There are now 400 million active users on Facebook, up from 150 million in January 2009. The average user spends 55 minutes a day on Facebook. Facebook is successful because people have a desire to be part of a community.
University Gateway is the leader in how to use Facebook to market the property. The property is a 1600 bed student housing development that will be completed summer 2010.
At University Gateway, Facebook efforts commenced September 28, 2009. Today we have 2,807 fans on the site and no one is living in the building yet.
In the month of February the following occurred:
18 new fans per day
106 posts to the site
1100 total interactions between fans
10 interactions per post
309 page views per day
136 unique page views per day (unique IP address)
Bottom Line: 10 conversions (click throughs to the property website) per day (270 for all of February) to www.LiveGW.com – the University Gateway website
When valuable content is posted on Facebook, the fan base increases and the online conversation grows. As a result, brand awareness continues to grow and word of mouth marketing or known today as viral marketing improves. On average, 136 people sign on to the University Gateway Facebook page each day. In addition, each time there is an update to the Facebook page; each of the 2000+ fans receive an update on their personal Facebook page. With 309 average page views a day, it appears that people are signing in to Facebook at least twice a day to be part of the conversation. Facebook is currently the best tool to engage residents and to market directly to the people in residents’ social networks.
Facebook needs to be considered an instrumental part of a property’s online marketing plan. However, it is necessary to have a property manager who completely understands how to engage residents and effectively market through Facebook. This social media tool should be implemented and leasing agents should be trained on how to use it to maximum effect.
4 comments:
Awesome numbers, Matt! Can you share any insights into the types of content that seem to work best for your audience there? And do you know if the visitors who come to your website from the Facebook page are more likely to turn into a lead or a lease than visitors who come from search or a site like Off-Campus Housing?
Keep it up, and keep us posted ... it's great to see the measurable impact that Facebook can have on a community like this!
Thanks for the feedback Mike. The Facebook page is successful because the leasing agent that administers the site is a USC student. He knows exactly what is important to the student body and generates content that results in fan engagement on the site.
Since USC students are the target market, Facebook is utilized to tap into the social networks of the fans.
It's hard to get exact numbers of people that first heard about Gateway from Facebook, but the leasing managers have told me that several people mention the Facebook page when they come into the welcome center.
Fantastic marketing idea!
Thanks a lot for sharing that valuable information about Facebook. I think it's a good way communication and sharing your thoughts to other people.
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