Don’t use social media to market apartments, if…

…you are not ready to be a marketer. You see, the essence of social media is conversation and that conversation is you being a marketer. So in order to use to social media to market you must be willing to be a marketer, you must be willing to engage.

When you use social media to market apartments you take on the responsibility of engaging in feedback – be it good, bad, indifferent or even downright hateful. And, therein lies the fear of many operators. How do we handle the negative and hateful feedback we might get, is the question I hear most often. I say, “engage in a conversation with them.” I might add, “how do you respond when someone meets you face to face to voice their discord about your community? Do you sit silent or do you engage in a conversation?” You have to think of social media as just a mechanism for conversation – nothing more – nothing less. And, about those potential negative comments, they take themselves.

To that point let’s direct our attention to a Washington Post titled; Listening to the Dot-Commenters written by Doug Feaver, former Executive Editor of the Post [thanks for the great post, Doug]. The gist of the article is about the self correcting nature of socially irresponsible commenter’s and more specifically anonymous ones, that is to say people who use feedback platforms as bully pulpits. I think the Post’s philosophy is one that could/should be mirrored in the multifamily space.

I have come to think that online comments are a terrific addition to the conversation and that journalists need to take them seriously. Comments provide a forum for readers to complain about what they see as unfairness or inaccuracy in an article (and too often they have a point), to talk to each other (sometimes in an uncivilized manner) and, yes, to bloviate. – Doug Feaver

I can see merit in Doug’s logic and I think it will – over time – marry well to sites like apartmentratings and yelp, just to name a few. I have to believe that the more accustom apartment seekers become to prospect/resident generated feedback sites, the more they will either avoid, ignore or correct socially irresponsible comments. The down right passionate users will see it as their absolute duty to counter the negative or misguided users. Now, should the down right passionate user be you – please remember to handle yourself professionally. In my mind you represent an industry not just your individual community or property management firm. And, just remember, it’s all marketing.

Have a stellar Easter weekend.

M