Using Social Media to Market Apartments – J.C. Hart

J.C. Hart Live the Life Video Contest 2009

“Last November at the Indiana Apartment Association “Industry Outlook” presentation, the speaker said a dirty word when sharing his thoughts about 2009. It was much longer than four letters, beginning with a “C” and ending in “onsessions”. After that night we began brainstorming about overcoming this obstacle. What we came up with was “The Year of the Resident.”- Mark Juleen

“Turn the focus inward” became the mantra for Mark and his team. They re-imagined the way they would allocate their marketing resources spending money on such things as; resident functions, upgrades to social meeting spaces and special promotions. One of those special promotions made use of the social medium YouTube and the catchy tune, Live Your Life by T.I. [featuring Rihanna] It really caught our eye and we wanted to feature it here.

“Some may have already had a chance to see what’s been going on with our first “Special Promotion” called the “J.C. Hart Live the Life Video Contest.” This contest asks for J.C. Hart Apartment Community residents to create a two minute video or less on why they love living in their J.C. Hart Apartment Community and Apartment. The videos were posted to YouTube.com to enter, and since, were narrowed down to the top 5 finalists in our 6 winning categories. We posted these finalists to a custom blog (livethelife.homeisjchart.com), and have just recently selected our winners. You can read the winners announcement on the blog, and view all the 44 entries on the J.C. Hart YouTube page.” – Mark Juleen

We asked Mark to share the numbers with us and this is what he had to say –
All data and information as of March 31, 2009:

• YouTube.com/homeisjchart Channel Hits – 11,045
• YouTube Video Entry Views (44 total video entries) – 34,420
  • Total views in-full (YouTube does not count partial views or facebook sharing views)
• Live the Life Finalist Blog Hits – 13,483
  • Absolute Unique Visitors – 10,048
  • Page views – 27,248
  • Only 360 users on Dial-up
  • Facebook referral hits – 819, 2^nd highest next to direct URL
  • Hits from 37 countries (astonishing # from Guam)
  • 146 comments (88 alone on Overall)
• Votes Cast Using Poll Daddy Polls – 15,554 (6,964 for Best Overall Video)

We’d also like to share some of the comments we’ve had from the contest as well.

“Just wanted to let you know that this contest was a great idea.”

“I thought all the videos were great! Everybody did a really good job. It’s great to see so much participation!”

“Way to go J.C. Hart! Great to see your pro-active involvement in assisting those with disabilities.”

“This contest has been a lot of fun….we really had fun making the video.”

When asking a prospect how they heard about us: “I saw you on the J.C. Hart website. It sounded like a fun place to live. You are listed on my notes under the “funny video” apartments.”

“Thanks J.C. Hart for running such a great contest. It’s nice to see a company do something so unique and cool. I don’t work for J.C. Hart, I just live here. :)”

It has been fun and exciting to open up new communication lines with our residents. A huge proponent for our online social media efforts has been our local marketing partner Firebelly Marketing. With their expertise and our talented leasing teams we have been able to implement a number of new online tools and enhance our web presence. We feel by utilizing social media tools we are now reaching our residents more frequently than we ever could with resident events or more amenities. Most importantly, we’ve found a group of our residents that love to share their stories and love their apartment/community. Beyond the online data, these testimonials help confirm we are doing things right as well. It’s our goal to “Make your home an enjoyable living experience,” and many of our residents have helped demonstrate that for us.

I think this is a great testament to the use of social media to market apartments and in the same respect, I have to imagine that Mark and his team were mindful of the fact that someone could have used this platform/stage to speak adversely of the J.C. Hart brand. I applaud that this did not detour them in their efforts. Thank you for demonstrating some real courage on this one Mark.

The story gets better. Or, at least in my opinion it does. On two different occasions I emailed Mark, at the request of people I told about the J.C. Hart contest, to ask if he would field some questions – questions about how these individuals could create their own respective contests. Mark, being the class act that he is, said absolutely. To me – that is what is all about – sharing for the betterment of the industry as a whole. Hats off to you Mark and thank you for taking the time to share with us.

You can learn more about Mark and what he is up to at the following sites:

LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/mjuleen
Twitter Account: www.twitter.com/mbj
Other Profiles: www.theapartmentnerd.com