Be a Resource — Share Helpful Content
TECHNOLOGY
One of the first things to realize about social media is that it’s not a
microphone for self-promotion. While there’s a time for that, interruptive
promotion isn’t effective. Rather, use social media as an opportunity to be
a resource, a thought-leader, or a value-add for your audience.
We’ve mentioned before that social media is like a cocktail party, in
which 20% of the conversa-tion should focus on you, while the other 80%
should be about who you’re talking to. Share arti-cles, recipes, local events,
restaurant openings, and quick reminders with your residents and they’ll
start coming back for more.
Resident Retention — Connect and Delight
Retaining current residents is often the best approach to fillings units.
Your leasing team will thank you after adding extra ammo for retention,
and social media is a great way to do it. When residents feel connected to
an apartment community they have more motivation to renew.
Think of social media as an opportunity to delight these residents by
sharing great happy hour specials, the top dog parks nearby, or commu-
nity events like 5ks, wine walks, or trivia nights. Fostering resident relation-
ships ultimately translates into retention, so put their needs in the spot-light
and you might be rewarded with their loyalty.
Community Engagement — Be Proactive
What’s going on in your neighborhood? Are there any upcoming events
that you can pass along to your residents—festivals, charity events, new
restaurants opening? Reach out to the sur-rounding community to start
building a relationships with local businesses. It can be a symbiotic rela-
tionship for future events, promotions, or partnerships.
Partner with local farmers markets, restaurants, movie theaters, or
fitness studios in order to ar-range special discounts for your residents; this
also provides great content for sharing on Face-book and Twitter.
Online Reviews — Listen and Learn
Renters are looking and residents are talking about you online. Online
reviews can be a scary thing for property managers; an open-source of
commentary about your property. However, ob-servation is a great source
for marketing insight. Encourage Yelp reviews regularly, rather than wait-
ing for an angry resident to speak up.
Filter through the delighted and disgruntled residents with an eye for
improvement. If residents love the appreciation weeks, valet trash service,
or prompt maintenance staff, then make these priorities to keep fresh and
consistent each quarter. But what about the dreaded complaints? For in-
stance, prove your security is tighter than a review from 6 years ago indicates.
Over-promote things like your secure and gated community, police patrols,
or neighborhood watch meetings to ensure the negatives are disproved or
perceived as positives.
www.aamdhq.org
Customer Service — Monitor and Respond
Another way to leverage social media, improve resident happiness, and
let your property shine online is quick, consistent customer service. What
are people saying about your property online? Banter with the good. Ad-
dress the bad. Think of any negative comment is an opportunity for a good
impression and make sure to address it promptly.
Renters and residents will notice the presence of property managers
on Facebook pages or resi-dent portals as a sign that they actually care
about the issues. Trust us, no response is worse than leaving an negative
comment unanswered. But of course they’re not all bad; if someone com-
ments on having a blast at the last community event, reply to those too!
Lead Generator — Attract the Renters
Surprising to some, social media can actually act as a lead generator.
As mentioned above, when all else are equal, renters are typically looking
for an apartment with an active community, great customer service, and
positive reviews. Social media can turn someone from the consid-eration
to decision stage by simply providing answers to their questions and sup-
plying appropri-ate next steps.
Promote your blog content on social media and drive users to your
website. From here, an in-bound marketing function can start to take place
driving leads into the sales funnel. Social media is a perfect avenue to first
get in front of potential residents. Don’t miss the opportunity!
Social Advertising — Target Your Audience
Once you’ve amplified your social strategy, boost your blog content,
social promotions, or apa rtment ads to the right audience. Facebook ad-
vertising offers detailed targeting capabilities to get in front of a specific
group down to the zip code, job position, salary, lifestyle, and even re-
cently moved. Boosting content through social media advertising increase
your reach, impres-sions, and engagement (which we go into more detail
in a recent blog).
Amy Johnson is a Content Strategist for Criterion.B, an
agency focused on branding and inbound marketing for the
commercial real estate and multifamily housing industry.
AUGUST 2017 • TRENDS | 27