What Social Media works best?

I am a leasing Manager/Sales Manager/Marketing Manager whatever you want to call me at a community in Aurora Colorado. I want to start up a social media for my community but seeing how my schedule is already way too busy I am going to start with one and commit to it.

I would love to hear your input as to which one has worked the best, is myspace falling behind facebook or would just a simple blog work better then any of those. I don't think my demographic is on twitter yet so I have already ruled that part out. Please give me your input as my goal is to start on this project in beginning of May the latest!

Did I mention that my community does not have a website at the moment so this will be a replacement of that for now :huh:

I think Facebook is the way to go. Prior to setting it up, I would read the words of wisdom Lisa Trosien has put out there on the subject. I applaud you for being mindful of the fact that it is a commitment.

The one piece of advice I would give you once you have it set up is to make it part of your information gathering process. Not unlike you collect a telephone number and an email address - collect there Facebook profile and ask them if they want to become a fan. Permission is key - don't just assume they want to be a part of what you have to offer. If they are open, friend them up in the moment. Train others in your office to do the same.

Get Facebook up and running and turn your efforts toward a blog.

Great stuff - have a stellar Tuesday.

M

Thank you Mike that is such a great idea to put it into the information gathering process, I hadn't thought of that!

Darn Mike, I'm leaning toward the blog. With a blog, no one has to have an account to access it, and it's essentially a website itself. Not to mention that a blog feed can be pushed into any future social media effort (or facebook for that matter). I think the blog is the more powerful tool for you as down the line it will have created a ton of pages for you and you will be able to link it to your website when you get the new one running. It's great for search engine optimization and linking to a blog from ILS's or other sites you may have listings on like Craigslist is much easier than linking it to facebook.

I love facebook and I think it is something every community should start, but I don't think it's step one. I would even suggest you focus on the blog, but at least create the facebook page just in case people just stumble upon it until you actually have time to work it.

Just my opinion, but thought I'd throw in my two cents.

Good luck.

Mark - The Marketing/Apartment Nerd

Always a gentleman - good stuff.

I half agree - to do a blog right requires a ton of work. I mean you have a tremendous blog and I have to believe that you really spend some good quality time keying in the appropriate content. In that respect, I think if you want immediate impact - create your community around the FB page then go to work on the blog. I 100% agree with your comment on the longer term better impact of a blog, it will make all the difference.

M

Very good point Mark you always loose x amount of people who don't like to register to anything. And the good thing about blogs is that you can treat them as websites with a little html skill.

It might be time for me to brush the dust off my html books and work on a community website hehe!

I also think friending someone up or asking someone to become a fan is very unlike asking someone to register for your content. I agree that registering is a put off.

This is a good topic - thanks for posting the question.

M

@Vala You should really look into hiring someone for an actual community site. There are a number of companies that have templates for multifamily and they are fairly reasonable. Check out www.ellipseinc.com as an example. I think they start at $350 and go up from there.

@Mike I agree it is a lot more work, but it's the long term benefit that trumps fb imo. It's really a tough call as I think if I were to tell someone what to do 1st for their community I would suggest both. I think someone can create time for both as long as they have a plan/strategy and stick to it. Leaving 1 out is a mistake.

OK, Vala, my suggestion now, you must do both fb and a blog. There's just so much you can do with a blog feed that you can't leave out that component, and being "social" with your residents on fb is a great way to enhance community. I hope you can find a way to fit it into your schedule.

Mark - your a rock star master of diplomacy. All kidding aside, I think you are exactly right in that each should be developed at the same time.

Hope your week is going well. Looking forward to meeting up at AIM - should be fun.

M

Mark the problem is that my community is under receivership, I am a temp waiting for the community to sell so the management company can hire me on as their leasing manager. I have 0 budget right now so the situation is a little more complicated then at normal property

The problem is that while I am still there regardless if I am there as a temp or not this is still my property and will be until I get fired or laid off. And right now my property is hurting and I don't have time to wait for this whole ordeal to go through. I have the knowledge and skills to do it myself, my education is in creating marketing material, my only problem is to find time to do it alongside leasing, outside marketing, train new staff and run the leasing floor

It doesn't help that I am an overachiever and a perfectionist at the same time as well haha, maybe I should be patient and wait and see what happens with the receivership and then suggest a new website. To me though a company without a website is like a naked warrior and we had such a great website that served both prospects and residents. I guess when you don't pay the bills they don't like to keep servicing you

Vala, here's an example of why a blog and fb page combo are a good thing. www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=82002748...all&viewas=628402296

That is one of our community facebook pages. If you look at their wall, you will see that their blog auto feeds to their facebook page as well. Here's their blog blog.homeisthecrest.com . So, in essence, if you can just get the facebook page set up in addition to a blog you'll have good content being pushed to the fb page whenever you make a blog post. A great way to promote the blog as well.

Both the blog and fb page are controlled by our onsite teams. I have given them some direction, but they create the content and communication. The total content of our fb page is not stellar, but you will see we have friended mainly residents. As Mike suggested, I would check out Lisa Trosien's blog post for good content ideas. With the blog, our goal is to write at least 1 blog post per week. In writing this I realize we need to revisit our efforts on fb. At some point I'm not sure if it makes more sense to focus the efforts on a "Fan" page vs. the personal type account we have for our properties. With you just starting out, I suggest the "Fan" page type as that is the proper way for a business to use facebook.

If I've learned anything about social media it's that everybody uses it differently. There is no silver bullet/one-stop-shop solution to using social media. There are a ton of tools. The more you use, the more people you will touch.

Vala, just saw your latest comment. I would definitely suggest a blog during your temp situation. I don't know where you currently advertise, but if you're using Craigslist for ads or any ILS sites it would be much easier to link to a blog than to a facebook page. I think that can be something you add if you have time. Right now you just need something as a website placeholder that has content and information about your property.

You need a website first and foremost and blog gives you that.

Wow your community is doing a great job with the social media! I love the blog and when I get accepted as a friend I will look at your fb site. I think I agree with you, a blog is the best place to start and then add the fb on later. I have to learn to not go ahead of myself and now is a good time to start

Is it just me or is myspace slowly dying out with everyone moving over to fb which seems to be more user friendly?

You just caught something that is a perfect example for why I need to revisit our fb pages. It should be public to everyone. The only thing we protect is our list of friends. You have to be a friend to see our friends typically.

Good question about MySpace. That came up last Friday in a conversation with our Marketing Agency - Firebelly Marketing. Their take was that MySpace has become more of a place to search for music, artists, film makers, comedians, etc. It's not the "friend" connection spot it once was. There is still a place for MySpace, but the way people use it is shifting. The good news for MySpace is that this shift is helping them to actually make real money while other social media sites are not. It's still very popular and I suggest creating a page there as well just from a search engine strategy standpoint.

Glad to be able to help