Apartment Blog

The results are in! ForRent.com’s panel of judges have selected the winners for the ‘Ready2Move?’ video contest.  We’d like to start off thanking all of our entrants for taking the time to create, in the words of Mike Brewer, ‘compelling’ submissions.  It’s been a delight to have had such an amazing response. ForRent.com prides itself on being the nations leading apartment listing website.

This year’s submissions were extremely creative and made for a tough decision for our judges. The grand prize winner received $10,000, three finalists received an iPod Touch® and the voting sweepstakes winner received $1,500. Because it was so tough to judge this year, we’d like to recognize a few contestants as honorable mention. So let’s announce those winners!!

Honorable Mention:

Amorae Daly  ‘Living at Home’
This contestant did a terrific job for her video. The layout of the video really presented an organized case for ForRent.com as to why she’s ready to move. She was humorous and creative which is why we would like to note her as an honorable mention. She received 800 votes on her video which proves that voters liked her submission as well. Congratulations!

Additional Honorable Mentions were: The Sky is Falling, Parallel Roommate, Top 5 Reasons We’re READY2MOVE with a whooping 1503 votes-4th highest of the contest, Crazy Roommate and last year’s winners’ submission Mean House. Congratulations everyone!

Voting Sweepstakes Winner:

Patrick Freise
“Wow, that’s tremendous!” said Mr. Freise, who voted everyday for a two week span on his friend’s video ‘The Perfect Date’. Looks like it paid off for him in the end! He won $1,500 for being a dedicated friend. Patrick is currently enrolled in his senior year at Binghamton University in New York studying financial economics. When asked what he plans on spending his new wealth on, he responded “I’m going to buy my girlfriend Katy a nice birthday present.” What a sweet guy. Congratulations Patrick!

Finalists:

Bart Baker ‘Ready 2 Move’
In an amazingly witty, humorous and professional video, Mr. Baker was able to tell ForRent.com why he was ready to move.  His hip-hop music, original lyrics and professionally created music video made it a tough selection when choosing the grand prize winner.  But in the end, Bart won an iPod Touch® for his hard work. Congrats!

Neehar Gupta ‘The Answer is Clear’
The storyline and professional quality for this video was spot on.  We really felt that Mr. Gupta nailed it on the head with combining a commercialized video while also being personable. Voters really embraced his work as well, he topped out at 1600+ votes!! Congratulations!

Chandra Farnsworth “See Brent”
We really felt that the Dr. Seuss essence captured in this video was truly amazing. The animation and voice over were of the highest quality and really showcased all the hard work Ms. Farnsworth put into it. In addition to ‘See Brent’, Chandra also submitted two other great quality videos ‘Music Boxes’ which was another animated video with singing packing boxes, and ‘PADS’ which was a terrific spin off of MTV ‘Cribs’. Congratulations Chandra for a job well done!

Grand Prize Winner:

The selection for the grand prize winner was no easy task. There was an incredible amount of talented submissions, but in the end we could only chose one.  And the winner is………… Justin Spence with ‘$1,200 a Month & No Pool’.

‘Holy Moly’ was the response from Justin when ForRent.com called him to tell him he is $10,000 richer! While the ‘phone call to a buddy’ concept of his video may not have been completely original, the quality, message and promotion of ForRent.com as the nation’s leading apartment resource made it the top of our list. He was able to capture exactly what we had hoped for in this contest and apparently we weren’t the only ones who enjoyed his work.  Voters also appreciated his vide as he had over 600 votes.

As a videographer who does commercial work for local business in the Dallas, Texas area, he is a big fan of social media. “Social networking is the new media to advertise your product. It helps your message spread like wildfire and I try to convince people to use it as part of their marketing efforts.” He personally uses Facebook and MySpace which is how he pumped his video up for the contest.  Looks like that avenue certainly paid off. Congratulations Justin!! Justin received his check in person by our president Terry Slattery last week in Dallas.

Well, that concludes it for our winners. We would like to thank everyone once again who participated in our ‘Ready2Move?’ video contest. We sincerely appreciate the efforts that were put into making this contest a huge success! Once more, congratulations to Patrick Freise, Neehar Gupta,   Chandra Farnsworth and Justin Spence.

