Using Social Networks to Market Apartments

By Steve Lefkovits | October 30, 2008 | Social Media | Add Comment | 5 Comments »

How much do you know about marketing apartments with social networks?

We’ve put together two different cases of different companies successfully using Facebook and MySpace to market apartments. After you’re done reading, please tell us what you think by adding your comment.

CASE #1:
UDR, Inc., the 50,000-unit owner, recently launched a rental search page on MySpace.  The page includes portfolio-wide apartment search, Google maps, real-time availability, videos and a photo feed from Flickr — in addition to the usual MySpace social functions for engagement for sharing page information.

Yet, in the three weeks since launch, their page has only 1 friend and the views of photos are in the single-digits. Despite this, the effort is probably considered a big success at UDR.

QUESTION: Why is UDR’s MySpace project successful?

CASE #2:
A single San Francisco AvalonBay community has two Facebook groups. One was created by two popular residents and has 40 members, while the other, started by an AvalonBay associate, has only 2 members.  Both have a handful of photos, and little other content.  However, another company-created Facebook page for Avalon Riverview has a good level of engagement with 22 members, and some actual resident conversation on it.

Second example: Stephen D. Bell & Co. appears to have created a Facebook and MySpace page for every one of their approximately 200 properties.

QUESTION: How can a Facebook group be used as part of a strategy to attract renters?

Here are the facts:

MySpace is the largest social network in the United States, with 72% market share versus Facebook’s 17%.  UDR’s MySpace page serves several functions unrelated to allowing renters to search for a unit on MySpace.  (In fact, the page doesn’t even mention its function in bold type anwhere – you kind of have to know what it is to use it.) 
Here’s what they are:

Facebook is a user-generated media site in which people share information about their lives and their interests with friends.  According to Compete.com, Facebook visits account for almost 3% of all web browsing in the US.  Facebook averages 21 minutes and 49 pages of browsing per unique visitor per day (Source: ComScore Media Metrix and internal Facebook data.)  In other words, engagement is high.  Anyone can create a group or a company page which Facebook members can join.  According to M:Metrics, mobile Facebook users spend an average of one hour and 24 minutes on the site per month from their smart phones – despite the inconvenience.

Facebook may be leveraged for marketing purposes in a number of ways including:

Avalon Riverview seems to be a naturally-occurring Facebook community.  Its members are just out of college, and are extremely active on Facebook, some with more than 500 Facebook friends.  Since they are showing their communication preferences clearly, it seems worthwhile to experiment with communicating with them in their natural environment.  Should AvalonBay’s Mission Bay property use the resident-generated Facebook page for its marketing?  You decide. Please have a look and send us your comments.  We’ll follow up on this story in future notes.

…And since we’re on the topic of Internet marketing:
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  • ellen

    I am interested to see how social network marketing evolves in our industry. We are dabbling in these projects ourselves, and the biggest issue we face is measuring success. Our customers understandably require us to demonstrate measurable ROI and so do we with our marketing efforts. The cost of building and maintaining these sites adds up, and at some point it’s got to pay off.

    In addition to my “day job,” I also review Internet businesses seeking investments from a local venture capital company. Lately, most of them have an unproven business model with social networking components. The ones that get funded seem to have the biggest upside potential. We also want to make sure we don’t miss the next big thing. 5 years ago, we had the pay for performance paradigm shift, and now we face the social networking revolution.

    My guess is some social network marketing efforts will be obviously profitable, but that most of us will be spending to maintain sites we are not sure are working.

  • eric

    Over the last three years Urbane Apartments have ceased traditional marketing efforts in exchange for an Urbane MySpace site, an Urbane Facebook site, an Urbane You Tube site and an Urbane flickr site. Urbane Apartments and Urbane employees twitter regularly. To further integrate we started a Social Network site the Urbane Lobby where residents can meet and greet, trade pictures and videos and socialize on line. We manage and power a blog aimed at our residents the Urbane Blog, all designed around our target demographic local brand recognition.

    Our Goal; To provide our residents with an experience and value with a high enough return to create enough Customer Evangelists within our core resident base that they self rent our apartments. We are working hard to lead our resident Influencers within our core resident base, and have transitioned most of our marketing budget inward, to further focus on our existing residents. Only good things have happened from this move. Resident retention has significantly improved, and we have created a forum and a field for the Influencers to participate. Along the path we hope to become Social Media experts based on our experience as to what works for multifamily and what doesn’t. We are learning as we go, but are seeing stellar results.

