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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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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

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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

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Dear Apartment ILS: KISS! (Keep It Simple Silly!)

Dec 1st, 2009
by daisynguyen.
3 comments

We all have a love/hate relationship with our apartment ILS’s. We love them for everything they do, and we hate them for everything they do. Yes, I’m talking about Rent.com, ForRent.com, Apartments.com, Move.com, ApartmentFinder.com – those are my big ones, but I’m sure I’m not mentioning dozens of other ones. I’m talking about ALL of them! Don’t get me wrong, I love all my providers! They bring me traffic. Traffic is king these days. The provider’s sales agents are great – friendly, helpful, a HUGE resource to apartment communities. But, the actual services all lack something EXTREMELY important - make it easy for the prospect! KISS! (Keep-It-Simple-Silly!*) (*I hate calling anyone stupid, so have replaced stupid with silly)

A recent blog post I did and two recent discussions on Multi-Family Insiders got me to thinking:

Give the prospect what they want. In the end, they are our customer.

To read the recent RENT SODA blogpost and discussions on MFI that got me to thinking, click below:

There’s a MARKET for THAT! (my RENT SODA marketing blogpost)

Advertising on Yours (and Others’) Good Names : an MFI discussion started by Mike Whaling

The ILS Conundrum – an MFI blogpost by Mark Juleen

Why can’t the ILS model be more simple, and cater to the prospect? Make it easier?

If they get THEY want, you get more traffic, and you drive more traffix to US, and we get WE want…everyone’s happy!

I’ve been a renter before, and as a renter, or anyone looking for a service for that matter, I love it when:

  1. …someone else has aggregated all the information for me into 1 BIG list. i love LISTS! I’m lazy, I have limited amount of time, and I need to find the RIGHT apartment without spending all my free time looking for an apartment. Come on, I have a life that I want to live. Being a professional apartment shopper is not my gig!
  2. …once I’m on your site, make it simple for me to find my dream home. (i.e. if I’m looking for Minneapolis, don’t give me all the listings out in the suburbs! REALLY? Do you think that providing me with listings all the way out to Timbuktu serves me in anyway?) The more time I spend frustrated on your site, the unhappier I become.
  3. Provide me with reviews. REALLY. Amazon does it, ebay does it, Best Buy does it – everyone and their dog allows for comments and reviews. I want to hear what other people like me who have done this before think.
  4. Link me to the property. Come on, I know you want me to stay on your website so you can provide a report to those that pay you on how long the average user stays on the website. But REALLY? Once I have narrowed down the list of who I want to visit, I want to VISIT them. Make it easy for me!

What do YOUR prospects and renters want from an ILS? As a renter, what do they want to make the experience easy and enjoyable? Please leave a comment with your thoughts. In the end, we should give the customer what they want, and they’ll continue to come back for me. Let’s see if we can get the attention of the ILS’s!

Dear Apartment ILS: KISS!

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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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

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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

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

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The ROI of facebook – the value of creating community

Nov 16th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
7 comments

OK, so the million dollar question is:

What is the ROI (Return on Investment) of facebook for my site? Usually followed up by – how many leases can I get from facebook? Serious questions, and just like an owner/investor/upper management to get to the point – eh?

Well, short answer is your ROI is either 0% (yes you read it right, ZERO) or 100% depending on how you look at it. Intrigued? Read on…

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

3 facebook questions everyone asks when starting out… 

Facebook is all about creating community.  It’s all about people connecting with other people because they have at least one thing in common. There is a group for just about anything and everything, from politics, to sports, to music. Some as broad as “I Love Music” fan page which has over 2.4million fans, to the more specific, like “Sting” fan page that has over 300,000 fans, to your local band, who may have 100 fans.

Your apartment/site IS a community – whether you are 30 units or 300 units or 968 units, your apartment IS a community. Your #1 person on site – their title is “COMMUNITY MANAGER.” hmmmm….

Before facebook, and it wasn’t so long ago, most sites had a bulletin board of some sort. The community manager &  staff would decorate this board, organize it, and make sure it fit within the guidelines of your community in appearance and postings. You allowed residents to post random things on there, like “looking for roommate,” or “need a pet sitter from Jan 1 – Jan 8th, willing to trade services,” to “Lost Camera – gray, please contact Jon,” to “Superbowl Party - come join us in Apt#101!” Does anyone know what the ROI of this bulletin board was?

