There are always a lot of questions about all the different advertising choices available to apartment marketers, not to mention the various cost models offered by many of these partners. We wanted to see if you preferred one pricing model over the other … here are some of the highlights from what you had to say:

Why should I want to pay for leads? How do I know if they are any good?

Link to Q1 highlights

My company HATES cost per lease. I think it’s really fair. What are the benefits of Cost Per Lease?

Link to Q2 highlights

If I had to pick *one* model, would it be pay per lead, pay per lease or straight ILS? And why?

Link to Q3 highlights

More Resources:

• Full transcript from the January 7th #AptChat
• Refine ROI with Actionable Marketing Analytics by Steven Everett, Director of Marketing / Regional Director at Thies & Talle Management
• Why Cost per Lease is a terrible metric and what you can do about it by Bill Szczytko, IT Manager for Maryland Management

Where do you stand on the cost-per-lead vs. cost-per-lease debate? Do you have a preference? What about flat subscription advertising packages? Share your experiences and leave your feedback in the comments.

With that in mind, we asked Mark Juleen and DJ Waldow to help us understand how to get more out of our email marketing efforts. Mark (known to some as the Apartment Nerd) is the Director of Marketing for JC Hart Communities in Indianapolis, and DJ is the Director of Community at email service provider Blue Sky Factory.

They’re certainly not the only ones with something to say about the topic … it was exciting to see a number of faces – new and old – jump into the conversation to share their tips and ideas.

Here are the highlights from the discussion:

Why do I need to incorporate email into my marketing strategy? Aren’t the autoresponders to prospects enough?

• Jonathan Saar: autoresponders are not personal … you are in fact emailing people.
• Charity Hisle: Integrate, Integrate, Integrate! Tactics should work together to be effective.
• Heather Blume: Auto responders are never enough. They’re canned, impersonal, and often get filtered out by SPAM filters. Keep it human.
• Courtney Anderson: Auto responders are some of the most interacted with emails because they are real time – positively impacting deliverability.
• Erica Campbell: Auto responders can b effective if they r done correctly like using personalization & dynamic content to meet their needs.
• DJ Waldow: Why Email Marketing? Easy. According to the DMA it had a $43.62 ROI in 2009 (assuming you do it correctly)
• Courtney Anderson: The more interaction recipients have w/the email the more favorable the ISPs rate your IP reputation.
• Kim Cory: Auto responders are usefull and effective for certain situations. Better than no email at all, but has 2 be custom
• Kim Cory: If U send junk, that’s exactly where it will go! Don’t get lost with the other 100′s of emails your customers get daily. B unique.
• Michael Pickens: We send out autoresponder but require the properties to give a personal response within 2 hours.

Typical emails might be an auto-responder, then a custom response. How else can we use email to reach our audience?

• Courtney Anderson: Interaction based emails, welcome emails, drip campaigns, surveys, many more.
• Jonathan Saar: Newsletters for residents and non
• Kim Cory: We use email for surveys, resident alerts, announcements, holiday greetings, newsletters, promotions, list is endless.
• Meg Fowler: Most marketers treat people like opens, not readers. Content strategy exists beyond the blog.
• Erica Campbell: Email plays a huge role in multichannel marketing – other channels drive before the inbox and after the inbox.
• DJ Waldow: Send updates about cool new apts in their area. Targeted FTW.
• Laurel Zacher: Love email to drive new visitors to our site/fb/videos (from my sig). i just wish I could better quantify it!
• Mark Juleen: We do surveys, monthly news, notifications, introductions to social, etc. and more to come.
• Meg Fowler: How about emails with neighborhood profiles — links to amenities, stories of happy residents… along with rentals.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Email is a great communication tool with residents. Not as invasive as text. I still wouldn’t like to get text from my community.
• Erica Campbell: Email is great 4 viral marktg, promoting sweepstakes/contests, internal cross promotion, affiliate program referrals.
• DJ Waldow: Consider pics and video when sending email to apartment folks. Keep it real, human, interactive.
• Meg Fowler: Don’t forget to link to social properties. you could even have “apartment love stories” of folks who found a great place.
• Meg Fowler: I also love the idea of checklists on how to assess an apt, how to set a housing budget, how to work out a lease…

What are some of the best ways to capture emails? (Online or offline)

• Duncan Alney: Email and SMS/text should both be opt-in with value added content.
• Meredith Mobley: SMS email capture is a good one.
• Gillian Luce: Homepage sign-up is a good one!
• Erica Campbell: Offline list growth printed materials, direct mktg, in-store display, CS/IT, reg, call center/outbound, tradeshow.
• Charity Hisle: How about capturing emails thru Facebook apps for those that want to learn more about your community?
• Joe Foster: Mailing list sign-ups at community events. Great for refreshing your resident list and scooping renters.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Offline … we’ve been doing door hangers with tear-off tabs to submit emails to win prizes like ipads & TVs.
• Erica Campbell: I saw a newsletter sign up for weight watchers on the box of their microwave meal- pretty neat.
• Courtney Anderson: If I am in need of an apartment accepting my large dog, an email with properties that do is a great idea.
• Meg Fowler: As far as capturing opt-ins, I’m a big fan of eBook offers — give content sample to assure value.
• Sue Anne Reed: Apartment decorating on a budget would be a great ebook / lead generation campaign for multi-family.
• Sue Anne Reed: As someone who just recently moved, I think you should put a 9 or 10-month trigger on prospects.
• Courtney Anderson: Be compliant with CAN SPAM such as link to unsubscribe, physical mailing address, etc.

We mentioned timeliness earlier. Successful email campaigns are both timely & valuable. How do you ensure timeliness?

• Vacancy.com: Pick your days carefully. Don’t send out an email campaign late in the day- be aware of when your audience will view it.
• Charity Hisle: Email to Poll their move-in experience, Check-in again monthly.
• DJ Waldow: Capture “what is your timeframe for new apartment” info on email capture. Use to send timely emails.
• Resite Online: We find that our marketing emails get better response when sent in the middle of the week. We are B2B though. Know your audience.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Traditionally Tues & Wed are best email days. Then after 9:30 But before Noon. Before 9, people get delete happy with morning email.
• Mark Juleen: Automate what you can. We often leave too much responsibility to a human scheduling an activity.
• Laurel Zacher: I think we can all learn from the ILS’ outreach emails: useful content about process during search, recontact 9 mo later.

