#AptChat

Everyone seems to be experimenting with social media in some way, shape or form these days (regardless of whether you think it’s working or not). But one thing that many people seem to struggle with is how to manage their brand’s presence across so many different platforms.

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.

Most of the time, this is a great industry that we work in. But at any given apartment community on any given day, we all know that anything can happen, from burglaries fires to rapes, drug busts or worse. Yet many apartment operators don’t have media policies and the training tools in place to help on-site staff react appropriately and communicate effectively when the media shows up. We asked Heather Whaling, owner of Geben Communication, to join us to share her expertise in the fields of crisis communication, PR and interacting with the media.

There were a LOT of great comments throughout this chat — this recap is a bit longer than usual, but trust me, it’s all worth the read. Here are the highlights from the discussion:

Why is a crisis communications plan important? What should be in it?

• Heather Whaling: There’s a saying in PR about crisis: If you’re not quick, you’re not relevant.
• Heather Whaling: Crisis plans should include: Crisis team, spokesperson, contact info (internal & external), approval/protocol process.
• Heather Whaling: Plans shld also include responses/messages for potential situations. Prepare ahead of time for to mitigate damage during crisis.
• Lesa LaRocca: Level headed on site team who manage their emotions and get authorities and corp exec immediately in the know.
• Heather Whaling: Think about a variety of tactics: letters, emails, “town hall”-style meeting, video blog update, etc.
• Heather Whaling: (When asked about an acceptable response time) Quick depends on the specific situation. Typically, 24 hours is way too long …
• Justin Dunckel: Designate one Media Spokesperson and stick with it. Communicating w/ residents via website bulletin board or txt message is huge.
• Heather Whaling: In crisis plan, you should ID internal & external audiences. Residents, media, maybe greater community or investors?
• Justin Dunckel: Create a manifest…know who is impacted and follow-up a ton. Overdeliver information and updates.
• Heather Whaling: Think through a variety of tactics. The situation will dictate what’s effective.
• Heather Whaling: PM, reg. managers & corporate should work together before crisis to develop a plan. Preparation is key.
• Gillian Luce: Brainstorm worse case scenarios, prepare hypothetical responses and implement them in2 ur crisis management plan. (i.e. Fire)

Who do you recommend for spokesperson? Same for residents vs media? (from Laurel Zacher)

Heather Whaling: Doesn’t have to be the same person. For media, needs to be someone who can do well in front of a camera.

Unfortunately, many props don’t have good email lists, and many don’t have blogs. Any recommendations? (from Lisa Trosien)

Heather Whaling: Traditional communication still works. Letters in the mailbox are still effective.

What do you do when the media contacts you? How do you respond?

• Heather Whaling: Before a crisis, property should identify an “official” media spokesperson. Seek professional media training if necessary.
• Jonathan Saar: There should be standard response statements in place.
• Heather Whaling: Employees shouldn’t interact w/ media during a crisis. They may not know all the details. Instead, direct media to spokesperson.
• Misty Browning: Everyone in the company needs to know the one person they can direct the media to. Do not have many diff people communicating.
• Lesa LaRocca: Keep it polite & professional, never speculate. Allow residents their privacy & designate one exec team member / PR rep.
• Heather Whaling: Spokesperson needs to answer questions honestly. No “spin.” Emphasize steps being taken to fix the situation.
• Gillian Luce: Need 2 prepare, ask what ? is & deadline. Call back w/statement. IMPORTANT to represent co in best way!
• Apartments.com: If U already have relationships w/ local reporters, turn 2 these trusted sources to help get your message out.
• Heather Whaling: I’d suggest not having a third-party PR person as the “official” spokesperson to the residents.
• Lesa LaRocca: Keep list of residents who are witnesses as they will become a media target at some point. Keep close to that situation.
• Heather Whaling: In crisis, things move quickly. Give reporters fact sheets or other documentation to make sure they have the facts.
• Justin Dunckel: Waiting for “legal” people only puts you that much further behind in crisis recovery.
• Heather Whaling: Before the crisis, ID what kinds of problems req legal counsel & have initial statement approved.
• Heather Whaling: “No comment” should always be avoided.

