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Foursquare vs. Facebook Places – Which is Better for Marketing Your Apartment Community?

Nov 9th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
6 comments

OK, I’ll admit it. I’m a Foursquare GEEK, and now, with the launch of Facebook Places, I am TOTALLY CONFUSED. There’s so much news out about Facebook Places – what will be the best tool for helping your outreach or marketing efforts at your apartment communities? Which application will help you stay connected to more apartment residents, attract more apartment prospects, give you more positive exposure?

Some background:

I use facebook as a place to connect with friends and collegues, keep up with the latest news about places/businesses I “like,” and connect with other like-minded individuals.

I use foursquare to find out about places near me, get tips based on my location, and I hate to admit it, but I secretly covet being “mayor” and earning badges.

If I am a typical user, how does this information help YOU market your apartment communities or connect with prospects and residents?

Let’s put them in the boxing  ring and see who wins:

  1. ROUND ONE: First thing I do when I go somewhere is to look on Foursquare to see which businesses near me have tips, read them, and see if I want to try something new, or stick with my tried and true favorites. Currently very easy to do on Foursquare. AND Foursquare has had A LOT more activity – resulting in lots of tips & deals with local businesses. Facebook Places – I have not found a way to leave a tip or find tips others have left. The only way to see what others think about a place is IF that business has connected their facebook PLACE to their facebook PAGE, and you can see the information and wall of a business’ facebook place/page. This is a big IF. And even IF a business has connected their facebook place to their facebook page, you’ll only see their wall. There’s not really a place that encourages users to leave other information for other users. WINNER: Foursquare
  2. ROUND TWO: When I am marketing an apartment community (or even a retail business), I look for tools where I have control over the content, easy way to communicate my brand and my message. With Foursquare Places, it is easy to claim my “place,” connect it to my community’s facebook page, and manipulate the content users see when they find me. Additionally, if someone leaves an potentially negative remark or comment on my page, in Facebook, I can delete it. With Foursquare, I can claim my business on Foursquare -but there is no way to customize it beyond providing the basic info. Additionally, user can leave whatever comments and tips they want, I have no control over their comments. WINNER: From a business/marketing perspective, Facebook Places is the CLEAR winner.
  3. ROUND THREE: Deals. Everyone loves a deal. How easy is it to find places with “specials” or “deals?” On Facebook Places, when you bring up the app, all the businesses around you will be listed. If there is a “special” or “deal,” there is a little cut-out square icon that resembles a coupon. It was somewhat easy to spot. On Foursquare, when you open the app, it locates all the businesses close to you, and if there are any “specials” or “deals,”  the word “SPECIAL” shows up. Its much easier to spot, and there is no question as to the purpose. So, for all practical purposes, this is almost a tie. HOWEVER, as I searched through local businesses that I know are running deals, I found more deals on Foursquare than I did on Facebook Places. WINNER: FOURSQUARE through a technicality. - This may change if Facebook Places can attract more businesses and “specials” and “deals.”
  4. Round Four: Activity & Users – who has more? According to a recent Business Insider article from October 29th, 2010, although Facebook Places has 7X more users, those users are not as active as the 4 million foursquare users. WINNER: Foursquare
  5. Round Five: The FUN factor. In foursquare, as stupid as it may sound, I enjoy being a “mayor” and receiving”badges” for checking in. One of my friends, a VP of a large company in Minnesota, recently emailed me to say, “I just became the MAYOR at a local joint. I am secretly quite proud!” Facebook places currently does not have an incentive to check-in except for the possibility of a deal or “special.” WINNER: Foursquare.

Foursquare wins 4 out of 5 rounds because it meets the wants of its users. That’s a page from the facebook business book – build an application for the end-users, and the business will come. Score one for the small guy!

As it is with social media, today’s giants can be tomorrow’s cold empty grave. It’ll be interesting to see what Foursquare and Facebook Places have in the way of updates and changes over the next few months! But its clear that things are FAR from over for Foursquare.

I should mention that even though the end-user experience is much better on Foursquare, the Facebook Places application is more business-friendly. AND Facebook has HUGE potential to reach its over 500 million users.

I am still TOTALLY confused. Who will win? Can they continue to co-exist?

