Basic Facebook Getting Up & Running

By: Becca Wilson, President/CEO

What we will accomplish• Why bother with Facebook?

• Success Stories

• Facebook 101

• Maximize Your Facebook Exposure

Why Bother with Facebook?

What is Facebook? It’s social networking.

> It’s only been around since 2004 and has 200 million active users as of April 8, 2009. Half of the current users return daily.

> These Facebook users rent YOUR apartments, they work for you, they hire you to manage their investments and they are your friends.

> Facebook now spans all age groups.

> It’s a giant ongoing conversation with a massive digital address book of people.

If you manage your product & reputation on social networking websites like Facebook….. you will receive:

• Viral marketing that delivers qualified traffic = rental income

• Brand awareness – shows you care enough to bring your company and product TO THEM…where they work and play…online.

• Loyal residents (customers) that connect with your brand and work as ambassadors thru preferred employer discounts, resident referral programs, etc.

Facebook Projection:

By Mid-June 2009, there will be as many 35-49 year olds on Facebook as 18-34 year olds.

Facebook is NOT just a target for student housing anymore!

Nielsen March 2009 Report

• 67% of global online community visits blogs and social networking sites.

• Global active reach is greater than email

• Facebook is visited monthly by 3 in every 10 people.

• Audience is becoming more diverse (age, race, location, etc)

• Increase of 156% from 2007 in use of cell phones to access social networking in the US

Mobile devices are accessing Facebook as much as desktop devices.

Has built in shortcuts to social media sites like Facebook & Myspace so prospects and residents can lease online and interact with your community via email, texting, Facebook, instant messaging, etc.

In April ‘09, 60 people left 21rio.com’s facebook page to go to their standalone www.21rio.com website. 10 people from Craigslist.

A one day history of a website traffic stats shows Facebook has more referrals to the apartment website than Google. Plus notice the average number of pages viewed.

Let’s poll our audience quickly:

•Who actively uses Facebook.com?

• Who actively uses MySpace.com?

• Who actively uses Linkedin.com?

• Who actively uses Twitter.com?

•Who actively uses YouTube.com?

•Who actively uses Orkut.com?

•Who actively uses Gather.com?

What is your goal in using Facebook?

• Expand the footprint of your brand overnight

• Network with potential new employees

• Collaborate with existing employees (private groups)

• Connect with residents living at your communities

• Prospect for new residents

• Resources for investors & lenders

• Search engine marketing

• Market your apartment vacancies

Ok, I’m sold on Facebook, so show me some success stories

Intencity Global – PR & Marketing Firm in NYC

Uses Facebook for client events. Sends invites thru Facebook and invited friends & fans on Facebook to spread the word.

Sent reminders about the event regularly – all thru Facebook. Doubled the amount of traffic expected at the open house. This resulted in greater than expected sales.

Posted pictures of the event afterwards and blasted the attendees thru Facebook which brought traffic back to Facebook to comment on the photos and give valuable feedback about the event.

Junnoon – Indian Restaurant in Palo Alto, CA

Setup a company page on Facebook with basic information – address, hours, prices, photos, coming events as well as reviews from local newspapers, Zagat, etc.

Facebook visitors to Junnoon’s page can opt to become a “fan” on the company page, instead of just a friend, which gives them access to make reservations directly from the page. Reservations are sales they can count on and track as sales directly resulting from Facebook.

Junnoon also has a pay per click campaign with Facebook at a minimum of $5.00 per day to drive additional targeted traffic to their Facebook page.

When you share information from your “Public Profile Facebook Page” your stories will go directly to your fan’s News Feeds. Your fans can comment and click “I like this” which reinforces your brand and product/service with your fan’s peers. You can’t buy that PR!

Facebook 101 – Get Started

Facebook requires communicating….not advertising!

Think about who should be in charge of your brand.

Do you entrust the management of your Facebook pages to your onsite leasing team?

Can one marketing director manage multiple Facebook pages with valuable worthwhile content that is updated constantly?

Content is KING with social media networking.

Simple to Setup A Facebook Account

Five Types of Facebook Pages

• Individual Profile Pages For individuals (not companies)

• Public Profile Pages for Non-Fans For corporate brands (content open with limited interaction options – read only type content)

• Public Profile Pages for Fans For corporate brands (special content and offers for “fans” that is not available to “non-fans with lots of opportunities to interact with your company/brand)

• Group Profile Pages Private groups collaborating

• Marketplace Pages Marketplace gives you the ability to buy, sell, give away or ask for anything you might need.

