Social media is making the transition from an affordable way to perform apartment digital marketing to the centerpiece of many residential marketing plans. A recent webinar from NUVI showed how just many people engage with various social media platforms every day, and the numbers are startling.
1 hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second
500 million tweets are posted every day on Twitter.
4.5 billion likes occur each day on Facebook
It’s more important than ever that we, as apartment marketing experts, help our clients generate leads through well-curated social media pages. Here are a few ways in which social media can help the residential industry be successful in 2017.
In the residential industry, reputation is everything. Nobody chooses an apartment or even schedules a tour without first checking reviews online. If you can speak directly to your audience, you can have some control over your reputation. With social media, never before has it been so easy to reach right out and speak directly to a geo-targeted, demographically segregated audience.
At Threshold, we develop creative marketing ideas for apartments, but creativity is only effective when paired with strategy. Our social media posts are always specific to the client’s target audience, be they kids in a college town, young professionals living downtown or empty nesters looking to downsize. Our clients trust our social media team to post content with depth. Engaging social content is about more than just the product; it should also offer a glimpse of the lifestyle associated with your property.
Engaging social content turns a like on Facebook into a click on the website and a call to the leasing office.
Anyone with a little marketing experience has probably heard the phrase, “Content is King.” Not only is it catchy, but it also alludes to the fact that your message and the value you offer your audience is extremely important. However, it’s also the title of a 20 year old essay by Bill Gates. A lot has changed since 1996, and the need for engaging content is now a given. That doesn’t mean brands should ease up on the creativity, but it’s the way in which you present that engaging content that makes all the difference in an oversaturated arena like social media.
So what medium/content pairings work best in the residential industry? A good rule on social media is, “if you’ve got it, flaunt it.” Show off those amenities with Facebook 360 Photos and video tours. Offer prospects some branded floor plan layouts and links to interactive floor plan views. It’s all about getting your audience to pause for a second, and the aforementioned mediums are far more engaging that traditional mediums.
Without giving away too much of our internal strategy, we can say that potential residents want a taste of life in their new apartment, and current residents want to feel appreciated by their new apartment. The largest single payment residents make each month is their rent bill, so doesn’t it make sense that the management company receiving all that money would show them some love in return?
Whether its an update to the company’s Facebook or a new photo on its Instagram page, thoughtful content attracts people to your page, and eventually your website. You wouldn’t put an ad in a magazine without giving it some real thought, and social media content is equally as important when marketing to millennials — and its far less expensive. Check out our solutions page to see how Threshold can help your property fill vacancies through social media.