BY Paul R. Bergeron III
Many in the apartment industry continue to try to figure out the most effective way to use social media to improve their marketing, reputation among residents and community culture.
Many in the apartment industry continue to try to figure out the most effective way
to use social media to improve their marketing, reputation among residents and community culture. Kim Cory, Sales & Marketing Director for University Village Apartments, near the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, is among those who seem to have figured this out.
Cory says University Village’s Facebook page, created five years ago, has never been a vehicle for informing students about things such as rent due dates or rules reminders. She says this type of one-way communication method or “talking at the residents” stifles online engagement and diminishes any potential relationship building or marketing benefits that an apartment community can experience through social media—whether in student housing or market-rate properties.
“If all you are doing is posting information and reminders about the community, residents will never even take the time to ‘like’ your page,” Cory says, “And they’ll let you know, ‘Thanks, we get it.’ But then they’ll probably not come back to your page and for sure will never share your content with their friends.”
Cory says University Village, which serves 2,300 students through its 1,000 units, revises its social media marketing plan each year. This year the property has a strong focus on strengthening its relationship with its resident community and the university. By doing so, Cory says their Facebook page has evolved more into an honest and valuable resident online focus group.
This Facebook page also is now a key source for driving traffic to the community website and ultimately has helped convert leads to leases, she says. The addition of “Marketplace & Recommendations” to the University Village Facebook page has improved the user experience, Cory says, and it has boosted occupancy because more people are looking at the page and ultimately deciding to lease at University Village.
“We’ve created a culture through our Facebook posts and reply to comments that make the student residents feel much more comfortable about voicing their opinions and concerns about our community’s onsite operations,” Cory says. “And by doing so, they feel better and feel more connected to us because we’ve demonstrated to them that we really do listen to them when they want to get something off their chests, especially about customer service, operations and their student housing experience.”
Cory says the opinions residents post on Facebook differ from those commonly found on apartment ratings sites, which enable both the unabashed bashing and hyperbolic flattery of communities through anonymous posts. Such ratings sites often handcuff owners and property managers who struggle to respond appropriately to unknown residents and sometimes find themselves more concerned about the authenticity of the complaints and the complainers. The Recommendations feature allows residents to freely express the positives about living at University Village that Facebook page visitors won’t find on posts or comments.
“The residents want to be able to post the negativity or write about issues on the wall so that not only can their friends observe the discussion, but so, too, can those friends on their own pages,” Cory says.
She says her residents find that management doesn’t pay much attention or respond to resident comments on more traditional apartment ratings sites, but on Facebook they expect it. After all, the Facebook platform is built on engagement and sharing.
At University Village, the Facebook posts are transparent, and most come with an icon of the student residents’ faces. These residents post thoughtful and personal feelings about resident neighbors who smoke or litter in common areas, and of course, social events.
Other posts are students who are reaching out to other students or student residents seeking general information or advice or even a new roommate. Some sincerely praise the community, and through Facebook’s “friend” sharing capabilities, serve as valid word-of-mouth marketing outreach.
“Considering that so many consumers’ decisions these days are based on word of mouth, followed by validation online,” Cory says, “we are seeing that our Facebook page has greater value, especially among residents in this age group.”
Discussions typically start with a resident and a friend, but eventually this leads to multiple touchpoints such as other websites and social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc.). “Validation and representation through these touchpoints is crucial in any community’s efforts to stay in front of this audience,” she says.
Facebook Posting: What to Write
Cory says the management staff who communicate through Facebook must learn to speak student residents’ language—using both proper jargon and making the effort to post on current events. “If you come off as stiff or cold or canned corporate, you’re toast,” Cory says.
For apartment management staff members who are inexperienced or nervous about engaging though Facebook with its users who are much younger than they, Cory suggests finding someone who is more natural at conversing through Facebook—perhaps a younger colleague.
This “coach,” she says, can proofread and edit the responses before they go up. “You’d be surprised how much better they’d read if you just change one or two words,” she says. – P.B.
