#AptChat

“Craigslist is not for everyone. And it doesn’t work well in all markets. Not a ‘one size fits all’.” ~ Lisa Trosien

For our first chat of 2010, we decided to jump right into the deep end. We recruited the help of Eva Panagiotopoulos and Eric Broughton from RentSentinel to help us understand how to get more out of Craigslist and other free classifieds sites like Google Base, Kijiji and BackPage.

After a few technical difficulties with Twitter, we finally got things going. (Thanks to everyone who stayed with us through the fail whales!) Here are the questions, and a few of the highlights from the discussion:

How often should a community post to Craigslist?

• RentSentinel: Every community is different but we have seen 2 – 3 times per day spaced out at key posting times to be best.
• Tara Smiley: We post on average 15-20 CL a day.
• Trevor Henson: We post our individual vacancies Mon Wed and Fridays on C-list.
• Lisa Trosien: Many of the REITS have been blacklisted this year and have had to retool their strategy. They were overposting.
• Eva Pana: Key posting times vary by community, this is why we use analytics to track each community’s specific times.
• Eric Broughton: At most we have seen some of our customers post up to 8 times per day spaced out at 1 per hour. No more than that.
• Lorena Fikes: We ask our properties to post 3-4 a day is possible, spread out throughout the day as well…
• (Re: key posting times)RentSentinel: It often correlates to the work day and how people will surf the net, early a.m. and toward end of working hours.
• Erica Campbell: I notice the more people use it in a metro, the worse your results, because their listings are over-saturated with all the postings.
• Eva Pana: Spreading posting times throughout the day is a great way to test your ad’s effectiveness for various times.

What types of ads are most effective? Templates or text only?

• Tara Smiley: We try to keep the ads simple. It works for us.
• Eric Brown: We have the best CL traffic from organic looking ads. (Justin Dunckel and Mike Brewer agreed.)
• Eva Pana: No perfect answer, depends on the portfolio but we recommend you post using both methods and measure effectiveness of both.
• Trevor Henson: We find that we get more phone calls from the template listings and more emails from linear CL posts.
• Elysa Rice: The html ads generate a lot more traffic to websites because of the SEO benefits of being able to include more text.
• Eva Pana: With that said, we have a contest in RentSentinel & the last 3 winners in the lead generation category were all simple ads.
• Joe Foster: There’s no reason not to use both. I think organic caters to the core Craigslist userbase while templates are for the casual user.
• Mike Whaling: Regardless of template or plain text, always upload the photos. 3rd-party sites (like PadMapper) filter ads to feature those w/ pics.
• Erica Campbell: Craigslist only takes plain HTML and nothing dynamic so If you have video, be sure to include a URL to it in your listing.

What is a good way to engage your leasing professionals to post more/better ads?

• Paulette Barrette: I think education is the first step.
• Eva Pana: A great way to engage your leasing pros to post is to hold a competition. RentSentinel has received great results from our contest.
• Tara Smiley: I love the CL battles in our office – 5 minutes, as many as possible… ready, set, go!
• Tami Siewruk: If you give Leasing prewritten ads they will find time to post. They feel uncomfortable, training is the key.
• Trevor Henson: We combine both aspects: Encourage our onsites to post & also have office staff post up regularly.

What do I do if I get blocked by Craigslist?

• Jeff Sandell: Change IP Address.
• Erica Campbell: Start up a new email address and possibly switch IPs.
• Buildium: Easiest thing is to create a new email address, but you should try not to get blocked in the first place.
• RentSentinel: We believe and encourage being a good CL citizen. Don’t overpost, keep your ads concise, and most importantly, have an open and honest dialogue/relationship with Craigslist.

There were a LOT of great side conversations and comments throughout this week’s chat — including topics from Craigslist spam to posting tools like Vflyer & Postlets to postings by third-party apartment locators — so make sure you take the time to read through the full transcript. (For your reference, we think you should also know the Craiglist Terms of Service.) Thanks again to RentSentinel for their help with all the supporting data!

