Making Money With Facebook
Presentation for ApartmentInternetMarketing.com Conference
By: Becca Wilson, President/CEO
Last Revised: 5/5/09

What we will accomplish
• Why bother with Facebook?
• Success Stories
• Facebook 101
• Maximize Your Facebook Exposure

Why Bother with Facebook?

What is Facebook? It’s social networking.
> It’s only been around since 2004 and has 200
million active users as of April 8, 2009. Half of
the current users return daily.
> These Facebook users rent YOUR
apartments, they work for you, they hire you to
manage their investments and they are your
friends.
> Facebook now spans all age groups.
> It’s a giant ongoing conversation with a
massive digital address book of people.

If you manage your product & reputation on
social networking websites like Facebook…..
you will receive:
• Viral marketing that delivers qualified traffic = rental
income
• Brand awareness – shows you care enough to bring your
company and product TO THEM…where they work and
play…online.
• Loyal residents (customers) that connect with your brand
and work as ambassadors thru preferred employer
discounts, resident referral programs, etc.

Facebook Projection:
By Mid-June 2009, there will be as many 35-49
year olds on Facebook as 18-34 year olds.
Facebook is NOT just a target for student
housing anymore!

Nielsen March 2009 Report
• 67% of global online community visits blogs and
social networking sites.
• Global active reach is greater than email
• Facebook is visited monthly by 3 in every 10
people.
• Audience is becoming more diverse (age, race,
location, etc)
• Increase of 156% from 2007 in use of cell
phones to access social networking in the US

Mobile devices are
accessing Facebook as
much as desktop devices.
Has built in shortcuts to
social media sites like
Facebook & Myspace so
prospects and residents can
lease online and interact
with your community via
email, texting, Facebook,
instant messaging, etc.
See example:
http://21rio.com/iphone_spash.asp

In April ‘09, 60 people left 21rio.com’s facebook page to go to their
standalone www.21rio.com website. 10 people from Craigslist.

A one day history of a website traffic stats
shows Facebook has more referrals to the
apartment website than Google. Plus
notice the average number of pages
viewed.

Let’s poll our audience quickly:
•Who actively uses Facebook.com?
• Who actively uses MySpace.com?
• Who actively uses Linkedin.com?
• Who actively uses Twitter.com?
•Who actively uses YouTube.com?
•Who actively uses Orkut.com?
•Who actively uses Gather.com?

What is your goal in using Facebook?
• Expand the footprint of your brand overnight
• Network with potential new employees
• Collaborate with existing employees (private
groups)
• Connect with residents living at your communities
• Prospect for new residents
• Resources for investors & lenders
• Search engine marketing
• Market your apartment vacancies

Ok, I’m sold on Facebook, so
show me some success stories

Intencity Global – PR & Marketing Firm in NYC
Uses Facebook for client events. Sends invites thru
Facebook and invited friends & fans on Facebook to
spread the word.
Sent reminders about the event regularly – all thru
Facebook. Doubled the amount of traffic expected at the
open house. This resulted in greater than expected sales.
Posted pictures of the event afterwards and blasted the
attendees thru Facebook which brought traffic back to
Facebook to comment on the photos and give valuable
feedback about the event.

Junnoon – Indian Restaurant in Palo Alto, CA
Setup a company page on Facebook with basic information –
address, hours, prices, photos, coming events as well as reviews
from local newspapers, Zagat, etc.
Facebook visitors to Junnoon’s page can opt to become a “fan”
on the company page, instead of just a friend, which gives them
access to make reservations directly from the page.
Reservations are sales they can count on and track as sales
directly resulting from Facebook.
Junnoon also has a pay per click campaign with Facebook at a
minimum of $5.00 per day to drive additional targeted traffic to
their Facebook page.

When you share information from your “Public Profile Facebook
Page” your stories will go directly to your fan’s News Feeds. Your
fans can comment and click “I like this” which reinforces your
brand and product/service with your fan’s peers. You can’t buy
that PR!

Facebook 101 – Get Started

Facebook requires communicating….not advertising!
Think about who should be in charge of your
brand.
Do you entrust the management of your
Facebook pages to your onsite leasing team?
Can one marketing director manage multiple
Facebook pages with valuable worthwhile
content that is updated constantly?
Content is KING with social media networking.

Simple to Setup A Facebook Account

Five Types of Facebook Pages
• Individual Profile Pages
For individuals (not companies)
• Public Profile Pages for Non-Fans
For corporate brands (content open with limited interaction options –
read only type content)
• Public Profile Pages for Fans
For corporate brands (special content and offers for “fans” that is not
available to “non-fans with lots of opportunities to interact with your
company/brand)
• Group Profile Pages
Private groups collaborating
• Marketplace Pages
Marketplace gives you the ability to buy, sell, give away or ask for
anything you might need.

Example of a “Fan” Page in Facebook
Fan pages are
open to the public
so they get
indexed with
Google fairly
quickly.
Always a positive
to be indexed
(listed) with
Google.

