Tracking Traffic

And I'm not talking the married kind of engagement. (although that can be pretty pricey too)

I'm talking the price of engagement in regards to social media. I was not a bandwagon social media user. I wanted to understand how to engage and converse with our residents and potential residents before I jumped on the social media train. I also wanted to understand how to measure engagement and then translate that to value for our clients. 

For me, the  issue with social media is not the time it takes to post, blog or tweet, the issue is engagement. Are you maximizing on opportunities of engagement? Are you talking at your residents and prospects are talking with them? Having thousands of fans or followers are great but what are you doing with them?

What gives you the best engagement bang for you buck? I have included my top three.

DON'T BE A NEWS FEED HOG

Posting and tweeting are a marathon, not a race. If you clog up their news feed, they are sure to unfollow or unsubscribe. Studies show a post every 3-4 hours is the sweet spot.

INSIGHTS

Are you looking at your insights page? Your insights page has a wealth of information and demographics. Use that to your advantage when posting. 

FEEDBACK SCORE

Look at your most successful post (in terms of likes, comments, impressions, re-tweets, etc) and figure out your feedback score. For the posts with the highest feedback percentage, do you see a pattern of posts people engage with most... sports, fashion, decorating ideas? 

I benchmark everything. As a Director of Marketing, making sure my marketing team's time is well spent requires just that, benchmarking everything. Have we figured out the secret formula to social media, engagement and ROI.. not yet but I'm working on it. :-)

Happy posting!

Sparkle Hammond, M.Ed.  First Communities | Director of Marketing
shammond@firstcommunities.net
www.century-apartments.com | www.facebook.com/centuryapartmenthomes

So, you've read through countless fun blogs from within and outside the industry and yes, you've smiled to yourself as you've had to thumb through silly posts about the author's dogs or sunglasses and/or other gimmicky things to keep you reading. And yes, you've gone a step above and read through more authoritative beats like Mashable or TechCrunch or HBR to yes, still find yourself having to smile and get through gimmicky articles on social media. 

And in that time frame of lost minutes  (and yes, hours), you were trained over and over to think that social media was about #fans #followers #tweets #comments #posts and other "measurements". Well, guess what they were wrong and you were wrong to believe it. These vanity metrics simply don't add up to leases or renewals. At the very stretch, they are ONLY good for brand lift, which you likely will ONLY consider once you can DEMONSTRATE you have a handle on building true marketing and leasing ROI. Otherwise, I give it to your boss to tell you to eat it and find something else better to do with your time.

And the reason is simple, we as an industry need to spend the very little time we do have to market (how many of you truly have a full-time dedicated marketing manager on site???) on getting a return from it. 

It seems like the debate continues on and on regarding which ILS model is the best.  At the recent NMHC Tech Conference people were tweeting about it.  At a recent Apartment Guide conference people were tweeting about it.  It seems that at every conference people are tweeting and talking about it in recent years, let alone all the blog posts and discussions online about the topic.  So, I’d like to set the record straight by saying:

We’re all a bunch of suckers when it comes to buying leasing traffic.

Yes, you read that correctly.  We’re buying gimmicks, and I’m guilty myself.  It sounds so great on the surface.  ”Pay only for what you get” is the promise.  I have to ask though, what exactly do we get?

Do you know where your residents are coming from? Knowing the source of your leads – especially the ones that convert to leases – is critical in terms of determining where to spend your advertising dollars. Here are five friendly suggestions on how to keep track of your various lead sources:

1) Just ask – It may seem obvious, but providing a quick and simple survey as part of your leasing process will go a long way in determining where your residents are coming from. Keep your survey short, but specific. For example, knowing that someone found your property online isn’t quite as helpful as knowing if they found you on and ILS like Apartments.com or Craigslist. Keep in mind after visiting several apartment search websites, your residents could be confused about which ones they used. Try giving them a visual representation of websites that you advertise on to help jog their memory.

2) Stay organized – If you use multiple Internet Listing Services, be sure you are keeping track of how many leads you receive from each one. Note the date, prospect’s name, lead source and if you have followed up. This will make it easy to cross reference information to make sure it’s accurate.

About six months ago, I wrote about the changes I was seeing in marketing,  concessions, and targeted prospects in my specific comp market... It was suggested to me that I complete a follow up to Prostituting the Product.