Depending on what YOUR marketing needs, goals, or objectives are, you may want to use one or both of these as part of your marketing approach/outreach efforts for your apartment community. If you are using Foursquare or Facebook Places to help market or as an outreach tool for your apartment community, please leave me a comment and share with everyone how you view one or both, or how you are using them!

Below is a comparison Matrix of Location Based Social Networks produced by Mark Fidelman on Flickr.com.



Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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TOP 10 TIPS to Get the MOST Out of CRAIGSLIST Apartment Ads

Jul 12th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
8 comments

Craigslist, when smartly used as part of your marketing/advertising campaign, can become one of your apartment community’s top traffic generators. If it’s not, you’re not getting the most out of your Craigslist ads.

Here are the TOP 10 Things You Need to Know to Maximize Your Craigslist Ads for your Apartment Community:

  1. Generally, web traffic is highest during the week, especially during working hours of 8:00AM – 5:00PM. For the apartment industry on Craigslist, the highest traffic day is actually on SUNDAY. According to Yield Technologies, their RENTSENTINEL product, a web-based application that manages posting content for rental properties, they have noticed that Sunday’s see much less posting activity for apartments than any other day of the week. Couple that with higher traffic, and your posting efforts will get the biggest audience with less competition! (SUNDAYS have the HIGHEST average views/ad than any other day for our apartment industry!) This is true of every portfolio class, geographic location or market segment.
  2. Although Craigslist is “free,” there are TONS of different services available that can help you manage your content, produce “snazzier” looking ads, track traffic, provide analytics, and MORE – OH MY! Some more common ones include RENTSENTINEL and POSTLETS. Depending on your needs and preferences, these may work for you, are pretty affordable, and provide lots of extra’s to help you maximize your craigslist ads. There are TONS of other services available – if you know of some additional ones, leave a link in the COMMENTS section of this blog post and share with everyone! OR Leave a comment about your experience with the services listed here.
  3. PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES! – And not just any old snapshot – make sure to have good lighting, take pictures of clean, rent ready or model units – try to make an positive impression that gets your target market to pick up the phone and call you! Don’t turn them off with the wrong picture.
  4. Many people ask me, “what generates more traffic? The traditional organic craigslist ads or the jazzed up ones with hyperlinks, pictures, formatting, etc?” The answer is that they BOTH work. The key to a successful craigslist campaign is VARIETY. Switch it up between your traditional craigslist ads and fancier ones.
  5. Speaking of VARIETY, switch up your posts! Make sure you have an ad targeted specifically to attract your 1 bedroom renters, or your pet lovers, or one to attract roommates, or one to highlight the fact that you are near a bus route, etc! Be sure to keep within fair housing rules, but there is nothing that says you can’t switch up your ads and highlight specific features. Variety is the spice of life, and so it is with apartments on craigslist!
  6. Speaking of PETS, whether your building is pet-friendly or does NOT allow pets, there IS a specific market for THAT! Make sure to have a specific ad targeted towards your pet lovers (for those apartment communities that accept pets) or ones that specifically state that you do NOT allow pets. Believe it or not, there are those people who look specifically for pet-free buildings, due to allergies, conditions, fear, etc. If you are targeting pet-owners, be sure to use the Craigslist “Meow” and “Woof” options to state you are pet friendly, in addition to including this information in your title/content.
  7. And since we are drilling down on specific life style choices, a choice that is becoming increasingly popular in apartment searches is “smoke free apartment.” There are new organizations promoting living smoke-free popping up everyday. Here in Minnesota, one that is making quite a splash is LIVESMOKEFREE. Make sure to include those words for the craigslist search engines (as well as all other search engines) to pick up!
  8. While we are on the topic of search engines, make sure to include search engine friendly terms in your ad! If you are near a bus-line, post that. If you are near shopping/retail, make sure to mention the shopping or retail center name. If you are in a highly sought-after school district, name the school district or even better, name the schools. If you are nears parks, name the parks. People search for apartments based on their lifestyle choices, and if those choices are based upon transportation, schools, shopping, food, retail, etc – YOU will get picked up in their search, and your competition might get buried in the masses….
  9. Another question I get asked constantly – “how often should I post?” From my perspective, it’s not a matter of “how often,” but more importantly, CONSISTENCY. According to Eric Broughton of Yield Company’s RentSentinel product, ”the most important global trend is for communities to post their available units on a consistent basis, don’t take a day off from posting an available unit, your competitors aren’t.  Equally important is respecting the craigslist community and not posting multiple ads in a short period of time.  Never post more than 1 ad in the same hour, and never post for the same unit type more than once in 24 hours.  Our analytics show that following these simple rules will provide far greater results than someone that spams a region with multiple ads over and over again.”
  10. And lastly, and MOST importantly, be a good Craigslist Citizen. Common sense folks! Pay attention to things such as knowing the Craigslist Terms of Use, posting only available Units/Unit Types, not over-posting (never more than 1 ad per hour and 8 total ads in a day – this is for LARGE sites – many of you may not have larger enough sites, where posting every other day is more than enough), and posting to only one category and region at a time.  As an industry we can all be more effective and increase our traffic if we use the craigslist environment for which it was intended which is bringing renters and landlords together in an open marketplace. Let’s not ruin the “free” part of craigslist, by over-doing it. In some regions, and some industries, craigslist DOES impose fees. (See Craigslist FactSheet.)

