Apartment Blog

Memorial Day weekend is the official kick-off weekend for the summer!  It’s definitely the traveling weekend for the beach and any other hot vacation spots. 

I’m not actually going to the beach, but the country.  I LOVE the country.  My cousin and her husband recently relocated to Greensboro, NC.  It’s interesting because although they live in the country, they’re still close to civilization, the city I mean.

Let me start with the drive.  A lot of people get head starts on their travel because EVERYONE is on the road.  BUT, the drive from Portsmouth, VA to Greensboro, NC is a calm, peaceful one.  For one, the only interstate, if that’s what you want to call it, to take in VA is 58 and there’s never any traffic.  It’s just a nice drive through the countryside.  Of course once you get into Carolina you’re on actual highway, but it’s still not congested.

There’s plenty to do in the TRIAD area.  During the day I’ll probably catch a minor league baseball game. Since the Greensboro Grasshoppers have away games the entire weekend we’ll roll down the way to a Winston-Salem Dash game.  And I can’t go on vacation without shopping.  The actual city part has plenty of shopping, outlets and indoor malls alike.

And there’s some good sight seeing.  Greensboro holds a lot of history.  It’s nice to just be able to drive around and take all of the scenery in.  It’s so pretty, fields of green, houses separated by almost a mile, farms, cows, horses, I could go on…

Of course we can’t forget the nightlife.  The general consensus is that Greensboro doesn’t have much nightlife.  Now if you’re in to going to upscale clubs, then no, Greensboro is NOT for you.  But I like the fact that EVERYONE is so down to earth and so friendly.  We just hit up the nearby bars and chat it up with the locals.  People treat you like family and you can’t get that up north.

Well, I hope everyone has as good a Memorial Day weekend as I’m going to have.

You’ve heard us mention before about our text messaging product, right?  It’s quite simple really; property managers include a unique keyword in their print advertisements listed in For Rent Magazine. The curious apartment seeker sends a text message with the property’s unique keyword to the short code 47368 (4RENT). Within seconds the apartment seeker receives a text message with information about the property. Property managers can also use the service to send customized messages promoting specials to potential renters, as well as important messages and alerts to their current residents. All sounds a bit technical doesn’t it? Well, here’s a story that will really break down the actual events that occur with our text messaging product.

Recently our Vice President, Brock MacLean, was in a meeting with a regional VP at ConAm. This woman noted prior to the beginning of his presentation how much she has embraced the ability to not speak with anybody directly. She loved to text, used Facebook and generally shut herself off from direct communication; therefore, she was quite intrigued by our mobile marketing efforts and how we were driving online conversions from offline actions. To that end, she picked up our local publication and thumbed through to one of her ads. There was a text icon and she immediately picked up her Blackberry to try out the service. She was already impressed with the customized text responses she received about her community when her cell phone rang. A leasing agent from her community had called as a follow-up from the text inquiry! “Needless to say, it re-enforced our media solution offering and further proved the value of our print publication capturing prospects in an interactive environment,” noted MacLean.

This story just illustrates the remarkable follow-up our text messaging product has providing consumers with up-to-date information about apartment communities they are interested in. For Rent Media Solutions^TM continues to do our utmost to offer the most innovative and relevant technological advances in the multifamily industry.

Bob Dylan wrote the song, “The Times They Are A-Changin” and those words ring true in today’s market. The marketing landscape has changed and continues to change at a rapid pace. It’s now a Web 2.0 Marketplace- a techno-driven, media-fragmented environment populated by empowered consumers. In a world where YouTube^TM videos and Facebook friends are common cocktail conversations, building and sustaining relationships with consumers has become increasingly difficult, forcing marketers to reach beyond familiar strategies and techniques.

Your residents, and the prospects you are targeting, are a lot different than they were in previous years. Today’s consumers trust referrals from family and friends over anything else, and where do consumers talk about their favorite products and brands? On the internet! Renters are talking about your communities, sharing opinions and experiences, and making referrals via social media platforms. Online social networking sites have revolutionized the way people interact with each other and gather information. It is essential that wherever consumers are talking about your brand (good or bad), your company be there-interacting.

