Social Networking

Social Media is powerful—that’s pretty much recognized across the board. But a massive social following doesn’t just happen overnight (unless you're like Jeremy Lin or Madonna). Which is why it can be beneficial to promote your community’s virtual presence in the real world.

Here are 21 examples of how businesses create visibility for their social media platforms through means which are offline. Some tactics could clearly translate to the multifamily biz, others would take a bit more creativity. So to get you thinking...

Dillard’s Breezeway Billboard - In a fairly basic attempt, Dillard’s invites shoppers to get updates on special offers and events through their social media platforms, by placing a sign near the store’s entrance. Easy, simple, to the point. 

With social media constantly changing, it can seem like the options are endless, so where do you start? Look no further!  Here are 25 things you should be doing with social media right now:

1. Set up an account and start taking pictures with Instagram.  It is an easy photo taking and sharing app that was recently purchased by Facebook, so there are big things to come!
2. Create a Pinterest board of apartment-friendly decorating ideas for your residents.
3. Partner with a popular neighborhood restaurant to provide your residents with a Facebook exclusive offer.  Post a status update with coupon code to redeem 20% off.  It will make your fans feel really special.
4. Tweet street cleaning schedules to make sure your residents don’t get tickets.
5. Take a poll on your Facebook page asking residents what brand of coffee they would like in the lobby this month, then let them know you listened!
6. Choose a resident to highlight as your Resident of the Month on Facebook in an effort to help everyone get to know their neighbors.
7. Create a Facebook group for your employees to swap ideas, ask questions, give praise for a job well done and get to know each other.  Make sure the group is set as private.
8. Start Trivia Tuesdays on Twitter and give away small prizes to your residents for correct answers.
9. Ask your residents to Like you and follow you on social media websites!  You would be surprised how simply asking will help grow your fan base.
10. Keep your LinkedIn company profile up to date with current job openings and company information.  You can recruit top talent this way.
11. Read multifamily industry blogs, like Multifamily Insiders and Apartments.com/blog, to stay on top of trends and news.
12. Start a blog that provides relevant apartment living, neighborhood and community information for your residents.
13. Respond to all comments and mentions on social media, whether positive or negative, in a timely, professional manner.
14. Create Facebook events for your community get-togethers so residents have all the information on the website they check most often, as well as the ability to see who else is attending.
15. Tweet the weather forecast first thing every morning to help your residents decide what to wear.
16. Host a charity like-a-thon and donate a certain amount of money or volunteer hours for every new Like you get on Facebook during a period of time.
17. Add your social media profiles to all of your current marketing materials, so people know you are active on those websites.
18. Start accepting maintenance request via your Facebook wall.  Make sure to respond to each request and follow up after the job is complete.  This will show current and prospective residents how great your customer service is.
19. Create a Facebook application with your leasing office and community staff photos and bios, so your residents know who to go to with questions, as well as the names of the people that make their community run smoothly.
20. Tweet fun, easy recipes that residents can make during the work week.
21. Wish residents happy birthday on Facebook or Twitter.
22. When the first of the month is rolling around and rent is due, tweet out a reminder for residents.
23. Create a social media policy and training course for your employees to ensure they understand the importance and responsibility of online behavior.
24. Capture nice things your residents are saying about you online and repurpose them in marketing materials or in a slide show that plays on your lobby TV’s.
25. Monitor mentions of your property management company name, community name and neighborhood on social networking websites and respond accordingly. 

Resident Social Media meets Outreach Marketing

Pick a box…Do you like me? Yes, No or Maybe.  Remember when getting important information was as easy as passing a note in gym class, checking a box and passing it back?  It still is!  The beauty of the internet and social media (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) allows us to find out all kinds of pertinent information on our current residents and potential new residents too!  This is a perfect marketing marriage!  This strategy, much like this post, is quick and easy to apply.

Whether you are just getting started with your social media strategy or you’re paving the way for others in the industry, it is imperative to have a policy in place.  In this digital era, your employees need to be well versed in appropriate online behavior when they are representing, not only themselves, but  also the brand.  Policy can be a scary word for employees, which is why your social media policy should really be more of a set of guidelines.  Here are a couple tips to get you started on your set of guidelines:

1.    Team Effort – Creating a social media policy at your company should be a team effort.  Gather a cross-functional group from departments like PR, legal, strategy, sales, marketing and senior leadership.  All of these people will play an important role in crafting your guidelines.

2.    Common Sense – Make sure to include guidelines that you may think are common sense in your policy.  You cannot assume everyone thinks the same way and it is better to be safe than sorry.  Some examples of this would be:

Unfortunately, it’s sort-of a part of my job description to monitor Twitter activity surrounding industry conferences in far away, sunny places and look with envy upon attendees’ waterfront-hotel-“look at my awesome view!” instagram portraits. But last month, as I watched the pictures, tweets, and facebook updates roll in from the Texas Apartment Association Education Conference, I became increasingly convinced: these guys got game. I’ve seen industry conferences of national audiences that struggle to get this sort of online buzz. And here this conference in San Antonio was the talk of the town — because you see, if hashtags were municipalities, #TAA2012 was booming like Skagway during the Klondike great gold rush.