Please leave comments on any tips I might have missed, leave comments about other craigslist applications or services, and your experiences with these services!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am not affiliated with Yield Technologies or Postlets. Yield Technologies has provided me with information for this blog post. THANK YOU! (Roboblaster, another posting service also provided information for this blog, however, at the time of publication, they have folded.)

Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Business, Operations & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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Apartment Marketing: Print Advertising for Dummies

Jan 18th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
4 comments

 I was recently invited to be a “pro” for an event at the local apartment association in my area, MHA. One of the recurring questions was, “What elements make up a successful marketing plan?”

 For me, marketing apartments is a multi-step process. A successful marketing plan must understand the different steps, set goals for each step, and find ways to achieve those goals.

 For this blog article, I’m going to focus on Print Advertising as one element of a marketing plan. Your apartment community may or may not have a Print Advertising element, but if it DOES, you’ll want to read this article.

 What do you think the purpose of your print advertisement is? When I ask this question, most managers, leasing agents, marketers tell me, “the purpose of print advertising is to lease apartments.” To some extent, yes, however, the real goal of print advertising is to 1.) STAND OUT, 2.) BE MEMORABLE, 3.) GET YOUR PROSPECTS TO SEEK MORE INFO. (i.e. get your prospects to your website!)

(Picture provided by TMAN2003 on flickr through creative commons license.) 

The end goal of ALL of your marketing & leasing efforts should be to lease apartments. Your Print advertising has to do the 3 things outlined above.

 Have you looked at a FOR RENT Magazine or APARTMENT FINDER Magazine lately? (I am not affiliated with either FOR RENT or APARTMENT FINDER in any way.) In my area, there is probably 200 different choices of apartments in the magazine. As a prospect, the magazine is AWESOME, as it aggregates many of the available choices. However, from YOUR apartment’s standpoint, you should start thinking about HOW DO I 1.) STAND OUT, 2.) BE MEMORABLE, 3.) GET PROSPECTS TO SEEK MORE INFO. (i.e. get your prospects to your website!)

 Last year, I did a focus group at an apartment complex and asked the renters, what they wanted to see out of advertisements. They came up with the typical list of about 10 items long, including pricing, location, amenities, etc. Makes sense. When you look at an apartment magazine, most of the ads have several bullet points highlighting what they feel is best about their apartment community.

 During this same focus group, we asked the renters to leaf through an apartment magazine and pick out the advertisement that they were most drawn to. 100% of the focus group selected an ad that had nothing but a BIG fancy picture, the website, phone# and the name of the apartment community.

 What we found: What people want and what they are drawn to (i.e. sticks out, is memorable, makes them seek out more information) are 2 DIFFERENT things. We then decided that the goal of our print advertising HAD to be 1.) STAND OUT, 2.) BE MEMORABLE, 3.) GET PROSPECTS TO SEEK MORE INFO. (i.e. get your prospects to your website!)

 I’m not advocating that you take the pricing out of your print ads (maybe your pricing IS the memorable thing) - what I AM saying is that YOU must decide what the purpose of your print ad campaign is, and find ways to meet THAT goal. (And you can have more than 1 goal for an element.) Once you figure that out, go back and discuss ALL the elements of your marketing campaign, outline goals for each step, and try to meet THAT goal for THAT step. Don’t try to lease apartments when what you need to do is CAPTURE someone’s attention and get them to WANT to find out more about your apartment community.

