Sometimes it seems like you can’t go a week without hearing some analyst, commentator, or industry insider touting the importance of increasing social engagement. But with so much of this information focusing on eCommerce sites, it can be hard to tell how to apply it to the social media campaign for your apartment community. Never fear; I have compiled a list of tips to help you take your social media campaign up a notch!

Make posts relevant to your renters

People are much more likely to respond to and engage with posts that they can relate to. Making posts that appeal to their interests, hobbies or even frustrations is a great way to increase resident engagement.

Say, for example, your local area is experiencing unusually warm weather for the time of year. This would be a great time to make a post reminding residents that “there is no better way to beat the heat than by taking a dip in Hypothetical Apartment Community’s resort style pool!” By showing empathy for their situation you are able to establish a more meaningful connection than you might have had otherwise.

Let pictures do the talking for you

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, and that can really come in handy when you are trying to keep a post under 140 characters. Using pictures to convey an  idea is a great way to  help your message stick out while making it easier for residents to digest.

Going back to the example of unseasonably high temperatures, a social media savvy property manager might post a high-resolution close-up of a glass of  lemonade, to draw the eyes of  the reader. A short caption can establish a connection between the heat and lemonade, then recommend a fresh new lemonade  recipe for those hot days. The point here is not that you  have an incredible lemonade recipe that you want to share, but that you connect with the resident on  some level – any level – within the post. Then you give them something to interact  with, like, or share with their friends. That said, if you do have a delicious  lemonade recipe, I would LOVE to try it.

 Get residents to participate

One of the most effective ways of increasing resident engagement on social media is to get them in on the conversation. If you can get residents to continue the discussion between themselves, you’ve hit the jackpot!

Encourage participation with a question about a favorite book, vacation spot, or family memory. Aim for sentimental subjects and topics that might have significant emotional connections, in order to tug on the heart strings. Obviously, you’ll probably want to stay away from anything too emotionally charged, but that’s a boundary I’ll leave you to decide.

What all these tips have in common is that they focus on crafting posts that are relevant to your residents and their lifestyles. Social media is all about the individual. Successful social campaigns will play into that dynamic, while increasing engagement, website traffic, and even your bottom line in the process! What are you waiting for? Get posting!

By: Patrick Mower