It’s crazy to think that an average of 95 million posts are uploaded onto Instagram daily. Even in our own networks, we are bombarded with numerous photos daily that we often succumb to an aimless scroll — seeing but not really retaining.

When it comes to social media for apartments, we pause to see something that really catches our eye. Whether it’s vibrant food or a scenic location, something about that image stops us in our tracks.

Here are some tips on how to enhance your multifamily marketing strategy:

1. Don’t be in the shadows.

Lighting might be one of the first aspects to stop someone in their tracks. Brighter images will draw attention more often than darker ones. Play with brightness settings to increase light in specific areas or in the entire image. Take advantage of natural lighting. Especially when highlighting details in food or texture, brighter or natural lighting allows for clarity and proper emphasis on specific aspects of the shot.

2. Make it pop.

Color is key. Bright, vivid images are a great way to catch one’s eye and draw attention to a post. No matter the subject in the frame, try to include colorful objects or even add some filters or effects to boost the color. With that said, make sure your use of color sticks to your theme or brand tone. If you’re running an account for a company or brand, ensure you don’t stray too far from their tone and color scheme. It’s very easy to get carried away with bright colors that you completely forget who you’re posting for.

Take @lvl29life on Instagram as one example. The luxury apartment community’s overall Instagram feed is aesthetically pleasing and in tune with the brand’s color scheme and multifamily branding. LVL 29 utilizes high-quality photography and design to create social media graphics that are cohesive, engaging, and unique to the brand.

3. Focus, focus, focus.

When highlighting a subject, play with foreground and background. Most commonly done with food, put your subject in focus and blur out the background. This technique blatantly directs the viewer to see the most compelling part of your image.

A purposeful focus adds texture and depth to your image in unexpected ways. A general approach to any of these images would position the subject on a table with nothing too exciting about it. By focusing the camera on the subject, the photographer captured the object’s detail while allowing for greater context on the outer part of the frame. Whether the background is bland or has more action going on, focusing helps to organize what’s important in the frame and when done well, can look quite striking.

For example, a multifamily property might want to highlight its resident dog park on social media. Rather than simply sharing an image of the park, ask one of your residents to pose their dog in the park while you take a picture of the dog in the foreground, with the park slightly blurred in the background. Playing around with the focus of the image and making sure your residents (and their pups) are the star of your photo is a creative way to showcase your property amenities without being overly salesy.

Interested in more multifamily marketing tips for your social media? Check out our other blog, 4 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Socia Media Strategy.

4. Don’t be boring.

Depending on your posting, variety may be a good attention-grabbing tool. Adding an assortment of objects and textures to an image can tell a greater story than expected. People are quick to look past singular images. By adding multiple objects into the frame, the viewer is invited to spend more time looking at the post and absorbing every part. With variety, your eyes are fed with new and different images around the frame, sparking curiosity about what all these objects have in common.

5. Position with a design eye.

Instagram allows anyone to become a photographer instantly. When taking and editing images, consider the positioning of your subject relative to the things around it and your perspective to capture the image. If you’re taking pictures of food, approach it from unconventional angles or perspectives that make even the blandest piece of toast look enticing.

If you’re taking pictures of nature, walk around and take a number of different pictures at different angles and distances to compose completely different images. Experiment with angles and positions to bring a creative edge to your image. Two images of the same object can look completely different with different angles and positions.

6. Experiment with videos and Reels.

Did you know that 9 out of 10 Instagram users watch videos daily? Never underestimate the power of video on social media. Video allows you to go beyond static images to capture viewers’ interest. Instagram offers several ways to share videos, including on your Stories, feed, IGTV, and Instagram Reels. Instagram’s latest algorithms put a significant focus on video, primarily Reels. It’s time to find a trending Reels sound and get creative with your content!

7. Use design apps like Canva.

Even if you don’t have a graphic design team in-house, that doesn’t mean your Instagram posts always need to be static content and Stock images. Design apps like Canva offer anyone the ability to create unique and branded posts with a few taps on their keyboard. Be sure to upload your fonts and hex codes for your brand colors to ensure your content is consistent and cohesive with your multifamily branding.

Want to see this in action? While our graphic design team helps us create most of our posts, our content team also utilizes design apps to enhance our feed. Follow us on Instagram to see for yourself!

8. Have fun.

No one said Instagram had to be serious. Have fun with what you share. Use every post as an opportunity to experiment with any of the above tips and bring new life to your account. Don’t be afraid to get weird or quirky. It’s the odd things that make people stop and stare.

For more multifamily marketing tips and tricks, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!

What Is Experiential Multifamily Marketing (And How It Can Benefit Your Property)

The best way to understand the power of an experiential multifamily marketing campaign and how it can help you increase your apartment leads is to look at some popular brands that have executed it effectively.