 Here are some sample goals that have worked in the past:

 1.) Goal of print advertising is to drive people to our website.

 2.) Goal of our website is to get prospects to pick up the phone and call us.

 3.) Goal of the phone call is to get prospect to commit to a tour.

 4.) Goal of the leasing tour is to get the prospect to lease the apartment.

 Depending on your community, your marketing resources, you may have different elements, and different goals. Decide what those elements are, how to make them successful, and meet your marketing goals!

Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODAon facebook.  Connect with RENTSODAon LinkedIn!

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Your Apartment Community’s Facebook Page Needs a Vanity URL

Jan 11th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
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Your community’s facebook page should have a facebook username, also known as a vanity URL.

Why? Being able to choose the URL for your facebook page is like a vanity license plate – it not only makes it easy to remember (and hence share with others), but helps you claim a little piece of facebook space as your own. Why let someone else (facebook) randomly set your URL, when you can control how people find you, remember you AND how google ranks you?

(Photo provided by aprilzosia on flickr through creative commons license.)

What am I talking about?

Most facebook URL’s are something like http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789  – that’s hard to remember!

Now take for example, RENT SODA’s facebook URL: http://facebook.com/rentsoda – WAY easier!

In terms of SEO, having a facebook vanity url will help your facebook page rank higher in google searches than pages without a vanity url.

Follow these steps to claim your facebook vanity URL for your apartment community:

1.) First, carefully think of a username you want to use. Once it’s been selected, you won’t be able to change or transfer it. Usernames need to be at least 5 characters made of only alphanumeric characters. A period (.) is also allowed.

2.) Go to http://facebook.com/username  . Follow the prompts for your profiles and each fan page administered by your profile. For fanpages, facebook requires that your page have a minimum of 25 fans.

Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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How To Be Successful In The Apartment Industry: Participate, Participate, Participate!

Dec 30th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
8 comments

I’ve had a LOT of conversations recently, and one topic has been a recurring theme: Success. Two recurring questions: 1.) How do we make our apartment communities more successful? 2.) How do we make OURSELVES more successful?

As a consultant and a writer of a popular industry blog, I meet with A LOT of people. I meet with EVERY kind of person in the industry from site personnel to vendors at every level, from to Regional Managers to directors to VP’s to CEO’s/COO’s/CFO’s, to developers, partners, investors & owners of apartment communities.

My answer is ALWAYS the same: PARTICIPATE, PARTICIPATE, PARTICIPATE!

1.) PARTICIPATE: Participate in something bigger and greater than your own apartment community. I KNOW you have a million things to do and there isn’t another minute you can commit to someone new, but YOUR PARTICIPATION in something greater will return ten-fold to your success at your apartment community, as well as return ten-fold in your own personal successes. I’ll go out on a limb here and say – I PROMISE that any participation you give will be returned to you ten fold. If not, give me a call, and I’ll take you to lunch and eat my words.

2.) PARTICIPATE: Don’t just JOIN your local apartment association, JOIN, PARTICIPATE, ENGAGE! There is no better way to work/network with other industry professionals in your market than at your local apartment association. Chances are, they ARE looking for volunteers to participate in committees, tasks forces, surveys, focus groups, etc. Do you think that your opinion doesn’t count? In an industry that serves this many people, YOUR opinion DOES count. For every 1 person who DOES participate, there are dozens if not hundreds of people who do NOT participate. YOUR opinion COUNTS simply because you have made a commitment and gotten involved. Is your local association too small? Help them grow and expand by getting more people involved. Hey – it’s YOUR local apartment association – make it truly YOURS.

3.) PARTICIPATE: Participate in a local non-profit in your market. This could be a local non-profit housing provider OR this could be a local non-profit community group. As with your local association, they ARE looking for volunteers for their boards, focus groups, tasks forces, surveys, fund-raisers, etc! Especially in this market and economy, they need your expertise. Find something that MOVES you and PARTICIPATE with THEM. You will be in for one of the most rewarding commitments you can make. I know it is MY most rewarding commitment – who knew that working for free has its rewards?