Maintaining an on-going positive relationship with renters and prospective renters is critical to any apartment community’s long term success. Today, companies must be part of the consumer dialogue. Marketers must blend communication messages across all available media channels for the consumers to achieve a continuous brand experience. It is important to have an integrated marketing strategy that consists of print, Internet, mobile and social media. The key to success is to convey a message synergistically at every customer touch point. For Rent Media Solutions is adapting to the change and maximizing our advertisers’ marketing strategy by using an integrated approach.

Here are five marketing solutions For Rent Media Solutions can provide for your integrated marketing strategy:

1. Reaching Consumers on-the-go with Mobile Marketing

Some 80 percent of all Americans carry mobile phones. There are more mobile-only households than landline-only households. If businesses do not adapt to this channel, they will, eventually and certainly, suffer a disadvantage compared with those businesses that catch the vision of mobile data communications and take full advantage of the channel. By using technologically-savvy marketing tools such as text messaging and the mobile web, property managers can increase their reach, better identify with the apartment market’s target demographic and generate more LEADS^TM from potential customers. Text messaging and mobile Web sites create opportunities for property managers to interact more with their residents-increasing the residents’ brand loyalty in the community and the property management company. Mobile marketing expands marketing reach to all types of media and results in more online conversions.

In January, nearly 12,500 text messages were sent to our advertisers. With text messaging, potential renters view a property’s listing in For Rent Magazine^®, see a custom keyword text call to action on the ad or from the community leasing banner, and then text the community if they are interested in learning more about the property. The property can customize the response to the prospective renter and provide them with details, pricing, photos, a link to the ad on ForRent.com^® and more. Our print ads also provide unique property URL’s which will send the consumer to the apartment profile page where they can fill out a guest card.

In June 2008, For Rent Media Solutions launched its mobile Web site http://m.forrent.com/.

Our mobile Web site can expose a property manager to a wider audience, making their apartment listings available to consumers not only through print publications and the Internet, but through their cell phones as well.

Tip: Include the free customized keyword and text icon that For Rent Media Solutions provides to its print customers on your For Rent Magazine ad, leasing banners and yard signs. Be sure to advertise your community’s specials, events, and promotions in your customized responses. For additional branding and traffic, take advantage of using your custom keyword on your brochures, direct mail pieces, flyers and more to track the success of your print advertising. Reach potential renters in a manner that is convenient and most frequently used by them.

Did you know?

• According to the Center for Media research, text messaging is the most preferred advertising approach among over two-thirds (69 percent of adults and 64 percent of teens) of consumers.
• 52% of mobile users access the Web via their mobile phones, and 35 to 44 year-olds are leveraging this technology the most, with 60% spending time each week surfing the Web.
• 25% of mobile users access video on their mobile phones, with 88% of this group spending less than two hours/week, which indicates a growing appetite for rich media with shorter duration viewing patterns.
• 25% of mobile users are accessing social networking sites from their mobile devices, with one in seven respondents between the ages of 23 to 34 doing so for more than two hours/week.

2. Combining Print and Internet

The print industry is not dying - it is simply adapting to the new world of marketing. In today’s economy, it is important to maximize your reach by using the most effective method of marketing and advertising. This is done by using the powerful combination of print and Internet. Research from iProspect and Jupiter Research found that 67% of the online search population is driven to search by offline channels. Of that percentage, 30% come from print ads. Even more impressive is the fact that print advertising topped the list of offline media sources that led to a purchase, with 30% of search users who opened their wallet and bought online coming from a print medium. Marketers worldwide agree! Take a look at this article found by Lisa Trosien, a nationally recognized apartment marketing expert, called, ‘Why Cutting Print Budgets Means Cutting Online Sales’.

For Rent Media Solutions continues to prove that the “The Power of Print and Internet” is delivering favorable results. In January 2009, nearly 1.3 million potential renters sought out more information on our advertisers’ communities through our various points of contact, including: text messaging, video, phone calls and online guest cards. For Rent Magazine continues to drive LEADS and traffic to Forrent.com. With more than 2 million publications distributed nationwide, we deliver nearly three times the amount of LEADS to our Print and Internet advertisers compared to Internet only advertisers!

Tip: Include your ForRent.com vanity URL on your print collateral to drive LEADS directly to your listing and to more importantly, track the success of print. Find additional tips on how to maximize your print and Internet listings here.

Did you know?

