Comments on: Small Business and Social Media: Experience vs. Enthusiasm

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:20:36 +0000

We are just now starting to get into the social media circle. I am finding it hard to figure out successful ways to make it work. I’ve seen success stories but you always have to remember that what works for one person may not work for you.

By: Go Small Biz Blog » Blog Archive » Younger Small Businesses Use More Social Media

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:16:00 +0000

[...] Small Business and Social Media: Experience vs. Enthusiasm [...]

By: Tom Lindstrom

Tom Lindstrom — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:56:39 +0000

In the beginning you will have a lot of enthusiasm and very little experience of what it really takes to market online which leads often to buying a lot of marketing material that really does not help you at all.

Social media and basic article marketing are methods that are free and never goes out of fashion.

By: mike

mike — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:07:02 +0000

finances are limited when you are a start-up. i’m sure this has something to do with it… you’re in guerrilla marketing mode.

By: Frank Reed

Frank Reed — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:24:23 +0000

Matt,

Social media is something that needs to be completely explored and analyzed by the smaller players since there are types of social media that may simply not have value in certain verticals / industries. It’s never good to do something just to say that you do it. Intention and planning with something as ‘wide open’ as social media is critical since time is resource that seems to be in short supply for a lot of folks.

By: Eric Brown

Eric Brown — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:52:00 +0000

Matt, Great Post
After leaving Corporate America and starting a small boutique apartment management company, Urbane Apartments in 2003 to pursue my plans to create wealth, we have ceased traditional marketing efforts in exchange for an Urbane MySpace site, an Urbane Facebook site, an Urbane You Tube site and an Urbane flickr site. Urbane Apartments and Urbane employees twitter regularly. To further integrate we started a Social Network site the Urbane Lobby where residents can meet and greet, trade pictures and videos and socialize on line. We manage and power a blog aimed at our residents the Urbane Blog, all designed around our target demographic local brand recognition.

Our Goal; To provide our residents with an experience and value with a high enough return to create enough Customer Evangelists within our core resident base that they self rent our apartments. We are working hard to lead our resident Influencers within our core resident base, and have transitioned most of our marketing budget inward, to further focus on our existing residents. Only good things have happened from this move. Resident retention has significantly improved, and we have created a forum and a field for the Influencers to participate. Along the path we hope to become Social Media experts based on our experience as to what works for multifamily and what doesn’t. We are learning as we go, but are seeing stellar results.

Perhaps the greatest benefit for us by utilizing these tactics and strategies is that when a potential resident does a Google search for Royal Oak Apartments, Urbane Apartments pop up on page one, number four or five consistently, which then typically drives the prospect right to our web site, thus allowing us an opportunity to showcase our offering