How does this help you with the success at your apartment community? In participating, you’ll hear from other industry professionals, like yourself (and some NOT so like you!). You’ll hear different ideas, different perspectives, different personalities. You’ll learn, you’ll grow, you’ll make new friends that can last a lifetime. You’ll meet tons of new vendors that are PARTICIPATING. – I love vendors who participate – it tells me they are committed to the industry’s success  and not just their own. You will be exposed to ideas, people, information and opportunities that you did NOT have access to prior to your participation. You’ll be the first to know about networking events hosted by your local association, notified of training opportunities produced by the local association, be in the “know” new trends and products and through your expanding network, get to know the world OUTSIDE of your box. You can take these new ideas, exposures and bring them back to your apartment and apply them to make your apartment community more successful and making you more successful. Talk about a WIN-WIN! That’s a SCORE!

In case you are wondering, I participate in my local apartment association, MN Multi-Housing Association (MHA) – one of the best and nationally recognized associations in the U.S. (http://mmha.com/ ) or check them out on facebook!

Participation with your local non-profit brings challenges and HUGE rewards. I participate in a local non-profit affordable housing provider called AEON. (Or you can check them out on facebook. I also mention them in a past blog article.) The challenges are the time commitment involved and understanding that non-profits work a little differently. The rewards are much the same as in the local apartment association – I have chosen to surround myself with other successful people who are COMMITTED to the same CAUSE that I am committed to. The people in that group are as wide as our industry – and every one of them smart, driven and a FORCE to be reckoned with. The contributions I have made by participating have been returned to me ten-fold in the form of new ideas, new connections, new perspectives and new friends.

In a world and time where it is so easy to get caught up in OUR OWN little dramas, a more global PARTICIPATION can help us bring additional focus to our apartment communities and to our own careers. It’s YOUR community, it’s YOUR career! PARTICIPATE and make it truly YOURS!

With New Year’s coming – make it a New Year’s resolution to PARTICIPATE!

 Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

Image provided by Chooyutshing on Flickr through creative commons license.

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TWEET TWEET: Twitter for Business Users and Apartment Marketers

Dec 23rd, 2009
by daisynguyen.
11 comments

I’ve been following the whole TWITTER phenomenon very closely. At first, I was VERY confused. Who would use twitter and why? More importantly, why would I use twitter, and what would I tweet? After months of following tweeters, tweeting, searching tweets, reading tweets, re-tweeting, something dawned on me: Not all twitter users are created equal! In order to best understand and utilize twitter, I had to decide what kind of twitter user I was or wanted to be.

Most twitter users fell in the following 4 categories:

Tweeters – These guys have something to say, and they are out there sharing IT with the world, or at least, the twitterverse. In the real world, these would be your authors, writers, politicians, radio personalities, teachers, educators, speakers, advocates, socialites, personalities, class clowns, etc. Instead of a book, magazine, stage, forum, class, radio, soapbox, etc. – they use twitter to get their message out.

Followers – are exactly that. They follow the tweeters. They are the audience. In the real world, these would be readers, subscribers, students, supporters, etc. In the twitterverse, there is more opportunity to INTERACT with their tweeters than in the real world. AND, almost more importantly, that INTERACTION is shared with all fellow followers AND the twitterverse.

These are the TOP 2 types of twitter users. In the business world, and in our multi-family apartment industry, the following 2 lesser known types are KEY to marketing and sales:

Listeners – these are not just followers – these twitter users are out there listening for very specific topics or trends. In the apartment industry, we must learn to listen on twitter. Find out what our customers, clients, competitors are saying – especially what they are saying about our apartment communities, our markets, and our competitors! That’s a LOT of listening! Listening is one of the KEY components to effective communication, and as an interactive communication tool, it PAYS to listen on twitter. Listening is akin to being in a busy restaurant and overhearing someone at the next table talking about your apartment community! Except on twitter, the next table is the entire twitterverse. Listeners who are active and respond to the needs of their customers can help in strengthening an apartment community’s brand, image or message and extending the customer service arm. You listen, you respond = YOU CARE. Now THAT’s something to tweet about!

