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.

Related posts:

• Social Media Policies

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!

Related posts:

• Managing Your Social Media Presence

Are call centers good? Do you like them?

• Nessel Inc.: We love being able to market that you will get a person 24/7.
• Doug Chasick: Call Cntr great for overflow and emerg – concerned about outsrcng ALL calls to off-site, esp. resident calls.
• Heather Blume: When your residents call, they don’t want to call somewhere that isn’t the office.
• Sara Graham: We’re evaluating call centers this spring – Level One seems to be the 800 lb gorilla.
• Nessel Inc.: In our experience we’ve found the agents are quite successful at getting the caller to schedule an appointment. Which we love.
• Kim Cory: Not a fan of call centers. As a true sales person myself I have to feel, touch & be part of my product to really sell it.
• Lisa Trosien: I was, originally, anti-call center. Not anymore. Too many properties don’t answer the phone. This solves that problem.
• Tami Siewruk: Call Centers are necessary. Fact: People R looking for APTs when the office is closed. Trend: INSTANT GRATIFICATION.
• Eric Brown: Our original reason for using a Call Center, was folks weren’t answering the phone. We replaced them with ones who do.
• Mark Juleen: If you want your community to be sold like it is a commodity then call centers are fine.
• RealPage: Our research shows that our contact center answers 97% of all calls that you designate us to take.
• Bob Gura: After a year with a call center we have concluded that we are much more effective than the call center.
• Mark Juleen: Why are we outsourcing the face of our brands and our product? Why not outsource reports & accounting task garbage instead?
• Elysa Rice: As a resident (and previous prospect) I wouldn’t expect to talk to a person at midnight … that’s just weird.
• Realty Data Trust: Call centers aren’t just for calls either. Email leads can be handled by industry call centers.
• David Kotowski: I think call centers probably benefit our customers, especially as so many companies are still having to cut staffing levels.
• Mark Juleen: Real life example from a call center. Prospect – “Do you have a pool?” Center Rep – “Um, let me check.”
• Mark Juleen: Real life example from a call center. Rep – “The One Bedroom is 695 sq. ft.” Prospect – “That’s kind of small.” Rep – “Yes, it is.”
• Tami Siewruk: REALITY CHECK LP’s cnt answer every call we have them doing more than they cn handle, answer take away all the NON leasing items.

What about ‘culture’? Can a call center communicate the ‘culture’ of your sites?

• Heather Blume: Culture = personality, and some can, depending on how they hire. But usually, the flat tone conveys 1 thing – Apathy.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: You can’t train call center people to represent your brand. They just don’t care like you do. I worked in one when I was a kid.
• RealPage: Well trained contact center reps can capture the brand and the culture of each property.
• Mike Whaling: Is anyone providing their blog feed and social media info to their call center team?
• Doug Chasick: Prob is we try 2make Call Cntr what they are not — culture — instead of using 4 what they are — cover phone when we can’t.
• RealPage: We offer continuing education to help refresh information about particular properties and help represent the culture.
• Michael Cunningham: We work with the communities from day one to find out their preferences, amenities, specials, etc.
• Joe Youngblood: Maybe centers need to foster closer relationships? and property managers need to facilitate that with updated data?
• Lisa Trosien: I know that one of my clients meets 2x a year with the LP’s at the call center to make sure they ‘get’ the culture.
• Janet Rosseth: The best on-site agents know how to circle back with prospects handled by a call center to personalize the experience.
• Nashville Web Design: Call centers are impersonal but they are good to get prospect information for LP to call back.

Even more comments on Call Centers:

• Lisa Trosien: Typical LP’s on CCenters say they are in a ‘centralized leasing office’.
• Lisa Trosien: I don’t think it’s the solution for every property.I think you need to weigh the pro’s and con’s seriously b4 u make your decision.
• RealPage: According to Satisfacts, only 52% of calls will be answered during office hours.
• Heather Blume: A leasing professional CANNOT get EVERY single call. It’s just not realistic.
• Tami Siewruk: Part of the answer is staggered staffing hrs! Helps tremendously U know when U get the most calls & visits.
• Janet Rosseth: I had an internal call center. Awesome front line and x-tra hands, but overhead was too costly to go 24/7 and handle emails.
• Lisa Trosien: I’ve found a lot of the issues with call centers is getting the site people to call back on the leads from the call center.
• Kim Cory: leasing does not want 2 respond b/c no connection. LIke calling a guy after a date, must have connection 2 call again.

