Comments on: Using Social Media to Market Apartments – GoogleJuice

By: cazoodle

cazoodle — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:24:18 +0000

Cazoodle Apartment Search is always researching ways to improve GoogleJuice. We attempt to keep up on our blogs and do our best to refine ways for Google to find us. Currently we are asking about this new LinkJuice. Studies show that this is an ever increasing way to get the page rank higher.

By: Mike Brewer

Mike Brewer — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:31:53 +0000

It’s not a question of belief – it’s math. But, I leave this conversation with my mind still open. It’s clear that we have two very different views of the world. Not a good or a bad thing – just different.

By: Eric Brown

Eric Brown — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:14:22 +0000

Hi Mike,
The fail comment is somewhat off the cuff and not meant to be negative, But I think most Social Media projects in the apartment space will fail, because property management companies are not participating in the conversation now, are they? How often do we hear that the PM Co didn’t talk to the resident once after the lease signing. Isn’t Social Media just a tool to Participate in the Conversation?

As for the cost, I laid it out numbers on Brent’s site. No one else has stepped to the plate with what their numbers are. And traditional marketing costs rise at nearly a one to one ratio as you add more properties, Social Media Marketing does not. The cost to operate and maintain are MOSTLY fixed. I get you don’t believe that, But if it were all that expensive, how would a little fry like us be able to sustain the costs? We couldn’t, nor would our SEO rankings and initiatives work, but they are.

Showing up on page One, Number One on Google Search is not hokus-pokus, but we undeniably do.

By: Mike Brewer

Mike Brewer — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:10:54 +0000

Good morning to you –

I am sure others, along with myself, will be anxious to hear why they will fail with their attempts at Social media. Please take the time to explain it here if you don’t mind keeping the conversation going.

As for our other conversation; it is about the time, money and resources used to achieve this end – not what you do when you get there. So, while the end has it’s place – it’s not the point of that discussion thread. It’s the untold story of the Urbane brand. And, it is the one that people need to fully understand before they enter the space. You dropped the cost of traditional paid media but you picked up the cost of making this happen. And, you have said yourself – social media is not free. So, what is the all in cost; soup to nuts? People need to know that.

Thanks for the feedback.

By: Eric Brown

Eric Brown — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:33:43 +0000

Mike, Good Morning,
Interesting post, and I agree with you that lots of folks will enter the Social Media Marketing space for apartments. I think most will fail.

Your point about SEO rankings mirrors our experience. When you search “apartments Royal Oak” Urbane Apartments comes up Page One, Number One consistently. I am pretty proud of that, but it took us awhile, and it took lots of links and lots of blog posts to get from say page four or five on Google Search, which is where we were last summer, to Page One, Number One. There are a little under 2785 inbound links to the web site.

So, If a desirable Google ranking has been achieved, what is the value of that? That was really what should have been part of our other conversation,