Miners – these are the most diligent and proactive business users. These guys, not only listen for specific topics or trends, they are mining the twitterverse to FIND prospects and leads! In the real world, this would be similar to standing in a busy restaurant and hoping to hear someone mention they are looking for an apartment – being the diligent manager/leasing agent you are, you quip in and let them know that you work for an apartment community down the road and give them your card and contact info. On twitter, you don’t have to be anywhere and wait for the stars to aline to catch this conversation. You can use twitter search engines to mine for prospects and leads by searching for key words such as “apartment hunting new york,” – and then sending those prospects a direct message with a link to your property’s website.

I should mention: I don’t think mining for prospects should be an apartment community’s only marketing plan – however, there probably aren’t that many prospects out there who just happen to mention your key words “apartment hunting new youk,” but if your traffic is slow or nonexistent, being proactive and mining instead of waiting for propsects to walk in the door, might not be a bad option.

I’m still learning more and more about twitter every day, and have learned to LOVE it. Love how fast it moves, LOVE all the random and not so random things I have learned following others, listening for trends, and when it DOES happen, finding those leads.

The most active twitter users participate in all 4 categories. Everyone is focused on tweeting and following. For apartment marketers & leasors (or any business’ marketing/sales personnel for that matter!) the biggest opportunities are in listening & mining.

How have you used twitter for marketing your business, apartment community or services? What type of twitter user are you?

tweet tweet? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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What should we be "facebooking?" in the Multi-Family industry?

Dec 1st, 2009
by daisynguyen.
1 comment

OK, so now that we’ve established that facebook does have a positive ROI, that we SHOULD be “doing it,” the question naturally becomes, how/what should we be “doing” on facebook?

This is PART III of a 3-part series. You can read the intro here:

Intro: 3 facebook questions everyone asks when starting out… 

OR Part I: The ROI of Facebook – the Value of Creating Community

OR Part II: Facebook-itis: Addressing the Fear of Facebook head-on!

This is a loaded question, as many times, in our industy, we are focused on leasing apartments. We naturally want to tout our advatanges and post our specials – the way our traditional marketing avenues with print advertising and ILS’s have allowed us to do. Please keep in mind that for our industry (as we have now discussed on the ROI of facebook – the Value of Creating Community), facebook CAN be a marketing tool, however, it is first and foremost a connecting and communications tool to creating and fostering community. Facebook is NOT traditional, so to be able to use it as a marketing tool, we will need to think about it non-traditionally. Throw away those ideas of just blasting what your community is about, “advertising” specials, or listing prices. To better help you determine what you should be “doing” on facebook, let’s address a couple of basic questions:

  1. Who do you think your community’s “friend” or “fan” is?
  2. Why do you think they are would accept a “friend” or “fan” request from you?
  3. What do you think your “friends” or “fans” are there to see/hear?

These are the questions you SHOULD be asking and answering to determine what SHOULD go on your facebook page. IF your facebook page consists of 100 eager prospects just waiting for a rent special so that they can finally sign a lease with you, than by all means, advertise your rent specials.

I don’t think this will be the case for 99% of sites out there!

I’d like to open this up for discussion. Please leave a comment that answers the 3 questions noted above. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving a public comment, email me! (Daisy {at} rentsoda(.)com) My next article will compile all your private and public comments to share with all. (If you email me privately, I will leave include your comment, but won’t quote you. If you leave a public comment, I may quote you & link to your company. – OR tell me how you want it handled!)

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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Facebook-itis: Addressing the fear of facebook head on!

Nov 18th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
1 comment

Part II: Facebook-itis: Addressing the fear of facebook head on! AKA Should my site(s)/apartment community(s) ”do” facebook? - This is usually asked by someone who realizes that they NEED to be on Facebook – because everyone ELSE is thinking about it or already “DOING IT.” Heard the buzz, now wondering…

This is PART II of a 3-part series. You can read the intro here:

3 facebook questions everyone asks when starting out… 

OR Part I: The ROI of Facebook – the Value of Creating Community

This is a great question. And the answer is as simple as YES.

KNOW THIS: In the Multi-family residential industry, we know who our typical renter demographic is - the biggest group of renters is ages 18-30. (Demographic information from NMHC - to see more demographic information, click here.) Our second biggest group, ages 30 – 44, and then 3rd largest demographic age group is 45-64, and then 4th is 65+.