There were a few questions about companies that have successfully implemented internal call centers, with Equity, AIMCO and Mid-America all used as positive examples.

The conversation then moved to live chat, and there were strong opinions on this subject, too:

• Heather Blume: Live chat can be an excellent first contact point for a potential resident.
• Eric Brown: We tried Live Chat, but could not effectively manage it, nor did prospects like it, they were creeped out.
• Janet Rosseth: I think I heard a stat that L1 was converting 80% of live chats to appointments. If that’s correct, it’s staggering!

Who has kicked butt with resident referral programs? What’s made it successful? (Asked by Bob Gura)

• Sara Graham: At some props, we offer a tiered res ref model: 1st referral gets $250, 2nd gets $500, 3rd gets $750 and 4th gets $1000.
• Heather Blume: I had one woman in my session this week who was talking about how they have a resident who they almost PAY to live there.
• Lisa Trosien: Try having the referral fee be higher right after move in when their enthusiasm is very high.

Other noteworthy comments from the chat:

• David Kotowski: I worked for a company that had a policy of only hiring attractive people. I’m not kidding. Staffing meetings were odd.
• Bob Gura: Great personalities lease. Make the visit memorable!
• Bake Extra Cookies: We’re seeing our user’s online statistics DOUBLE. Might be indicating a slightly early leasing season…
• Lisa Trosien: So to summarize: human directionals in curling pants can answer your phones.

As you can imagine, this edition of #AptChat was a lot of fun for everyone. (This week’s stats: 512 tweets from 63 different contributors.) I couldn’t get all the great comments in the recap, so make sure you check out the full transcript when you get a chance.

So what do you think? Are you for or against outside call centers? If you’re using one now, or have used a call center in the past, what has been your experience? What are some of your best resident referral ideas? It’s your turn to show off … tell us what you know in the comments!

Have a topic you’d like to discuss on a future #AptChat? Tell us about it!

Related posts:

• All Things Amenities

Let’s cut to the chase … here are the highlights from the conversation:

What are the top ways that students find an apartment? Is anything higher on the list than word of mouth?

• Natalie Teinert: Top ways to find our housing is through the University itself.
• Ann Padgett: Word of mouth is huge, students want to live with their friends.
• Elysa Rice: I’d say 2 ways are Google and friends.
• Resite Online: School newspapers and online social networks.
• ATL Marketing Concepts: Other than word of mouth – proximity to school and cost next two decision makers.. Roommate program also helps.
• Natalie Teinert: Housing Office, websites, admissions materials, etc.
• Carla Morin: Make sure to state in your on-line marketing “we accept student applications” or something like that that’s huge!
• Ann Padgett: I see a lot of kiosks on campuses now, both the old fashion paper and staple kind and new touch screen fanciness.
• Darcey Forbes: We have also seen success with CL (Craigslist) for college rentals and searching for roomates etc.
• Nessel Inc.: College newspaper online classifieds site was huge @ my school.
• Resite Online: 1 of our customers likes 2 create buzz around campus about prop’s social life, ex: topless car wash, they wash only tops of cars.
• Natalie Teinert: All of our properties offer a roommate matching program. Especially nice for International students who don’t know anyone.
• Dylan Schleppe: SMS is private, fast and convenient. What they want.

Are there differences in marketing a lease-by-the-unit community vs. a lease-by-the-bed property?

• Natalie Teinert: Most students like the individual lease liability. Parents do 2. Great thing to market!
• Elysa Rice: I think in student world lease by bed is easier on finances for students NOT propty. my roomie was forever late on payments.
• Natalie Teinert: Individual leases also help when applying financial aid. Would get messy with 1 lease/unit & fin aid.

What amenities are at the top of the list for students?

