Interested in learning how to attract and retain residents through social media? Social Media Expert, Charity Zierten shares insider tips on how to use local social techniques to strengthen your brand message, building relationships and encourage loyalty with prospects and residents. She believes that in order to be more effective, it’s all about managing customer relationships and interaction at a local level.

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Local Social Media­
Is Your Competitive
Advantage: Part Two
In the previous eBook, “Local Social Media is Your
Competitive Advantage,” the author, Charity Zierten,
discussed the ever-growing importance of SoLoMo (Social, Local, Mobile
Marketing). Savvy users expect responsive website design with easy-access to
availability, rent payment, and maintenance requests. Photos, floor plans and
social integration are critical components for a local competitive advantage.
Simple, Easy, And Effective Social Marketing Strategies
Share Relevant Content Regularly
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Target Your Content To Your Local Audience
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Need More Ideas For Content?
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Capture Attention With Local Engagement Strategies
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Local Online Partnership Marketing
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Look For Leads In All The Social Places
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Incentive-Based Marketing
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The Benefits Of Advertising Through Social Networks
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Foursquare Offers New Advertising Opportunities
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Topics In Part One Included:
›› What is local social?
›› Amplifying reach at the local-level to attract and retain residents.
›› Optimizing specific social networks for local marketing
Download Local Social Media Is Your Competitive Advantage: Part One
Here, in Part 2 of “Local Social Media Is Your Competitive Advantage,” Charity
will share how to use local social techniques to strengthen brand message,
build relationships, and encourage loyalty with prospects and residents. Also
included are tips for finding and creating local content to target and engage
your local audience.
Simple, Easy, And Effective Social
Marketing Strategies
The goal of the property management team is to close more leases and
retain more residents. Utilize local social to strengthen your brand message,
build relationships and encourage loyalty with prospects and residents.
Property managers are busy, so local social marketing strategies and software
must be simple, efficient and effective.
Conversations take place every day in the leasing office. The property
management team can become a valuable community resource! The
information shared should resonate with residents and position your team as
the local community experts.
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Introduce potential residents to their neighborhood by providing access to
local content:
›› Educating about local school districts
›› Providing critical information regarding utilities
›› Sharing the best neighborhood businesses like dry cleaners, pet
groomers, Chinese takeout, etc.
›› Introducing local resources and community events
›› Linking to local government websites for city, county, etc.
›› Share tips for saving money at local businesses and community activities
Bonus: Another opportunity to stand out is to provide reassurance that
common concerns – like limited parking – are no big deal. If the property
is near public transportation like bus and/or railway, provide exhaustive
information on the service, routes and best schedules.
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Share Relevant Content Regularly
Prospects and residents expect businesses to anticipate and accommodate
their needs. A property can leverage their social audience to gather local
information for future updates. Implement a fun way that provides an incentive
for residents and prospects to create content worth sharing. The information
they provide will be far more useful than writing generic content based on a
Wikipedia article. Many properties rely on websites like Wikipedia and share
generic local information, which does not demonstrate local expertise or rank
as well in local search results.
Target Your Content To Your Local
Audience
Sharing content socially means walking a fine line between self-promotion and
social networking. Content shared should be fresh and engaging, but where
do we find it? As local ambassadors, the property team should concentrate on
curating hyper-local content. Curation is the process of locating goal-oriented
content worth sharing, adding a unique commentary (or touch of personality)
before the article link, sharing discussion points from the article, incorporating
a call-to-action, and then distributing it on the appropriate platform.
Curation takes practice! Capture real-time interest in your local community
with the use of current events. Start by compiling a list of local resources.
Research local papers, t.v. and news channels, radio stations, and websites
to curate event content worth sharing. For blog posts, utilize the Google Map
Maker to generate local maps with directions to nearby attractions, events,
schools and other points of interest. Then share the post including the map
within social updates.
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Remember the culture of the community and the social network when posting.
For example, #FollowFriday, or #FF, is commonly used on Twitter to share
other businesses and profiles of value on Fridays. When posting a #FF tweet,
include the reason(s) why others should follow the recommended accounts.