Well, curiosity got the better of me. Using online stalking skills innate to all people under 30 — with maybe the exception of those associated with amish communities — I got in contact with Joel Nihlean, TAA’s Marketing & Communications Manager, who generously agreed to an interview. As I anticipated, Joel’s a social media rock star. With a strong background in event management, web writing, public relations, and graphic design, he has successfully planned, managed, and implemented the association’s marketing programs and e-communications since he started working with them in 2010. Also, he’s an unabashed, self-professed nerd; so we were fast friends and he taught me the secrets to becoming a pinball wizard (step 1: kicka%^  Alf tattoo)

By Justin Sherin

In documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in advance of its initial public offering, Facebook revealed that it now has 901 million monthly active users, compared with 680 million just a year ago. The documents also state that over 500 million users engage with the site on mobile devices.

In preparation for my upcoming webinar, “Effectively Posting on Facebook”, I thought it would help to put together a list of factors that indicate your Facebook Fan Page is floundering.  So many people use their Facebook Fan Page in a “checklist” mentality, where they make a post, mark it off a list, and then consider it a success!  But all too often, if you are seeing these signs, it means that you are not reaching your fans, or they simply don’t care about what you are posting!  Here are five signs your Facebook Fan Page is failing:

1)      The only people who “Like” your page are other industry professionals – Obviously this doesn’t necessarily apply to suppliers, but for apartment communities, this is about effective as having your Aunt Susie as a fan of your page.

2)      You have no engagement – Let’s be blunt.  If you consistently make a post and get hardly any comments or likes, then not only are your fans not enjoying what you have to say, but Facebook may not even be showing them your posts!

Do you have a favorite Facebook app? Farmville? Texas Holdem Poker? Causes? BranchOut? Mafia Wars? For me, I can barely find enough time to respond to notifications, let alone exploring apps; however, one of Facebook’s newest apps has managed to capture my attention. Earlier this week Facebook partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Opower in the release of a new “social energy app.” The Opower app allows Facebook users to compare their energy use with friends and enter energy-saving competitions.

Through this Facebook app, they hope to increase awareness of energy efficient practices and empower people to make more economical decisions. The thinking is that if every household reduced energy use by just 1%, it would cut more than $1.6 billion a year from Americans’ energy bills and carry the equivalent impact of 1.2 million homes going off-the-grid.  At this point, 20 million households are eligible to use the app’s “Utility Connect” feature, which allows automatic, monthly updates on actual utility usage from select participating utility providers. 

Last week Blackberry/RIM and Best Buy were two businesses that went on a list of dying companies.  It's often hard to predict what the future holds, and we have a tendency to get tunnel vision when it comes to our own businesses.  It's unfortunate these companies have found themselves to be in dire straights, but for me I look at situations like this as an opportunity to reflect on my own business and industry. What may look like a solid model today, may not be tomorrow.  With that, I'd like to share my list of five multifamily marketing/tech models that may be in trouble.

1. The ILS - I've actually been known to say that the ILS is an absurd marketing idea.  While I may have been trying to generate some controversy with that statement nearly 3 years ago, it's interesting to think today I actually believe the ILS model is in trouble a bit.  At least the way the big players look today.  If you look at Apartments.com, ApartmentGuide.com, ForRent.com, Rent.com, Move.com, etc., you'll find their models really haven't changed much since they started.  However, the way people search online is changing.  We may see a few fall off over the next 5 years if they don't evolve in an aggressive way.

2. Pay Per Lease Marketing Model - As tracking becomes more sophisticated we're finding (and concluding) renters are using more than one source to find an apartment.  Is it fair to give all the credit to a single source and pay them a premium for it?  I say NO FRIGGIN WAY!  Marketers are getting smarter and this model is a gimmick that has taken advantage of people for too long.  I think this fad will most definitely pass in the near future as pay per lead or flat subscription pricing will win.

If you can properly identify flippers, glitz, and pageant crack, then like me, then you’ve probably tuned in to watch TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras a time or two (or twelve...). The hit TLC show explores the world of child beauty pageants — little girls (and boys) poked and prodded by ill-judging parents to parade around on stage with makeup, spray tans, and outrageous costumes, in a quest for 3ft-tall crowns and fans of 100 dollar bills. I might as well fess up: I’m one of those self-righteous hypocrites who’s shocked and appalled, but just. can’t. stop. watching. It’s an absolute train wreck and I can’t look away!

I hope and pray that we never encourage the children under our care to emulate those on TLC, but while we’re on the subject, our Twitter accounts shouldn’t look like Toddlers & Tiaras either. And I’m not talking photoshopped profile pics; if that’s how you roll, I’m not gonna judge. But if you’re managing a Twitter account associated with a property or business, it’s particularly important to keep your voice in check.