We recently released our Social Media Strategies Report, and some of the responses highlighted a shifting landscape in the use of social media for apartment communities. 

The Changing Approach to Facebook

With each passing year, apartment communities are accepting of the fact that with Facebook, they must pay to reach their audience.  Gone are the days where organic reach from their Fan Pages is effective, with the percentage of communities who pay to advertise increasing from 66% in 2015 to 82% in 2016, and all the way to 92% in 2017.  The adoption of Facebook advertising is truly staggering, but we have also seen one other interesting trends:  The rise of personal Facebook profile use for business.  Over the last two years, the use of personal Facebook profiles in a community's social media strategy has increased from 55% to 66%.

Instagram Takes Hold; Twitter Wavering; Google+ Falling

Use of Instagram by apartment communities has increased from 34% to 55% over the past two years, climbing to the second most used social media platform.  Twitter seems to be slipping, however, as it drops from 53% use by apartment communities in 2016 to 46% use in 2017.  Although still relatively high in use, this drops mimics the perceived drop in interaction seen on the platform by many.  And lastly, Google+ use continues to fall from 52% in 2016 to 40% in 2017.  Frankly, even use that high is surprising at this point.

The Fundamental Goals of Social Media are Shifting

One of the most interesting shifts in multifamily properties' use of social media is the change in goals.  Back in 2015, 43% cited "Increase resident engagement" as the primary goal of their social media program, and 32% cited "Increase brand of community/company".  In 2017, those two figures have essentially flipped, with many more communities stressing brand compared to resident engagement.  Could this be a function of the difficulty of engaging Fan Page fans, considering Facebook is the primary vehicle for social media strategies?  Of course, this could also be highlighting the fact that none of the current large platforms effectively foster interaction among fans/followers, and instead focus on engagement between the entity and the fans, if anything. 

In this report, we also dug into a variety of other factors to social media success, from identifying metrics to judge social media programs, programs to reach both prospects and residents, and other critical elements.  You can download the social media report for free by clicking here.