›› “They have the best biscuits in town! #FF @BiscuitBarn for specials.”
›› “Grand Opening deals at @MallofGA! #FF for exclusive updates &
discounts.”
›› “Keep up with chamber events! #FF @OurChamber”
Facebook also has a culture of sharing day-based content. From #HumpDay
(Wednesday) to #ThrowbackThursday, or #TT, these are opportunities to have
fun and share your community personality. #ThrowbackThursday’s are also a
great opening for the telling your property story:
›› “This tree has been standing in Our Town, USA since this photo was taken
in 1901! #ThrowbackThursday”
›› “Our lofts used to be a cotton mill! In honor of #ThrowbackThursday, this is
the photo of the workers in 1943. Do you know anyone that worked here at
(tag) Community Name when it was a cotton mill?”
Bonus: When posting updates, be sure to include the location of the
property by clicking the location button beneath the update dialog box. Also
remember to tag the property name whenever used within an update.
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Need More Ideas For Content?
Consider the following:
›› Financial advice, balancing your checkbook, local career opportunities
›› Testimonials, quotes and employee introductions
›› Resident stories: new engagements, marriages, babies, adoptions,
congratulations
›› Local business-related information, statistics, press releases, grand
openings, closings, sales, franchise opportunities
›› Area travel guides, how-to guides, car buying/selling/maintenance guides
›› Recycling, green cleaning, local sustainable environmental initiatives
›› Community and resident relations, being a good neighbor, pet
ownership
›› Maintenance and safety updates, weather warnings, and traffic updates
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Capture Attention With Local
Engagement Strategies
Many large brands have achieved success with social media marketing.
Unfortunately, smaller businesses are failing to see a return. Are you still
depending on the “invite your friends” feature to help your Facebook
sweepstakes and events go viral? Unfortunately, sweepstakes sharing
applications and event invitations are no longer effective.
›› Only 12% Share Sweepstakes Participation on Facebook
›› Less than 10% of Sweepstakes Shares leads to a click through
›› Only 0.23% of invitations are accepted by friends of participants
Frequent reports are released about how specific posting techniques, such
as updating a certain number of times daily or sharing at a particular time of
the day, affect the success or failure of the business’s social marketing efforts.
However, there are other opportunities to capture attention!
Local Online Partnership Marketing
One frequently overlooked strategy social campaign development for property
managers is the power of local partnerships. By teaming up with other
local businesses and professionals your marketing efforts will maximize
opportunities for success and reduce financial investment.
Property managers can effectively share the results of other local business
successes when they choose to cultivate online marketing partnerships. There
are a number of ways this can work. Citations (references or mentions)
on other local business websites are a key component of ranking
algorithms on search engines. Chamber of commerce, local newspapers,
city and county indexes, and popular local blogs are a great place to start!
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Reach out to multiple popular local online websites and request a link back
to your community in exchange for a blog post about their business.
This is an opportunity to introduce your property to the fan base of other local
businesses and drive more foot traffic to your door!
Look For Leads In All The Social Places
Keep an eye on keywords and phrases. Watch what local residents are
communicating on social networks. Use this information as an opportunity to
learn about your competition or even reach out and share a solution to their
problem!
For instance, consider a tweet from a local resident, “We’re new to the
area. Looking for a fun place to take the kids in #Houston. Any ideas?”
This is your opportunity to say, “Have you tried @BounceHouse on
Main yet? My grandchildren love to play there! Here’s a link: http://www.
houstonbouncehouse.com”
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Over 51% of Facebook users and 81% of Twitter users expect a response
to an online complaint or question within ONE DAY! If your competition isn’t
responding on Twitter, this is an opportunity for you to take the lead.
You may see a tweet that reads, “My heat at @____ isn’t working AGAIN! I’m
so glad my lease is almost up!”
Follow that person on Twitter and then wait a couple of days. If their
community doesn’t reply, respond with something like, “Ouch! Where are
you looking? We know of several communities in the area with availability.”
Incentive-Based Marketing
Create an incentive-based rewards strategy for checking-in on Foursquare.