Is your email social? What are some ways you can integrate it with the rest of your marcomm efforts?

• Erica Campbell: Decorating tips, integration w groupon, coupons, partnership deals w local bars ect r effective retention based emails.
• Mike Whaling: Once you have the email, use tools like Flowtown, Blue Sky Factory or MailChimp to see where else your audience is online.
• Resite Online: Include links to your social networks in your emails. You could even give them a taste by including your latest feeds.
• Erica Campbell: Take the HTML version and copy it into your FBML on your FB profile and create a monthly message tab.
• Mark Juleen: Email strategy needs to integrate w/ your social, or your social and/or email will only get you so far. LINK, SHARE, SYNDICATE.
• Meg Fowler: Email only as social as YOU are — if you’re just broadcasting, it’ll read that way. if you’re starting a convo, it’ll ring true.

What metrics are you using to evaluate your results?

• Courtney Anderson: Standard ones, open rate, click thru rate.
• Vacancy.com: A/B testing is a great way to see what worked best.
• Courtney Anderson: Leads per email sent, lead per email open help gauge performance ie bottom line indicators.
• Erica Campbell: For an ILS- guest card submissions, CTR, unique clicks, open rate, opens, % of traffic to overall site traffic.
• Charity Hisle: Subscription counts, web visits, email referral counts are all good metrics.
• DJ Waldow: Opens are a start, click-throughs better, conversions WIN.
• DJ Waldow: Shares/fwds create more eyeballs which increase opens and potential clicks & conversions. Double win.

Videos responses from Mark Juleen:

• Q1: “Have an ongoing strategy to follow up.”
• Q2: “The sky is the limit.”
• Q6: “Besides metrics, keep in mind how you can be ‘top of mind.’”

More resources:

• Full transcript of this week’s #AptChat
• 50 Ways to Build Your Email List (Free ebook from Blue Sky Factory)
• Ways to integrate email marketing and social media (Presentations by DJ Waldow)

How are you using email as part of your marketing and communication mix? What is working well for you? What gives you the most trouble? Share what you’re doing … tell us about your experience with email marketing in the comments!

This week’s chat included 404 tweets from 56 different contributors.

However, the search engines don’t publicize all the factors they take into account when ranking sites, so optimizing your site for search (often called search engine optimization, or SEO for short) is a science that can be tough to grasp. We’re in luck, though, as our industry has some top-notch SEO experts who got together for this week’s chat to discuss the best ways to grab the most valuable real estate online. Erica Campbell from ForRent.com is one of those experts, and she joined us as guest moderator for this week’s chat.

Here are the highlights from the discussion:

How can I use SEO on my website and in my online ads?

• Erica Campbell: In order 2 make ur biz a success & stay ahead of comps u need 2 tap into SEO 2 draw more customers to ur business website.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Always fill out your Alt tags and name your photos with key words.
• Erica Campbell: First and foremost you need to go back 2 to the basics w SEO and use meta tags.
• David Kotowski: First thing (and easiest) is to make sure your website incorporates lots of different media and isn’t entirely Flash.
• Erica Campbell: The search engine spiders deem the title tag as the most significant meta tag.
• Ken Shafer: If you’re looking to optimize your online ads on other sites, b sure to include property name & the city/hood in the desc.
• Jessie Lambert: choose your keywords wisely…use resources like google adwords so that you are optimizing your potential traffic.
• Erica Campbell: Do not use a URL as the Title Tag. Every page that you want indexed on your Web site should have a different title.
• Ken Shafer: You should keep your title tags to right around 70 characters.
• Erica Campbell: Make sure when u upload videos to YouTube that u use titles, desc, URL and keywords- same SEO approach with social.
• Erica Campbell: Tip: Have no more than 24 words in description tag (repeat words max 2 times). This tag should utilize keywords & keyphrases.
• Tanni Mannan: Location or the most important keyword at the beginning to the title tag.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Get a new CMS! RT @30lines: And what if my website vendor’s CMS doesn’t allow me to change title tags on each page?
• Erica Campbell: It’s important to keep your SEO tactics as natural possible so that you don’t raise flags to the SE’s.
• Resite Online: Flash files with database driven content are still not crawlable. With HTML5 and CSS3 there are non-Flash animation options now.
• Mike Whaling: Google has openly admitted they don’t look at keywords anymore … too easy to game the system.
• Tim Grace: Not saying don’t include geo terms where appropriate, just that they don’t always need to be 1st.
• Ellen Thompson: You should be trying to rank for a broad array of keyword related to your property, geography.
• Tim Grace: Trying to rank for “apts for rent” or “chicago apts” is largely a fool’s errand for most props/mgmt cos.
• Mike Bozeman: We also find that more details people tend to search for (long tail), the more apt the are to convert.
• Tim Grace: Long tail = go for searches w/ neighborhoods or other qualifiers like unit/prop attributes i.e. “Cheap apartments Buckhead”
• Ken Shafer: Don’t get bogged down in “high volume keywords.” Research, less-competitive, focused keyphrases.
• Erica Campbell: According to @comscore, 62% of search engine users don’t look past the 1st page of results.
• Tim Grace: The tools on @seomoz are fantastic if you have a few bucks to spare. Money well spent.
• Erica Campbell: Other things 2 consider: site nav, screen size, speed of display of ur pgs, spelling (get it right), usage of tables,url structures.

How important are photos and videos on my site? Anything specific I should be doing with them to improve my rank?

• Erica Campbell: Photos and videos are absolutely important especially for Google Universal Search.
• Ken Shafer: Hosting your videos on YouTube and embedding on your site is a great way to boost views…big signal for YouTube SE.
• Ken Shafer: Having your videos on other channels will increase the likelihood that they will appear in blended results.
• Ellen Thompson: Videos on your site keep people on the page longer, an indirect factor in SEO.