    Perhaps the greatest benefit for us by utilizing these tactics and strategies is that when a potential resident does a Google search for Royal Oak Apartments, Urbane Apartments pop up on page one, number four or five consistently, which then typically drives the prospect right to our web site, thus allowing us an opportunity to showcase our offering

  • eric

    Steve, great article. I think most people enter social media and expect immediate returns for limited work. We all know fb is used as a social tool. Professional networking has yet to take off, majority of the applications used are games, etc. MySpace has taken a music position, going back to its roots, but primary is a social network. So what role does an advertising play in all this? Here is an interesting post (http://publishing2.com/2008/09/22/why-isnt-facebook-making-more-money-hint-advertiser-value-and-user-value-are-not-aligned/), but my thoughts are as follows:

    1) Do not just put of a static page. Have a twist, maybe a group to meet people in the apartment, or discuss events, relevant rental issues, maintenance requests. Facebook isn’t an ILS.

    2) Much like blog, you cannot just put it up and let it go. You need to seek out members, engage the community, discuss issues, and make yourself (or your employees) immediately available. Respond to comment within 24 hours, thank users for joining, ask them questions, make it a social environment.

    3) The ROI may never be concretely measurable in leads, clicks, or leases. Customer support, transparency, and availability will increase your presence and off-line/online WOM, which is difficult to measure.

    There is a place for advertisers withing social networks. It just has to be within the vision and goal of the specific network. In the case of Facebook, make it social. For LinkedIn, make it professional. And for Habbo, maybe create a Hannah Montana avatar. (Joke, please no one do that.)

  • http://www.apartmentinternetmarketing.com/about-aim/#Steve Steve Lefkovits

    Eric – thanks for the lead to the article “Why Facebook Isn’t Making More Money”. It provides a great starting point for thinking about media value – is the user experience consistent with serving them some kind of ad? Clearly, beyond demographic targeting for consumer goods, the FB platform is not ideal for people advertising event-driven needs like finding an apartment. You also raise a good point that I can learn from myself about the need for the content producer to respond in a timely manner. All of this social media requires constant attention. It represents a behavioral and business shift potentially and not something you dabble in occasionally. Most interesting is your point about a non-measurable ROI.

    Your comment dovetails nicely with Ellen’s about not seeing many sites that are trackable and prove-able.

    Still, I’m eager to reconcile both of your cautionary remarks (which I agree with) with Eric’s experience with a high-end product with unique characteristics. If I read Eric right, he’s taking a completely different approach to marketing. Instead of asking media to drive leads, he uses it to drive retention and excitement so that residents refer other cool, hip people who are part of the peer group. Social media provide the SEO value he needs to stay visible, and assist with group interaction and maintaining the cohesiveness of the group. Fascinating. I don’t know Eric, but I’m willing to bet his education and experience are a little different than most real estate owners’. Maybe anthropology? By using social media to maintain a healthy, active group the group tends to expand by its very nature. Sort of like a bee hive. Social media just provide the communication mechanism that keeps things flowing. Renting is a natural by-product, as people want to be close to the center of the hive.

  • http://www.EPlatformMarketing.com sem

    To me it’s all really as simple as creating a community (can you say herd?). There is power in a community (herd) whereby people don’t want to leave because they have a connection (solves retention issues) and a vibrant community attracts people that want to be part of the scene (attracts new residents).

    Social media marketing for apartments is a much better fit if your property is higher end, is unique, or has an aire of exclusivity.

    So what to do? Engage people at a personal level. Don’t focus on marketing hype – the experiences that you share ARE the marketing hype. For example, don’t hype your olympic sized pool and instead promote the great pool party and add a quantity of photos. Let this fly through a network and people will find a way to get to your next function, hopefully have a good time, and at some point migrate into a desire to move in.

    This process is what we call “Experience Branding” (as opposed to product branding). With Experience Branding you are creating a look-and-feel for your property, an emotional attraction, . . . the kind of look-and-feel that people want to have as their own. And when people have this they hold on to it and want to share it with friends.

    Social media marketing does take a commitment however, if you manage it well, the residents and their network provide a large part of the content and direct marketing for you. This lowers your costs and increases your effectiveness. It’s word-of-mouth referrals taken to a new level.

    Hire a good Internet marketing agency and take advantage of social media marketing. You will be glad that you did!

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