|
Jan 20
2012
|
Social Media means having our residents market for us. Don’t be scared…
Posted by: Matthew Hartman on Jan 20, 2012 13:07 Tagged in: Twitter , Technology , Student Housing , Social Networking , Social Media , Search Engine Optimization SEO , Property Management , MySpace , Multifamily , FourSquare , Facebook , Brand Monitoring , ApartmentRatings.Com , Apartment Residential , Apartment Marketing , Apartment Leasing , Apartment Community Website
|
|
It seems like over the past five years or so, an infinite number of marketing channels have emerged. We bought pages on listing sites, then we created our own property websites. Now web pages are generated for our property just by having a resident “check in” on Facbook or Foursquare. Seriously!
This makes it extremely challenging for an apartment community to have one coherent brand on the web. So what’s a marketer to do?
First, claim your facebook page! This can be as simple as going onto facebook and searching for your property name to see if it has already made its way onto Facebook without your knowledge. If you see your property in the search results, click on it and take a look…
It probably says X number of people like this, Y number of people are talking about this, and Z number of people were here (where X, Y, and Z are real numbers). This is because everytime someone adds an interest to their profile, Facebook automatically creates a landing page for that interest. So if they like where they live… Bam, landing page! The same thing happens if someone checks in somewhere…it will add it to an existing page or create a new one.
While it feels like this is totally out of your control, don’t worry – it’s actually a GOOD thing. It means (a) your residents like you, and (b) they’re telling their friends about your property (by virtue of publically checking in).
So how do you deal with it? First, look at the upper-right hand corner of the page for your site. If it says “Know The Owner” then the page hasn’t been claimed yet. Click it and add your email address.
Once you claim the page, there’s lots more you can do. Like add your availabilities and letting prospects schedule time to see the property. This just scratches the surface – you can make your Facebook Page almost a replica of your company’s website, all without having to market it since your residents are already doing that every time they like it, check in, or talk about where they live.
Matthew Hartman is the CEO of ReferBoost, a software company that helps property managers and marketers monitor and improve online reviews and create a meaningful presence on social media. Matt can be contacted directly at matt@referboost.com.
