Wanted: The REAL Scoop on Using Social Media!

Would greatly appreciate the good, the bad, and the ugly of maintaining social media! If you use it and love it, please tell me why. If you used to use it, totally hated it, please give me a taste of your experience.

Some more specific questions:

1. What are your employee rules? Have employee profiles been cause for concern?
2. Have you experienced many "bot" or "pfish" type posts?
3. We have A+, campus, and C properties. Any work better/worse/not at all?
4. What is YOUR experienced chief end of social media? Marketing? Communication with residents? Boost in Google web search options?
5. How long (days, hours, minutes) does it take to effectively manage a page? Who generally does this? If site staffers, do they see the duty as distracting or burdensome?

Thanks, in advance, for sharing your vantage point!

Nice topic Julia--It will be really hard to answer some of those questions without it turning into a novel. Addressing main topic: Whether or not someone loves or hates social media may not help you. The people who love it may say that only because technology comes easier to them. Those who hate it may be the opposite and/or can't see past what they have been used to traditionally.

You should have a social media policy but its wording should really be no different than what you have already. You expect your team to be professionals 24/7 and it should be no different on these platforms.

I am not sure where you are going with the bot posts, but you have to monitor your channels, just like you monitor spam emails. I really have not seen too many outlandish problems with this.

No matter what type of properties you have, your first step should be to ascertain what platforms your residents are using. If 80% of residents on property A are not on Facebook, then it may not make sense for you to go that direction. There is much planning necessary prior to jumping onto any platform.

Social media can have a positive effect on every level of your company..marketing, outreach SEO etc

Question #5 is loaded and I have noticed numerous approaches. This again goes to your original realistic plan that will have long term effects. Overall I have seen more long term success when onsite and corporate staff are involved.

I hope this helps and kind of gets you started.

All good questions, and like Jonathan has stated there really isn't a quick answer. Mike Whaling and I discuss this often on our blogs and on our weekly podcast. Check out www.30lines.com or www.markjuleen.com and hopefully you can find a few tidbits that help you out.

I second what Mark says! There is a ton of info you can learn from both Mark and Mike-real specific application. In the Twitter world I would RT that reply.

Thanks for your input, Jonathan!

After attending a couple of workshops on social media, I was left with so many more questions than answers. A brief review of the facebook and twitter accounts of the presenters struck fear in the heart of my property owner. Staff facebook pages, alone, showed photos that were far beyond our corporate comfort level.

Most likely our A+ property is more LinkedIn than facebook. Does LinkedIn's format work well for these purposes? We are also wondering if a facebook or myspace page at our C/C- property might end up looking more of an uncomfortable police blotter than an warm, open resident dialog!

We're fumbling around, trying to find our social media voice. The more perspectives we can gain, the better. It is our hope to hear about the nuts and bolts of what it takes to maintain these forums. Our site staff is about half tech savvy and half "old school" management. Who monitors? What do they say? How often? What does oversight look like for this type of venue?

Bottom line, is it worth it?

All success and problem stories welcome!

Linkedin is used much more on a professional social level. The only failure cases I have observed so far came from those who really did not have an overall plan in the first place...it was the all fired up approach to something new and exciting and then crashing and burning. Education is a good first step... and yes it is worth it. Statistically people on all levels are shifting their thinking and decisions. Keep an eye on some of the cool apartment marketers on this site and you will learn a lot. In the meantime enjoy this YouTube video.

Hi Julia,

First let me say this is a phenomenal topic. We are at a new age in our lives that online social networking (social media) is a key component in our success in establishing who we are and what we have to offer, no matter what profession you are in. For example, my wife and I recently were looking for a new pediatric doctor for our daughters, and if they didn’t have a website, we didn’t even consider calling them. We think, if the professional does not care to tailor to the new world, then obviously they are not worth our business. It may sound crazy to you, but think about it. If you truly want to keep your business up and running and you want to really share your experience and success with potential and current clients, wouldn’t you take the time to establish a website and join a few local online social Medias? I would!

Another example, I rejoined Apogee New Dawn as their VP of Affordable Housing, but I realized that my passion was not truly in the operational world but actually in the social world. While, all my life I have been what I believe a good operational guy, I wanted a change in life and decided to transition over to Business Development and Client Relations, where I get to explore the world of Social Networking. As soon as I started my new role with the company, I realized that the key component for my future success would be networking. I visited the traditional local chambers, churches, local developers, etc. But I realized that the world is at a new age, and that most individuals are now networking online, that’s then new social empire. As soon as I started joining online social networks such as MFI, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. I noticed a huge increase in my exposure, and immediate connections with other people in needs. This year alone, I have successfully acquired over 5 new communities thanks to my online social media, 3 of which simply a reconnection of old clients found online.

Now, online social media is not always the best thing for everyone. For example, I have not found Facebook, Myspace or even Linkedin to be successful in marketing rental communities. Also, our company has recently taken the approach of denying access to onsite employees to the above social media websites, because it was found that many of them were spending more time chatting with friends and updating their profiles vs. providing our customers with the best quality of service. I believe it takes a responsible adult to be able to understand the appropriate usage of social media.

If you are going to use the online social media for your company advertisement or community promotion, I would suggest you assigned someone from your marketing or corporate sector. This individual should update each post at a minimum three times a day. Once in the morning, once mid-day and once before close of business. This way you can hit the people just arriving in the morning checking their emails and sites, people during their lunch break surfing the net, and people at home relaxing.
And updating their profile.

Hope this helps! Sorry for the length

Thanks, Pedro. Your insight from the front line is helpful. Much to chew on. Appreciated!

Julia, I think it's best to consider why people use these various sites in the first place. LinkedIn is typically used for professional networking -- it might not be the best place to promote your community, but it could be a good place to find local business owners for your outreach marketing efforts.

If you have honed your community's "voice" offline, you already have your social media "voice" ... you just need to communicate that offline voice in a very real, very human way online.

To address your bottom line question, you'll get out of it what you put into it. Is email worth it? Is using the phone worth it? If you look at social media as an opportunity for your business to improve the way you communicate - with residents, prospects, team members, investors, industry peers, etc. - I promise you'll find value in your efforts. After all, you're here, right? Good luck!

I'm coming from a slightly different perspective, as my husband and I run a web company, and we're hoping to start tailoring services to the multifamily living community. So, while I'm not as familiar with the apartment angle, I am fairly familiar with the technology angle.

The advice I would give someone in the apartment industry is the same that I would give any business owner.

Social media does not have to be all or nothing. You don't have to jump into the deep end. Pick one area of social media (for apartments, I think a Facebook page that simply feeds to Twitter is a great start). Post one time per day (posting too often on Facebook can negatively impact where you show up in the newsfeed). Respond to any comments, good and bad.

Once you've become really comfortable with this, you can decide what step two is. Perhaps it's running a contest for your residence. I saw an apartment Facebook page today where the management asked people to post pictures of their pets, and the residents voted on which was the apartment favorite. Cute and engaging.

Once you're really comfortable with Facebook (or whatever area you choose as your starting point), you can move onto the next platform. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If you look at the aspirational facebook pages that intimidate you as a LONG term goal (think 1-2 years, minimally) and start by just adapting one of the things that those sites do well, I think you'll be a lot more inspired. I'm happy to answer any questions. Hope this helps.