So away we go... In the merry adventures of market comp re-shopping, I was astounded to see that very little has changed locally.  Unfortunately, my market suffers due to influx of new multifamily builds and increasing home purchases, which has reduced traffic across the board and continued to train prospects to expect the very best in concessions.

The Apartment Leasing Kit - Be Prepared!

Throughout the years, I have created a Leasing Kit for each Property I have managed.  I have found this Kit to be extremely helpful and the most vital tool for the Leasing Team.  I hope this helps your Team as much as it has mine!

The leasing kit is your map to a successful and thorough presentation.  Although the leasing kit is designed as a sales tool, it must also be attractive.  Use a high quality binder and keep it organized at all times.  Papers should not be sticking out of the edges, and you should always be prepared with enough documents for your clients.  Do not run out!

The contents of the leasing kit may vary depending on the needs of each Property, but make sure to include the following:

• Floor Plans – Include room dimensions such as wall lengths, window sizes, linear feet of closets, storage capacity, etc.  Include the special and unique features found in each floor plan and location throughout the Community.  You can never have too much detail for your prospective residents!   Example:  All A2’s on the 2^nd floor have vaulted ceilings.
• Site/Property Map – Indicate the exact location(s) of where you have available apartments. 
• City and Neighborhood Maps – Include public transportation locations and routes, shopping and business districts, schools, grocery stores, etc. 
• Reference Page – Names and addresses of schools, medical facilities, areas of special interests, etc. 
• Leasing Collateral – Brochures and business cards are vital.
• Tape Measure – Assist your prospective resident with furniture placement and other special needs.
• Calculator – You never know when your prospective resident will inquire about a "pro-rated rent" or what the average utilities and rent add up to monthly.  Be prepared!
  
• Community Newsletter – Share while on your tour and discuss upcoming Community Events.
• Rental Applications/Rental Criteria – While on the tour, offer a rental application once you you’re your prospective resident is ready to lease.  This is a great closing technique.
• Apartment Availability Report – Never leave the Office without your Availability.  You never know if your prospective resident will inquire about other apartments and their availability. 
• Notepad/Guest Card – Document any questions that require follow up by the Property Manager or Maintenance Manager.
• Important Information Sheet - A list of all the important, daily contacts (vendors, repair technicians, etc.) the Property utilizes. 

Your leasing kit should contain a clip to hold the guest card.  This will help insure that you do not forget your client’s name!  Use the Guest Card to write comments and to continue gathering qualifying information.  This is a great place to write down pet’s names, amenity preferences, etc.  The more information you write down, the more your client will feel secure and comfortable knowing they have someone working with them that cares about their interests and not just a commission.  Remember to HUMANIZE yourself!  No Used Car Salepersons!

Having the client’s guest card with you will eliminate the need to “interrogate” them again for their information as well as showing that you are organized and very thorough with your tours.

Thank you!

Chris Hyzy

By Peter Lamandre, Better By Design Real Estate, Scranton, PA

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” - Benjamin Franklin

We all work hard to build our reputations. I was speaking with a potential property management client yesterday, when I asked him if he had any questions about my firm. His reply was simple; “Yes, are you honest?” I chuckled and reminded him that he was a referral from one of our oldest clients. The fact of the matter is that people like to do business with those they know, like, and TRUST. In property management the TRUST part is a big piece — after all the owner of the property is basically saying here is my single biggest asset, you’re in charge; please make me lots of money.

 There are multiple ways to leverage foursquare to advertize your community, flaunt property traffic, and ultimately increase your property’s bottom line.  One of the best parts about foursquare is that little to no managing needs to be done by the location for visitors to check-in and share your community virally.  However, by getting involved and knowing how to maximize your property’s foursquare potential, you can truly get the most out of this valuable social tool.  Listed below are a few simple steps to follow to reach Apartment Marketing bliss on foursquare.

Today a prospect told me she went to a seminar on Search Engine Optimization, and that one speaker said building back links was important, while another said it wasn't. Then, she asked me exactly what a back link is, and do they matter?

First of all, a back link is a link from another website to yours. Sometimes, they are also referred to as inbound links. This is different from internal links which are links from one page to another within your own website.

According to current webmaster resources published by Google, links are still a vital part of the SEO equation. A link counts as a “vote” for a page on your website. All things being equal, Google will put pages with more quality inbound links higher in search results. In fact, this was a key component of their original search patent.