In its earliest days of its development, social media seemed like a communication and promotional tool geared toward students and nonprofessional industries. Now, everyone is using social media to market and communicate with audiences of all demographics. Large and local businesses use their social media accounts to promote their various products and services. Individuals use their personal accounts to stay in touch with family and friends and track pages associated with their interests and hobbies.
While multifamily communities currently use their social media accounts to build buzz with local prospects about their apartment, townhouse and condo communities, many are not utilizing their pages in other extremely beneficial ways. In addition to their marketing and advertising potential, social media pages are also a great way to engage with existing residents. And establishing a healthy relationship with these current renters is essential to renewing leases and spreading positive word of mouth about your property management company.
In the following article, we share some of the easy and effective ways your company can use social media to engage with your residents and set the table for continued success.
Create a Private Social Media Group For Each Property
Everyone likes to feel special. And being invited to a private group is a nice way to help your residents feel welcome and valued in your rental community. That’s why we recommend creating a private group page on Facebook for every one of your apartment or condo properties.
A Facebook Group page is different from a Facebook company profile page. Your business profile is a public-facing social media page for targeting prospective audiences who are looking for apartment or condo rentals in your area. Your Facebook Group page or pages are private. They can only be accessed by individual accounts who have either been invited to join the page or have requested to join the page. In other words, these group pages are only available to your organization and its residents.
Once created, you can notify your residents and encourage them to join the group. Or, if you’re already familiar with their Facebook accounts, you can invite them to join this exclusive page. This page can be used by your staff to welcome and introduce new residents to the community, notify residents about upcoming special events, inform residents of scheduled or emergency maintenance matters, generate resident feedback, and so much more. This can be done through normal social media posts, live Q&A sessions, and polls. You can also encourage your residents to use this page to communicate with their neighbors or ask office staff any questions they may have.
Since your property manager or a company representative is the administrator of the page, your organization has total control over the proceedings. While this may seem like a little extra work on your part, it’s well worth the time and effort. And it’s a better alternative to having your residents create their own property page – which you cannot control.
Use Twitter to Communicate Important News & Notifications
If you’re looking for a fast and efficient way to communicate important news to your residents, using a dedicated Twitter page can be a highly effective solution. Your messages will be kept short and direct (thanks to Twitter’s strict 280 character count) and go directly to the Twitter app on their phone. Plus, residents can set-up alerts that send the messages to their email accounts in case they’re working or don’t have immediate access to their phone.
Educate Your Community with a YouTube Channel
Moving to a new apartment or condo can be overwhelming for some residents. Not only do they have to get used to the layout of their new floor plan and surrounding property, they also have to deal with amenities and appliances that may not be familiar to them. Luckily, there’s a way you can create a simple solution to their dilemmas.
Creating private YouTube Channels for each of your properties is a great way to provide an invaluable resource for your residents. Not only can you add “Welcome” videos that act as a mini-tour of your property for new residents, you can also create a series of tutorials that demonstrate how to use the various appliances and amenities in the units and the community. This is not only helpful for new residents but also existing residents who may have forgotten how to operate the various appliances or amenities. YouTube videos are also a great way to educate all residents about the various community policies, procedures and rules.
These are just a few of the unique ways you can use social media channels to stay engaged with your residents. By increasing your engagement with residents, your community may see an increase in lease renewals and overall resident satisfaction. Plus, it may contribute to positive word of mouth when current residents tell their friends, family and coworkers about the amazing folks who run their apartment or condo community.
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