Mobile phones and Web based communication platforms are increasing their presence and popularity among the lives of hundreds of millions of people globally. People do everything from sharing monotonous and routine details of every day life to alerting people to breaking news or product launches. You’ve probably heard a lot about Twitter, the free micro-blogging social network that’s growing faster than Facebook as we speak. Still, you’re probably wondering what Twitter is and how it actually works.

Have no fear, For Rent Media Solutions (@AptsForRent) has been spending a lot of time on Twitter lately, and has put together a guide to help Twitter newbies get started. Twitter is estimated to have around 5 to 10 million registered users. According to Compete.com, Twitter received more than 14 million unique visitors and more than 8 million page views in March. Oprah Winfrey set up a Twitter account and tweeted live for the first time on her April 17 show. According to Engadget’s Ryan Block, 1.2 million people signed up after she did. Is this a coincidence or is it the “Oprah Effect”? If your company doesn’t have a Twitter account, make it a priority to jump on the bandwagon. Still not convinced? Check out our lingo break down and tips and tricks below.

What is it?

Twitter allows users to send “tweets,” or text-based messages up to 140 characters long answering the simple question of “What are you doing now?” These “tweets” are then displayed on your profile page and delivered to other users who are “following” you (essentially, subscribing to receive your tweets). Also, you can follow (subscribe) to the tweets of anyone you want, from family and friends to Oprah, major Web sites, big brands and more.

Confused yet? It’s ok. Basically, Twitter is like an online cocktail party, a text message or like a Facebook status update, with which you can keep people up-to date with your life.

Who is “Twittering” and why should I use it?

According to PewInternet, 19% of online adults age 18-24 have used Twitter, 10% of 35-44yr olds have used it and 5% of online adults age 45-54 have also tweeted. Twitter is great for posting the ins and out of your life, but Twitter can be a great business tool to gain potential residents, retain residents or to stay abreast industry trends. Can’t attend tradeshows this year? Stay connected with attendees and speakers by using #’s. For example, you can follow the AIM conference going on right now by doing a Twitter search for #aimconf.

Twitter Lingo:

Followers

MySpace and Facebook use the term “Friends”, but Twitter uses the term “followers”. To follow someone, visit   their profile and select the “follow” option. The user will then receive an alert that lets them know you are now following them, and then they can choose to follow you.

@ Replies

Users have the capability to respond to all tweets by addressing the person by using their Twitter user name preceded by the “@” symbol. This will direct a tweet at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their “replies” tab. As a rule- don’t reply back to every tweet.

Direct Message

Sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their “Direct Messages” tab.

RT (ReTweet)

RT is short for retweet.  People add RT somewhere in a tweet to indicate that part of their tweet includes something they’re re-posting from another person’s tweet, sometimes with a comment of their own.

Favorites

If you come across a really good tweet that like, you can save it to your “favorites” tab.

What do you Tweet?

Anything you want really. People often times reminisce about a memorable experience, share a joke, share everyday updates, provide product updates and announcements or even simply say hello.  The tweets are just as diverse as the people you connect with. Tweets can be pitchy but not too direct. Mix up your tweets with @replies, general tweets, share photos, and throw in some links every now and then.  It is important to also add something of value to your followers like including links to research and helpful articles.

Who do you follow and how do you get followers?

Following a lot of people does help you get more involved with Twitter. That’s the point of Twitter. However, don’t do it all at one time. Follow people in the multifamily housing industry such as @ericacampbell, @ltrosien, @mbrewer, @30lines, @Eric_Urbane, @JohnTMitchell, @kategood, @RentWiki, and  @NAAhq. You can also follow celebrities, media companies, social media experts, big brands, residents and potential residents. Gaining a strong follower base can be tricky. Remember to be original, creative, funny, and offer quality tweets.

How often should you Twitter?

Twitter can be addicting. Trust us we know! But personally, we think 10-12 tweets should be the upper limit. There should be a good balance. Some of the people we follow, Twitter way more than that.

Get started today and Follow ForRent.com @AptsForRent!