Apartments for Rent Made Easy

We’re all on Facebook. And if you’re not, 483 million daily active users are. And if we’re not personally hooked up to a page, chances are, the company we work for is. Then there’s Twitter, this little micro-blogging beast that boasts upwards of 140,000,000 active users. And don’t forget about YouTube, the second-largest search engine, which is owned by Google itself and receives 60 hours of video per minute.

Some experts argue that engaging potential customers through social media channels via any means of social media marketing will improve a company’s credibility to the public. Generally speaking, we tend to agree. When a business, like Microsoft or Apple, with a following of faithful return customers launches a new product or company-wide initiative, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will work wonders in spreading the word. Sales staff and customer service reps will jump online and join the conversation—all in the name of selling the current product before the next best thing hits the market.

Our team here RentSeeker are major proponents of social media marketing. However, when it comes to marketing apartments for rent, we put out a question to our team: How much time should landlords dedicate to engaging with potential renters on a personal level? This includes opening up Facebook walls and other discussion channels to the public.

Companies like Microsoft and Apple are untouchable. In other words, a couple hundred – or thousand – angry wall posts aren’t breaking their brands. For landlords, though, opening up the channels of communication produces a great opportunity for criticism.

With such a narrow timeframe to capture the attention of an apartment hunter and convert him/her to a signed lease, you want to show them how great your buildings are, give them contact information, get them in for a showing and sign them. Period.

You don’t want prospective renters cruising around your Facebook page checking out all the negative posts from disgruntled residents—because that’s what they’ll pay attention to. Not your community-service initiatives or awards for service excellence. It’s the posts of those five to ten disgruntled residents that will inhibit your ability to lease up a property.

With marketing tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you CAN control the information. For landlords with a few hundred or thousand renters, it seems to go against common sense to open the floodgates to criticism. Sure, it’s an opportunity to display your customer service skills, but a carefully constructed, public response to criticism on a Facebook wall isn’t saving your reputation. In fact, it’s drawing even more attention to the renter’s original problem and inviting to post again. Repeat after us: “My Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages are not forums for negative discussions about my company!”

Instead of allocating resources to responding to this type of criticism, channel the manpower to marketing these pages by custom designing the backgrounds (a service RentSeeker.ca provides FREE to clients) and optimizing your social media presence to lease available apartments. Post photos and videos of all of your buildings and channel the traffic to your website; brand each page so that they’re consistent across the board; talk about staff members who are making a difference in the community; ask your staff to get involved and like photos; add media outlets to your network to encourage editors to cover your company and note, ALL channels allow users to disallow comments on these pages, allowing landlords to use them strictly for marketing and branding.

There will always be angry renters who will try to tarnish your company’s reputation in whatever way they can. So let them write blog posts that will likely go unseen—but don’t open up your precious Facebook wall to them, in MOST cases, it’s just simply not worth it.

For more information about RentSeeker.ca’s social media marketing services or any other online marketing services, including: listings & syndication, property video production and marketing, 3-D floor plans, QR codes, and website design and search engine optimization, contact our team at: contact@rentseeker.ca.

-The RentSeeker.ca Team

Social Media in Modern Times

Social media sites and online forums were created for groups of people who share a common idea, to be able to gather and talk about what interests them in one convenient area.  But social media isn’t just about that anymore. As the online community continues to grow, and more and more people come to visit your (once) little corner of the internet, social media presents a unique opportunity to many businesses and consumers.

Since Social Media sites bring together a wide selection of people, from across the spectrum of the internet, who all have one common goal, savvy consumers can use the group knowledge to leverage the market in the favor.

Using Social Media to find an apartment

If you’re looking to rent an apartment in Toronto or across Canada, and haven’t done so already, join an online community that specializes in apartment rentals in your area. Once your registered you will be able to talk to fellow renters, and discuss different apartments in your area, and compare things like; prices, layouts, landlords and more. Of the largest social media sites in the world today are YouTube, Twitter & Facebook, all great ways for landlords, companies and apartment seekers to meet and discuss different properties. Check out Rentseeker.ca’s Twitter, YouTube & Facebook pages for more information and discussions about apartments in your area.

Forums

Rentseeker.ca actually has built in social sharing and tenant forums & student forums on their site that allows Students, Tenants and Landlords, to interact with each other in their search for an apartment in Canada.

You can access the forum by logging in at RentSeeker.ca and selecting the links for Tenants, Landlords or Students. RentSeeker, as well as many companies are integrating Facebook and Twitter into their options, to allow you to connect to other renters through an already established medium.

