Social media has grown to become a vital part of any business’s marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter if your business is small and local or a well known national brand - you need social media for your business. For multifamily properties having an active social media is a great opportunity to connect with residents, increase brand awareness, and reach new renters.

Millions of people use social media every day to follow their friends and family but also to follow the brands and companies they love. Social media is a way for renters to stay connected and stay up to date with the newest property updates. Over 50% of users on Facebook are more likely to spend money on companies they follow. Over 60% of millennials use social media to stay updated on their favorite brands.

Social media can be easy even for beginners! It’s important to know the big players in social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In this article you will learn how each platform works and which content is best to use for each social media platform.

Best Practices

To get started with your social media strategy for multifamily you need to keep a few things in mind. These methods will help you achieve your goals by growing your following, increasing engagement, and put you in front of new prospects!

Maintain Consistency

You want to make sure your brand is consistent throughout all your social media platforms. This includes making sure that your property name, user name, and profile picture are all the same and match your property name.

Post Frequently or On a Schedule

Social media algorithms are ever-changing and one way to stay on top of this is by consistently publishing new posts. A good starting point is posting one to three times a week on each social media network. Does this sound like too much? Don’t worry! Most social media networks are now connected, like Facebook and Instagram; when you connect both your pages you are able to post on both networks at the same time. You can also look into social media schedulers, like Buffer or Hootsuite, where you can connect to each of your social media pages and post or schedule your content.

We recommend you think ahead of what you will be posting and even creating a calendar to follow. By using a social media calendar, you can schedule out your entire week or month’s worth of posts and make sure you share important deadlines, holidays, and move-in specials. 

Creative Content

Everyone has their own style of writing when it comes to social media. When you’re thinking of what to post, keep it casual! Remember, social media is a place where potential renters can get to know who your property is. Don’t be afraid to use emojis and hashtags that you think are fun and match your writing.

Mix up your content by providing quality photos of the apartments, community amenities, apartment amenities, your amazing staff, resident events, local events or reshare posts from popular pages, participating in national holidays, and more. Although the goal is to connect with people who are interested in becoming a resident of your property, not every post has to push a lease. Have fun with your content! Maintain a healthy balance of promoting your apartments and fun content. 

Be Helpful and Engaging

Remember, social media can be used for your prospects or residents can stay connected with you. If someone has asked a question by commenting on a post or sending a direct message, we recommend you reply within 24 hours. Answer their questions and offer to connect with them via email or phone to provide them with more information. If you are unsure of what to answer, don’t freak out! It’s okay to let them know you will have to get back to them while you do more research.

Negative reviews and comments are bound to happen, but the best thing for you to do is to acknowledge them, listen to their frustrations, be helpful and reply within a timely manner. You can even offer them to continue the conversation in private messages or a phone call. Don’t forget to always stay positive and provide the best support possible.

A Little Boost Here, A Little Boost There

One of the great things about social media is that you can actually create ads to reach more people, specifically on Facebook and Instagram. Lucky for your property, you don’t need thousands of dollars to reach a lot of people. By boosting one of your popular posts, sometimes with as little as $5 or $10, you can reach a much wider audience. Your property can grow affordably and at your own pace, specify what audience to target, and lead potential residents to apply. 

Optimize Your Pages

You can easily optimize your social media accounts by completing all the sections of the profile page. This includes your profile name, profile picture, about us or business bio, cover photo, contact information, etc.

Don’t Overthink It

Keep it simple and don’t over complicate your social media strategy. You will learn as you go what your audience likes and dislikes. You want to come off as authentic and sometimes when you over edit a caption or an image it can take away from that authenticity. People love fun posts! It’s okay to share something fun, even if it’s not relating to your property, this way people can engage with your property and genuinely enjoy your posts. 

What To Share on Which Platform

Although you can post the same content on all your social media accounts, it doesn’t hurt to customize each post.

Facebook

When posting as a business on Facebook, the algorithm often pushes your posts lower in people’s news feed. You need to post content that is attention grabbing and provides some kind of value to Facebook users. Try to post an image or video with every post. This will increase the visibility of your post. Don’t just post “Leasing Now!” or “Call us to apply!” Include a photo or short video of the apartments or the leasing office to that post to make it pop on the news feed. When choosing which image to post, make sure it is high quality and clear; stay away from pixelated and blurry images. 

Adding a link to your post provides even more value. For example, if you are sharing information about your amenities include the website link of where they can find more information about your property’s amenities.

Resharing a relevant post from another page is also a great way to show your community involvement. This can be from local events to weather updates from the local news station or even local traffic updates.

Twitter

Twitter is a fast-paced social media platform where breaking news starts trending, live posting is a thing, and chat threads can carry a conversation from different parts of the world. When you’re sharing updates on Twitter, keep them simple and to the point as you only have 280 characters per post. We know you want to promote your apartments as much as possible, but don’t make every update on your Twitter feed about your property building. With Twitter you are able to retweet local events, local news, articles, and fun content from other Twitter users. Don’t be afraid to retweet several times a day! When creating a new update keep in mind that you can also include images and links; we do recommend that you shorten any links you share in a Twitter update. 

A vital part of Twitter are the #hashtags. Hashtags allow users to easily find topics, news, brands, and become involved in conversations and hashtags. By using a relevant hashtag in your post, you will be able to reach a wider audience and even gain new followers. You can also create new hashtags to reinforce your brand and can include it on your bio as well. Feel free to add this hashtag in emails, move-in material, resident flyers, and wherever you see fit. By introducing your hashtag to your residents you encourage them to engage with you on social media and create a community! 

Instagram

Instagram has grown to be one of the most loved social media networks. To promote your multifamily property on Instagram, share high-quality photos about your community. It’s a perfect way to invite people into your community, apartments, amenities, and neighborhoods. A goal to keep in mind when sharing images on Instagram is you want to show potential renters everything you have to offer and what their life can be like when they become a resident.

Just like Facebook, images you share on your Instagram feed must be high quality. If you don’t have the opportunity to take quality photos, you can repost images of people who have tagged your property; as long as you ask for their permission of course and give them photo credit. 

Hashtags are also a vital part of Instagram. Unlike Twitter, you can add as many hashtags as you would like here. However, we recommend you stick to the hashtags that are relevant to your property, type of apartments, amenities, and city or neighborhood. 

Instagram stories are another way to engage your followers. Share fun images of sunsets, your newest leasing specialist, or do a quick video tour of a model apartment. Include questions that are easy for people to answer about your property or ask them if they prefer one amenity to another, ask them for feedback, or share new updates. 

Get Your Multifamily Social Media Started

Now that you have a good foundation and understanding of social media, get to posting! Don’t forget to have fun with social media. Think about what you or a potential resident of your property would like to see and follow on your page. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get tons of likes or followers in the beginning. The more you post the more your page will grow.