Example of a “Fan” Page in Facebook

Fan pages are open to the public so they get indexed with Google fairly quickly.

Always a positive to be indexed (listed) with Google.

Example of “Group” Page on Facebook

Differences Between “Group” & “Fan” Pages

More than 4 million users become fans of Facebook Pages each day! Fans = loyal residents & motivated prospects = revenue!

How to maximize your Facebook exposure & enhance your brand with the Facebook audience to reap rewards?

The Exponential Power of a Resident Referral Program on Facebook

The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the website. 200 million Facebook users available.

Ask your residents to send out a resident referral broadcast to their friends which is a POWERFUL endorsement.

100 residents x 120 friends each = 12,000 prospects would see a trusted “friend endorsed” introduction to your apartment community. If just 1% of these friends leased at your community, then you’d have 120 new leases.

Your Facebook strategy is dictated by your target audience.

• Document demographic information about each community.

• Study website traffic stats for clues about your audience.

• Research 3rd party tools like Quantcast.com and Compete.com

Why use “events” in Facebook?

• Import your address book from your blackberry, mail software provider, etc to invite everyone you know.

• Use “the more the merrier” by asking invitees to invite their own friends.

• Invitees are encouraged to RSVP and invitees can also see how many are coming and who is on the list which is motivating.

• Facebook sends email reminders before the event to the invitees email address on record. Keeps your name in front of your Facebook friends.

• Send email blasts from within Facebook telling invitees to return to Facebook to see photos from the event.

In addition to News Feed distribution, you can send targeted updates to the people connected to you about special offers, promotions, new apartment communities added to the portfolio, career openings or any other news specific to particular places.

Cross pollinate your social networking sites

How to build a facebook badge you can place on sites like Myspace.

Building Your Facebook Strategy:

X Find existing conversations, fans, groups and events around your brand. Don’t rule out websites like ApartmentRatings.com, Yelp.com, etc.

X Search related fan pages, groups and events for positive mentions of your brand or your competitors.

X Find out what your competitors are doing on Facebook.

X Test conversion tools – content, coupons, etc to define keywords relevant to your brand, product category and target audience.

Facebook Strategy continued……..

X What can you offer people “on Facebook” that they will find valuable?

X Are you ready to respond to your customers and encourage them to talk about your brand?

X What assets – tools and content – can you leverage?

X Define a publishing schedule for your content and stick to it!

X Do you have your company behind this social marketing campaign with resources available?

X How will you measure success?

Measuring return on your social marketing investment….takes some effort!

1. Engage fans & friends – invite them to comment and upload content

2. Provide incentives or coupons and then measure redemption

3. Post website links to alternative sites

4. Provide opportunities like resident referrals or preferred employer offers to enlist ambassadors for your brand & products.

5. Add social web links to your branded website(s).

6. Use Facebook advertising to promote your products & brand.

7. Measure ROI from Facebook – Lexicon and web stats

Contest example on Facebook

Brand New Facebook Features

Facebook Connect

Facebook Stream

Facebook Lexicon

Other Ideas for the apartment industry….

Take Facebook profile to other websites

Why is it valuable to use Facebook Connect on YOUR website or an Internet Listing Website like Rent.com?

Juicy profile information about the website visitor – profile information you could NEVER get them to give you upfront while they are shopping for an apartment!

Facebook Opens Homepage Stream

Facebook is availing the homepage/profile stream, where users receive updates about other users, to third party developers.

This means developers will be able to build offerings that "talk to" the status, links, notes and videos that users have uploaded onto Facebook.

Now, you'll be able to view your stream and publish information into it from places you never could before — like your desktop computer or your mobile phone. Your stream will appear just as it does on Facebook.com.

Facebook launching new tracking called Lexicon

Reserve apartment units from your Facebook page

Google’s Orkut.com – Competitor to Facebook

Using Facebook in hiring of employees

CareerBuilder.com 2008 Survey

• 22% of hiring managers use social networking websites to research candidates.

• 33% reported they found information to disqualify potential employees for these reasons:

41% posted info about their drinking or using drugs 40% posted inappropriate photographs or info 29% had poor communication skills 22% used discriminatory remarks 21% were linked to criminal behavior

Does your new hire application ask them if they are on Facebook?

More Resources For You:

Go to:

www.spherexx.com/aim2009facebook

Recently voted - 2 years in a row - the Top 10 Most Dependable Website Designers of the Southern US by Goldline Research as featured in Entrepreneur Magazine April 2008.

Becca Wilson