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Local Social Media Is Your Competitive Advantage: Part TwoIn 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 2

Share Relevant Content Regularly 4

Target Your Content To Your Local Audience 4

Need More Ideas For Content? 6

Capture Attention With Local Engagement Strategies 7

Local Online Partnership Marketing 7

Look For Leads In All The Social Places 8

Incentive-Based Marketing 9

The Benefits Of Advertising Through Social Networks 10

Foursquare Offers New Advertising Opportunities 11

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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 StrategiesThe 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 AudienceSharing 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 StrategiesMany 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 Check-in 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 all Facebook ad and sponsored story ads. The Facebook Ads Benchmark Report demonstrates 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 check-in 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.

78% of people who search locally on their phone make a purchase.

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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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SOURCES:

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

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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.

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