• Mike Brewer: Include all secondary fees, i.e. cable, Internet, water, sewer, trash – in the rent. Parents and students like simple.
• Ann Padgett: Individual bathrooms, washer dryer, location to transit, community events to name a few.
• Elysa Rice: Internet, designated parking (was single girl walking late at night), pay by room, pool, bus to school, TV, recycling.
• Tami Siewruk: Shuttle bus service is a big one.
• Eric at Buildium: ALL student housing should include internet. It is a necessity for college students!
• Speedpro Add: Stud housing is funny bc they position it as “luxury living” here I thght college was roughing it.
• Mike Brewer: Common place to hang with friends – and dog park is proving to be huge – wireless Internet a common area must.
• Natalie Teinert: Students will give up a lot on amenities as long as the student has friends there and believe theyll have fun living @ your prop.
• Lisa Trosien: Some have computer labs with direct links to the university computer.
• Natalie Teinert: One of out props has a bike room you can rent space in & stays locked.
• Elysa Rice: My apartment had room with computer/printers = smart move on their part.
• Elysa Rice: I lived with 3 diet obsessed girls, hello must have 24 hr gym.
• Natalie Teinert: Indoor BBall court has been popular @ 1 of our props up north, theaters are good for programming too.
• Elysa Rice: Pre-pay for entire semester rent is also nice ammenity for students who get loans twice year.

What needs to be on the website for a student housing community? Anything different from conventional apartment sites?

• Ann Padgett: I think u start by building a social network 4 your student residents 2 connect & have fun online, post pics & video.
• Mike Brewer: Ability to sign lease digitally — we are trying to this implement this year.
• Natalie Teinert: Online leasing is a great pull for international students.
• Resite Online: Online Rent Payment is a huge amenity for the student and the parent.
• RealPage: Roommate matching.
• Resite Online: Potentially an FAQs section for both students and parents.
• Ann Padgett: Pictures of the students interacting with each other at events.
• Natalie Teinert: Links to Uni websites are nice 4 current residents. Links to videos/articles how to wash clothes, cook, iron, etc.
• Elysa Rice: @osu_bigredbus (UniversityVillage.com) is our most popular student website. Their bulletin board for students is very popular.
• Natalie Teinert: Calendar of programming events (if you offer) w/links to FB to RSVP.
• RealPage: Providing parental access to the same info and functions a student makes mom and dad very happy.
• Elysa Rice: most important online student ammenities IMHO: online application, online rent pay, “nearby”, lots photos & video, floor plans.
• IRIO Mobile: We have iPhone web Apps on SH micro-sites via text.
• Elysa Rice: Speaking for @KimCoryFitness, I know she polls residents/students & improved website every semester per their input.

What about blogs & social media sites? Do they work for the student crowd?

• Natalie Teinert: Targeting High School seniors w/FB ads has been great for us!
• Natalie Teinert: Basically have created ads targeting specific cities in the Uni area targeting ages 17-18.
• Mike Brewer: FB: target the sphere of influence of current resident base – pic contests that require sphere to vote in the way of comment.
• Mike Brewer: FB: pet look alike, community jingle contest, best photo from spring break, etc.
• Mike Whaling: Just met w/ a group of students yesterday. Not one of them using 4sq yet. Also said Twitter is “for old people.”
• Natalie Teinert: SM has been good for us. Gets students interacting w/us that haven’t before.
• Mike Brewer: Social sites and blogs are only as valuable as the effort put into them — they require hard work to be successful.
• Mike Whaling: Numbers out last week show that Twitter is growing w/ the younger crowd.
• Natalie Teinert: Have seen success w/property twitters that the affiliated university utilizes Twitter as well.
• Lisa Trosien: Camden’s three lease Twitter success story was on a student housing property. Gave a concession ‘code’ in their Tweets.

There were a number of great insights and nuggets along the way, so make sure you look over the full transcript. This past week’s #AptChat included 329 tweets from 54 different contributors.

And if you missed the Student Housing Conference, or if you want to go back to the comments about sessions you may missed, you might also want to check out the Twitter stream from the event.

What do you think? Are these comments in line with what you’re seeing? Did we miss something that’s working really well for you? Tell us about it in the comments!

No related posts.

This was one of our most active chats ever — people are clearly passionate about this subject. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get right to it:

Do I need a blog for my apartment community? What are the potential benefits? Potential downside?

