Eric Brown is an energetic entrepreneur in the Detroit area who has built a nice multi-family business since leaving the corporate world in 2003. He appears to have an approach that works, sticks to his disciplines and has a ton of fun doing it.
He’s also been an energetic adopter of web tools to help him build his business and attract and engage residents. Ergo, the world of social media.
Last week he posted two lab reports on social media implementation.
One was how he has created a virtual lobby for his tenants using a self-serve social network platform called Ning.
One of the ancillary benefits of the strategy is increased organic traffic because of the fresh and linked content developed on the site.
THE NUMBERS
The numbers are pretty impressive. The UrbaneBlog.com continues to grow at 35% per month, month over month. The SEO enhancements from these additional venues really help your main web site too. Our combined new visitor traffic is well over 10,000 visitors per month, which is pretty impressive for a 320 unit portfolio.
A second post gets at the big challenge for creating successful social media marketing programs: energy, commitment and engagement. It’s like diving into the deep end of the pool. Don’t do it until you’re ready to swim.
The popular place to start for a lot of apartment communities seems to be Facebook. Logical, right, facebook is about community; apartment management SHOULD be about fostering community, right? What we are seeing though is NOT Social Media or Community, we are seeing Electronic Billboards.
The problem is, once you get there, you’ve got to have a plan. What kind of content are you going to share, what kind of interactivity are you going to foster, and how are you going to make sure that you stay in the minds of the members of your community.
In the Social Web, staleness is the cardinal sin.
Check out the links. They are strong and to the point.
Note: Eric checked in to correct an inexcusable reporting mistake on my end. His business is based “Royal Oak MI, a hip and cool town just North of Detroit.” Thanks, Eric.
I’m an admirer of Eric Brown, owner of Urbane Apartments outside of Detroit. He’s a practical-minded entrepreneur who’s turned his if-I-can’t-touch-it-it’s-not-real sensibility to social marketing in order to drive prospective renters to his units.