Does Foursquare help SEO? Does Facebook? Twitter?

• Erica Campbell: 4sq helps with your linking strategies- he more links you get the more likely you are going to get a higher search ranking.
• David Kotowski: Foursquare listings do not appear in Google searches, although Bing includes them.
• Ken Shafer: NOTE: links from social media sites (FB, Twitter, etc.) do not pass page rank or link juice.
• Resite Online: Our Facebook and Twitter updates appear in our Google Alerts daily. They definitely effect search results too.
• Mike Whaling: Easy “follow” link: Add your website to your LinkedIn profile. Use appropriate anchor text.
• Tim Grace: Your presence on social sites is yet another result in a SERP [Search Engine Results Page], which is certainly still powerful.
• Tanni Mannan: Twitter, flickr, linkedin, youtube, digg, stumbleuopn, del.icio.us are very helpful for SEO.

I’m hearing more about getting inbound links to my site. What is this, how does it help and how do I get them?

• Erica Campbell: Make sure you are partnering up w authority sites such as .edu, .org and .gov sites for linking & have them use strong anchor text.
• Erica Campbell: Make sure you don’t 4get to submit your site to local directories and Dmoz is still good in our book!
• Eric Brown: All Inbound Links are NOT Created equal, Another plug for partnership Marketing with larger brands,
• Erica Campbell: Ask your local chamber of commerce and college/university for a link.
• Ken Shafer: Don’t forget! It’s not the quantity of inbound links, it’s the quality.
• Erica Campbell: Send it (your website) to Yahoo! Directory also optimize ur floor plans on your ILS ad b/c we send those to Google Base.
• Michael Pickens: Inbound link: Wife works for a major university and all the med students doing residency need a place to live. = link to Colonial.
• Erica Campbell: Want to find out how many ppl r linking to you? put this in google: “link:www.sitename” and it will tell u who is.
• Jessie Lambert: Writing whitepapers, creating photo galleries, viral contests, etc. are all great ways to create link bait.
• Eric Brown: Apartment Operators are going to wake up to the Value of PR, Great PR = Great Inbound Links.
• Erica Campbell: Also get ideas from your top referring sources of traffic coming into your site and ur destination urls (where r ppl going to).
• Ken Shafer: Visit siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com to find out who’s linking to you.
• Erica Campbell: Optimizing ur press releases is huge and don’t forget to submit them to reddit, newsvine, digg, etc. It’s free.
• Eric Brown: Word of Mouth Always = More Sales.

I’m also hearing more about local search. Is this different that regular search? Is there anything I should be doing differently?

• Michael Pickens: Working on claiming/verifying all our properties on Bing AND Google Places. If you have the time why not get it all set up right.
• Ellen Thompson: Don’t forget yahoo local, merchantcircle, citysearch, yellowpages.com etc.
• Tanni Mannan: Give as much information as possible for local SEO.
• David Kotowski: Add GPS info to your pictures (this can be done automatically with some cameras) and they will appear in local image searches.

If I could only do one thing to improve my rank in search engines, what should it be?

• Ken Shafer: Be an authority with great content. It’s the best way to get people to link to you.
• Duncan Alney: Create keyword rich valuable content.
• Meredith Mobley: Spending more time on social network sites=tons of link bait!!!
• Jessie Lambert: Optimize your on-page strategy: title, header, navigational links, keyword density, alt tags, etc.
• Resite Online: Get social! That includes a blog. The term ‘search’ is being redefined constantly.
• David Kotowski: Make sure you have a mobile version of your site b/c lots of people are searching with their phones.
• Mike Whaling: Follow all the experts from today’s chat & check out the resources/links they’ve provided!
• Erica Campbell: Bottom line: People notice top search engine results. The higher the position, the higher the click potential.

More resources:

• Full transcript of the SEO discussion
• Top 10 SEO Tips for Your Web Site and Internet Listing Ads (from ForRent.com)
• Search frequency of various apartment-related keywords (from Erica Campbell)
• Erica’s favorite SEO gurus to follow on Twitter: @sengineland, @dannysullivan, @seomoz, @seobook, @sewatch, @BruceClayInc, @mattcutts
• Want to know what terms ur comps r ranking 4 & compare it 2 u? Chk out this site: www.thumbshots.com (from Erica Campbell)
• 10 Likely Elements of Google’s Local Search Algorithm (from Ken Shafer)

What are you doing to optimize your website? What are the tips you can share with us from your own experience? What are some questions you still have about how the search engines work and ways to increase traffic to your website? Thanks again to everyone who joined us for this week’s chat, especially Erica Campbell for helping us out as our guest moderator!

This week’s chat featured 342 tweets from 55 different contributors.

After Jonathan Saar from the Training Factor posted their own case study sharing their successes with social media, we asked him to join us for a discussion on the topic. As it turns out (really no surprise here), you all have great ideas and examples to share. Here are the highlights from the chat:

How do you manage the time commitment? It seems to be HUGE time sucker in our office.

• David Kotowski: If you get into the habit of checking in it becomes routine and doesn’t take up much time.
• Jonathan Saar: Time and discipline go hand in hand. There must be a routine or else you are lost.
• Kim Cory: I set time aside each day just like I would reviewing reports, statements, plans, emails, etc. must make effort.
• Mike Whaling: Focus your efforts. You don’t need to be on every site.
• David Kotowski: Let’s face it. Your employees are ALREADY checking their personal accts and sending texts during the day. Get them involved.
• Mike Whaling: Set routines based on goals. 1 routine for monitoring sites, 1 for creating content, etc.
• Jonathan Saar: Make sure you give yourself an “off” time — that comes from my wife
• Erica Campbell: Use Web analytics 2 determine what sites r converting best 4 u. Look @ referring sources of traffic & inbound links.
• Mike Whaling: Take the time to set up alerts, feeds, etc. It makes the process much easier once you get into it.
• Erica Campbell: Use RSS & automation properly & u can have some big wins w/ time. Also, believe it or not policies & procedures save time.