Other Options

When you search for an apartment online, you might also come across reviews written by previous occupants (or sometimes neighbors) of the apartment. While it is a good idea to check out the reviews, keep in mind that it always represents an individual’s view of the apartment. Often what bothers him might not seem like a big deal to you and vice versa.

So join an online network! Its fun and can be greatly rewarding. Tell people what you are looking for, and help other people in their search for apartments. Who knows who or where you next lead can come from. It can be your neighbor, your friend, a future classmate or even a total stranger. Social Media sites present a unique opportunity to explore a wide range of possibilities in the market of your choice and offer apartment seekers a chance to interact with other people who share the same goal as you do.

-The RentSeeker.ca Team

RentSeeker.ca Syndication

With constant turnover in the rental market, keeping ahead of tenant loss is the key to creating a property management portfolio with few to no vacancies. Oftentimes, filling your apartments for rent comes down to some very basic marketing strategies.

As the Internet grows, marketing has become more web-based for a variety of reasons, most notably, cost effectiveness. As a result, many landlords have allocated marketing dollars to online advertising forums, which generate exposure and, as a result, boost their company’s online visibility.

There are two ways to list or market properties online. Firstly, classifieds, like Kijiji, Craigslist, Backpage, OLX, and Oodle, are valuable when marketing a rental property as need be, which is a strategic way of targeting a specific building for vacancy problems. Bear in mind, though, that these websites are extremely time-consuming (requiring constant re-posting) and time-sensitive (popular listing types lose rank within hours of posting).

On the other hand, an ILS (internet listing site) like RentSeeker.ca, syndicates regularly with popular classifieds, providing the targeted, current and relevant search results of a classified—with benefits: Rental apartment search websites can be used as a tactic to enhance brand recognition, namely because they add multi-channel marketing to the equation.

RentSeeker.ca, for instance, leverages social media marketing tools to maximize a landlord’s online presence through the use of networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg, thereby grabbing the attention of a prospective resident on a variety of levels.

In addition to the traditional “suite type, amenities and rent” listing, more and more websites offer entire menus of value-adds that simplify the apartment hunting process. For instance, RentSeeker.ca provides renters with one-stop-shop access to entire inventories of available apartments for rent. In addition to providing direct email and telephone access to the landlord, the site also generates videos, floor plans and maps, such as Google Maps and Walkscore, to demonstrate the property’s accessibility and proximity to a variety of amenities, including shopping, schools and public transit.

This unique mix of multi-channel marketing ultimately increases the number of times a property and the brand behind it is viewed. As each property listed contains links directing prospective resident traffic to your website—via social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg, as well as videos, floor plans and maps—the advantage of listing an entire portfolio of apartments for rent on an ILS boils down to efficiency.

Listing in bulk with a full-service firm like RentSeeker.ca, is not only efficient as far as time is concerned. As Google indexes websites based on keywords, volume listings is a tactic to drive traffic to your properties on the ILS – and subsequently, your website – without having to compete for keywords in a competitive sphere such as “apartments for rent in Toronto.” So if you’re considering long-term SEO placement and improved Google rankings, listing your properties online in bulk – even in a fortuitous low-vacancy period – will continually drive traffic to your website while archiving inquiries. That means that when a rental unit does become available, filling it is just an email or phone call away.

This blog post was written in collaboration with data from the Marketing and Communications team at (RentSeeker.ca Corporate Sponsor), Greenwin Property Management: offering safe and vibrant rental apartments for all budgets in central and eastern Canada. Read more about apartments for rent, industry news and upcoming events in the community by visiting Greenwin’s blog and news page (www.greenwinpm.com). Join the conversation on Twitter (@GreenwinPM) and Facebook (facebook.com/GreenwinPM).

Signage is the best source of marketing

For a property owner or manager, understanding the results of your marketing dollars, including appropriate sources for your company and their ability to translate into business, is invaluable to measuring the effectiveness of your advertising campaign.

Marketing tools for rental properties include a range of vehicles, including property signage, print advertising, online marketing, social media, 3D floor plans and video. While each one carries its own merits, in order to effectively raise awareness of your property’s listings, there are three major resources to consider in order to garner maximum return on investment.

Property signage is by far the most effective use of marketing dollars as it’s a one-time fee that can reach hundreds of eyeballs a day. Fresh, contemporary signage that’s placed strategically on your property can result in the most rentals per marketing dollars spent. Take advantage of signs on your apartments for rent by ensuring that they’re clearly visible and unobstructed. Don’t forget to include corporate branding, website information. A call to action, including a rental office address and phone number, should be large enough for passersby to read, ideally from across the street or when stopped at a red light. As social media is quickly gaining momentum as the “new” way of communication, include icons such as Facebook and Twitter where applicable.

