Mike Brewer
Rentwiki – The Classy Approach to Sales
Mike Brewer · · 1 Comment
I really enjoy the Rentwiki approach to sales. Below is an email they sent out on the eve of AIM – just classy if you ask me. Looking forward to meeting up with them.
Because a party should be a party w/o shop talk I’ve included a few bullet points below for your review. You can expect me to not talk about work unless you truly want to.
RentWiki is a brand new Internet Listing Service that provides peer advice on where to live, social networking, and the latest and greatest in apartment advertising on the web.
- WE upload all of your content for free; YouTube videos, any virtual tour, and unlimited photos and floor-plans
- Facebook and Twitter integrated; bringing more content, connections, and social networks to your prospects allowing them to answer questions and give neighborhood advice so you don’t have to.
- Free Widgets including Walk Score and contributed content sharing for your own corporate or property website
And you only pay $10 for every LEGIT renter lead. That’s right… the least expensive cost per lead in the industry (you’ll pay $40+ per lead elsewhere)!!
- We review EVERY lead, eliminate the trash and duplicates, and only charge for the true legit renter lead
- Why do we do this? So you don’t have to!! Our goal is to deliver quality not to inundate you with a ton of leads to filter through in order to find the legit ones.
- Set your monthly lead limit, change it at any time you wish, and come and go as you please… WE HAVE NO CONTRACTS!
Anyway… looking forward to hanging out with you at The Lucky Strike on Thursday night from 7-10PM!!!!
Feel free to call w/ any questions!!! Seriously… I love to talk about work but I know you wont at a party!!!!
—
Steve Wiley
WikiDirectorDudeman, National Sales
www.RentWiki.com/blog
http://twitter.com/WikiWiley
c: 404-771-7302
f: 770-458-2522
support: 877-458-2520 support@rentwiki.com
wiley@rentwiki.com
Rentwiki, AIM, Multifamily Marketing
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Apartment Community Blogs – Are they the Real Deal?
The Daily Sauce is the real deal; this content is never paid for.
I receive this blog via email on a daily basis and am very impressed by the fact that each and every post leads with the above disclaimer. The Daily Sauce posts three snack sized sound bites on local businesses or happenings in and around the Saint Louis area and the fact that they are not paid for the content gives me an innate trust for what they have to say.
I see the trend emerging where more and more multifamily players will embrace a blogging strategy for the reason of increasing traffic to their respective web sites. It’s well worth the effort for a number of reasons we have discussed here in the past but one thing I would caution you against is paying third parties to pen your posts and or accepting payments from vendors in exchange for glowing reviews. I think in either case the content is marred.
I am certain there are others schools of thought out there on the subject so please feel free to drop us a comment.
We will undoubtedly post more on the subject of community blogging in the future.
Until then – have a stellar weekend.
M
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Is Social Media Making You Tired?
I received the following message on 4.20.9 from a person I would consider a treasured mentor in my life;
Subject: So I’m worried about you
I would like you to read “The Mindful Brain” by a guy named Siegel. I think you are dis-attuning yourself to a deeper level of awareness and consciousness with this twitter/30 second thought process/Facebook life. These are cruise ship recipes, not intimate meals where the provenance of your food is known. This must seem so contrary on my part to say and I surmise you think your are enjoying the height of a social media experience. Maybe so but I say this only with concern for you. Take stock, my friend, and when you do be sure you still have long walks and ample period for reflection. If you can do that and do this, more power to you. [End]
My instant reaction – thank the one that governs all that is and ever will be as I have never been so tired at any span of my professional career. Up at 5:00 and down at 1:00 or 2:00 every day of the week. The culprit? Social Media coupled with an addictive personality.
With some irony, the message above came to me two years to the day that I left Equity Residential. Sign? – Maybe a little far reaching but it quickly took my mind to two songs that stir my being every time that I hear them;
Down in a hole – Alice in Chains
Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
I have long considered myself a mindful person – one who takes the time to be thoughtful of the world around me. One who cares about the origin of stuff and things and the deeper thoughts and feelings of people. That is until two years ago when I put work and social media before family and just two days ago I was heavily reminded of it. Until that time I’ve been down in a hole and comfortably numb – Tired. Dis-attuned as my friend so eloquently put it.
All that being said, I am under no illusion that I will walk away from the cherished relationships I’ve developed by participating during the height of social media – I will however, with no doubt, be more mindful of the time I spend participating.
And, to my friend, thank you for being mindful of my being. I will be taking stock.
To all, thank you in advance for allowing an occasional off topic message.
Have a mindful rest of the week.
M
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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, 2nd 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
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Using social media to market apartments. The start of a great divide?
I came across this great post; Does Social Media Help or Hurt? » Customers Rock! this morning. In it, Becky Carroll points to another great post over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix: The Customer Chasm. Are you Creating a Social Media Divide? by Jason Baer.
Both are rather short reads and raise a very interesting observation that I think is worthy of discussion in the multifamily space. A number of you have a passion for this subject as you have touched on it via blog posts and tweets so I look forward to your continued thoughts. I think the catalyst for the hotbed of comments came when Jason penned the following;
Are we inadvertently creating a Customer Chasm, where those who are
socially media active are receiving preferential treatment compared to
those who are not? And not just in customer service, but in customer
acquisition too?
There are some compelling thoughts and ideas laced into Jason’s examples and those couched in the comment section below his post, all of which could apply to our space.
Thanks in advance for taking the time and have a compelling week.
M
7.10.9 Update
Related story:
Does Social Networking Breed Social Division?
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