What social media tools do you find to be the best for managing your presence?

• David Kotowski: Google Alerts is tha jam! Whenever our name is mentioned I find out automatically through an RSS feed to Outlook.
• Sam Gainous: For our company it is Facebook along with a bit of Twitter.
• Mike Whaling: Try HootSuite or Postling. Multiple users can manage multiple sites … all browser-based, so no downloads.
• Matt Hendrick: Twitterfeed is a good tool to automate RSS content, but use wisely (& sparingly) – & only from blogs whose content u count on.
• Sam Gainous: I use TweetDeck and HootSuite and prfer TweetDeck for monitoring our “brand”
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Our blog and facebook seem to create the best results. By results I mean traffice/leads/questions.
• Erica Campbell: Twitter doesn’t even deliver a noteworthy amount of guest cards but FB does so we spend more time there & YouTube.
• David Kotowski: I recently started using @SproutSocial. I can track FB Fan Pages, Yelp reviews, and Foursquare checkins in one place.
• Mike Whaling: Most important tool for managing your presence: A smartphone. Preferably one that allows you to download apps.

What are the “top three” social sites I need to be on for my property? (And why?)

• Mike Whaling: #1 site is always your own.
• Elysa Rice: Sites properties should be on: Facebook & Yelp; should at least be monitoring Twitter & Foursquare.
• Jonathan Saar: 1- Facebook 2- Foursquare 3- Twitter
• Meredith Mobley: I think this answer will vary depending on your audience.
• Kim Cory: I believe it is all about where your audience is hanging out. Know your customers & where they are.
• Gillian Luce: Think Facebook is a safe bet 4 most demographics!
• Mike Whaling: Collect emails. Plug them into a tool like Flowtown. That will give you a good starting point.
• Rosa Green: We use mainly FB, some twitter, just starting Foursquare & Youtube. FB by far the most interaction!
• David Kotowski: Whatever 3 sites are most popular with your residents. Ask them.
• Erica Campbell: FB (clean interface, comes w analytics, no brainer), YouTube (Google Juice & analytics) & have a blog (links, traffic).
• Mike Whaling: Check out other local blogs. Start following them & leaving relevant comments. Get involved.
• Heather Kattelman: From our exp, FB generates the most interaction w/ pros/res – leasing & res retention

How do I create content that doesn’t s*ck? A lot of what I see out there is lousy. I want mine to be the best.

• Frederic Guitton: The OODA loop (for observe, orient, decide, and act) This is what web analytics, SM and all marketing is all about.
• Jonathan Saar: Start with google alerts folks.
• Sarah Cooley: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! you won’t know what’s good until you get out there, start creating content and see the response.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: We create content that is a value to our residents. Put yourself in their shoes. What do they like. If you don’t know. Ask.
• Christian Flickinger: If you talk to me and sound like a salesman, a big douche, or a robot – you’ve lost my attention.
• Matt Hendrick: Decide if the “contrarian” route is for you – it can sometimes provoke more discussion than simply playing it safe.
• Mike Whaling: Check local trends on Twitter. See what’s popular now, then share your own spin on those topics.
• Erica Campbell: Mix it up & get outside writers every once in while like mommy bloggers, consumers, partners etc gives new perspective.
• Resite Online: When it comes to SM content its really trial and error. Keep trying until you find topics that people react to.
• Erica Campbell: Also look in ur analytics 4 top referring keywords for suggestions and ideas.
• Mike Whaling: Comment on other local blogs, share them w/ your audience, then write a post on the topic w/ your own viewpoint.
• Heather Kattelman: We do Weekly FB Plans to help with ensuring creative & interactive content is posted on the pages.
• Rosa Green: We partner with local businesses for giveways/prizes, residents love it and its FREE!
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Humor is good. It shows people that a real person is behind the message.

How can I delegate this effectively? How can I train my staff to do this so I can focus on managing the property?

• Elysa Rice: Use a service like CoTweet or Hootsuite that allows for collaboration of team members.
• Sam Gainous: Assign staff writing assignments, get them to research for new relevant content that can B used on all your SM outlets.
• Kim Cory: Why not get them involved w/u in the 1st place. Give them freedom 2 explore & show interest & encourage them.
• Erica Campbell: Turn to the industry 4 assistance w training. Create modules, checklists & documents that can be used even w/ turnover.
• Eric Brown: Why would we ever think that apt site staff are writers, they could be, but not typical.
• Sondrah Laden: Maintain a policy on communication – avoid FH issues. HUD is watching SM.
• Heather Kattelman: Got 2B careful here – U can only give this 2 some1 that WANTS 2B the Social Voice otherwise it be really bad.
• Jonathan Saar: Make sure SM does not become the marketing teams responsibility … collaborate.
• Gillian Luce: Gotta have someone u trust 2 speak on behalf of the brand! Someone who can interact w/the audience & is easy 2 relate 2!
• Jonathan Saar: Social media can help connect your depts and make that internal culture grow.
• Mike Whaling: Make sure you measuring the right things. If resident retention is the goal, then don’t measure by # of new leases.

Good quotes and tips along the way:

• Jonathan Saar: Social media has been the main direction TTF has been using to connect with its customers and reach out to new ones.
• Matt Hendrick: Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Find your audience and target them accordingly.
• Jonathan Saar: Avoid syndicating the same content across your channels (this is not a time saver)
• Mike Whaling: Focus less on the tool. Focus more on doing things that get people talking. The content will follow.

So what did we miss? What would you add? If you’re struggling to find success with social media, where are you having the most trouble? If you’re finding success, what tips or examples can you share with the rest of us? Thanks again to everyone who joined us this week, especially Jonathan!