Embracing Negativity
Cory says University Village’s Facebook page is sometimes home to intense, critical dialogue, especially when they object to the community changing a policy or services they offer like its campus shuttle service or the fee for a new community ID card.
“The residents aren’t just posting things like, ‘Way to go management team. You are awesome.’” Cory says. “We see it as them wanting to be able to express themselves and be heard by management, and Facebook is the place where they want to do it.”
There was no greater example of an online outrage than when University Village adjusted its campus shuttle-bus schedule.
“We thought we were acting in the students’ best interest by offering fewer stops on campus, but with more frequency available throughout the day,” Cory says. “But we were wrong and this became a huge deal. The students didn’t like it at all,
especially because they had no say in the decision.”
For example, one resident wrote on Facebook:
“Honestly, I hate to sound rude, but you didn’t use that technology to ask the residents about what we thought. There were no polls or surveys or e-mails mentioning any changes to the bus schedule. This was thrown upon us less than a week before school started, and those of us who rely upon the bus to get us to class on time were completely thrown for a loop. Now I will likely buy a parking pass just so that I can get from my off-campus classes to my on-campus classes on time. Next time a change this dramatic is going to take place, please let us know earlier so that we can at least make alternate arrangements. Even better would be to ask the residents what they suggest and how they feel about changes. That’s what I used to love about UV.”
Based on this and other Facebook commentary, Cory says University Village decided to change back to the original shuttle schedule.
Cory, who is the primary user on behalf of her community on its Facebook page, says with this example and any other critical commentary, it is her philosophy to “embrace” the negativity. “Ignoring it will only tarnish your relationship-building
experience,” Cory says. “You may not always make the best decisions or be able to positively respond with an answer that everyone will be happy with, but at the end of the day, you engaged in the conversation and spoke on behalf of the
greater benefit of business and your residents.”
Her reply, for example, to one of the nearly 40 posts on the shuttle-bus topic, was this:
“Thank YOU UV residents for coming together as a community to talk with us! We are so impressed by the outreach and stories you have shared with us about the bus schedule. We know not all of you will be happy with decisions to changes we may make, but by coming together as a group we can talk and work on solutions to benefit all of UV. We appreciate your feedback both positive and negative. Look for a UV ‘Resident Panel’ Focus Group to come soon! For now, let’s enjoy our last day of summer break before classes begin on Wednesday. Wishing all of you a successful year ahead. Go Bucks!”
“We learned that you should never change a policy to a service or feature that your residents value most without at least checking with them first,” Cory says. “By responding, accordingly, in a fair and constructive way, we were able to get these important conversations started. The residents want to feel as if they are being heard by management and they are.”
Don’t Disrespect Us
Cory says what her office doesn’t tolerate is disrespect shown to her staff and to other residents through these postings. University Village lets its Facebook friends know their code of conduct. If the code is broken, those students are banned from the site. This only happened one time.
“It was very difficult,” she says. “We had to get the university involved and this became a student personnel matter. The resident became very controlling and was posting inappropriate and disrespectful responses within seconds of other residents’ posts. He was acting as management and some even thought he worked for us. It was a behavior issue. Eventually, we came to a mutual decision with the resident and the university to part ways and he was let out of his lease.”
Healthy debate and criticism are tough on the management team, Cory says. “You feel like you are being attacked,” she says. “With Facebook posts, a lot of residents aren’t afraid to be aggressively blunt and feelings can be hurt. But what also is true is that once you meet that person face-to-face, like at the next community social function, they aren’t at all rude or blunt.
They will remember you because of Facebook and will be glad to meet you. From this, you can establish a stronger relationship with them which can lead to a better living-learning experience.”
Paul R. Bergeron III is NAA’s Director of Communications. He can be reached at paul@naahq.org.
Editor’s note: The University Village Facebook page postings on page 48 are authentic, but do not appear in the order that they were originally published.