Social media continues to play an evolving and increasing role in apartment marketing, said Erica Byrum, assistant vice president, Apartments.com, a speaker at the Multifamily Social Media Summit held Wednesday in Napa, Calif.
She emphasized that companies must spend time adopting their social media content strategy to create a plan that fits their audience, budget and staff size. The good news is that technology adoption is at an all-time high coming out of the pandemic so social media users are becoming more effective at delivering their messages.
“Consumers are spending an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media per day and it’s important to reach your customers where they are,” Byrum said.
A varied, omni-channel approach is best and she said that while Facebook has the broadest reach, Instagram has the most sophisticated platform and it is writing new code every week.
“E-commerce is exploding on Instagram with 81 percent of its users using it to search for products,” she said. “[In terms of user popularity], Pinterest is like Fantasy Football for girls. It’s a great channel to plan and highlight life’s events.”
Reaching the ‘Next Level’ in Marketing
Executing brand consistency “takes you to the next level in marketing,” she said. Create a branding guide that explains the proper use of colors, fonts and logos so that the marketing team delivers consistent posts.
Video content will continue to dominate, she forecasted. She said engagement soars with video included in posts and there is continued growth in Instagram’s Reels and TikTok, including better tracking and features.
Ephemeral (or short-lasting) content will keep gaining popularity, too.
“Trends come and go, especially on TikTok, so you have to monitor the site regularly,” Byrum said.
User-Generated Content Most Authentic
User-generated content, because of its all-important authenticity, increases conversion. “The important thing is that you must get your users’ consent to publish their posts.”
Consider partnering with micro-influencers—persons who have a tremendous amount of followers and who can promote your brand or lifestyle to their fans.
“They might be living in your apartment community so they can be your best advocates,” she said, citing that 75 percent of brand marketers have budgeted money for influencer marketing in 2022.
Engage your employees. “You’ll be pleasantly surprised with what your employees are able to produce,” she said.
Finally, social media is a speeding bullet in marketing. “The only constant is change,” Byrum said.
Source: GlobeSt.
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