My property had a rape and its all over the news. How do I handle the press? The residents? The prospects?

• Heather Whaling: 1) Cooperate w/ legal authorities.
• Gillian Luce: Need 2 inform residents & share what measures are being taken 2 keep them safe. A ‘town-hall’ style meeting would be gr8.
• Heather Whaling: 2) Stay in constant contact w/ residents. (This is why social media [blog, FB, Twitter, Ning] is so important!)
• Heather Blume: There’s a prop in my college town that has been fighting this for over 13 years. they educate the residents @ MI
• Erica Campbell: First and foremost you need to make your residents feel safe and that the issue is being handled by law enforcement.
• Heather Whaling: 3) Re: press: Explain that you’re cooperating w/ authorities; priority is finding suspect & that u r taking steps to increase security.
• Erica Campbell: Make residents aware of any support groups that might be offered.
• Heather Whaling: 4) Perception = reality. Be proactive. Can you add lighting or add’l night-time patrol to make residents/prospects feel safer?
• Heather Blume: What the prop in my college town did was work with a”campus escort” system already in place – exten the service to the prop.
• Lesa LaRocca: What about informing your closest competitors so they have accurate info and not fabricate?
• Sean Williams: Be sure you tell the truth, no speculation. Push attys on this – they typc’ly want to clam up.
• Lesa LaRocca: What may grow from the experience is closer community, resident ambassador program, crime watch program. Find the good.

Most crisis situations happen when the corporate office is closed. What do I do when I’m ‘on the spot’ with no instruction?

• Apartments.com: Crime can happen anywhere. Educate residents on how 2 prevent crime by locking doors, don’t buzz anyone in you don’t know, etc.
• Heather Whaling: This is why a crisis plan is necessary. Scenarios & responses should be thought out in advanced whenever possible.
• Misty Browning: That is y it is so important to have a point person to deal with the press. Your first priority is your residents.
• Laurel Zacher: We’ve given our teams 4 safe responses if pinned down and my cell to call 24/7.
• Heather Whaling: Don’t ever say no comment … even if you’re put “on the spot.”
• Heather Whaling: That’s the difference btwn a good PR person and a not so good one. Good PR understands social, too.

What do you do if your owner/boss makes a boneheaded remark? Like Horizon Realty did with the ‘mold tweet’? (from Lisa Trosien)

Heather Whaling: Apologize if possible … be proactive and aggressive w/ the “right” communication going forward.

Can the media camp out on my property? Can I make them leave?

• Heather Whaling: Media can’t camp out on private property. But, they can be in the streets, on sidewalks, parks, etc.
• Heather Blume: Yes you can make them leave… but make sure you understand ramifications of your actions & do it in a PROFESSIONAL way.
• Heather Whaling: Don’t make a situation worse by creating a scene. Tell media when & where you’ll have info to share.
• Justin Dunckel: In my opinion the quicker you ask them to leave, the longer they stay and dig. Get the story,report facts, move on.
• Heather Blume: One side note on the media thing – don’t forget that anyone with a cell phone COULD be a camera man… this includes your residents.
• Heather Whaling: *Most* reporters aren’t out to “get” you. They want facts. If you’re quick & forthcoming w/ info, you’ll be better off.
• Sean Williams: TV lives on visuals – calm, collected and respectful makes lousy TV – so that’s what you give em!

How do you ‘recover’ from something like a murder, assault or fire at your property?