Before facebook, the savvy community manager created that sense of community with their interactions, their presence, their personality. What is the ROI on creating a sense of community?

Today, FACEBOOK. And its not just a little bulletin board. It’s BIG, in a BIG BIG way. Instead of that physical board, or the need to be physically AT a site or physically interacting with a community manager to get that sense of community, facebook helps you streamline that process. With a few clicks, your site has a central communication tool for your residents. Who better to control that tool than YOU? As before, you control what it looks like, what is said, and what is allowed. YOU get to set that example of community, nourish it, encourage it. You create that sense of community, you ARE that personality. Unlike that bulletin board, this online community can reach more than just your current residents. It’s out there in cyberspace – and guess what? Your prospects are going to check out what kind of community you allow, encourage and nourish. Sure, your prospects will visit your website. AND, they’ll also visit apartmentratings.com. But more importantly, they WILL look for your facebook page. What will they see?

So now, all the sudden the online community that you’ve been nourishing, encouraging, allowing, is not just a communications tool for your current residents. It is a marketing tool that you can use to reinforce your community image. People want to see who you (ABC Apartments) are and how you interact. They’ve already seen your website, they’ve already read the reviews on apartmentratings.com (and still interested!) and now they are serious. They want to know you, your apartment community. They are ready, eager, and willing to learn. This is your prospect who is ready to make a decision. And this is the best time to capture them. Are you ready?

So then the questions become: Why facebook? If I’m not really getting hard leasing numbers from using facebook, why do it at all? Why can’t I just direct people to my website? Its better designed, it looks great, it has a lot of information, THAT’s the image we want to project!

Because your residents/prospects are ALREADY on facebook. YOU want to connect with THEM, in a way that they prefer, are already used to, and feel safest. If you’re not already doing it, who’s to say, they won’t go ahead and create their own group? What if someone created a group called “The residents of ABC Apartments,” and you weren’t a part of that? Worse than not a part being a part of that – you would have no control over the group if someone else sets it up.

GET THIS: Today, you may not be able to measure exactly how may leases you will get from facebook. How do you measure all the leases you are missing out on? How many times did you miss an opportunity when your prospect was, ready, eager & willing?

GET THIS: You should already be using facebook as a communications tool for your current residents. If it also serves a marketing purpose … well then the ROI just doubled. (This is truly killing 2 birds with 1 stone…)

The ROI of facebook is all about the value of creating community. Emphasize the “community” in “apartment community.” Emphasize the “community” in “community manager.” Create that community. That community suddenly doubles as a marketing tool.

So, what’s the ROI on facebook for your community?

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Web: RentSoda.com

Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Blog: RentSoda.Wordpress.com

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3 Facebook questions everyone asks when starting out…

Nov 16th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
5 comments

People ask me all the time about facebook. Some people are just confused, some are scared, some are excited, some are clueless, still others hesitant, and then there are those who FAKE it! (You know who I’m talking about!) Why all the confusion? Why all the ruckus? I just don’t get it, and if you have been reading my posts and know my tagline, well, I GET IT. But all this confusion is…confusing!

So, let’s talk it out, or should I say, blog it out. I’ve narrowed down the top three questions I get asked most often:

1.) What is my ROI when using facebook as a marketing tool? – This is usually asked by various levels of upper management – your CEO’s/COO’s/VP’s/Director’s. Occasionally a very business-minded manager also ponders this out loud.

2.) Should my site(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.”

3.) What should we (as sites) be “doing” on facebook? – This is usually asked by someone who has just opened up a facebook account and realizes they don’t know what to say or “do.” Their friend list consists of 22 people - 10 of whom are vendors, 8 are competitors, 1 is their mother, and the last 3, they *hope* are residents or prospects of their apartment community. OUCH.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a TON of other questions, but these are the ones I get asked most often. AND, very relevant questions for beginning users, intermediate users, and advanced users. As an industry, we need to understand these 3 questions – and GET IT – right.

HEAVY questions – this week, I will be writing a series of 3 posts to address each of these questions in a little more depth, but keeping each post at a reasonably short length. Hopefully I can make light of the  questions and have some fun while I’m at it! The good news: by asking these questions, you are on the right track to GET IT!

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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