I have been thinking a lot lately about Engagement, and Contests and how we can create much more leverage with partnering and social media. We have all done far too many not so successful Contests, where the effort and investment fall far short of the mark.
Last year we wanted to add furnished apartment photos to our Urbane Apartments web site, and with people in the photos. We tried using hired models, but that was pretty expensive and looked too staged. We ended up doing a photo shoot, where we sent out a photographer for the shoot and traded the pictures for rent. We got some excellent photos and Urbane Resident participation.
So, all is good right, well sort of, but when we totaled up all the free rent, while it may have been a great deal based on what we got (live models are over the top expensive), we think there is a better way, and how we are approaching Contests and Social Media in 2010.
For instance, What if we would have partnered with say, Kodak for our contest, they get exposure (no pun intended) for their product on our web sites, and with our demographic, and we could have gotten an array of things in exchange for that, including the spread of the photos on their many photography blogs and blogger following; think Link Love.
Partnership Marketing
One of our most successful Contests and Events at Urbane happened this fall when we partnered with Sharpie Pens for our Sharpie Draw on the Walls Contest. Not only was it a huge hit, we also landed on Sharpie's web site, which gave us a pretty big SEO boost, theres that Link Love again.
When I heard that Erica Campbell from For Rent was our Guest on our weekly Blog Talk Radio Program, Apartment Marketing Gone Digital, I knew what my questions for her would be, Contests and Engagement. For Rent has been a leader in Video Contests , and I was hoping that Erica could share some of those experiences, which she did.
Accordingly, and although it isn't yet complete, For Rents Viva La Vie Boheme in your apartment and win tickets to RENT: The Broadway Tour may well prove to be pretty effective for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of Partnership Marketing.
Who Can You Partner With
Think about this, Pepsi is Skipping the Superbowl this year in exchange for a Social Media Project. There ARE apartment opertaors out there big enough to partner with a big brand like that, and get mega Google Juice, huge exposure and lower marketing costs, IF you believe in this new thing called Social Media Marketing.
Eric has over (30) years in the Multifamily Apartment Business having built and developed over 14,000 apartment units. Eric is Available for Social Media Marketing Projects for your Apartment Community or Property Management Company. You can read more about The Urbane Way of Apartment Marketing from his articles on his blog the ApartmentVeteran.com