• Justin Dunckel: Not a plug for our blog at all, but I believe you can recover by taking this stuff head on. http://bit.ly/c0meaG
• Heather Whaling: It takes time to rebuild trust. Couple strong communication w/ meaningful actions to show you’re making necessary changes.
• Heather Blume: Honesty honesty honesty – and be realistic about the time it takes to rebuild a reputation.
• Gillian Luce: Implement new safety procedures, comm on regular basis w/residents, be sincere & understanding. Ppl will identify.
• Heather Whaling: Put yourselves in residents’/prospects’ shoes. What can you do to rebuild trust and credibility?

Other good nuggets from throughout the discussion:

• Erica Campbell: Google RSS Reader is a great free tool to monitor all of your mentions -if crisis occurs be on top of reputation monitoring.
• Justin Dunckel: (Our) manual is bright red, yes it’s at every prop, and yes they sign off at orientation. Review all the time.

For more on PR and media relations, we encourage you to check out Heather’s blog at PRtini.com.

More resources:

• 5 Steps to Develop a Crisis Communication Plan (From PRtini.com)
• 3 Case Studies in Social Media Crisis Management (Shared by Apartments.com)
• Top 10 Simple Ways to Discourage Break-ins (Shared by Heather Blume)
• Full transcript from the April 9th #AptChat

Does your company have a crisis communication plan? Do you have regular media training in place? Can you share an example of a situation when your crisis plan worked like it’s supposed to? Leave your experiences in the comments!

(This week’s #AptChat included 401 tweets from 49 different contributors.)

Yes, it’s the middle of March Madness, but that didn’t keep us from our regularly scheduled Friday chat. Our latest topic for discussion: Shopping the Leasing Team. There are no shortage of passionate opinions on this subject, and this discussion didn’t disappoint. Here are some of the highlights from the chat:

Are “standard” shopping reports fair? Should companies customize their expectations in their shopping reports?

• David Kotowski: Companies should customize their shopping reports based on what/how they train their associates.
• Jennifer Kennedy: I think customized shops are better than standard, but I think standard are fair.
• Patrick Nelson: There should be a minimum standard for our industry however I think each company should customize when possible.
• Heather Kattelman: Def customize! If we are going to hold them resp for leasing polc that’ what we shop for.
• University Pines: Ours shops via phone 1st scoring out of 100 pts, then actual visit scoring out of 200.
• David Kotowski: The old saying “inspect what you expect” comes to mind here. It’s unfair to inspect more than you’ve told someone you expect.
• Janet Rosseth: Custom reports should follow agent job description closely. If u expect your brand sold a certain way, it should be on there.
• Jennifer Kennedy: Customize – because we have special programs that give us comp. adv. and we want our teams to talk them up.
• Richard George: You should only customize to test specific behaviors that you want to encourage.
• Elysa Rice: We think it’s important to have an industry standard to compare against. mgt co can customize in addition to standards.
• Janet Rosseth: Most shopper services allow for companies to customize around the standards.
• Elysa Rice: Questions like response time should most certainly be compared.
• Joanna Ellis: Most companies we work with (hundreds) customize shop reports to their training programs laying out guidelines and expectations.

Should auto-responders get the same ‘rating’ as a Leasing Pro generated response?

• Patrick Nelson: No. Nothing like a response from a live person.
• Matt Adler: I’d say no. The autoresponder should be counted as a PART of the process but doesn’t replace personal interaction.
• Elysa Rice: Industry standard is 40% NO response at all on internet leads – so by all means auto is better than nothing.
• Joanna Ellis: Many companies send auto resp but also require agent to follow up with personal email and/or call.
• Janet Rosseth: Auto responder is nothing more than an out of office tool. It can be written to engage prospect until agent connects though.

Many companies today are ‘training to the shop’. Is this realistic?

• Kim Cory: NO-what are we training robots here?
• Zack Kestenbaum: I’m an idealist, I think we need to hire quality people and trust them, measuring is good but don’t “train to the shop.”
• Janet Rosseth: Shops should measure the effectiveness of training programs, not to point out faults in our agents.
• Tamela Coval: As a former leasing agent, the shop rep was 1st presented to me as a constructive tool-I carry that positive approach with me 2day.

