cullens_NAA 2007 2/26/10 11:13 AM Page 2

40 UNITS March 2010 www.naahq.org cullens_NAA 2007 2/24/10 4:31 PM Page 3

BY JOHN CULLENS

Curious? Just getting started? Here are some helpful tips on strategy.

ocial media has lead a profound shift in marketing So as a business wanting to dip your toe or jump head first into and advertising, and it has unleashed a new world this arena, where do you begin? Start with the basics. Social order in online engagement that businesses cannot media marketing is more about listening, sharing and participat- ignore. But what is social media? Who does it? ing and less about talking and selling. Among the challenges for WhereS do they do it? And how do I do it? businesses entering the social media networks are how do you: “Social Media” can be defined as Internet-based applications • successfully engage clients, prospects, partners, employees that allow and enhance the creation and exchange of user-gen- and the general public via social media? erated content in a community experience. The community can • monitor and positively influence your brand message across be any group of people with some common interests that decide all of the social networks? to connect with each other to work, play, learn, share and • measure and increase the bottom line contributions social socialize. In this context, we started using the term social media media can deliver? in 2004, and it started showing on Google’s list of most searched Opportunities for businesses could include: terms in 2006. It is now among the top three online activities, • listening to uncensored conversations about what clients, trailing only e-mail and search. prospects and employees want, need and think about your According to a Forrester Research report, more than 75 per- company; cent of worldwide Internet users have a social media account. It • sharing information, providing valuable insight into your took radio 38 years and television 13 years to reach audiences of company and/or communities through creative media to 50 million users, but Facebook added 100 million worldwide capture the attention of your current clients, employees and users in just a nine-month period. Twitter, the microblogging prospects; site, added more than 20 million users in the first six months of • positively influencing brand knowledge and reputation by 2009. LinkedIn, the professional networking site, just recently responding to questions and frustrations across many social surpassed 50 million worldwide users, and it has been adding media sites; users at the rate of 1 million every 12 days. • dramatically expanding networks of friends, fans and col- Social media can take many different forms, including Inter- leagues; and net forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, • becoming an industry resource, even if you’re a small or rating services and bookmarking. Some of the more recognized medium-sized company, whose opinions are widely known technologies and sample sites include: blog sites (Mashable and and respected. Techcrunch), picture-sharing (Flickr and Photobucket), video To get started, develop a social media plan. Here is a checklist: blogs (YouTube and Vimeo), social and professional networks Define your purpose. Do you want new customers, cus- (Facebook and LinkedIn), bookmarking sites (Delicious and tomer retention, recruiting, corporate communication, PR, Digg), wikis (Wikipedia), microblogs/SMS/voice (Twitter), con- brand loyalty? Start small, and don’t try to be everything to sumer networks (Yelp) and virtual social worlds (Second Life). everybody. For a property management company, this could be Because of the rapid growth of so many social networking as simple as creating Facebook fan pages for communities. sites, a new type of service has developed. Social network aggre- Set a goal. Where are we now? Where do we want to be? How gators, such as FriendFeed and Plaxo, represent one of the do we get there? And what does success look like? fastest growing areas in social media. These sites are designed to Decide on what metrics matter to your business and reduce all of a person’s social news feeds into a single news feed. goals. In a recent research paper, “Four Components of Additionally, persons can update their status on the social sites Engagement,” Forrester Research broke down leading social directly from these aggregator sites. media metrics:

www.naahq.org March 2010 UNITS 41 cullens_NAA 2007 2/25/10 2:25 PM Page 4

• Involvement—Web analytics can help measure site visits, successes and missteps, businesses will see positive results page views, time spent, etc. through its social media marketing campaign. • Interaction—addresses the actions somebody can take Following are other information resources for social media while visiting your site, such as posting a comment, signing strategies and tools that can enhance a social media plan: up for e-mail updates, adding photos and video, etc. • Mashable.com, a great social media resource on the Web; • Intimacy—the sentiment or affinity a person exhibits in • Delicious and StumbleUpon, two bookmarking sites that the things they say or the actions they take. document what users are reading and what they like to view • Influence—addresses the likelihood this person will recom- online; mend your service to someone else. This can be measured • FriendFeed combines a person’s social networks into one with surveys that measure brand loyalty or by monitoring single feed; and the quantity of recommendations posted to particular sites. • Tweetdeck, a tool to monitor Twitter mentions and conver- Set the metrics: sations. • Set metrics that are qualitative and quantitative. Several multifamily housing industry leaders maintain blogs, • Use a dashboard to see the metrics in process. Facebook fan and group pages, or Twitter and YouTube chan- • Track information that is valuable to defined goals, not just nels (Lincoln Property Company and Milestone are two property because it is measurable. management companies that have both recently undertaken • Decide who will be the online voice. Identify team members social media marketing initiatives). Additionally, the NAA and who will contribute content, which can include industry state and local apartment associations participate in these chan- insight, community knowledge and thought leadership. nels and sites, and members can follow those pages to stay cur- • Determine the right outlets and social media tools your rent on the latest news and trends. Those pages also are great business can leverage to achieve ongoing success. places to check when researching the social media marketing • Publish and post interesting content for all audiences. arena. Remember social media is about sharing and being a part Finally, start slow, be strategic, listen to the conversations of the conversation. It is about having a dialogue within about your company and the industry and then share observa- personal networks, not a monologue. tions and insights. Social media’s power is about giving con- Lastly, and probably most importantly, promote. Promote to sumers and users the insight and choice that enables them to internal associates why the plan is being undertaken. Promote make intelligent buying and life decisions. Make sure the mes- Web presence in all company communications from e-mail sig- sage is heard and that a company’s brand is protected. natures to business cards. Promote interaction with clients, resi- dents, prospects, employees and industry peers in every piece of John Cullens is President of apartment career recruitment communication that is sent. site ApartmentCareers.com and can be reached at By following these guidelines and building upon experiences, [email protected].

42 UNITS March 2010 www.naahq.org