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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Resources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional Resources:

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

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

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

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!