Tools mentioned throughout the discussion:

• CoTweet
• Facebook
• Flowtown
• Google Alerts
• HootSuite
• Postling
• SocialOomph
• Sprout Social
• Tweetdeck
• Twitter
• Twitterfeed
• YouTube

More resources:

• Full transcript of the discussion
• Demonstrating Social Media Patience — Our Case Study (from The Training Factor)
• Survey: What are your biggest hurdles in accomplishing your social media initiatives and goals?
• Keyword Strategies – The Long Tail (from Search Engine Guide)

This week’s chat featured 640 tweets from 64 different contributors.

Urbane runs a successful, active company blog. What’s the secret sauce, and how do you keep it going?

• Eric Brown (EB): Participation and support to and at the community at large.
• EB: We use our Digital Reach to promote local businesses, restaurants, bars, and any other places our Residents hang out.
• EB: Think about your Community of Interest, (followers, friends) and its size and correlation to your apartment community.
• EB: SM Marketing is Word of Mouth on steroids, and when it works, your friends rent the apts for you.
• Erica Campbell: So true! “91% say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying decisions” (JC Williams Group)
• EB: Provide content that folks want/need, or find interest in.

With the myriad of other duties the property has, how do you prioritize their blog participation?

(Submitted by Jon Harrington)

• EB: I think the time constraints of a Social Media Program is overrated.
• EB: Bottom line, we still need/must rent apartments, but we also carve out the req time for effective SM marketing.
• EB: One thing we cut out were “Tours”, We use a Go Solo Program, (lots of folks don’t agree with this angle) I love it.
• Mike Brewer: I think the really successful companies will resign themselves to the idea that it requires more than 9 to 5.
• Lisa Trosien: Have seen properties been able to cut their ‘out of office’ outreach marketing time by investing in SM.
• Gillian Luce: Social Media shouldn’t replace but rather act as a complement in your marketing mix.

You talk a lot about the benefits of partnership marketing? Can you explain this & provide an example?

• EB: We just partnered with Coke, and their Vitamin Water brand, Partner with like demographics to your brand.
• EB: The Big Red Machine (Coke) drops off product to use every week for Move In Packages, plus stocks a branded fridge in Urbane.
• EB: We partnered with Chevy on a project, and were included in thousands of targeted tweets and word of mouth chatter.
• Lisa Trosien: It would make sense to me for them to go with a major player, larger bldgs, more residents, etc.
• EB: You would be surprised what Big Brands will do if you just ask.
• EB: Remember, Local Brands can and are very effective to partner with, too.
• Leigh Curry: Eric’s ex-employer at Village Green has done a very good job of co branding.

I’m sure you hear that you can do what you do because Urbane is small/niche. How can we scale it? Can it scale?

(Submitted by Doug Chasick)

• EB: We have LESS resources, not more, that is a myth.
• EB: If I had a large portfolio to work with, it would be intoxicating the things you could craft.
• EB: Large portfolios are still segmented by region, there are just more of them.
• EB: People, Training and Culture, but mostly Culture.
• EB: All regions should be operating under the same premise.

What are the top things you would recommend to a company that wants to use social media to reach their audience?

• EB: Start with a Community/Company blog, That is by far and away our biggest lever.
• EB: Next would be tossing out your own dumb rules that some desk jockey originated.

What do you think of outsourcing blogging and/or SM efforts?

(Submitted by Sara Graham)

• EB: I think in most cases you must outsource blogging and SM Marketing.
• EB: I also think when you outsource blogging and SM, the focus is lead generation.
• EB: All of our bloggers are profiled on the blog, and 98% of the comments are answered by the blog writer.

Check the transcript for more details on the Go Solo program and other topics discussed throughout this week’s chat. Thanks to Eric for giving us some insight into his operation, and thanks to everyone else who participated.

What tips can you share from your own experience about successfully building buzz and incorporating social media into your efforts? Who else should we interview for a future #AptChat?

More Resources:

• Full chat transcript from WTHashtag
• The Urbane Life blog
• Eric Brown’s blog at TheUrbaneWay.com

What the heck IS Foursquare anyway?

• Resite Online: Social networking site that is location based
• Joe Foster: FourSquare is a way of telling your friends what you’re up to.
• Heather Blume: If used properly, can not only up traffic generation but also give you a list of outreach marketing partners. = AWESOMENESS.
• Heather Blume: It’s user driven. Your business might already be on there. Have you checked?
• Meredith Mobley: Foursquare also lets people know where you are.
• Eric Brown: Foursquare also increases your Brand Awareness on Twitter.

How do you add your property? What if it’s already on there and it’s been added wrong?

• David Kotowski: It’s really easy to add businesses. More tricky to edit unless you’re a Superuser, but they’re usually on it.
• Eric Brown: We have entered all of our communities into Foursquare data base for correct addressing and information.
• David Kotowski: While we’re talking about adding businesses, you can also claim yours by clicking the “Are you the manager of this business?” link.
• Mike Whaling: Start here if your business isn’t yet listed on Foursquare: http://foursquare.com/add_venue.
• David Kotowski: Claiming your business is free. There is a verification process than can sometimes take time. Once done you can add specials.
• Elysa Rice: Once you’be been active enough on 4sq you can edit venues from the website.
• David Kotowski: You can claim apartment communities and add specials. Some can be for the “mayor.” Some can be for x # of check-ins.
• Elysa Rice: if you’re wanting to claim/add specials/etc save this link: http://foursquare.com/businesses/
• David Kotowski: Technically you can add ANY place in the world. However, I recommend to just add community. Add your amenities as tips.

My property is on there and a resident added a negative tip. What do I do?

• Heather Blume: Respond like you would on any other ratings site. Don’t get pissy, don’t ask for it to be removed, etc.
• Christian Flickinger: Leave it. the truth is the truth. respond if you can, and fix their issue/THE ISSUE for future residents.
• David Kotowski: One of the cool things about Foursquare is you can “ignore” certain tips. Enough ignores and it gets removed.

Why should I be on Foursquare?

