Here comes everybody
Above is the clever title to a very brilliant book written by Clay Shirky and I think it relates to a movement that is happening in the multifamily space. I have noticed more and more major players, as of late, using social media to market their apartments. And, it seems like with every passing hour I am reading a new press release, blog post, tweet or Facebook update about someone trying their hand at it. All of which I think is great news for the multifamily space; that is as long as we have the real end game in mind.
The truth behind it
I think it’s important to mention that the chief aim of an operator using social media is not to create value for the end user. Sounds crazy, I know but it is true. And, over the coming months as we see this flood of new users entering the space some of us have occupied for years, you will hear common phrases like; creating value for the resident or prospect, creating customer evangelist, creating value as perceived in the eyes of the consumer and joining the conversation, just to name a few. In all fairness these are very important statements and should be front and center in your approach to social media. But, they are not the goal. The truth behind it is that the more content you create, whether it be about your apartment company, specific apartment community or otherwise, the more you drive your Googlejuice.
What is Googlejuice?
This is the best definition I could find on the fly [source]
GoogleJuice is the ethereal substance which flows between web pages via their hyperlinks (in both directions!). Pages with lots of links to them acquire much GoogleJuice; pages which link to highly juicy pages acquire some reflected GoogleJuice. (do they? who says?) The level of GoogleJuice in a page thus reflects how well connected it is, and thus, in our world where LinksAreContent, how good it is (well, sort of). Google uses the term PageRank in-house to mean the score that they give to each web page. When it was google.stanford.edu, Google search results included a small graphic indicating how much PageRank each page has. Now that search results no longer include PageRank (unless you have the google toolbar), people use the term GoogleJuice to mean “the mysterious quality that causes pages to come up high in a Google search.” The GoogleSearch engine was the first SearchEngine to measure the levels of GoogleJuice in each page; it sorts its results accordingly, presenting the ones with the most juice first.
The short version: the more you link to others and the more others link to you, the more relevant you are and thus the better your chances to show up on the first page of Google when someone is doing an apartment search. There is a reason why all the major ILS’s dominate this space. I think Apartments.com is likely the best versed at it; with Rent.com and ForRent.com being a close second. [These are just my opinions based on some random searches I did this morning]
What is your chief aim?
At the end of the day nothing trumps a remarkable product, a memorable experience and out of this world customer service. But in the world of marketing apartments using social media they are but drivers of GoogleJuice. Using blogs as an example – it really doesn’t matter if your blog is about your specific apartment community or every business within a five mile radius of that community or both – if you fill it with amazing content and relevant links and people find it remarkable enough to link to then you are on your way to accomplishing the real goal.
Have a compelling week to come.
M
0 Responses
Mike, Good Morning,
Interesting post, and I agree with you that lots of folks will enter the Social Media Marketing space for apartments. I think most will fail.
Your point about SEO rankings mirrors our experience. When you search “apartments Royal Oak” Urbane Apartments comes up Page One, Number One consistently. I am pretty proud of that, but it took us awhile, and it took lots of links and lots of blog posts to get from say page four or five on Google Search, which is where we were last summer, to Page One, Number One. There are a little under 2785 inbound links to the web site.
So, If a desirable Google ranking has been achieved, what is the value of that? That was really what should have been part of our other conversation,
E,
Good morning to you –
I am sure others, along with myself, will be anxious to hear why they will fail with their attempts at Social media. Please take the time to explain it here if you don’t mind keeping the conversation going.
As for our other conversation; it is about the time, money and resources used to achieve this end – not what you do when you get there. So, while the end has it’s place – it’s not the point of that discussion thread. It’s the untold story of the Urbane brand. And, it is the one that people need to fully understand before they enter the space. You dropped the cost of traditional paid media but you picked up the cost of making this happen. And, you have said yourself – social media is not free. So, what is the all in cost; soup to nuts? People need to know that.
Thanks for the feedback.
M
Hi Mike,
The fail comment is somewhat off the cuff and not meant to be negative, But I think most Social Media projects in the apartment space will fail, because property management companies are not participating in the conversation now, are they? How often do we hear that the PM Co didn’t talk to the resident once after the lease signing. Isn’t Social Media just a tool to Participate in the Conversation?
As for the cost, I laid it out numbers on Brent’s site. No one else has stepped to the plate with what their numbers are. And traditional marketing costs rise at nearly a one to one ratio as you add more properties, Social Media Marketing does not. The cost to operate and maintain are MOSTLY fixed. I get you don’t believe that, But if it were all that expensive, how would a little fry like us be able to sustain the costs? We couldn’t, nor would our SEO rankings and initiatives work, but they are.
Showing up on page One, Number One on Google Search is not hokus-pokus, but we undeniably do.
It’s not a question of belief – it’s math. But, I leave this conversation with my mind still open. It’s clear that we have two very different views of the world. Not a good or a bad thing – just different.
Cazoodle Apartment Search is always researching ways to improve GoogleJuice. We attempt to keep up on our blogs and do our best to refine ways for Google to find us. Currently we are asking about this new LinkJuice. Studies show that this is an ever increasing way to get the page rank higher.
Interesting discussion, but why does it have to be one or the other? Social media is a great communication tool and if it just so happens to boost your rankings, isn't that great bonus?
Jill
Thank you for taking the time to add to the discussion. I think your questions are spot on and relevant in the context of integration. SM is one piece of a larger and overarching marketing plan. Businesses have to consider an integrated approach to selling goods and services – it's just not an option to leave SM out of the equation any longer.
Have a compelling weekend.
Jill
Thank you for taking the time to add to the discussion. I think your questions are spot on and relevant in the context of integration. SM is one piece of a larger and overarching marketing plan. Businesses have to consider an integrated approach to selling goods and services – it's just not an option to leave SM out of the equation any longer.
Have a compelling weekend.
There is no question that building a strong presence in the social networking sites will contribute greatly to your success. We also have a lot of our tenant screening clients who also are having great success with finding properties rent and property managers getting their properties rented on Craigslist.