• Ann Padgett: Blogs are a great way to increase your digital footprint.
• Charity Hisle: Do you need a blog? Maybe. Depends on what your goals are.
• Judy Bellack: Blog benefits . . . connections with and among residents, enhanced retention, great communication platform, SEO opportunities.
• Jill Corya: Blogs build stronger relationships and brand loyalty.
• Resite Online: Blogs are a good way to handle FAQs and related topics for your residents.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: I wouldn’t say you “need” one but they are an added value for your clients, team members and prospects.
• Eric at Buildium: It depends on the community & its size. Blogs have both direct & indirect benefits. Need to weigh them.
• Justin Dunckel: View a blog as an amenity, especially if content is local, relevant, and interesting.
• Elysa Rice: Benefits: increase content for search engines & local involvement; Downside: must keep current, no blog is better than ignored blog.
• Jill Corya: Blogs, in an intranet environment, can be an excellent way of sharing knowledge within the organization.
• Gillian Luce: Blogs: Gr8t way 2 get content in virtual space, increase brand awareness & engage current residents (& prospects) providing value!
• Mark Juleen: A blog can and should be the social media hub for your community.
• Eric Brown: Community Blogs can be Outreach on Steroids.
• Judy Bellack: Blogs not done well (lack of response to comments, stale content, etc.) can hurt rather than help.
• Trevor Henson: A blog also helps us keep ambient contact with the owners and investors of the building.

Where do you get the content? Who decides on ‘the voice?’

• Christian: The community, the employees, the company, qualified voices from your corner of the market.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Content depends on your audience. Can be links from new papers, free article data bases, your people.
• Joe Foster: The great thing about multifamily blogging is that this bidness is already so incredibly personality-driven.
• Judy Bellack: Content has to be relevant, unique, fresh, interesting; and should utilize writers who know your stuff!
• Judy Bellack: You can use linked content, original content, content from residents, employees.
• Meredith Mobley: Talk to your residents. What are their FAQ? Start there…
• Charity Hisle: Ultimately, audience should become the voice. To start, anyone that cares, understands the audience can be the voice.
• Jonathan Saar: How about community site improvements, schedule of curb appeal updates, photos of changes?
• Elysa Rice: The great thing about blogging is content can be inspired from life, other blogs, movies, ads, emails, pretty much anywhere.
• Erica Campbell: Most communities already have content. Start with your newsletters, testimonials, interns, videos, photos, events etc.
• Nessel Inc.: Lists do very well. “Top 5 Places for Lunch”
• Erica Campbell: never replace your newsletter with a blog. Newsletter are so powerful and email drip marketing has so much to offer.
• Mark Juleen: Property teams can create the content. No excuses. Hire better people if you don’t think they can handle it.
• Meredith Mobley: Multiple voices can definitely be helpful. You dont have one type of renter, so its okay to have more than one voice.
• Elysa Rice: There’s a property that posts local business of the month — doctors, restaurants, all nominated by residents.

(Jason Falls also asked a great question about how social media sites like Twitter are impacting blogging. Are you focused more on blogging or social media? Are they two unique audiences? Tell us in the comments.)

Who should be the target audience for an apartment community’s blog? Residents? Prospects? Investors?

• Ann Padgett: I would think the investors would be a target audience at the PMC level, not the community.
• Judy Bellack: All of the above!
• Eric at Buildium: All of the above because information targeting one is indirectly pertinent to others.
• Mike Whaling: Have a blogger relations strategy. Who else is writing about the neighborhood? Link to them first.

Lisa Trosien asked about the goal of a community blog — is it to improve rankings in search engines or to increase engagement with your target audience? Here were some of the responses:

• Jennifer Kennedy: Our goal is both!
• Erica Campbell: Our focus is the on the user first then SEO second. Our SEO is other initiatives that are behind the scenes.
• Jason Falls: It depends. If SEO drives business, prioritize it. If engagement drives customer satisfaction, etc.
• Mike Whaling: Keywords & other on-site tweaks now account for less than 25% of SEO (per SEOMoz). Focus on creating great content.
• Charity Hisle: It is cheaper to keep residents, there should be a lead/retention balance in the strategy.

I’ve seen “fake blogs,” where a staffer pretends to be a resident. Is this a good idea?

