smartphones, so why isn’t e-voting allowed? Why does Delinquencies: if you have an owner someone have to be in a given location on a who have paid their account in full to given date in order for their voice to be heard? clear their delinquent status, MAKE The answer is they don’t, not anymore. For SURE their delinquency status are the prospective residents looking to move into closed out, otherwise, the lockbox and our communities, having technology like e- or Accounting will not be able to post voting is going to become important. I the payment on their account. vote that we enable electronic voting across CREIGHTON FINANCIAL 1204 BALTIMORE PIKE CHADDS FORD, PA 19317 CREIGHTONFINANCIAL.COM - JUNE 2018 to meet up with our industry brethren to optimization. Google rewards pages that talk shop. There are only 3 times a year we load quickly by placing them higher in the are presented with these kinds of search queue; this is because Google sees opportunities and they are the local CAI load speed as a means of quantifying the Chapter trade show, the national CAI legitimacy of a webpage. If your page is conference and the CEO-MC (Chief slow to load, you will likely be penalized Executive Offices for Management by Google, placing you further down in Companies). So, we keep current and we the search queue. keep working to employ the latest technology and we learn things to avoid, etc. it’s important that we press the pause button once in a while and check in with everyone. Another thing to consider when designing your website is your users mobile experience. Nearly half of all emails WEB DESIGN – SIMPLICITY worldwide OR STYLE? are opened from a mobile device. by Greg Conn --In a global economy differentiating your business from your competition can be difficult. Nowhere is this statement more true than online. In an attempt to “be different”, lots of business owners revamp Having a website that is optimized for mobile platforms is very important. When business owners try to over complicate their websites it is usually reflected in the users’ mobile experience; things don’t load correctly, animations are choppy, placement of words and images are altered, etc. their websites by adding animations and movement. While this can be aesthetically pleasing, it’s important to bear in mind the potential negative effects that can come with this if not executed properly. Perhaps the most important thing to consider is web page loading speed. Adding animation and movement to a website will slow down the speed at which the page loads for a user. This can be problematic for two reasons. The first NOTABLE NEWS Our Top BLOG Posts in May Insurance Updates Digital Identity reason is that it negatively impacts the Why Do So Many HOAs Fail To user experience. It is never good to have a Properly Plan For Predictable user waiting for your page to load; Expenses? especially when considering all the An Audit of the Association’s available options online. The second Financial Records is Always Wise reason has to do with search engine CREIGHTON FINANCIAL 1204 BALTIMORE PIKE CHADDS FORD, PA 19317 CREIGHTONFINANCIAL.COM - JUNE 2018 Instead of trying to add complex animation LinkedIn should be used with caution. You and movement, consider designing a don’t want to fill people’s feeds on LinkedIn website that is crisp, sleek, and ultra- with marketing solicitations. We would responsive. Doing so will result in faster recommend reserving LinkedIn for big load speeds, higher search engine ratings, events, grand openings, etc. and an overall more pleasing user experience. Regarding your question about posting content, again, our answer is: it depends. Different platforms have different uses. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are very picture/experience minded. These platforms are good for posting samples of the work you do, client testimonials, charity event photographs, etc. Platforms like Twitter are designed predominantly for the sharing of written content. This is a good place to try and engage your audience with by Greg Conn -- enticing articles related to your product or service. These articles can be linked from blogs or written independently by the user. “I made social media profiles for my business, and I’m having trouble engaging my audience. Should I be posting daily, weekly or…? What should I be posting about? That’s a great question. Sometimes grasping social media can be confusing, especially for those of us who didn't grow up posting our every move on Facebook! Luckily, Social Media and Marketing are what we do! If your looking for a quick answer to a problem your experiencing while using a function in Yardi, click on the For your question about posting frequency, HELP icon located we would say it it depends on the platform. across the top of your screen. It For a platform like Facebook we recommend will re-direct you to a detailed posting every other day or twice a week at the minimum. For platforms like Twitter online HELP user’s guide along and Instagram, you have a little more with a search option that will freedom to post more frequently. For help you reference the function Instagram we would recommend posting once daily and Twitter is really at your discretion as to how many times you would in Yardi that is giving you a problem. like to post. Business minded platforms like CREIGHTON FINANCIAL 1204 BALTIMORE PIKE CHADDS FORD, PA 19317 CREIGHTONFINANCIAL.COM -