KNOW THIS: Facebook demographics, as reported by istrategylabs.com as of 07/04/09, reported that the largest demographic of facebook users, ages 18 – 34 years old, totalled over 36MILLION users. The 2nd biggest demographic age group reported was 35-54 years old - totalled over 20MILLION users. The 55+years old user group totaled over 6MILLION users. The 55+ group was growing at a rate of 513% from the first half of 2009. (For complete istrategylabs.com statistics on facebook-click here. To see facebook’s statistics click here.) If your renter or prospect isn’t already on facebook, they WILL be. Will you be there to welcome them?

Technology continues to change, and with change comes new technology. Stay current with the new technologies – that’s how today’s business is done. (And for the most part, they can make life easier!)

If you think facebook maybe a fad – so what? A fad that has the attention of over 62MILLION U.S. users. WOW. GET IT while the gettin’s good. And if something else comes along, you can get GET THAT too.

And what about fear? Let’s address those fears quickly: Fear that you maybe exposing yourselves to liability? Fear that you may project the wrong image? Or fear that you may say the wrong things? Or fear that this might be too much work?

Well, to quote one of John Mayer’s recent tweets, ” …life may continue to be hard for you.” (For John Mayer’s full tweet/quote in its original context, click here and look at November 7th, 2009′s tweet.)

-Hey, I’m just being real. Agree? Disagree? LOVE IT? HATE IT? Still undecided? Want to chat? Leave me a comment!

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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There's a MARKET for THAT!

Nov 10th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
4 comments

More often than we’d like to admit, we don’t like who we are, we try to be more than what we are, and in the end, no one is happy. This is the way it is both personally & professionally. To top it off, in the professional circuits, they call THAT “marketing.” I call it “bait and switch,” and as a consumer, I hate it. So why do companies do it? And more importantly, why do WE, as multi-family housing providers market this way?

Don’t think you do this?

Take for example a recent advertisement I saw in a typical apartment advertising magazine, imagine: a beautiful, tranquil pool, nice pool furniture arranged perfectly and a tagline along the lines of “live at ABC Apartments and you could be relaxing at your pool!) Then imagine making an appointment and driving up to a property that looks nothing like the picture, EXCEPT you DO recognize the pool. You thought this was a classy mid-range apartment complex, but it ends up being in a questionable part of town. You are disappointed, and the whole time during your tour, the leasing agent looks apologetic, avoids looking you in the eye and tries to sell the pool, as if you are going to be LIVING at the pool 24/7! You realize that this is not for you, and politely decline their offers of 2 months free rent if you sign TODAY! The big mistake with this scenario is that the people who placed the ad (whether it was a marketing company or a marketing department) assumed that the best thing about this particular property was the pool. Sure, it was a nice pool, and it was obvious they spent time to make sure the pool looked nice. HOWEVER this is not the reason why people lived at ABC apartments. (At least not the #1 – #5 reason)

When I visited this property, talked to a few residents, the leasing agents/staff, these were the reasons why they stated they lived at ABC Apartments:

  1. The rent is affordable. It is at the lower end of the rental spectrum, but its what I can afford.
  2. They do not let criminals live here. It is safe, and even though it is an “affordable” property, it is safe. I feel safe.
  3. Even though it is an affordable property, it is clean.
  4. Even though it is an affordable property, it is well maintained, and the staff respond to maintenance requests timely.
  5. It is in my price range and very centrally located so that my girlfriend and I can both commute to our jobs without a long drive.

Notice how many people mentioned the affordability factor and not a single one mentioned the pool! (Please note, this particular property is not a subsidized property, just a property that had low rents.)

KNOW your property, and KNOW why people REALLY rent from you. START THERE – and advertise the HECK out of THAT! For this particular property, I would have recommended advertising the affordability factor, advertising the “WE DO NOT ACCEPT CRIMINALS” factor (sure as a professional management company you might think this is standard, but don’t assume your residents know this or that your competition is doing this), and advertise the cleanliness! There is a market for affordable housing that is clean and criminal free. The people who ARE going to rent from you CARE about these things, and they could care less about that outdated pool. AND, if you surprise them with a fantastic pool – well then, that WOULD be impressive! No switch and bait. Instead of trying to be something you’re clearly not, why not try to be EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE? There’s a MARKET for THAT.

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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