The document discusses building a "Corporate Mullet" strategy for socializing brands online. A Corporate Mullet is embracing a socialized business model online like having formality in the front but a social "party in the back". It recommends engaging customers on social media, monitoring competitors, and identifying evangelists. Case studies show how apartment companies like J.C. Hart and Urbane used strategies like blogs, videos and social networks to increase traffic, engage residents, and reduce marketing costs without traditional ads. The benefits included more conversations, awareness, and measurable results from adopting this mindset.

1. Building Your Online Corporate Mullet Ideas you can implement tomorrow at work Mark Juleen, J.C. Hart Apartment Communities Duncan Alney, Firebelly Marketing Twitter: #corpmullet www.corporatemullet.com

2. REQUIRED: Social Media Understanding

3. Do you know these guys?

4. Do you know these guys? Seth Godin Malcolm Gladwell Tom Peters

5. How about these guys?

6. How about these guys? Chris Brogan Guy Kawasaki Gary Vaynerchuk

7. It’s tough out there Almost 10% unemployment Financial institutions collapsing Automakers on the brink Consumer confidence down

8. TheOpportunity Dare to care about your customers Build relationships Trust should be your goal

9. We’ll start with the Mullet

10. Famous Mullets Billy Ray Cyrus Don Johnson John Stamos Phil Collins Bono

11. The Mullet It’s famous It’s recognizable It’s evolved It’s different It’s brave It shows belongingness

12. The Corporate Mullet It’s a mindset: Dare to embrace a socialized business model online Formality is shrinking: Social is the norm Make business social: social is the party in the back Be a part of the conversations Make your brand relevant and open

13. How to build your Corporate Mullet Socialize your website Engage with your customers Monitor your competitors Identify & activate your evangelists Encourage interactions

14. Non-Apartment Industry Examples

15. Examples

16. Zappos CEO on Twitter Funny, helpful, trustworthy personality A lot of employees “tweeting $1 million in Twitter-related sales Also on Facebook and blogs www.zappos.com

17. Starbucks www.MyStarbucksIdea.com Consumer feedback Submit, vote, review in action Asking for involvement Making it happen publicly

18. Blendtec Will it Blend? video series 7 million views of iPhone YouTube sensation 5 fold increase in sales Clever, low cost www.youtube.com/blendtec

19. Yats Small restaurant group with 4 Indy locations CEO leads and believes in social media Very active Facebook profile, group and page Mobile ramp up with promotions Twitter presence Evening out sales through the week Growing sales at weak location www.yatscajuncreole.com

20. Applying the Corporate Mullet to the apartment industry

21. Why does it apply? 200,000,000 people online People business People do business with people Go where the people are

22. “A real estate transaction is a social transaction” - Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia.com

23. What is the fear? Conservative finance Fair Housing Law

24. Social media is really no different than … Outreach Resident events and parties Telephone or Email

25. Case Studies

26. http://www.homeisjchart.com

27. J.C. Hart objectives Increase exposure and traffic to company website Increase online content and improve search results Community-building to help retain existing residents Reduce marketing expenses

28. J.C. Hart strategies Optimize online content for keywords and search Replace paper community newsletters with blogs Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, & Flickr accounts optimized for brand and keywords Establish a YouTube channel and launch a resident video contest for user-generated content and testimonials

29. J.C. Hart results Traffic to website up nearly 75% compared to June 2008 Social media sites deliver traffic to main website YouTube channel received over 10,000 views in 8 weeks Eliminated Print/Guide Marketing Avg. Saving $35/unit Physical Traffic/Showings up 4.15% YTD ‘08 vs. ’09 In 6 months from page 53 to page 2 on Google for “Indianapolis Apartments”

30. Video contest a hit with residents and received good publicity

31. YouTubeWinnershttp://www.youtube.com/homeisjcharthttp://livethelife.homeisjchart.com

32. http://www.urbaneapts.com

33. Urbane Objectives One recognizable brand Use no traditional paid advertising Break away from “Apartment Commodity”

34. Urbane Strategy Engage with customers and residents Company website, Blogs, and free tools likeCraigslist, Ning, Facebook, etc. Socialize with the local community Have marketing create income

35. Urbane results 12,000 website visitors a month for 360 units - ½ main website, other ½ to Blog and Ningsite Google page 1 for “Apartments Royal Oak” Traffic growing 35% month over month VIP Program generating monthly income Still no traditional paid ads

36. Others using social media tools Bell Partners Campus Living Villages UDR

37. If you’re trying to build a brand online what might that look like? J.C. Hart Apartments Urbane Apartments UDR Apartments

38. Ideas you can implement tomorrow Get your brand name on all major social media assets. Set up Google Alerts for your brands and competitors brands Know what people are saying about you online, and participate in the conversation.

39. Ongoing strategy Hire professional help Don’t write policies Train people in best practices, learn from mistakes Monitor and measure efforts Kaizen everything

40. The Benefits Conversations Top of mind awareness Google Juice The online friend Multiplier Measurable Results Reduce marketing budgets

41. Summary

42. Building your Corporate Mullet is a way of doing business. It’s not about social media. It’s about socializing your brand online and offline! Develop a strategy and best practices, not policies, to use online tools (just like email and telephone) Reach outside your industry for inspiration Remember the online “multiplier” Being all “business” is not remarkable. You need to collaborate with “the party” in the back.

43. Want More? www.multifamilyinsiders.com

44. Mark Juleen Duncan Alney J.C. Hart, Marketing Director mark@homeisjchart.com www.theapartmentnerd.com Twitter: @mbj Firebelly Marketing, President duncan@firebellymarketing.com www.firebellymarketing.com Twitter: @firebelly