• Eric at Buildium: Horrible idea. It’s usually pretty easy to tell. Bad image.
• Jason Falls: Never.
• Erica Campbell: This is a bad idea. That is not begin transparent and can come back to haunt you in the long run.
• Apartments.com: It’s all about transparency. No need to jeopardize your company’s reputation.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: If you get caught doing something unethical these days, the consumer will spread it on social media and kill your reputation.

What about buying blog content from one of the content providers out there? Is there a transparency issue there?

• Ellen Thompson: How is posting local events and restaurant reviews from a third party unethical if blended in with messages from the property mgrs?
• Bob Gura: The bought content of newsletters doesn’t get read.
• Dylan Schleppe: Hard to be “your message” if you bought it, eh?
• Duncan Alney: Do you like canned newsletters? If not, why would you like a canned blog? No one like artificially anything (OK, well Nutrasweet maybe).
• Tami Siewruk: Buy content all you want as long as it’s appropriate for your target audience.
• Judy Bellack: Its all about balance; you can buy great content occasionally, and combined with hyper-local and original content, a great formula.
• Tami Siewruk: You have to mix the content with your own but buying is fine as a supplement as long as it focused.
• Erica Campbell: There is a huge difference between canned content and quality re-purposed content.
• Realty Data Trust: Rather than canned content, try elance.com or similar resource for copywriters.
• Elysa Rice: I much prefer [Urbane Apartment's] route of having residents create content than repurposing other stuff.

When it comes to blogging, what’s the biggest challenge facing your organization? Scalability? Motivation? Buy-in?

• Ellen Thompson: The biggest reasons customer say they are looking is lack of time and writing skills a the property level.
• Erica Campbell: Finding appropriate ways to monetize it.
• Eric at Buildium: Blogs are not scalable… if you are writing original content then they take time. Biggest challenge is time.
• Tamela Coval: Answer may be “Trust” in the blogger.

There really were TOO MANY great comments and side conversations this week (we had 572 tweets from 62 different contributors!) — ranging from measuring success, to search engine optimization, to your favorite blogging tools. For all the good stuff, check out the full transcript.

Some example apartment community blogs submitted by #AptChatters:

• Lincoln Property Company
• The Green in the Village (Lincoln Property Company)
• The Place on Millenia (Lincoln Property Company)
• Paragon Life (Paragon Apartments)
• Coastal Orange County Living (Surterre Properties)
• The Urbane Life (Urbane Apartments)
• Regional blogs (Village Green Apartments)

Finally, there were a couple links to studies about the benefits of blogging that were shared during the conversation:

• Blogging Businesses Experience 126% Higher Lead Growth Than Non-Blogging Businesses
• HubSpot Study Shows Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors

So what do you think? Are you blogging for your apartment community? Are the example blogs provided getting the job done? Got a link to another great apartment community blog? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Related posts:

• 2010 Resolutions for Multifamily
• All Things Amenities
• The Numbers on Craigslist

What is the one mistake that you see too many leasing pros make when giving a property tour?

• Jennifer Kennedy: I have heard leasing consultants talk prospects out of an apartment by showing them the things that they may not like.
• Rory Ellis: Number one mistake … the premature hard close!
• Joe Foster: The notion that if the agent conveys to the prospects that time is short, they are more likely to lease.
• Mike Brewer: Giving up price at first request.
• Kim Cory: Sounding robotic … like they are reading off cue cards. Emotionless.
• Janet Rosseth: Big mistake = Forgetting the discovery phase and selling their own favorite features instead.
• Eric at Buildium: Sometimes apartment hunters don’t know exactly what they want. During the showing, continue to uncover their needs.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: When I’ve gone on apartment tours, nothing is worse than getting stuck with a tour guide who clearly wants to be doing something else.

Consumers know what they want, they’ve done their homework. How can we more effectively focus on their interests/needs/wants?

• Rory Ellis: Learn to ask leading questions, not simply give a pitch. Think consultant, not used car salesman.
• Apartments.com: Ask them what about the property brought them in to see it. Then you can focus on their needs.
• Eric at Buildium: 80/20 rule. Listen 80% of the conversation and speak only 20% of the conversation. Listening is key to finding the right match!
• Eric at Buildium: Learn from what prospects say. i.e. If a prospect mentions that she loves to bbq, then a ground level unit may be preferable.
• Kim Cory: If they are informed, have done homework & made it to your office, then it’s time ask what can you provide to help them commit & move in!
• Tami Siewruk: It’s about understanding inbound leads today & how they differ from years ago. People are different today & training hasn’t caught up.