• Heather Blume: Rep monitoring, Gen Y engagement and Outreach marketing partnership generation – also, b/c its fun.
• David Kotowski: LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! You can see where your residents are checking in. Those are great places for marketing.
• Jennifer Kennedy: Because its fun and you get to see tips from other people on local venues to discover what is around.
• Elysa Rice: I disagree that’s it’s Gen Y only. @Lee_Ellipse, our President is very active on 4sq.
• David Kotowski: Personally, I think you should be on #4sq because it’s fun. Professional, it’s good to be there b/c your customers are.
• Kim Cory: With students they love photos, but don’t have a clue what Foursquare is. No use 4 me.
• Tamela Coval: Take contextual cues from the swarms and check-in actions & know your consumer. Use location-based info for specific target markets.

Who is using Foursquare, and what results have you seen?

(Submitted by Eric Brown)

• Megan Orser: We are offering it to prospective residents a $5 gas card to earn the Mayor badge.
• David Kotowski: At one of my props I’m giving $50 off June’s rent to the Mayor. Being Mayor is a big deal.
• David Kotowski: Try encouraging prospects to check-in by offering $5 gas cards just for showing you that they did.
• Eric Brown: Local Business wants to, and will partner with you for Foursquare Events.
• Elysa Rice: I had a friend who organized a local biz badge crawl just for fun. No reason a community couldn’t do that.

How can you encourage residents/prospects/guests to check in at your community?

• Eric Brown: An iPad drawing.
• David Kotowski: I’ve started leaving postcards in apartments w/ completed svc requests. Has res referral info, #4sq logo, & FB info.
• Joe Foster: @stevelefko mentioned premiums for prospect check-ins ie “free cookie for foursquare checkins” as walk-in incentive.
• Elysa Rice: 4sq will send your business “the official foursquare window clings” per http://foursquare.com/businesses
• Elysa Rice: Tami mentioned at #optsum to put window sign that says “check in on 4sq to waive deposit today.”

Is there room enough for two localization networks, or is Gowalla destined for the dumpheap?

(Submitted by Brent Williams)

• David Kotowski: I think there’s room for several. @loopt and @brightkite are still around. @foursquare is king, though.
• Heather Blume: That one is going to depend on your region of the US, but still, i think 4S is king.
• Elysa Rice: I don’t think it’s about “room” it’s abt going where your ppl are. If they are on gowalla, whrrl, loopt, etc then u listen.
• Joe Foster: I think one platform is going to need to establish dominance for this entire culture to mainstream at all.

We want to send out a huge THANK YOU to this week’s guest moderator, David Kotowski of Pegasus Residential. David is a passionate Foursquare user, and he went above and beyond to provide us with some great information about getting your business started on the site. Thanks again for your help, David!

More resources:

• Full chat transcript from WTHashtag
• 21 Unique Location Examples from Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, and MyTown (Shared by Meredith Mobley)
• Tech Innovations at SXSW (Shared by Joe Foster)
• HubSpot’s Foursquare Grader (Shared by Jonathan Saar)

Remember, there’s no #AptChat this week. Enjoy a long Memorial Day weekend, and get ready for a great chat on June 4th, when we’ll be joined by Eric Brown, who will share the social media secrets of Urbane Apartments!

Full video interview with Steve Lefkovits.

More from the AIM Conference:

• Search the event hashtag: #AIMConf
• View slides from the various presentations (back to 2008!).
• Discuss the latest trends with professionals in the AIM group on LinkedIn.

What trends are having the greatest influence on your online marketing?

This was a very worthwhile event for the attendees, and we thought it would be valuable to recap the event on the latest edition of the Apartment Chat. Here are the highlights from that conversation:

What was your number one takeaway from #OptSum this week, and why?

• Toni Lawson Palmer: Applying Rockstar Thinking to Marketing. @mackcollier did a great job of showing how it all works together!
• Jamin Harkness: Number 1 takeaway — Be a part of the communities (Social Media Communities) that your prospects and residents are a part of.
• Zachary Kestenbaum: My number one takeaway is I should attend next time!
• Raina Toussaint: I have a list of favs. 1st to implement is Facebook pages and ads.
• Leigh Curry: My #1 takeaway was the number of avenues available — and it is only increasing.
• Jonathan Saar: My #1 takeaway — Create a movement not just a campaign (via @genochurch).
• Jamin Harkness: Find out where our prosp and resid are blogging /visiting online & join — if only to listen and learn and converse.
• Jonathan Saar: Start with realizing there is more to business than just leaseups — do something extraordinary and leases will happen.
• Mack Collier: How focused the attendees from the apartment industry were on wanting 2 know how SM wld work 4 THEIR biz
• Jon Harrington: Take a note from @bestbuy – have employees apply to become Social Media captains.
• Brian Owen: Find the people in your organization who are passionate already about SM and empower them.

We’re in the business of building offline communities. How can we build stronger online communities, too?

• Doug Chasick: Honest, open frequent communication WITH our customers, not AT our customers.
• Mike Whaling: The communication should reach beyond our customers, to other locals.
• Eric Brown: It is also about your “Community of Interest”, your larger “Community” your “Following”which far exceeds your resident base.
• Misty Browning: Become the comm/neighborhood expert. Know what is happening and share it.
• Jonathan Saar: Start by realizing the community exists outside of the sign at the entrance.
• David Kotowski: Be prepared to hear EVERYTHING, even the bad. Then try to continue the conversation instead of trying to stop it.
• Jonathan Saar: Remember how it feels when trying to talk to your credit card company and do the exact opposite.
• Eric Brown: Turn a portion of your Marketing Budget inward, Partnership Marketing.
• Misty Browning: Include follow/fan in all commun, signs, etc. i think res look, but don’t return. the right content will get them back.
• Eric Brown: Social Media Marketing is most successful when you “Let Go” Provide the platform & your Evangelists will supercharge your program.
• Dylan Schleppe: Everyone in an org should have the ability to engage. Who what etc… is context relative.
• Jon Harrington: If u want to build a comm. online, u need to provide residents & potential residents w/ value. Not sell.
• Doug Chasick: If we are building a community, don’t we have to reach out to ALL – even those not online?

How do you plan to determine success for your online communication efforts? Anything specific you’ll measure?

