Austin, Texas — Photos and information integrate into the property website.
Austin, Texas — A website for a student housing property is taking social media marketing in a new direction.
Prospective residents can visit the 33° North website, log in with their Facebook credentials, and see the future property personalized before their eyes.
Fountain Residential is developing 33° North in Denton, Texas, which serves the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University. The 427-bed property will welcome students in fall 2013. Grand Campus Living will manage.
Grant Chambers, director of Interactive for Catalyst, a student housing marketing firm that developed the site, says it’s a targeted and effective way to market to such a technologically sophisticated group as students.
“This is our way to push the boundaries toward a completely new experience on the web,” Chambers says.
Once a visitor logs in, the website pulls photos and information from a Facebook account. A “Snapshot Tour” tab then mixes property photos with personal photos. A personalized greeting is displayed on the homepage, and photos from the account end up on the walls and in coffee table books as the user scrolls through the site.
Chambers compares statistics from the 33° North website with approximately 60 other student housing property websites and says it experiences higher page-per-visit and average-visit-duration numbers, and lower bounce rates.
“In time, I hope and expect these engagement numbers to go even higher,” Chambers says. “If you’re in the field of marketing to the demographic of students, you have to wholeheartedly believe Internet and social media savvy matters.”
— Lynn Peisner