March 19th, 2018
How to prevent and respond to negative tenant reviews
Property Management
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Social media was founded in early 1997 and quickly became how we keep in touch with friends, form communities, build business connections and even how we keep up with current events. Over time, it has become a vital marketing channel for businesses that want to remain relevant and visible in today’s busy digital world.
One of the main benefits of social media for property managers is increased brand awareness. In fact, according to Social Media Examiner’s report, 92% of marketers say that social media has helped increase brand exposure and website traffic.
Furthermore, posting relevant and engaging content can build brand loyalty, community and engagement with customers and prospects.
Choose the right social media platforms for your business
After you’ve identified your target audience, do some research to determine which platforms they are most active on. Using the correct platform will not only help you reach more prospects, but it’ll also help you better relate to your customers, which results in higher engagement.
Don’t feel obligated to sign up for every platform, as not all platforms are well suited to your company. For example, platforms like TikTok may be on the rise according to Forbes and Linkedin however with 41% of TikTok users aged between 16 and 24 the core demographic may be unlikely to own property.
Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide, with over 1.73 billion daily active users, making it an excellent platform to start with. Due to the wide user base and vast demographic of users, when paired with an understanding of your target audience you will easily be able to have your content in front of them.
Create a content calendar that works for you
Once you have determined which platforms you will be posting on, it’s time to create a content calendar that works for you. This means selecting certain days and times when you will regularly distribute content. Consistency is key when it comes to social media marketing so it’s helpful if you have a schedule of planned content ready to go.
Take the time to do some research on the best posting times for each platform that you select to share your content. For example, Hootsuite reports that the best time to post on Facebook is between 9am and 2pm EST on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Keep your finger on the pulse by regularly conducting research to ensure that your content continues to be posted at the optimum time for engagement.
Plan and create content that feels genuine to your audience
Now that you have your content calendar set up, you know exactly how many pieces of content you need to create on a weekly and monthly basis. Next, take a look through your previous content and observe what has performed best. Sprout Social research found that consumers are 90% more likely to engage with posts that showcase company personality and announce company happenings.
If you are just getting started on social media or don’t have old posts to refer to, do an audit of a few competitors in your industry and see what performs highly for them. This will help to spark some inspiration of what content you can begin to develop for your own channels.
However, it’s important to adhere to your brand guidelines to ensure brand consistency and cohesiveness. You want to make sure that your content is in line with your brand colours, typography and tone. Having a consistent look and feel will help build brand recognition and recall in the long run.
Schedule your content to save time
Additionally, you can schedule your content ahead of time to automate content distribution. Social media scheduling tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Facebook Creator Studio allow you to upload your content, along with your description and schedule it to be published at a later date and time.
Not only does this minimise the possibility of content being missed or forgotten, but it is also much more time efficient for yourself and any staff who are monitoring the platforms.
Stay attentive to consumer feedback
Now that you are posting your content onto your carefully chosen platforms, be sure to engage with your customers and prospects to grow your audience. You can do this by replying to comments, reposting user-generated content and responding to messages in a timely manner. This will show your audience that your business is responsive and personable.
If someone leaves a negative comment or review on your channel, make sure to address it as quickly as possible, offering a solution or further assistance. Likewise, if you receive a positive comment or review, thank the person for taking the time to share their feedback.
As these types of situations begin to occur, it’s really important to remain consistent in your responses, especially if multiple staff are monitoring your social media channels. You can create a social media response policy to ensure standardised responses and procedures. Include things such as template responses, expected response times and points of action following a customer comment or complaint.
Consider a budget for social ads
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn offer paid advertising options to promote your content and drive conversion. Utilising social ads is an effective marketing strategy which can enable you to easily retarget your website visitors or reach new audiences based on gender, age, interests and location.
If you have the budget for social ads, consider creating a promotional campaign to boost your social media visibility and drive traffic to your website. There are some key questions to ask when creating a target audience for paid advertisements on any platform. These include:
- Where is your target audience located?
- What is the average age and gender of your target audience?
- What is their average income?
- Are they homeowners?
- Do they have kids?
- What are their hobbies and interests?
- How do they source their information (digital vs traditional forms of media)?
- Who are your top-paying and most loyal customers?
Facebook advertisements allow you to incorporate the key questions mentioned above. You can sort audiences by age, gender, employment, interests, purchasing behaviors, relationship status and plenty more. This gives you the power to narrowly target your audience and put your content directly in front of them.
Measure and analyse your content performance
Social media analytics tools enable you to measure, monitor and analyse the performance of your content. Keeping informed on how your content performs will help guide you on what content you should continue creating and what might need to be re-evaluated.
Most social media platforms have basic in-app insights and analytics that allow you to easily monitor engagement metrics such as post reach, comments, video views and shares. There are also many add-on tools which offer in-depth social media analytics and reporting. These include Sprout Social, Google Analytics and Sendible. Utilising these tools will help you analyse how your content is performing with a centralised view and identify opportunities for improvement.
Key things to monitor could include:
- Growth of social media followers
- Engagement (comments, likes, retweets, video views and shares)
- The amount of referral traffic to your website
- Who looks at your page the most (age demographics, location etc.)
- The time when most users are online
Thanks for reading this blog on the ultimate property manager’s guide to social media! You might also be interested in:
- How to prevent and respond to negative tenant reviews
- The ultimate social media calendar for Australian agents
- 25 real estate social media ideas to win more clients
Let us know your thoughts on The ultimate property manager’s guide to social media by emailing [email protected].