What’s the one trend you’ve noticed while giving tours recently? How have you adjusted your strategy?

• Tami Siewruk: Trend: I just want to see the apartment. I don’t want to take the time to give you all that information.
• Tami Siewruk: Strategy: Walk & talk. Have the conversation on the way to the apartment.
• Tami Siewruk: Trend: They come educated and they already “think” they know more than you do.
• Tami Siewruk: Strategy: Find out — “ask” — what they already know about the apartment … gives you a starting place!
• Kim Cory: Strategy: Let them show you around! I bet you they have already been through most of your property before walking in the door.
• Jennifer Kennedy: Talk up the value of your community and build trust. People still buy from people.
• Kim Cory: When asked is this your first time to visit, we hear not in person, but yes online. They just want to put the images they have to reality.

What are some of the more creative ideas you’ve seen/tried on a recent tour? How did they work?

• Brian Owen: I know some communities that are giving prospects flip videos to record tours and then emailing them the video after! Brilliant!
• Tami Siewruk: We used motion-activated vids, music, lights … we had all the tech built in.
• Mark Juleen: You need to offer testimonials and stories of other residents and how they have decorated or enjoyed features of the community.
• Tami Siewruk: Has anyone used barcodes yet?

Should we even call it a tour? What can we do to make it more of a demo of the property, get the prospect more involved?
(Submitted by Mark Juleen)

• Eric at Buildium: Call it a “simulation” and paint the picture of the prospect living there.
• Mark Juleen: Screw fancy ideas. people just want to have an enjoyable experience. be consistent, ask questions, and build trust.
• Brian Owen: Give them the keys to the guest suite for a night and call it a “test drive”! Anyone done that?

What’s your best property tour secret? What the one thing that seems to work for you every time?

• Tami Siewruk: Infotainment is what they want in a tour! Make it interesting and you score!
• Jory Rozner Strosberg: You don’t need to be “sales-y” to lease apts. Create trust & comfort. My PM leased one this week. No sales exp.
• Kim Cory: How about NO secret. If they were informed before showing up & now confirmed they like what they see … ask for the CLOSE.
• Tami Siewruk: People demand more. They insist you be interesting, informative, & entertaining; it’s what potentially makes your tour memorable.

One of the more interesting side conversations that came up in this week’s discussion revolved around the Go Solo program that Urbane Apartments is using, allowing prospects to tour apartment communities by themselves. Some were for the idea, some were against it, some were just curious about it. Here are some of the highlights:

• Eric Brown: Our Tours and Rentals increased exponentially when we got out of the way.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: That’s important, too. If someone wants to wander, let them. Tour guides need to know when to talk & when to let people look.
• Eric Brown: It is the only way we do tours.
• Mark Juleen: Just like anything, it won’t work for everyone. Happy you guys are successful with it.
• Tami Siewruk: A combination is Excellent Guided & Solo gives people the control they want & the control you need.

Eric even posted the marketing collateral his company gives to each prospect to guide them on their “Go Solo” tour. You can view that collateral here.

Here’s the link to the full transcript for those who want to dig in a little deeper.

So what’s your take? What strategies for property tours are working well for you? What consumer trends do you see affecting how you do property tours moving forward? And what do you think about the Go Solo idea — is it something you’d try at your property? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Our top contributor this week was Jennifer Kennedy from Property Counselors Management Group in Florida. Jennifer will receive a iTunes gift card, sponsored by TurnSocial. Congrats, Jennifer!

Related posts:

• The Numbers on Craigslist
• 2010 Resolutions for Multifamily
• Managing ‘Fixed Costs’ at Your Property

Here are some of the questions we were able to address in this second session, along with a recap of some of the highlights of the discussion:

Is there any downside to using Craigslist to market your apartments? If so, what is it?
(Question submitted by Tara Smiley.)

