Fan Base Building
Twitter and Facebook Tips and Tricks
Here is a list of tips you can implement for little to no cost to help build your fan base.
Put Facebook and Twitter links on your website that direct users to your social media pages. If you have one Facebook or Twitter account for your property management company, put a link in the header of every page of your site. Example: Liss Property Group If your community has its own website, you can use the same type of integration to link to property-specific Facebook and Twitter pages.
If your property listings are on your corporate website, you'll want to put links to the Facebook and/or Twitter page of that particular property on that property-specific page. If the main focus of your social media program is resident engagement and retention, put the links on your resident pages. Example: DeSouza Brown Residents Page
Surprisingly, we've met a lot of resistance from Respage clients' website vendors and in some cases, link requests have been flat out denied. Don't take no for an answer.
Put Facebook and Twitter links in your email signature. If you can put html in your email signature, you can add links to your social media services. My email signature has icons that link to my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages, as well as my blog. You may want to consider using text links instead of image links, as some users suppress images in emails. It's up to you—there is no “right” answer. Twitter, Facebook, and blog images that are properly sized and ready to use are available for 4 Walls or Respage customers. Email support@respage.com and we'll send them to you.
Need help setting up a signature in Outlook? Here are instructions for Outlook 2007.
We have noticed some clients using Outlook have not been able to add html into their signatures even when the settings are correct. If this happens to you, ask your IT team for help.
Put Facebook and Twitter names on print materials. As you replace your business cards, brochures, and other print materials, consider integrating social media contact info. You can print your profile names or direct people to click links on your website. Get your prospects to fan you. About 1/3 of the folks that tour your community will be future residents, but why not try to engage the other 2/3? Even if they choose not to live with you, by keeping in touch they are more likely to recommend your community to their friends. Ask prospects to fan you. Reinforce this message in all of your handouts.
Add social media information to your move in package. Remind new residents to fan you when they move in. Add a hand out to your move in packet that directs them to your Facebook and Twitter pages.
Advertise your social media sites in your newsletter. Inform current residents via your community newsletter. Make sure to highlight the benefits of becoming your fan. If you're a Respage client, we have text you can use. Just contact us.
Email your current residents. Send an email blast with links to your social media sites. If you're a Respage client, we have a template for you to use. Just contact us.
Put a sign in your leasing office. A sign in your office will remind both prospects and residents to fan you. If you're a Respage client, we have a sign for you to use. Just contact us.
Get vendors to follow you. By getting vendors to fan you, your community can tap into their network of followers. Ask vendor partners to retweet special offers.
Promote your contest. Use social media to help communicate your contest. For instance, if you are running a Bingo contest at your property, let clients know that you will be announcing results in multiple ways, posted in leasing office, announced on Facebook and Twitter. For guidelines about contests and sweepstakes, see this article. Facebook is constantly updating their rules for running promotions, click here for their most recent guidelines.
There is one more tactic you can employ to build a fan base that we DO NOT recommend, but will include for completeness’ sake and because we know some properties have tried this. You can search for all of your residents on Facebook and ask then to fan you. You can also search Twitter for residents and follow them in hopes that they will follow you. In addition to being time consuming, this approach is also next to impossible if your residents have relatively common names. By all means, it is something people have tried, but before you do this, we suggest you give our other suggestions a try.