• Mike Whaling: Check out http://quantcast.com and http://www.socialwebsiteanalyzer.com/.
• David Kotowski: We’ve recently partnered with RentMineOnline.com. Not sure how well it works, but helps measure how often our info is shared.
• Dylan Schleppe: Revenue-net/effort cost. Has to measured long term.
• Jamin Harkness: To move Google Needle, make sure you have enough keywrds on frnt pge of website www.webconfs.com FREE analyzer.
• Rosa Green: I’m a PM and the residents who don’t ever call or come by are the ones interacting w/us on FB – can’t put a price on it.

What is one thinking you are doing differently this week because of something you learned at #OptSum?

• Raina Toussaint: I am on twitter, next week I will have my profile and photo done : )
• Jamin Harkness: Paying attention to what my customers are saying about me and my competitors online (at aptratings and other SM sites).
• Mike Whaling: Focus more on the tools that your audience is already using.

More Resources:

• Recaps and Links from #OptSum
• Full transcript from the March 26th #AptChat

Tami and her team are already planning to co-locate the next Optimization Summit with the Multifamily Brainstorming Sessions, which will be held in Dallas from September 15 to 17. Will we see you there?

If you attended the first #OptSum, what were your biggest takeaways? If not, what are your favorite ways to learn more about online marketing and social media trends?

Do we really need a business center? I’ve been touring properties lately and they are JAMMED with residents!

• Heather Blume: You need a biz center – faxing at least and WiFi.
• Eric Brown: Why wouldn’t you invite everyone into your business center?
• Mike Whaling: It’s an opportunity for people to test drive your community.
• Erica Campbell: Biz Center doesn’t even make our top 30 amenity list on @AptsForRent.
• Justin Dunckel: We find a lot of move-ins use our business center to sign up for renters insurance, utilities, etc. while there.
• Heather Blume: A printer is a must have. A lot of people don’t have their own anymore with the shift to more paperless work.
• Nessel Inc.: You can’t assume all residents have a laptop … computers in biz center still needed, providing wifi not enough.
• Doug Chasick: Cost of broadcasting WiFi over entire prop much more $ than to biz center.
• Leigh Curry: From my studies of business center and fitness center usage – only about 10-15% of residents use biz center, but they use a lot.
• Tim Grace (Apartments.com): Concur w/ @ericacampbell – less than 1% of our users search for biz center.
• Lesa LaRocca: Common area needs to have great resident energy. Lap top checkouts, avail printer, wi-fi all must haves.
• Lisa Trosien: My tours of new construction are showing larger and more lavish biz centers than ever before. Big social impact.
• Doug Chasick: Bottom line – if it saves one resident, is it worth it?
• Nessel Inc.: We ask residents to supply their own paper and bring their own mugs to the coffee bar.
• Mike Whaling: Our designs would be in line with what you’re seeing on your tours. Still big investments being made in biz ctrs.
• Nessel Inc.: We went so far as to post resume tips and local job openings in the biz center.
• Lisa Trosien: New Lincoln property has a Mac and PC area for their biz center. Largest Mac section I’ve seen yet.
• Tami Siewruk: Biz Centers R very expensive to maintain & NOT used. Better off with an Herb Garden!
• Lisa Trosien: Putting big emphasis on social aspect as well is important. Making it about meet and greet, too.
• Ellen Thompson: One of the communities in Philly suburbs had a biz card exchange in their biz center, speaking of meet and greet.
• Lisa Trosien: Archstone calls theirs “Click Cafe”. Nice name, great ambiance.
• Carmen Krushas: Partner w/fedex and set up satellite biz offices for real ancillary income.
• Mike Whaling: Why not host a tweetup or Yelp meetup?
• Eric Brown: Our @Urbane_Space, a clubhouse converted to a cowork space, has become a buzz of activity.
• Eric Brown: Co Work space has been the biggest draw we have done, absent community wide Free Wi-Fi.

Should tennis courts be repurposed? Removed? Lots of older assets have them.

• Heather Blume: Personally, I love the tennis courts. But I like to play, and I think they make a great space for outdoor events.
• Nathalia Cruz: If they are in an area where the climate lets you use it 365 days a year, YES, if not, waste of time and space.
• Doug Chasick: Depends on your profile; 4 me question is should they be lit for nite play!
• Christian Flickinger: I think youd have more residents that are happy with a “village green” (no pun intended), dog park, etc rather thn a tennis court.
• Justin Dunckel: Remove, remove, remove. Maintenance costs are incredibly high vs. usage. Agree w/ @spoons … get a Wii.
• Kristi Fickert: Heard abt tennis courts being repositioned for roller blading/skate parks. Prob depends on demographic.
• Ellen Thompson: I think this really depends on the geography. Courts are a must in FL, I think, but maybe less so where they aren’t 4-season assets.
• Lisa Trosien: @MBrewer tore his out and put in an outdoor movie theater for his residents. Smart move!

Should tanning beds be removed as an amenity? Or added? They are VERY popular!

• Kim Cory: Ours runs all day!
• Jonathan Saar: They cause cancer—out!
• Heather Blume: Tanning beds get leases out here. That would be because of the absence of sun, so it might be a regional thing.
• Erica Campbell: Personally I like them but they have 2 be sanitized properly & u just can’t rely on residents 2 do that all the time.