Example of “Group” Page on Facebook

Differences Between “Group” & “Fan” Pages

More than 4 million users become fans of
Facebook Pages each day! Fans = loyal
residents & motivated prospects =
revenue!

How to maximize your
Facebook exposure &
enhance your brand with the
Facebook audience to reap
rewards?

The Exponential Power of a Resident
Referral Program on Facebook
The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the
website. 200 million Facebook users available.
Ask your residents to send out a resident referral broadcast
to their friends which is a POWERFUL endorsement.
100 residents x 120 friends each = 12,000 prospects would
see a trusted “friend endorsed” introduction to your
apartment community. If just 1% of these friends leased at
your community, then you’d have 120 new leases.

Your Facebook strategy is dictated by
your target audience.
• Document demographic information about each
community.
• Study website traffic stats for clues about your
audience.
• Research 3rd party tools like Quantcast.com and
Compete.com

Why use “events” in Facebook?
• Import your address book from your blackberry, mail
software provider, etc to invite everyone you know.
• Use “the more the merrier” by asking invitees to
invite their own friends.
• Invitees are encouraged to RSVP and invitees can
also see how many are coming and who is on the list
which is motivating.
• Facebook sends email reminders before the event to
the invitees email address on record. Keeps your
name in front of your Facebook friends.
• Send email blasts from within Facebook telling
invitees to return to Facebook to see photos from the
event.

In addition to using Events & News Feed distribution
inside Facebook, you can also send targeted updates to
the people connected to you about special offers,
promotions, new apartment communities added to the
portfolio, career openings or any other news specific to
particular places.

Cross pollinate your social networking sites
How to build a facebook badge you can place on sites like Myspace.

Building Your Facebook Strategy:
X Find existing conversations, fans, groups and events around your
brand. Don’t rule out websites like ApartmentRatings.com, Yelp.com,
etc.
X Search related fan pages, groups and events for positive mentions of
your brand or your competitors.
X Find out what your competitors are doing on Facebook.
X Test conversion tools – content, coupons, etc to define keywords
relevant to your brand, product category and target audience.

Facebook Strategy continued……..
X What can you offer people “on Facebook” that they will find
valuable?
X Are you ready to respond to your customers and encourage them to
talk about your brand?
X What assets – tools and content – can you leverage?
X Define a publishing schedule for your content and stick to it!
X Do you have your company behind this social marketing campaign
with resources available?
X How will you measure success?

Measuring return on your social marketing
investment….takes some effort!
1. Engage fans & friends – invite them to comment and
upload content
2. Provide incentives or coupons and then measure
redemption
3. Post website links to alternative sites
4. Provide opportunities like resident referrals or preferred
employer offers to enlist ambassadors for your brand &
products.
5. Add social web links to your branded website(s).
6. Use Facebook advertising to promote your products &
brand.
7. Measure ROI from Facebook – Lexicon and web stats

Contest Example on Facebook

Custom Application Written for Facebook For This Campaign Example

ForRent.com wrote a custom application for this content inside Facebook

Brand New Facebook Features
Facebook Connect
Facebook Stream
Facebook Lexicon
Other Ideas for the apartment industry….

Take Facebook profile to other websites
www.citysearch.com

Why is it valuable to use Facebook Connect on
YOUR website or an Internet Listing Website like
Rent.com?
Juicy profile information about the
website visitor – profile information you
could NEVER get them to give you
upfront while they are shopping for an
apartment!

Facebook Opens Homepage Stream
Facebook is availing the homepage/profile stream, where
users receive updates about other users, to third party
developers.
This means developers will be able to build offerings that
\"talk to\" the status, links, notes and videos that users have
uploaded onto Facebook.
Now, you'll be able to view your stream and publish
information into it from places you never could before —
like your desktop computer or your mobile phone. Your
stream will appear just as it does on Facebook.com.

Facebook launching new tracking called Lexicon

Reserve apartment units from your Facebook page

Custom Application Built To Add Guest Card
to Facebook – just launched 4/28/09
This custom built
application from
Spherexx.com
means we can
collect guest cards
from Facebook.
This monetizes this
social media website
with trackable lead
generating power!

Google’s Orkut.com – Competitor to Facebook

Using Facebook in hiring of employees
CareerBuilder.com 2008 Survey
• 22% of hiring managers use social networking websites to
research candidates.
• 33% reported they found information to disqualify potential
employees for these reasons:
41% posted info about their drinking or using drugs
40% posted inappropriate photographs or info
29% had poor communication skills
22% used discriminatory remarks
21% were linked to criminal behavior
Does your new hire application ask them if they are on Facebook?

More Resources For You:
Go to:
www.spherexx.com/aim2009facebookinfo

Becca Wilson, Pres. & CEO
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/spherexx
FACEBOOK: http://profile.to/spherexx
LINKEDIN: www.linkedin.com/in/spherexx
Spherexx.com was recently voted - 3 years in a row - the Top 10 Most
Dependable Website Designers of the Southern US by Goldline
Research and will be in Forbes Magazine in May 2009.
Hire us: http://spherexx.com/request-a-quote.asp
Bibliography http://spherexx.com/aim2009facebookinfo