• Offering online and print solutions is essential to the success of your business. Why?
  1. Not everyone has access to the Internet. According to a Pew Internet
      Research study, one-quarter of Americans have no Internet access.
  2. A 2008 Parks Associates study found that more than 20% of Americans had
      never looked up a Web site or sent or received emails.
• New consumer research conducted by Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo and commissioned by Google, shows that “among people who research products and services after seeing them advertised in newspapers, 67% use the Internet to find more information, and nearly 70% of them actually make a purchase following their additional research.”
• This new study demonstrates that print ads also drive people to conduct additional product research online. “56% researched or purchased at least one product they saw advertised in the print ad in the previous month.”
• In addition, the use of newspapers and the Internet reinforces consumer confidence. The study also states, “48% of respondents said that seeing a product in the newspaper after seeing it online would make them trust the product more and be more likely to purchase.”

3. Connecting on Social Networking Sites

Social Networking is like the old shampoo commercial; “I told two friends, then they told two friends, and so on, and so on…” -Doug Ross

Social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, are growing daily. Consumers on social media Web sites aren’t just teens. Adults now outnumber teens on social networking sites. According to Enid Burns with Search Engine Watch, “the use of social networking sites among those 18 and older quadrupled over the past four years and seventy-five percent of online adults 18-24 have a profile on a social networking site.”  According to Hitwise, 27 percent of social networking traffic is moving to and from one another, suggesting that users have multiple accounts and can switch their loyalty quickly.

For Rent Media Solutions has over 50 MySpace profiles covering markets nationwide, exposing our brand and yours to more than 6,500 consumers. In addition to the profiles, we also syndicate your listings to MySpace Classifieds. Between Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter, our direct social media network consists of more than 11,000 people and our extended network potentially reaches nearly 2 million people.

Tip: Set up a MySpace page or Facebook group for your apartment community to provide a distinct way for your businesses and brand to create direct connections with residents and prospective residents. Drive additional traffic and LEADS^TM to your ForRent.com listing by including your apartment profile page URL in your social networking profiles. In addition, these online communities can also allow you to interact   and communicate with your staff.

Did you know?

• Facebook has 175 million+ registered users and the average user has 120 friends on the site. More than 3 billion+ minutes are spent on the site each day and 850 million photos are added daily.
• MySpace.com has more than 100 million registered users. The site receives 55.7+ million unique users per month and 17.5+ million daily unique logins. The average MySpace user logs in 30 times a day.

4. Broadcasting with Online Video

Online video and video sharing sites such as YouTube are vital channels for driving user engagement and loyalty, as well as powerful internal tools benefitting employees. The impact of video is very strong when consumers find the videos though online search, social media sites or via the community’s Web site. Prospective residents are forwarding these videos via email and social media sites to friends who might also be interested in moving.

For Rent Media Solutions offers Community Theater^®, a professionally produced online video that enhances the apartment shoppers experience by allowing users to view your apartment community’s most sought after units and amenities as well as the surrounding city it is located in. For Rent Media Solutions does the work for you. All Community Theater videos are syndicated to ForRent.com, your management company’s website, AptsVideo.com, along with more than ten major channels including Google, Yahoo, MySpace and YouTube. Along with the Community Theater video, the long description, community name/location and ForRent.com apartment profile URL are included in on social media Web sites to encourage traffic back to your listing. The Community Theater videos have received more than 7.8 million video views and more than 845,000 of those views came from social media Web sites.

Tip: For additional exposure, post your Community Theater videos on your property management social networking profiles. Visit our YouTube profile here to find your Community Theater video. Click on the video detail page, copy the “embed” code and  paste it into your other social profiles or click on the ‘Share’ button then select the site of your choice to automatically syndicate the video to your profile. Another idea is to host a video contest for your residents and post the videos to your management company’s Web site and/or to your company YouTube page. User generated content can easily turn customers and fans into a network of content creators who communicate through video. Both online video and social media combined form new capabilities for business and   foster natural dialogue for your brand.

Did you know?

• According to Facebook, more than 5 million videos are uploaded each month.
• According to YouTube, the site has over 70 million videos and receives more than 100 million+ video views per day.
• comScore Media Metrix states that 52.5 million viewers watched 371 million videos on MySpace.com in November 2008 (7.1 videos per viewer).

