We recently surveyed the multifamily industry and got responses from 387 property management professionals on how they use social media. The results were interesting.
First, Facebook is king. Over 96% of respondents have pages there, leaving Google+ (48%) and Twitter (37%) in the dust. Pinterest (23%), LinkedIn (21%) and Foursquare (15%) bring up the rear.
Over 76% don’t have apartment community blogs, presumably preferring to use Facebook for brief messages.
70% manage social media at the property, with no platform or third party assistance.
Respondents are smart on content, with over 24% posting daily and 34% multiple times per week. That’s the basis of any good social media plan.
What can we learn from this survey? First, one size doesn’t fit all. Social media outlet choices vary, as well as how frequently properties update their pages. Most communities don’t use blogs, probably because social media is managed in house and they don’t have time to create custom long-form content. Finally, many companies are missing the opportunity to use social media management platforms, which give marketing managers better insight into and control over social media interactions.
It will be interesting to see how these trends evolve over time. How do you think your property’s use of social media will evolve over the next year?