What do you think? How is Craigslist working for you? Have you discovered “best practices” that have made your efforts more effective? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Yesterday was our last #AptChat of the year, so we appropriately looked forward to 2010 and discussed our top resolutions for property managers. (Thanks to the Houston Apartment Association for the topic suggestion!) Here’s our recap of the questions and highlights from the conversation:

What’s your resolution, how can you put it into place, and how’s it going to work for you?

• Kim Cory: My resolution is to take my knowledge in SM (social media), set goals & use practical tools to build a bigger picture for my brand.
• Buildium: Our goal is to improve our communication. We are in the process of making this a S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) goal.
• Niman: My New Year’s Resolution – Get all tenants to pay rent online.
• Erica Campbell: My first resolution is to clean my Outlook which is currently a hot mess:)
• Jennifer Kennedy: My resolution is maximize all of the wonderful resources we have. Focus on utilizing all of our tools to their potential.
• Jonathan Saar: Goal is to get my peeps on board with Social Media & to use it regularly.
• Jonathan Saar: Social Media had definitely helped with our brand awareness and in 2010 that path will continue.
• Houston Apartment Association: Engagement is our key #resolution for 2010; planning to hire a SM/online brand person for HAA.
• Justin Dunckel: Goal is to expand the business a bit more & create some jobs….seriously!
• Tim Grace: Pretty much only one resolution re: Apts.com – delight more users in 2010. All other great things will come from that.
• Kristi Fickert: My goal = my site folks HAVE 2 understand SM, how it works, how to market w/ it (even if someone else does it for them).

Obviously, it appears that a lot of folks are looking to integrate social media tools further into their businesses in 2010 … I guess we shouldn’t expect anything less from this bunch! (Personally, I also appreciate that there was a strong focus on serving our customers better.) In fact, besides the Houston Apartment Association, a number of other companies are bringing on additional staff specifically to help with social media, including Worthing Southeast Management, For Rent Media Solutions and Village Green Apartments. (Here’s the job description for the position at For Rent if you want to get an idea of the skill set they’re looking for.)

How are everyone’s budget’s coming? Leaner than last year? What’s the word on those?

• Kim Cory: Budgets for 2010 are similar to 2009, but with a few minor cuts. We had strong cuts in 2009.
• Kim Cory: (My budget) was cut about 9% in 2009 and in 2010 I worked hard to not cut anymore, so same amount in 2010 for marketing.
• Erica Campbell: I completely reallocated my budget today for a whole new strategy than i had a few months ago.
• Jonathan Saar: It’s not the time to stop investing in what works – keep plowing forward.
• Elysa Rice: I think look at all marketing avenues & see which are producing & which aren’t. Don’t cut based on numbers, cut based on results.

Any major lessons learned from 2009 that changed your outlook for 2010?

• Lisa Trosien: Just don’t labor under the belief that Social Media is free. It’s clearly NOT.
• Buildium: One thing we would like to do in 2010 is give our interns a voice. One option we’re using is CoTweet.
• Erica Campbell: Big lesson- LOCAL CONTENT IS KING.
• Tami Siewruk: 2009 was about learning social media. 2010 will be about figuring out how to use it well.
• Erica Campbell: Lesson 2: Media fragmentation has produced a fundamental conundrum.

What are you doing to improve retention?

• Elysa Rice: Engagement, engagement & engagement!
• Erica Campbell: Bundling packages & adding value add services.
• Kim Cory: We would like to have our residents more involved, feel part of the process & decisions made at the community.
• Kim Obert: Treat people nicely (i.e. “service” in customer service).
• Claire Collins:Look for opportunities for engagement. Interest groups, etc.

Take the time to read the full transcript — there were a lot of great side conversations and insights shared throughout the discussion.

I leave you with this: As Lisa noted during the chat, “your goals are more easily achieved when a) you put them in writing, and b) you have an audible or visible means of tracking them.” You took the first step by putting your goals in writing. Now, what are you going to do to make sure you follow through on them in the coming year?

