These days, it seems that everyone is on social media. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even Pinterest, social media is what people use to connect with each other quickly and share ideas and opinions. If you are a landlord, having a presence on social media is important to keep in touch with your tenants, connect with other landlords and stay up-to-date on industry news and trends. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started on your social media journey!
Facebook is the behemoth of the social media world. The site has close to a billion active users (you read that right – a billion). If you’re looking to connect with your current tenants or to attract new ones, Facebook is a great place to start. According to Hubspot, 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired a customer through Facebook.
Starting a page for your building on Facebook is easy and straightforward, with step-by-step instructions given to help you along the way. Once you’ve created your page, you’ll want to update it frequently with new vacancies and interesting tidbits of news from around your neighbourhood and city. Facebook is also a wonderful place to poll your current tenants and get their opinions about the building itself. Are you wanting to plan a holiday event for the entire building? Use Facebook to determine what day would work best for the majority of your tenants. If you want to organize a charity drive, you can use a poll on your Facebook page where your tenants can vote on which charity they would like to support. The possibilities are almost endless with Facebook, so it is the number one place you should look to when working on your social media presence.
With 200 million monthly active users, Twitter is your next stop on the social media train. Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters, so that means you need to be concise with your message. It’s a wonderful way to connect with your tenants (and potential tenants) quickly and interact with them on a more personal level.
Twitter will help you to see what is trending in your area (by setting your “trend” search parameters to your specific city), which will help you to compose relevant Tweets that will engage more people. You can also use Twitter to connect with businesses in your neighbourhood (retweeting information about sales, for example), promoting contests or giveaways in your building, providing apartment decorating tips or advertising your current vacancies.
While Pinterest is relatively the new kid on the block, its popularity is soaring. At only three years old, Pinterest already has over 70 million active users. By pinning and re-pinning photographs, you can reach potential tenants by showing off your building in pictures.
Pinterest is where you can really let your creativity shine. Don’t just advertise yourself and your buildings – add value by creating “boards” that showcase apartment decorating ideas, interesting furniture and even fun recipes. By adding your website address in the description of each pin, you increase your chances of getting more traffic to your website. According to DMR, over 80% of the pins on Pinterest are actually re-pins from someone else. This means your pin and its description can quickly spread throughout the site.
YouTube
Since YouTube is the #2 search engine on the entire web (after Google), it makes sense that you need to have a presence on this invaluable social media site. Video marketing may seem daunting, but all that you need to do is put together a simple piece that shows off your building, the suites and the landscaping. Adding a video addition to your marketing gives you an edge that simple photographs cannot provide. Think of it as providing potential tenants with their own personal tour of the building from the comfort of their own home.
Need more convincing about the power of YouTube? Information from The Relevancy Group shows that over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every minute. They also state that 500 years of YouTube videos are watched on Facebook every day. This truly brings your social media presence full-circle!
By engaging tenants and potential tenants on social media, you are adding even more value to your brand and increasing organic traffic to your site, allowing more people to learn about you and your building. If you haven’t already started, the time to get started on social media is now.
The RentSeeker Team
