A few tips on improving resident retention

If someone says, one more time, “social media is here to stay,” you’re probably like me and are going to flip out, man. However, the fact of the matter is, property management firms, both at the national and local level, need to understand the intricacies of social media in order to harness its power, connect with potential residents and, most importantly, retain them while turning them into brand advocates. 

A vacant apartment means stress, piling bills, and added expenses. This is why it’s crucial to keep residents happy. And here are a few ways you can do this with your property. 

[bctt tweet=”This is How Property Managers Can Retain Residents and Increase Local Engagement #meetsoci” username=”meetsoci“]

Be a neighborhood evangelist

Current and potential residents are looking for more than just 4 walls with some nice furnishings. While, yes, that is important, what is equally as important is highlighting the surrounding businesses, attractions, and benefits of the neighborhood. Here are some items to mention:

• Since millennials love their exercise, showcase your neighborhood’s Walk Score and Bike Score. Who doesn’t like a neighborhood where you can walk or bike somewhere over getting in a car? 
• But if you do have to use automotive transport, show off your ‘hood’s amazing public transportation. Share a bus or train route map to show just how close your residents are from the next stop.
• Highlight community events. What’s going on in the neighborhood tonight? A parade? Concert in the park? Share community calendars when applicable for increased engagement and to show your residents you’re invested in the community.
• You know that burger place on the corner? It’s new. And it’s amazing. And tonight, all burgers are half off for neighborhood locals. Let your residents know!

Be strategic

While, yes, we’re talking about resident retention here, as well as increasing engagement, are those your only goals for taking to social media? They are definitely good goals, but how are you going to set up your strategy as well as measure the success of your efforts? Consider the following questions as you embark on this great journey:

• Which networks will I be posting to and why?
• What tools do I need to have at my disposal to measure success? Google/Facebook/Twitter/etc. Analytics?
• How often should I post?
• Is there a tool I can utilize to understand my audience engagement metrics better?

Be visual

Nothing screams, “YOU WILL ENGAGE!” quite like visual content. Check out these stats:

• 150%: Amount of retweets a Tweet will get with an image (versus those without)
• 2.3X more engagement: Facebook posts with image vs. without images.
• 40% of people respond better to visual content than text-only
• Infographics are engaged with on social media 3X more than other any other type of content

Blog (The other four-letter-word)

This one might be a bit trickier depending on location. If you have some creative liberties to point people back to your site from social media posts, then by all means, get your blog up and running. Why is a blog beneficial? Well, aside from being essentially free, a blog can:

• Increase onsite engagement
• Increase conversions
• Put a face personality on your brand
• Allow you more long-form content opportunities
• Improve your SEO efforts
• Drive more traffic to your site

Build and nurture your online community

Recently, we ran a webinar with Buzzstream highlighting how to work with influencers to increase local engagement. (Have a listen here if you haven’t already.) In it, we discussed a few tactics and methods of working with the ever-powerful social influencer to help build an online community…especially at the local level. So when we talk about growing and nurturing your online community, consider the following:

• Work with influencers to build your presence, increase your positive reputation, and expand your organic reach into new realms
• Host giveaways and online contest to increase engagement with your local audiences
• Always respond to reviews, negative or positive

With these tips in hand and all the tools you need at your disposal, there’s no reason you should lose another resident, especially not due to your online presence. If you need a few more pointers, give us a ring. We’ll gladly guide you through some more way to retain your residents while increasing engagement and improving your overall reputation.