On behalf of Lisa, I’d like to thank everyone who has made the Apartment Chat what it is today. Thanks for a great year — we look forward to seeing you again in 2010!

For Apartment Chat #21, our topic was Using Photos and Videos to Market Apartments. Here are some of the questions and highlights from the chat:

Question 1: What are you doing to take advantage of photos and/or videos in your online marketing efforts?

• Carrie at Roscoe: I love using video tours, both on YouTube and our site. Editing and commentary has been a challenge. Most (people) don’t want overproduced videos … and I agree. Ours are pretty plain … you can hear my footsteps. I do them myself with a Flip camera. Vendors we have gotten bids from are VERY pricey.
• Rory Ellis: Editing is key in any video. Focus on key points and a professional style to keep their attention. In my personal experience, music is great for an intro, but I like to hear information if I’m gonna keep watching.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: Animated tours where people can add “furniture” in the style they like in different spots in the floor plan is a great way to ensure you don’t count anyone out if you “stage” a unit & do a video tour
• Joe Foster: Our stats show more time is spent on the virtual move-in tool than any other area of our clients’ sites. It’s a floorplan of a given unit with furniture sprites and a drag/drop interface.
• Capture The Market: Our focus groups have found that all residents are diffent and variety is good.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: If you’re using video, you should definitely allow viewers to pan up and down in each room so they can get a better perspective
• Joe Foster: One of our clients has made a viral parody of “Real Housewives” set in their community starring the on-site team – the Real Housewives of Wesley Village.

A great side discussion broke out when the question was asked about using people (staff, current residents or paid models) in photos and videos. Here are a couple of the responses that were part of that discussion:

• Heather Blume: Gotta be careful with people in any kind of ad. Make sure you’re meeting the diversity standard under Fair Housing. If you don’t know exactly how to walk that ad line, it’s better to not try it than to end up in court over it. It’s not about intent, it’s about interpretation. Not to say using your residents or “friends” would be bad, but usually you hedge the Fair Housing bets with actors.
• Carrie at Roscoe: No people in ads or videos … trying to avoid a Fair Housing conflict.
• Capture The Market: Some yes, some no. Our focus groups show the viewer would rather have activity going on.
• Janet Settle: Just conducted a focus group with college students and they said having people in the video is a must.
• Erica Campbell: Check out Nadeen Green’s article, “Social Media – Know Your Risks.” Great Fair Housing info. We avoid people & we also don’t include name brand stores (i.e. Starbucks, Best Buy) up close … has to be from a distance.
• Sara Graham: Though we don’t use people in videos, we DO use people (stock photos) in brochures, fliers, etc. to convey lifestyle, etc.

Question 2: What unique things are you doing with photos?

• Joe Foster: Photos are always going to allow you to make specific choices that highlight your best.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: If you’re using photos on your website, I like to see something dynamic. Slide shows or something similar.
• Kim Cory: We usually take photos & videos at our events. Good mix of diversity … residents love being part of it.
• Kristi Faris Fickert: Lifestyle can be shown when you include the surrounding community too – stores, restaurants, parks, etc.
• Eric K.: We are taking pictures of our residents dressed up today (Halloween) and posting them on Facebook.

Question 3: Have you had success with photo or video contests? What worked? What didn’t?

• Erica Campbell: We had huge success with our video contest. All the videos can be seen here. We had over 100 (entries), a 141% increase in video submissions, 186% increase in comments, 184% increase in members and 897% increase in votes from contest. There were nearly 500 guest cards submitted as a direct result of our contest.
• Mike Whaling: You all may want to take a look at what Mark Juleen did with his video contest for JC Hart.
• Erica Campbell: Nadeen recommends having photo release forms and testimonials forms from your residents.
• Capture The Market: Ask Nick Jerome at LumaCorp about their video contest.
• Mike Whaling: Urbane Apartments had each resident sign a model release form to use the photos in future marketing.