5. Building Relationships

For any business to survive in today’s economy they need to know the essence of networking. Same rings true for individuals. With our current market, networking your business and yourself is critical. Sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter will see tremendous growth, as more and more people are flocking to these sites for contacts. Your company’s presence needs to be on these sites to network and interact with potential partners. For Rent Media Solutions is an active participant in the conversations on LinkedIn and Twitter. These sites allow us to gain faster access to insight and resources in the multi-family housing industry. Start networking with industry professionals and renters today. Join in the conversation on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter.

Tip: Set up a LinkedIn group to communicate with your employees and current residents. Use LinkedIn as a recruiting tool and post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company. Listen to industry subject matter experts on the discussion boards in Multi-family Housing groups such as Apartment Professionals Network, Multifamily   Technology, NAA, and Multifamily Insiders.

 Did you know?

• Twitter has 3.5million+ users and more than 1.1 billion ‘tweets’ have been sent to date.
• LinkedIn has over 35 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world.

Bob Dylan said it best, “The line it is drawn.” It’s time for companies to accept the shift in media and move forward. Since the purpose of marketing is to generate revenue, increase LEADS, fill vacancies, and/or drive brand awareness, marketers need to find ways to do this effectively; and embracing an integrated marketing strategy is the first step. “You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone.” Are you maximizing your advertising strategy with For Rent Media Solutions?

It’s a tradition with my family year after year. We always pile up in our car and drive around to look at Christmas lights. There is one house in particular we always stop and see. We call it the ‘NOEL House’ as it has the ‘NOEL’ saying prominently displayed on its rooftop. We also make it a point to go to see the Holiday lights at Virginia Beach Oceanfront. There is something grand about looking at the holiday light displays across our city. I look in amazement at the creativity and the excitement that I feel. I feel like a child again, anxiously waiting for the big day!

Accumulated by americasbestonline.net, here is a list of the best holiday light displays in cities across the nation. Look who turned up number 11! J If you are near one of the areas, make sure you go out and look at the wonderful lights displayed.

1. Silver Dollar City- Branson, MO
Millions of Christmas lights cover the whole park. Plus, the entire city is transformed into a holiday wonderland each evening at 5:30 p.m. as guests join together on the Square for the lighting of the dazzling, five-story Special Effects Christmas Tree. Adorned with over 250,000 lights coordinated to blaze to the musical movements of Christmas songs, this unique Special Effects Christmas Tree presents classics such as “Carol of the Bells” and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” in a spectacular light and sound show.
  
2. Oglebay Festival of Lights- Wheeling, WV
In 1985 a holiday tradition began at Oglebay and spread throughout the city of Wheeling. That tradition is the Winter Festival of Lights celebration. The first year, displays and landscape lighting covered about 125 acres over a three-mile drive throughout the resort. Since then, the show has grown into one of the nation’s largest Christmas light shows, covering more than three hundred acres over a six-mile drive throughout the resort. 
 

3. Fantasy of Lights- Pine Mountain, GA
A 5 mile drive by car or trolley takes visitors past 13 holiday scenes with more than 8 million  Christmas lights.  Since 1992, this outdoor light and sound show has glittered with holiday magic for millions of people. Families from across the Southeast have added Fantasy In Lights to their list of memorable holiday traditions. This year, experience the 15th annual Fantasy In Lights with its eight million lights creating more than a dozen beautiful scenes, and you’ll see why this is the brightest holiday light show in the South! 
 

4. Smoky Mountain Winterfest- Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, TN. 
Smoky Mountain Winterfest is a magical celebration that begins in late fall.  Ride the Trolley Tour of Lights around Pigeon Forge and claim a spot on the sidewalk  for Gatlinburg’s “Fantasy of Lights” Christmas Parade, featuring lighted floats, marching bands and giant helium balloons.  This event combines 3 Tennessee cities: Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. These neighboring Smoky Mountain towns are ablaze with 5 million lights thru February. 
 

5. Trail of Lights - Austin, TX
The  Trail of Lights is a mile long display of 42 lighted scenes, US Post Office, Santa’s House, the Yule Log, and an entertainment stage. The festival begins with the lighting of the Zilker Tree, a 155 feet tall, 180 feet diameter lighted tree consisting of 3,309 bulbs on 39 streamers strung from Austin’s historical Moonlight Tower. Since 1987 the honor of lighting the tree has been bestowed upon the winner of the city-wide children’s tree coloring contest. The tree lighting ceremony takes place on the first Sunday of December. 

