Introducing MyResite: A Game-Changing Dashboard to Replace CommunityWare
The Benefits of Having a Social Presence
The benefits of a well tended social presence extend to customer retention, engagement and general visibility for your property.
Your online social presence is a valuable asset that requires nurturing and protection.
When you search for a brand the first page should be:
- The branded website of your property
- Social pages. (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp)
Find out where you stand on Google
Having this search result is an ideal scenario because it means when someone searches for your brand or property, what they see and their perception of you is completely controlled by you.
In fact, in many cases now, the official Facebook or Twitter page provides the first impression for new prospects and can be an important point of contact for customer service – building on the branded website.. Almost all apartment properties are responsible for their own social channels which has its benefit as it allows for a direct connection to their residents and potential residents.
A recent study by Goldman Sachs uncovered that businesses who use social media well are 34% more likely to be trusted by young, working-aged people. As the population of renting professional millennials reaches an all-time high, so must your apartments social media presence if you are to capitalize on attracting them.
With the growth in social media pages being a go-to resource, using Twitter as your customer service vessel for delighted and disgruntled residents will become more popular.
Sometimes it’s overlooked that different social sites have different benefits. Twitter is great for:
- Expanding Awareness
- Special Incentive Offers
- Linking to longer, more valuable pages
In fact, one of the biggest indicators of how important Twitter is these days is that Google has recently announced that they will include relevant tweets into web searches. With this new update, Google will show tweets in the main column of the organic search results and it doesn’t matter if you have a Twitter account or not, you will still be able to click through. Although still very much in its infancy, Google has said the relevancy and ranking behind these Twitter results will continue to evolve and improve as the process matures.
Regardless of whether you have a Twitter page or have been thinking about setting up an account, there are guidelines to make sure you get the fundamentals
HOW TO PROPERLY SETUP PAGES (TWITTER, FB)
General Tips
The following tips are applicable to nearly any social media account you have:
- Branding/Images – Use high-quality branded images which best showcase your property when you can.
- Post Updates – Try to make updates regularly. Try to keep things conversational and don’t overdo it with messages that lack value, overly promote or people will start filtering out your posts.
- Complete your profile. Don’t overlook or underestimate the power of completely filling in your profiles. It’s easy to only fill in the basics, but the more complete your profile, the better off you will be.
- Branding. Don’t be an egg! (The generic Twitter image every user gets when they sign up). Make sure to upload your property logo in addition to a brand relevant background color for your profile page. To go one step further than a plain background color, you can upload a background image. Try a website like Canva, to easily create optimized social media images and banners with the correct dimensions.
- Updates. Strive to post three to four times per day, if possible. (This can be automated if you simply can’t find the time). It is also very important to leverage hashtags on Twitter. This will help double engagements and may also increase the chances of your tweets showing up in Google Web search.
- Branding. Similar to Twitter, make sure you have a profile picture and a cover photo. However don’t just limit yourself to one picture. Upload a variety of pictures to show the many sides of your property and the people who work there and events that happen there.
- Be sure to claim your vanity URL, too (for example, Facebook.com/ResiteOnline).
- Updates. Facebook doesn’t require updating as often as Twitter, you should strive for one update a day. However It’s important to remember that when dealing with Facebook that the visibility of your posts will be punished for low engagement, (In short, it’s a measure of the number of people that are interacting and taking an action on your post compared to the number of people who could be) so make sure whatever you post inspires engagement.
- Page Info. Populate the page info section of the profile with as much content as possible. Include history, mission, services, awards, etc. — the more content, the better.
All this updating of various social sites can be hard to keep track of, but it’s much more manageable with the right approach. Forbes recommends striking the right balance between hands-on management and automation. This gives you the time to focus on all the other activities in your day which need your attention, while not letting your social efforts slide.
How far you take your social media is up to you, but the tools are at your disposal to make it much easier to take control of and increase its effectiveness.
