CLASS Leasing: The Top 50 Branded Facebook Pages

Ignite Social Media shared a great list recently of the top 50 branded Facebook pages as of March 28, 2011. This list is compiled based upon total number of fans, as well as the increase in fans on a monthly basis. It is pretty amazing to see that some of these pages added over one million fans in a thirty day span! Of course, just about every single business on this list is recognizable to everyone that has ever watched a television, but there still are a few surprises on there. Who would have thought that Converse All Stars would be in the top ten??

Take the time to open some of these pages to see the interaction that occurs on a daily basis in each one. Many of these pages are well known brands to begin with, but they still take the time to encourage fan interaction each day. Red Bull may have the best "hint" on what they would like for you to do if you open their fan page.

This list is not something that the typical business owner should look through and shoot to get their page on the list, because it is probably impossible. Many of these brands already have tens of millions of followers that joined their pages, because they already knew of these companies. That's not to say that there are not some great ideas to pull from this list, because obviously, all of these companies are doing many things right.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Can You Hear Me Now?

I came across a great article in Multifamily Executive that really shows how reliant individuals are becoming on one certain aspect of technology...the all mighty cell phone. Due to the dwindling number of people that actually have a landline phone in their apartments, apartment owners and developers are actually having to implement new cell phone towers, or enhancers to existing towers, in order to keep residents, especially college-aged residents, pleased with living at these communities. In fact, cell phone signal ranks second in importance in a recent survey of 52,000 college students only behind the desire for larger bedroom size! Interested in seeing what the word on the web was about cell phone signal problems in apartments, I came to the realization how rampant of a problem this actually is by simply typing "apartment cell phone signal" into Google. Every single search result, minus a few, were postings by consumers asking how to improve their cell phone signal at their apartment. As the endless realm of what one is able to do with a cell phone continues to expand, the demand for cell phone signal strength as almost an amenity will only continue to increase.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Guerrilla Marketing

I always enjoy seeing great examples of "guerrilla marketing," because it always blows my mind to see the creativity that people continue to dream up for this marketing originator. After all, when the glitz and glamor of all of the internet marketing do not work, you always have to resort back to pounding the pavement and taking the in your face approach to marketing.

Here is another fun example of guerrilla marketing courtesy of The Guerrilla Blog.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: The Potential Benefits Of Having A Blog

It's no secret that social media is only as beneficial as you make it in the sense that if no one is seeing your material, it's not going to be beneficial. It's pretty simple and as easy as that. The more material that one gets into the World Wide Web, then the chances are only increased that someone will stumble upon an excerpt of that persons writings.

One of the more personal and potentially effective venues of social media is the blog. Blogging allows an individual or company, such as this very blog, the opportunity to put together thoughts and topics related to the area or field one is involved with. I blog about apartment and marketing related topics, because we are a company that is known for specializing in apartments and marketing in the industry. Where blogging becomes most effective is when the entries begin to develop a following via Facebook, Twitter, etc. As more Facebook shares and retweets occur, the horizon of those reached by the blog exponentially expands. With all of the blogs that there are in the World Wide Web, creating a following is not the easiest of tasks to accomplish. The material must be consistently worthwhile and meaningful, or the followers will begin to dwindle as blogs become more monotonous.

Mark Schaefer's blog is one of the better blogs I have read and if you will notice, he has a strong group of followers each day. In addition, Mark's blog is designed as more of a homepage for his website, because the blog has basically developed into its own entity with a mass and consistent following. This highlights another crucial benefit to a well written blog, in that it can actually be used as ones website as opposed to spending the exorbitant amount of marketing dollars necessary for website design. Mark's blog sets the bar high, but is a great example of a blog to follow and hopefully emulate for one's own.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: PadMapper

I spent this morning browsing through the apartment Craigslist ads of all of the cities that we are currently working in and began to wonder something. If I in fact were a prospect looking for an apartment in one of these numerous cities and I own an Iphone, surely there is an app that makes the search not only easier, but more interactive for its users.

With this thought in mind, I opened a new browser to Google and typed in "iphone apartment search" to see just what exists out there in the application world. There were actually numerous results that came up, but the one that really caught my attention was the application called PadMapper.

PadMapper's sole purpose is to aim to make the apartment search "less painful by letting you see where the apartments are on a big Google map, and using the filters located in the box on the lower left to eliminate listings that you're not interested in" (per PadMapper's website About section). Based upon their definition on their site, PadMapper was basically verbatim of what I was out to find. The most relevant piece of information about their site that especially intrigued me is the fact that Craigslist is one of the main websites that PadMapper pulls from!

Seeing the application in action is a must, because the map is user friendly and interactive, allowing the user to be able to see with a pin-point where exactly the apartment is located.

Great app!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: The Best Resident Event Contest!

This is a chance for everyone to share your best resident event idea with other members of the apartment industry and also potentially win some money for it as well.

Multifamily Insiders is running this contest in collaboration with Resident Events and Peachtree, looking for the best resident event ideas out there right now. All you have to do is click on the Multifamily Insiders link, fill out your great resident event idea prior to May 31st and set back and wait to see if your event is selected.

This is a fun opportunity, so I strongly encourage everyone to get involved, because you never know, you may stumble across someone else's post and use their great idea for the next resident event at your property!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Facebook Send Button

Well it appears that Facebook is at it yet again with a new development to their site that was just released last week, which I learned about via Social Media Examiner. Facebook added a "Send" Button function to their site that is more or less an advanced "Like" Button that engages the users on a much more personal level. This is the general description that Facebook released in regards to the new Send Button:

"The Send Button allows your users to easily send your content to their friends. People will have the option to send your URL in an inbox message to their Facebook friends, to the group wall of any Facebook group they are a member of, and as an email to any email address. While the Like Button allows users to share your content with all of their friends, the Send Button allows them to send a private message to just a few friends."

The Send Button is another way for individuals on Facebook to share content with their friends, which from a business standpoint, is another opportunity to have traffic driven to participating web pages. The Send Button greatly reduces the steps that one would typically have to make in order to share relative information with individuals via online. The Send Button will surely be equally as popular, if not more so, than the Like Button, which has already infiltrated millions of web pages after only one year in existence.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing