Social Standouts
Despite lingering uncertainty when it comes to lead-to-lease ROI like Korman’s, other multifamily social media success stories are coming to light too. Take the tireless efforts of Carmel, Ind.–based J.C. Hart Co.’s Mark Juleen, the sunglasses-wearing social media proselytizer and blogger who helped his company drive more traffic to its site from Facebook last June than from one of its Internet listing services. Or Eric Brown, founder of Royal Oak, Mich.–based Urbane Apartments, which had the guts to start creating its own resident social network three years ago and has racked up more than 5,000 “likes” on its Facebook page. For Brown, it’s only natural that multifamily should excel, not founder, when it comes to social media. “If you think about it, we’re actually in a better place than most industries to leverage this stuff,” Brown says. “I mean, we already run real, living communities—we should be able to create virtual ones.”
Of course, there has also been a growing—if still somewhat begrudging—acceptance of resident review sites such as Yelp and ApartmentRatings.com, with companies now recognizing the need to acknowledge and respond to residents’ concerns. “You’ve got to respond to every question or comment,” says Kristy Simonette, senior vice president of strategic services at Camden Property Trust, the Houston-based REIT that runs 67,000 units nationally. “And never delete a post unless it poses a security issue.”
Antisocial Tendencies
Still, there are plenty of reasons why multifamily doesn’t have the same social media firepower as other industries. For one, when it comes to amassing thousands of followers, it turns out size really does matter. “Small and medium-sized brands have a harder time than companies like Nike and Gatorade,” Siegel says. “It’s a lot easier for companies like that to find a lot of followers quickly and generate excitement that leads to viral interaction. But even the biggest apartment companies aren’t household names to the average person.” Siegel has a point. Take Victoria’s Secret, which, with nearly 15 million likes on its Facebook page, has been heralded for its social media prowess. One could make the argument that apartments just aren’t, well, as sexy as supermodels wearing lingerie, but then there’s the fact that residents only shop for an apartment, at most, once a year. Compare that to the numerous selling seasons for consumer products.