There was a really interesting side conversation about photos posted to Facebook pages and whether or not apartment companies should even allow fans to share anything on a community’s business page.

• Sara Graham: When I was at Northland, we had a “terms of use for residents” posted right on the community’s Facebook page. (Keep it PG.) Seems like deleting/preventing is sort of defeating the purpose of having a “community” on FB?
• Joe Foster: I can’t fathom a community not blocking wall photos.
• Charity Hisle: Do you really want to block any kind of opportunity for engagement from residents? Some are struggling to attain it.

Question 4: How are you tracking leads/leases from multimedia sites across the web?

• Erica Campbell: We have tracking numbers, vanity URLs and we look at views & referring traffic into site which converts into a guest card.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: We have vanity URLs and photos on Flickr. You can track views and click then click throughs from Google Analytics.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: ReachLocal is great! Option to record phone calls that come in so you can listen back & catch missed information.

Question 5: How are you using photos & videos to increase your visibility online?

• Mike Whaling: Try geo-tagging your YouTube videos. Post photos to Panoramio and place them on the map there, too. Flickr also offers a geo-tagging option. Make your media as relevant as possible to your location.
• Erica Campbell: Optimizing your media assets is KING! Tags, keywords, urls, also i’ve written an article 8 ways to maximize your video its coming out in a few days & i’ll share
• Mike Whaling: Make sure your photos are posted to your listings on Yelp, Google Local, InsiderPages, etc. Take advantage of tags and opportunities to get links back to your site. (But don’t abuse it.)

Now it’s your turn … are you using photos and/or videos in unique ways to promote your properties? What has worked well for you? How would you answer the questions highlighted above? Let us know what you think in the comments.

You can view the transcript for the full discussion here.

This week, our topic was Lead Generation.

Here are some of the questions and other highlights from the chat:

Question 1: What is the most effective way to increase traffic: Print, online, events, or special offers?

• Becky Amross: For us, it is a combination of online/special offers. We increased our Craigslist Postlets and saw 7 new leads from Craigslist last week!
• Heather Blume: Online with special offers do a good job up here
• Apartments.com: Due to the large audience the internet reaches, online advertising increases exposure while decreasing market spend
• Janet Rosseth: Well rounded reach to all sources, but some obviously are far quicker to update than others
• Eric K: I interlink the newsletter with Facebook & Twitter then add a raffle for those who join
• Joe at Ellipse: People hate talking to robots but they don’t mind typing at them–put your website address on your voice mail

Question 2: How can you utilize your advertisements to create more traffic? What works? What doesn’t?

• Gina Kay: Coupons DO work – one of our Realtors uses them religiously, gets clients. You could get tenants!
• David Kotowski: Update your print ads and change them so they don’t get stale * don’t forget to add your website
• David Kotowski: I’ve always wanted to put buried treasures in print ads and make a game out of finding them. Or give a prize to all who mention.
• Mike Whaling: You should be claiming your listings on Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yelp no matter what. All are free.
• Carrie at Roscoe & Mark Juleen: For us Print ads and signage tend to bring more traffic, but online tends to bring more qualified leads
• Apartment Finder blog said garage, dogs, pets, washer & dryer were some of the most popular keywords on their site

Question 3: Is the challenge more traffic, or more qualified traffic?

• Lisa Trosien: Many renters are starting out with Google and Yahoo local, using maps to find properties first, then narrowing down from there
• Janet Rosseth: In regards to type of traffic, we’ll take any and refer to sister sites if one can’t accomodate their needs
• Carrie at Roscoe: I think we also need to recognize that all traffic builds brand recognition…but only qualified traffic pays the bills

As noted by our friends at the Ellipse Group, a discussion broke out about Sidewiki and how to business owners can claim and make comments on their own web pages. Ellipse has posted a good roundup of Google Sidewiki here.

What’s working for you to improve lead generation? Do you disagree with any of the comments we highlighted? Let us know what you think in the comments.

As always, you can view the transcript for the full discussion here.