• Jennifer Kennedy: The only downside I could see if the time spent on Craiglist isn’t bringing any qualified leads.
• Eric at Buildium: You limit yourself to those that search for apts on Craigslist. Great start, but only a piece of the marketing pie.
• Carrie White: The search feature on Craigslist is not ideal … it is hard to cut through the clutter.
• Darcey Forbes: Downside is working with current residents who are in a lease and want that new price & communicating why the price is as it is.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: Craigslist is very easy to use for apt seekers, but I’ve noticed it’s used more on an individual basis, not really so much by communities.
• Carrie White: In my market, CL is viewed as being over-run by Locators and is not trusted by many apartment seekers.
• Kirstin Williams: Another downside is the time sunk on posting, reposting, reposting. Hard to track this hidden cost, does anyone try to?

Should you have the renter email or call you? What’s best?

• Carrie White: I prefer email…I have had my phone ring at all hours of the night b/c of late night surfing.
• Sara Goberdhansingh: BOTH! You need to let your prospects decide what the best way is for them to get in touch with you.
• Eric at Buildium: Whatever the prospect feels most comfortable doing. Keep them in their comfort zone, but be responsive either way.
• BakeExtraCookies: During business hours we see that most people call our users. After hours, the number of emails spikes.
• Eva Panagiotopoulos: Interesting question – Anyone using SMS?
• Paulette Barrett: Would suggest using a unique email address though for tracking purposes where possible.
• Brian Owen: We need to be able to adapt. If the customer wants to send a smoke signal, you better have a campfire ready to respond.
• Tamela Coval: Phone call Leads are a useful tracking & training tool, as well as measuring effectiveness of lead quality vs quantity.
• MyNewPlace: Around 70 percent of our users expect a response to email within 24 hours.
• Paulette Barrett: We see roughly 5 calls to 1 email response with the clients we work with.

We’ve tried Craigslist several times and it doesn’t seem to work. Does it vary by market?

• Tara Smiley: We get local primarily. We average 3 calls/month from people moving to the area.
• Apartments.com: Just speculating here… could it be because in some markets renters look more for privately-owned apts?
• DriveBuy: CL Austin is somewhat of an Arms Race. Your ad will be on page 1 for maybe an hour.
• Paulette Barrett: Phoenix and Dallas are two [of the more challenging markets.]

My boss is worried about scammers. How can you get scammed? How can you protect yourself?

• Nashville Web Design: Renter sends a big check, letting us deposit it, keep our part, and ask us to send the remainder to somebody elsewhere.
• DriveBuy: You can get scammed by identity thieves using your complex as a carrot to steal someone’s identity.

Does Craigslist help our Google rankings? Is there a certain style we should be using? What keywords should we use when we write ads?

• Ann Padgett: I don’t know about rankings specifically, but it can increase your digital footprint.
• Nashville Web Design: Craigslist has “no-follow” on all their links and does not affect Google rankings or page rank.
• MyNewPlace: Google crawls Craigslist and properties (or units) will rank on their SRPs. passing SEO [authority] to a given site is another story.
• BakeExtraCookies: Optimize your ads to come up in Craigslist searches. Use key words that have high # searches in your area.
• Apartments.com: PageRank is definitely important. However, sometimes just getting the spider to a page quickly is good too (see Twitter).

There was an interesting side conversation about the value of ads on Craigslist and ILSs in terms of search optimization for your community. ILSs have LOTS of data about this subject. If you are advertising with any of the ILSs, make sure you’re asking how they can help you optimize your ads to get the most out of them for your community. Other good side conversation topics included ad formatting, expected response time for new leads and the real cost of posting ads to Craigslist. You can read the full transcript here.

I think we’re officially worn out on Craigslist and the rest of the free classifieds sites for a while, but feel free to leave us your comments to let us know what is (or maybe isn’t) working for you. And if you have another topic you’d like us to discuss on a future #AptChat, just let us know!

Related posts:

• The Numbers on Craigslist
• AptChat #20: Lead Generation
• Blogging for Apartment Communities

“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!

Related posts:

• Craigslist for Apartments, Part II
• AptChat #20: Lead Generation
• Blogging for Apartment Communities

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.

Related posts:

• Craigslist for Apartments, Part II
• Using Photos and Videos for Marketing
• Blogging for Apartment Communities