Other great amenity ideas and comments along the way:

• David Kotowski: I’ve become a huge fan of salt water (saline) intead of cholorine. It’s green and cheaper to maintain.
• Justin Dunckel: There’s a big cost difference in providing global Wi-Fi in 1 highrise or midrise vs. 30 garden bldgs.
• David Kotowski: I wish some space could be set aside for a fenced dog area. Pet walks are huge!
• Heather Blume: List yourself as an available meeting space on www.meetup.com.
• Tami Siewruk: There is no blanket answer 2 amenities it is all location & profile, case by case strategy.
• Mike Brewer: Highly trained – highly professional – highly responsive people are the key amenity…all else pales in comparison.
• Heather Blume: Just allowing DOGS is huge for student communities. The dorms don’t let you have them.
• Doug Chasick: Partner w/ local biz that offer the amenities you need to compete.
• Zachary Kestenbaum: How about the “community” amenity? Encourage socializing, events, etc.
• Heather Blume: A good amenity that you can create – Guest Suites – by setting aside a couple of apartments.
• Mike Whaling: Why only promote events to residents? Why not introduce your property to other locals?
• Zachary Kestenbaum: Make the most of your amenities by letting residents view availability and reserve online.
• Joe Goers: I would think a Nintendo Wii in a clubhouse or the New Playstation Move in a clubhouse would be an Amenity.
• Heather Blume: An in-house loaner closet is a great thing to have – rug doctor, games, jumper cables, etc.
• Eric Brown: Marketing takeaway: Understand your target demographic, and what they want, and build your brand around them.

Resources:

• Blog post: Is The Apartment Gym Useless in Resident Retention?
• ForRent.com’s Top 15 Searched Amenities in February

You can read the full transcript here.

What do you think? What did we forget? Are there amenities that are working particularly well for you? Are there time-honored amenities that don’t seem to generate the oohs and ahhs they once did? Share your experiences and observations in the comments!

(This week’s #AptChat included 443 tweets from 53 different contributors.)

We started the chat by taking a quick poll to see how many companies have social media policies in place. During the chat, we received 21 votes. Over half of you (11) already have a social media policy in place at your companies, 3 of you don’t have any kind of policy, and 7 of you said your company is currently putting its policy together now. ForRent, Century 21, Property Counselors Management Group, Ellipse and J.C. Hart Communities all shared that they already have policies in place, so you might want to connect with someone from one of those companies if you have questions or are looking for advice.

As for the rest of the discussion, here’s the recap:

What are the most important issues that a social media policy should address?

• Doug Chasick: Policy is for consistency and guidance – s/b flexible and based on trust – wish I could say common sense but . . .
• David Kotowski: In addition to outlining expectations for proper communication w/ customers, I think it should also address personal SM pages.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: That they are acting on behalf of the company and and will be held accountable.Transparency is good but don’t share corp. info.
• Sue Burness: We are seeing examples here of poor judgment with posts & inappropriate dress. And then owners want to shut all Social Media down.
• Brandon Hammond: We’ve included a committment to learning and improving usage as a part of our company’s SM policy.
• Gillian Luce: How bout ‘the opinions expressed on site are my own & do not nec represent those of [comp name]‘ per @theaptnerd SM Policy?
• Zachary Kestenbaum: Policy: I) what do you hope to gain, II) what are you afraid of – both are important.
• Eva Panagiotopoulos: Strict policies block personal connectivity. Like we said, it’s common sense and there must be trust.
• Social Web Strategies: Top issues for SM policy (not prioritized): legal, training, web/sm presence, listening.
• Doug Chasick: Boundaries and guidelines, training and consequences and monitoring are best we can do IMHO.
• Mark Juleen: The best written policy in the world cannot prevent people from posting what they want.
• Brandon Hammond: Coaching is absolutely important. The truth is that the VAST majority of workers in our industry are very new to SM.
• Social Web Strategy: The policy that’s missing is from the c-suite for the whole org. That takes clear view of SM impact on each part of the org.
• Social Web Strategy: SM policy has to give framework for the org to handle integration of SM tech by every dept and division. SM tech will flow into ops.
• Chris Schmeid: Our policy isn’t about loss of productivity, it’s about protecting the brand.
• DiChristy: Be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy and your co’s confidential info.

Is your organization’s social media policy focused more on DOs or DON’Ts? Tell us about it.

• Jonathan Saar: Some companies are creating such vast rules that the staff are on pins and needles.
• Jonathan Saar: Do’s … lots of experimenting and measuring still to do.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: It’s open as SM should be to actively engage. But we don’t want people acting like drunken sailors either. Accountablity.
• Eva Panagiotopoulos: Both I think the DOs help sustain a positive outlook on how social media can be beneficial. DO make friends and listen to others.
• Brandon Hammond: “Policy” probably addresses more DON’Ts, “Strategy” would address more DOs.
• Doug Chasick: Train to the “Do’s” and most “Don’ts” never show up.
• Brandon Hammond: Policy should definitely encourage smart, constructive use! Encouragement to add value to convo!

Are there social media issues specific to the apartment industry that your policy addresses (or should address)?

• Heather Blume: Resident privacy.
• Doug Chasick: Fair housing, libel, slander, copyright infringement and really bad profile pix.
• Ellen Thompson: people are very cavalier about violating copyright laws with use of images, in particular.
• David Kotowski: Management changes are a MUCH bigger deal than you think. NEVER, EVER talk about them until after they actually happen.
• Brandon Hammond: Good place to start is thinking a/b most SM posts as marketing messages, and treating them as such re: FH (Fair Housing).
• Mike Whaling: I think the exact problem is that most SocMed posts are treated as marketing messages.

Who is driving the social media conversation in your organization? Marketing? PR? HR? Customer service? Who should?

• Jonathan Saar: Everyone should have a role all though on different levels.
• Doug Chasick: Marketing and customer svce for us and I think that’s who should – primary stakeholders.
• Meredith Mobley: Marketing and PR at @aptsforrent.
• Brandon Hammond: I think everyone should drive the conversation in our organization–especially our residents!
• Gillian Luce: Marketing drives our corporate account w/PR professional @mmobley assisting. Customer service also has account @ForRentCS.

We’ll leave the poll open, so feel free to contribute to the survey:

Here’s the breakdown of all the responses we’ve received to date:

Additional Resources:

• Full transcript of the original discussion
• J.C. Hart Social Media Acceptable Use Policy
• Database of social media policies
• Policy Tool for Social Media
• More resources related to social media policies

Does your company have a social media policy? If yes, what does it focus on? Is it working? If not, do you think you need one? What other questions or comments do you have about social media policies? Let us know if the comments!

(This week’s chat had 408 tweets from 64 different contributors.)