On the topic of social media, the next best marketing tool from a cost perspective can be found online. The benefit to promoting your rental properties in this space is that many sites allow you to convey your message to thousands of users a day—for free! Those that do charge a monthly fee do so in such a way that’s nominal compared to other sources of marketing, such as print. Using websites like www.RentSeeker.ca, which offers landlords and property managers a unique syndication model, directly target an online apartment search audience that gains momentum by the second.

A major component of the RentSeeker model is social media. Overwhelming at first glance, applications like Twitter and Facebook can be custom-designed for branding and marketing purposes, giving those in the real estate business the opportunity to promote rental incentives, building events, property upgrades and more. Not only will you reach current tenants and staff, you’ll promote tenant relations and retention while increasing brand awareness. As you expand your follower base over time, the potential to influence thousands of web users internationally is quite literally at your fingertips. And, for the most part, this kind of reach doesn’t cost a penny.

While print sources can be a costly way to advertise your apartments for rent, it certainly has a time and a place. With massive distribution and readership, print outlets—selected based on your target audience—make their way into the hands of those who have not yet made the transition to the Internet. However, before allocating advertising dollars to just any rental resource, determine who you are speaking to, including age, gender, socioeconomic status, etc. From there, research a few newspapers and magazines, find their sales contact and start a dialogue with the company. Let them do the legwork by coming up with an advertising plan that is tailored to your company and vacancies. Once you have a group of proposals that you’re satisfied with, select the one that makes the most sense to your business and try it out.

So what’s advertising doing for you? This is a tough question to answer if you’re not keeping tabs on return. To help break down cost metrics, ensure that you are keeping traffic reports to understand which demographics are driven by each specific source. This will help you to understand cost per lead, which requires looking at dollars spent relative to inquiries received. If a traffic report tells you that signage received 14 calls in a week while print attracted just one, start thinking about re-jigging the print ad. If after a few weeks inquiries haven’t picked up, implement the ad change or consider another source altogether. Remember, one lead can pay for the ad it came from.

When it comes to advertising your rental properties, patience is the key to filling vacancies. Determine your budget, find your audience and experiment with a range of resources until you find your niche.

Written in collaboration with the Marketing and Communications team at Greenwin Property Management: offering safe and vibrant rental apartments for all budgets in central and eastern Canada. Read more about apartments for rent, industry news and upcoming events in the community by visiting Greenwin’s blog and news page (www.greenwinpm.com). Join the conversation on Twitter (@GreenwinPM) and Facebook (facebook.com/GreenwinPM).

How can social media help your property management firm?

You already have an established company and many already a website by now. Now you just need to bring other people to it and generate interest in your apartments for rent. One of the most cost effective ways to do this is to use social media. There are a number of social media networking sites that will help you to make your website popular and help find renters, and the three main sources today that you’ll want to use include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

For any business and landlord, it is very important that you start blogging or submitting entries on a social networking site(s). This way, you can market your vacancies to thousands of potential renters that are also connected to the social media site. These sites also provide you with instant communication, and most importantly these sites are free to join. You’ll also improve your search engine placement, so that people can search for you when they’re using Yahoo or Google in order to find out more about Toronto rentals or apartments for rent throughout Canada.

The best way to make the most of the social media advantage is to set up an account with all three social networking sites, especially Twitter. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking websites in the world, so you’ll be able to attract potential renters outside of Canada, which is especially ideal since many renters do move from out of state. When you post comments on your status, you can include the link to your company’s website, so that it won’t be hard for people to find. You can also post rental incentives for prospective renters and links pointing to corresponding information. Another great tool Twitter can be used for in the apartment rental industry is as an e-newsletter to residents. Notify them that you’re now on twitter and you might be surprised to see how many of them are too.

After creating an account with these social media sources, you’ll need to start making friends on each of these sites. You can start by inviting your friends, colleagues and yes, even other Landlords, to join the site, and then connect with their mutual friends. This will help your network to grow, since you’ll be surprised how many people you actually know and even get to meet. If the members that you’ve sent friend requests to have heard of you or your company, it is likely that your request will be accepted faster. You can also post information about any business / resident -related events that you’re going to be having. You can invite tenants to attend the event(s),and can create an RSVP list, so you’ll know how many people to prepare for.

For your YouTube channel, upload rental videos of your property and you can add them into your listings on many other sites as well such as RentSeeker.ca. We also produce rental videos for Landlords that have Toronto Apartment Rentals:

Don’t forget to be consistent when you’re using social media. You’ll need to check in a few times a day in order to update your status, add more friends, and to keep your network updated about the professional progress you’re making.

The RentSeeker.ca Team

For more information or to learn more how we can help create and manage your social media network, contact us.