Is 25% penetration for social media-based apartment marketing good?

Just got a press release from Apartments.com, which had the following note:
The survey results revealed 71 percent of Apartments.com visitors are active on social media, but only a quarter use it during their apartment search.
I find it odd that they used the term "only" here. In an earlier blog by Jen Piccotti of SatisFacts, they cited an adoption of only 1.24% of prospects using social media in their apartment search! Now granted, survey wording is probably completely different, and I'm not sure if 25% indicates out of 100% or out of the 71% they mentioned previously, but regardless, that seems like a monumental leap ahead for social media apartment marketing!

Your thoughts?

To be honest I think they use the word "only" because they are trying to show that when compared to regular Apartments.com users (or all ILS ones) a low percentage of people are using social media. It's easy if you're an ILS to see it as a competitor.

I would be curious to see a new SatisFacts survey for 2010 and see what type of increase we see. I don't want to kick the tires on this discussion again but I think we all know that social media should be used for Resident Retention first and its byproduct can be more rentals. IMO of course.

BTW... I have never seen a post with over 2,000 views and over 50 comments. Wow Jen. What would be cool I think Brent would be something which showed top posts of all time, in case someone missed it. (I think with over 2,000 though in this case EVERYONE saw it.)

It's social networking people. It's not social apartment searching.

I'm sure there are plenty of iterations that might work, but I agree with Bill that the #1 benefit to a community directly is retention. That said, I see a lot of potential for an ILS. In other words, I don't see a person looking up a community fan page as it is now, but using an ILS app might be intriguing.

And Mark, I simply think social networking mimics real life, and in real life, people shop together. Maybe not as much for apartments, although that does happen, but online social shopping has merits in my opinion...

This is a tired discussion. The metrics to evaluate success of marketing tactics in this space are whacked, leading to such debates. Social networks (and/or the insights they offer) allow brands and consumers to have meaningful, personalized and highly relevant conversations. Anyone who doesn't see how this adds value to both marketers and consumers and asks questions like "What's the CPL for this?" or "But is this going to help my SEO?" simply doesn't get it.

If you start with the simple goal of improving the quality of the dialogue you have with consumers (which means you have to learn more about them, add more value at every touchpoint, show empathy, etc), it's pretty simple to see how social fits into your toolkit. It vexes me why this conversation always comes back to 1) some aggregate stat on social's role in apartment search or 2) some debate over whether social is for acquisition or retention.

My first thought, Tim, was that was a very strange comment coming from you, but then I saw that you changed companies! Anyway, I don't quite understand your dislike of trying to apply a stat to this discussion. Understanding fundamental consumer trends on a very new concept is still warranted, in my opinion. Even when understanding the importance of improving the "quality of the dialogue", that doesn't prove out whether prospects would ever simply make it to a community's online locations, no matter how in-tune they were with their current customers needs.

I have a tough time with data like this, because everyone has a different opinion about what "using social media for apartment search" means. Heck, we all have different definitions of "social media" itself.

While I too want to understand the fundamental shift in consumer trends, I think this data becomes much more valuable when we ask specific questions like, "Have you ever started a search for a product on Facebook?" or "Have you ever asked your Facebook friends for recommendations or feedback about a specific product?" or "Why do you continue to follow X brand on Twitter?" Then, we can really start to understand how potential customers are using these sites and how we can develop a content strategy that meets their needs. I've expanded on some of these thoughts over at MF360 if you care to dig into the rest of the data from the survey.

@Brent #1 "direct" benefit, retention? I disagree. That is a benefit, but not #1 or "direct". I have no evidence, nor know of anyone that has had more renewals as a "direct" result of social media. If anyone would like to share that story it would be great, but I think we'll hear crickets.

Your "social shopping" point doesn't jive with me either. "People shop together"??? How does that tie into having an app? The idea of people discussing their purchases, sharing reviews, articles, or websites makes sense, but I don't see how that relates to an app. "Social shopping" is sharing and networking. Not an app.

I agree with Tim that this conversation is tired. People keep trying to justify it by attaching a cost per lead or lease statistic to it. That's just short sighted. What's funny is that the idea of measuring this is so that people can prove it's worth to owners and executives. However, if marketers would just present social media as "networking" vs "marketing" it likely would be more accepted. What's the value of a Chamber of Commerce membership? What's the value of belonging to the Apartment Association? What's the value of having resident parties/events? What's the value of outreach to local businesses? What's the value of going to the ball game with your local banker? What's the value of playing golf with your local insurance provider?

We justify all of these groups, activities, time and expenses without direct ROI, but once our fingers hit a keyboard or mouse that somehow changes. I'm just tired of the ROI conversation. Owners and executives have gotten where they are today mostly because of networking. Why marketers have to justify online social networking differently just doesn't make sense. It may be different, but it's much the same.

@Mark That wasn't what I was meaning - I wasn't implying that a community does some great thing in social media and their residents rush to go renew their lease or anything. I was just agreeing with Bill's assessment of the relative value compared to marketing.

Second, an app can be a lot of different things, including enhanced ways to share items with their friends and get feedback. Shoot, RentMineOnline is a social shopping app that inherently says, I shopped here, you should too, although they get a kick-back in the process.

The conversation IS tired. @Mark I think it's easy for you to forget that not everyone has people at the top who SEE the light through the trees. I'm not saying that C-levels do a bad job, I am just saying that not everyone is as progressive as some. They want NUMBERS to justify the time spent. As we all know numbers are extremely difficult (I would say impossible) to find related to social media. Believe me, I find this sort of justification short sighted but for some people out there it's the reality. "Show me how this will make me more money before I invest time and money into it." Umm.... The eternal battle between Marketing and C-level continues.