URBANE LIVING Free eBook Coming Soon Urbane Lab Project #042609

April 26, 2009
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WHY FINDING AN APARTMENT FASTER WILL ENHANCE YOUR SEX LIFE

Much is being written these days about creating a Community Blog for your apartment community. There is a crush of supporting evidence, most recently at Boston.com that the manor in which folks make their purchases today is changing.

Much like full service gas stations were once the norm, where you even got your windshield washed by the station attendant, those are distant memories, at least for those of us old to enough to remember, so will traditional marketing also join the ranks of past dinosaur memories.

Keeping with that trend, we are working on our first eBook, titled WHY FINDING AN APARTMENT FASTER WILL ENHANCE YOUR SEX LIFE, which will be a Free eBook aimed at helping local prospects find an apartment faster, and some other fun facts, hopefully adding value to the prospects apartment search adventure.

NOT A ONE WAY STREET ANYMORE
David Meerman Scott is an online thought leadership and World Wide Rave marketing strategist. Scott’s ideology “the new rules of marketing & PR” is that marketing and public relations is vastly different on the Web than in mainstream media. He says

That the “old rules” of mainstream media (which he asserts do not work on the Web) are about “controlling a message” and the only ways to get the message into the public domain using mainstream media is to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write about you. He says that the rules of marketing and PR on the Web are completely different. Instead of buying or begging your way in, Scott says anybody can “publish their way in” using the tools of social media such as, blogs, podcasts, online news releases, online video, viral marketing, and online media.


NUMBERS PLEASE

We agree with this new trend at Urbane, and our numbers support our direction. Our Urbane Brand is outgrowing our apartments. To illustrate this example,
• We only have 360 units,
o But over 500 facebook friends (and growing daily),
o 850 myspace friends
o Over 6000 monthly visitors to our blog (and growing at 35% per month)
o We are approaching 150 members on our Urbane Lobby.
o Our combined web sites, UrbaneApts.com, UrbaneLobby.com and UrbaneBlog.com are drawing over 14,000 visitors per month and growing.

And, we do no paid ads, print or internet, which completely flies in the face of typical marketing. Mike @30Lines continues to tell me that is like showing up to the match with one arm tied behind our back. I believe him, but just want to prove the point that Social Media works,

The point here is we have leveraged 360 units, and Built a Brand that extends beyond our Apartments. I long to try these ideas on a regional level, and leverage the power of say 3000 units. I get that folks don’t believe it will work or scale, but I think differently.

Lets start by comparing numbers, We have posted ours, what are yours?

Note: Make sure the Marketing Studio, PR Firm or Consultant you are paying for advice, if you are using one isn’t Living in a Shadow We are speaking from actual experience, not theory, actual numbers, not estimates and We Are practicing What We Preach. We are choosing to spend our marketing dollars differently, and with exceptional results.

Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience.

He also established The Urbane Way, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine.

You can connect with Eric_Urbane on Twitter.

Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications;

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