Prospect Reward Opportunities:
›› For first time Check-ins at the leasing office, reward the prospect with a
gift card or discount for a local business marketing partner; like $10 off
neighboring pizza parlor.
›› Use those Check-In positions throughout the property tour. If they Checkin at all of the points on the tour and receive an upgrade at lease signing:
accent wall, extra storage, covered parking.
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Resident Check-In Rewards:
›› Keep residents checking-in with rewards designed to add value to your
resident relationship, make their daily life easier, etc. Affordable reward
opportunities exist within your established local business marketing
partners.
›› Encourage residents to leave tips at the community Check-in points. One
way to do this is to put $1 in the “Foursquare Tip Jar” every time a tip is
added to a Foursquare location at your property. Once the jar reaches $50
or $100, have a drawing of all of the residents who have left tips.
The Benefits Of Advertising Through Social Networks
Although direct leases from social advertising are typically unlikely, utilizing
peer influence can increase the effectiveness of advertising efforts. For
instance, Facebook sponsored check-in stories
receive the highest click-through rate (CTR) of
78% of people who search
all Facebook ad and sponsored story ads. The
locally on their phone make
Facebook Ads Benchmark Report demonstrates
a purchase.
a 3.2% click-through rate!
How does this work? Peer Influence! Let’s
walk through an example:
1. You’ve offered an inexpensive promotional reward for a first time checkin via Facebook. (Tickets to a local concert event, dinner for two at a local
partnering diner, etc.)
2. A prospect or resident (Jim) checks in to your property using the mobile
Facebook app check-in feature during the tour, sharing a positive comment
and a great photo!
3. The Facebook administrator for that property runs a sponsored-story
Facebook ad utilizing the check-in from Jim.
4. Jim’s friends, Amy and Max, see the sponsored-story within their
Facebook newsfeeds.
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5. Amy’s daughter has a new job and needs a new apartment. She feels
much better knowing Jim is moving in to the property too, so shares the
opportunity with her daughter.
6. Max is moving to the area in a couple of months and clicks through the
ad to learn more about the location of the property. It is too far from his
new job but they have referred him to a sister property in the area.
Facebook sponsored check-in stories can be expensive, in terms of cost per
impression (CPM) at $6.27. However, the investment may be significantly lower
than continually investing in other advertising opportunities with a less than 1%
CTR, like sponsored page likes, event RSVP’s, and sidebar ads.
Foursquare Offers New Advertising Opportunities
Foursquare released a brand new advertising platform for small business
on October 15, 2013 that claims to move beyond likes and clicks to bring
prospects in the door. Advertisers only pay when a prospect takes action on
the ad, either by tapping to see the property details or by checking in to the
property. The ads display to those people nearby who have checked-in or
searched for a similar place.
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Social, Local, Mobile marketing trends have forced marketers to make
adjustments to strategies in order to reach a narrow audience segment.
Integrate property websites with the tools necessary to meet resident and
prospect expectations. Incorporate social media and include local stories,
local media, and local language to add credibility to property web presences.
Effective customer service and management occurs at the local level.
Optimized social initiatives are your competitive advantage in a crowded local
market.
SOURCES:
∙∙Shareaholic
∙∙comScore
∙∙Digital Trends
∙∙Neustar Localeze
∙∙Moz
∙∙Google
∙∙Search Engine Journal
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Social media consultant Charity Zierten from Socially Engaged Marketing®, is regarded as a leading
industry expert on utilizing social media strategies for the multifamily housing industry. Charity shares
unique and innovative perspectives on the use of various social networking channels to reach residents
and prospects during national and regional apartment industry events.
Find Charity online at SociallyEngagedMarketing.com.
ABOUT APPFOLIO
AppFolio provides complete web-based property management software designed for the modern
property manager.
Learn more about AppFolio at www.AppFolio.com
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER GREAT RESOURCES
››Managing Your Online Reputation
››Recap Of Local Social Media Is Your Competitive Advantage
››Local Social Media Is Your Competetive Advantage: Part One
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