6. Magical Nights of Lights - Lake Lanier, GA
Rekindle an old tradition or create a new one at Lake Lanier Islands Resort’s 16th annual Magical Nights of Lights holiday celebration. Known as the world’s largest animated light extravaganza, the fun kicks off November 22 through December 30 from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 pm. nightly! Bring the whole family a drive through tour of over six miles of twinkling, holiday light displays and a live nativity scene complete with live actors and animals!

7. Holiday Festival of Lights, Charleston, S.C.
Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission created the Holiday Festival of Lights to bring families and friends together and to raise support for the Charleston county park system. With over 600 individual displays located throughout the park in 132 power locations, the Holiday Festival of Lights is a magical sight to see! 
  
8. Enchanted Garden of Lights, Chattanooga, TN
See Rock City! The gardens’ natural beauty is complemented by more than 25 holiday scenes as half a million lights illuminate rock formations along the Enchanted Trail. 

 9. Southern Lights - Lexington, Ky.
The annual Southern Lights event is the largest fundraiser held for The Kentucky Horse Park. Over 25,927 vehicles passed through the electrical wonderland in 2006 alone! Everything from petting zoos, model railways, arts, crafts, and Santa Claus fill the Indoor Attractions section free of charge to guests.

 10. Mission Inn - Riverside, CA
This magnificent hotel and grounds have over two million Christmas lights!  Enjoy the sounds of the holiday season as our Dickens’ Carolers stroll throughout the hotel every Thursday through Sunday, beginning November 25, 2005, or enjoy a romantic carriage ride around the grounds - to take in the lights of the holiday season.
 
11. 100 Miles of Lights - Virginia Beach, VA
Come share the glow of the season and experience millions of lights and hundreds of events from Virginia’s capital city to the Atlantic Ocean. The region will glitter and glow, sparkle and shine with lights, lights and more lights. 100 Miles of Lights features holiday events and activities in Richmond, Williamsburg, Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach.

Drive-through and walk-through light shows will dazzle and shine with more than two million lights, providing a colorful backdrop to the wide range of events and activities for the young and young-at-heart. Lighted boat parades, city illuminations, festivals, parades, living history re-enactments, caroling, dining events, music and dance are among the many activities occurring throughout the region from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
12. Bright Nights at Forest Park - Springfield, MA
New England’s most popular holiday destination and largest drive-through lighting display. Two and a half miles of Forest Park are illuminated with more than 500,000 twinkling lights, bringing the magic of the holiday season to life for people of all ages, in dozens of dramatic scenes such as “Poinsettia Fantasy,” “Seuss Land,” “Toy Land,” and “Victorian Village.” Plans are in place this year for bright new displays, and special celebrations to commemorate the holiday traditions of the many cultures that make up the region.

Source:
http://www.americasbestonline.net/christmas.htm

Tired of spending an arm and a leg on gas? Want to eliminate the amount of hours you spend in traffic? Well the perfect solution is simple, move closer to your job!

I was reading this article “Renters go downtown to save on gas, commuting” by J.W. Elphinstone, and it appears that people are getting the idea to move closer to their jobs or mass transit areas in order to save money. This seems to be a nationwide trend, therefore, making rents higher in those metropolitan areas. Cities where this trend seems to be the strongest are Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, Minneapolis and Portland, OR.

Young renters and empty nesters alike want to move within walking distance of their jobs to save time and gas. Although the rents for apartments in downtown are increasing, the math is quite simple. You already spend $900+ on rent and an additional $200-$300 on gas due to your daily commute. So moving closer to where you work might cost more in rent, but you’re saving in gas and essentially getting more hours added into your life by eliminating the long commute.

Apartment seekers need to think about how they will narrow down their apartment search based on the aforementioned reasons. Landlords, management companies and apartment owners are advertising their properties with maps and brochures to showcase where they are in relation to landmarks and public transportation. The informed apartment hunters will do the research about location and ask questions regarding mass transit so they can find the perfect apartment for their needs.

Currently I work in downtown and the rents within walking distance of my job are so much more than what I pay now. However, if I were to eliminate the cost of my car (repairs, gas, insurance and maintenance) the cost would be about the same. And I would save an extra 45 minutes to an hour of my day from commuting. Plus, another added bonus would be extra ‘going green’ efforts by saving on consumption of fossil fuels! So maybe this is something I should think about…..

What are your thoughts?