What if all shops simply had the one question: Would you have leased today based upon the leasing pro’s behavior? Yes or No.

• Carmen Krushas: That’s why the big Q are the benchmark Q’s. need to jazz it up a bit?! totally stagnant. (I do like your question tho)
• Lisa Trosien: My former mgmt co always shopped us 2x on our ‘shop day’ as they believed shoppers had bad days. Wanted to be fair to us.
• Jennifer Kennedy: I don’t trust the shopper on that. They might have said “yes” to everyone because they aren’t truly moving.
• Zack Kestenbaum: Too subjective, what happens if shopper is having a bad day?
• Joanna Ellis: One question is good but sales does require technique too. If you don’t ask, you may not receive!
• Kim Cory: Some also like seeing formal evaluations even all-stars. Shops should B explained & used as a tool 2 help.
• University Pines: That 1 question’s important but responder really needs to be specific & descriptive in the answer 2 get anything out of it.
• Heather Kattelman: I would question this b/c I’ve seen many shops that this 1 ans just doesn’t “fit” w/ the overall opinion of the rest of the report.

Should you ever terminate a leasing pro for a bad shop? Why or why not?

• Kim Cory: NEVER!
• Jennifer Kennedy: No. Sets a bad precedent. Only exception is if they did something illegal during the shop.
• Zack Kestenbaum: Don’t fire based on a shop, fire based on results.
• University Pines: Anyone can have a bad day…not a good reason to “punish” & def not to fire…good learning tool tho.
• Carmen Krushas: Get the dead weight off and shop. Nothing wrong with firing for the right reasons. Who cares if they had a bad day? not customer.
• David Kotowski: For one bad shop? NO!! For consistently bad shops? Maybe. Regardless of the #’s, everyone eventually has to show they know.

Other notable comments and questions to get you thinking:

• Patrick Nelson: How frequently should the team be shopped?
• University Pines: frequency: i think no less than once a month…
• Elysa Rice: We have a client that uses their reports as competitive motivatrs for agents – they win vacay time, bonuses, etc based on reports.
• Janet Rosseth: If 55-65% of our first contacts are from Internet, we should be “shopping” there more frequently.
• Joanna Ellis: Shops are used primarily as training tools but also serve as a form of accountability. “Do they not do or do they not know?”
• Lisa Trosien: Is a ‘national benchmark’, such as what Ellis uses, helpful? It shows you how you stack up…I like it.
• Justin Dunckel: Ellis bechmark is great. Even cooler that they customize results for our small Co. so we can compare vs. the big guys.
• Eric Brown: If I were a leasing consultant and my company shopped me I would seek employment elsewhere, Measure me on Results, not a witch hunt.
• Joanna Ellis: Large co shared how shop drives results-100% shop = double lease bonus per lease. Do I hear “commission sales people”? Results!!!
• Lisa Trosien: If shops are used constructively as a training tool, they are *not* witch hunts.
• Joanna Ellis: Companies shopping regularly can spot trends and use information individually and globally to redirect training. Goal: Consistency.
• Tamela Coval: As Trainer on both owner/manager & vendor side, I used Shop Rep as Training Guide. Not 2 teach 2 the test, but 2 set expectations.
• Megan Yasenchack: It (shops) would help me to improve my skills, being new in leasing I want to learn as much as I can 2 get better at what I do.
• Justin Dunckel: We’re kind of all pretending these shops are 100% subjective about the LC. I sure gain more info than that on mine.

Additional Resources:

• Sample shopping report (provided by Matt Adler)
• 2009 last qtr’s Net Mystery Shopper benchmark (Provided by Elysa Rice, representing 536 shopping reports)

What’s your opinion on secret shops? Good? Bad? Helpful? Are you customizing the shops based on your training program, or are you using a “standard” report? And how does your bracket look so far?

(This week’s #AptChat included 307 tweets from 46 different contributors.)