Imagine you are at New York’s JFK Airport. You’ve got the ticket, passport, and carry-on bags ready to board. But right on your way to the gate, you see a huge board like this…

Heineken has given you a challenge. You get free round-trip tickets to a new and adventurous destination if you push the button. Sounds great, right? But here’s the catch: You don’t know the destination and must leave now.

The event video “Departure Roulette” has gained over three million views. The story was also featured by the New York Times, Time Magazine, AdAge, and countless others.

So, why does Heineken do this? Why doesn’t it stick to the entertaining beer commercials and social media?

What Is Experiential Multifamily Marketing?

The answer is simple: Friendly multifamily brand engagement on social media no longer sets you apart. Today’s audience craves suspense, wild creativity, and digital experiences that translate into real ones. They want a full-on experience with a multifamily brand.

This is where an experiential multifamily marketing campaign comes in.

According to Jeff Benjamin, the Chief Creative Officer at JWT North America, experiential multifamily marketing “is what brands do in the world that gets people ‘participating.’”

The participation started with passengers at the JFK airport when the event occurred. But thanks to the mighty power of social media, everyone on the internet is now a potential participant.

The beauty of experiential multifamily marketing, as David Moth explains, is that it “creates a closer bond between the consumer and the brand by immersing them in a fun and memorable experience.”

The best way to understand the power of an experiential marketing campaign is to examine some companies that have executed it effectively.

The Dos Equis Experiential Marketing Campaign

Several years ago, Dos Equis launched a national campaign called “Masquerade” to gear their fans up for Halloween and help them “stay thirsty” for the brand. The prize was a trip to New Orleans for the Dos Equis Masquerade, featuring musical guest Q-Tip.

It would not be a Dos Equis campaign without their brand persona: The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Unlike past campaigns, however, The Most Interesting Man doesn’t just tell another adventurous tale. He invites the audience to become part of his story.

The Experience

Dos Equis launched an interactive video to kick off the experiential marketing campaign. A mission is on the screen before a viewer starts playing the video: “Find The Most Interesting Man’s Little Black Book and Be Rewarded With a Very Interesting Phone Call.”

When the viewer hits play, the screen displays a navigational question. Each navigational choice leads to a different party room and story scenario. Throughout the video, there are several different navigational choices; the viewer’s decision will decide whether he or she can find The Most Interesting Man’s lost little black book.

Additionally, Dos Equis planted 21 virtual reality headsets in a few bars in the brand’s key markets (including Texas). Patrons could enter The Most Interesting Man In The World’s exclusive Masquerade party and travel through the rooms to become a part of the story.

The interactive video of the experiential marketing campaign was viewed more than 27 million times. The #xxmasquerade hashtag garnered 1,861 posts on Instagram. Countless major media platforms have covered their story. From a metrics standpoint, the campaign was a huge success.

Why Dos Equis’ Campaign Worked

The key to an experiential multifamily marketing campaign is to have digital meet physical. Dos Equis perfectly enabled this integration through technology, storytelling, and a physical event (Dos Equis Masquerade in New Orleans).

The virtual reality headset and interactive video allow viewers to immerse themselves in the fictional world of The Most Interesting Man. By combining the prize with the physical event of a real Masquerade party in New Orleans, Dos Equis amplified people’s desire to see their fantasies become reality.

The technology perfectly supported the creative strategy, providing the audience a fun and relevant experience. From a consumer engagement standpoint, Dos Equis earned themselves a big “Bravo!”

Ubisoft’s ‘Amazing Street Hack‘

You probably have heard of UbiSoft if you own a Wii, Xbox, or PlayStation console. UbiSoft is a French video game developer that produced several popular adult-oriented video games today.

The Campaign

A few years ago, UbiSoft created an experiential marketing campaign called the “Amazing Street Hack” to help promote WatchDog, its new open-world action-adventure game. Because its video games have strong plots, UbiSoft usually promotes new games with a trailer/demo on TV or online. However, this time, UbiSoft added an incredible guerrilla marketing element.

The Experience

The stunt began in a set-up consumer electronics store with a big sign on the storefront that read, “Special Offers: Smartphone Repair in 15 minutes 24/7.” Is anything overly suspicious? Probably not.

Of course, the smartphone repair is only a cover. In addition to fixing their phones, the salesman installs a “special” mobile app — a magical tool to help you become a real street hacker.

The salesman walks outside and shows customers how it works. With this app, they can unlock cars, change traffic lights, and pump money from an ATM (all coordinated by UbiSoft). Want to see what exactly happened? Watch this “Amazing Street Hack” video here:

Why Ubisoft’s Campaign Worked

The “Amazing Street Hack” video garnered more than 23 million YouTube views and countless featured stories in media. The query “Amazing Street Hack” also returns 30 million search results on Google.

Obviously, this “pranks-vertising” worked very well for UbiSoft and WatchDog. Why?

First, it has all the elements that make this experiential multifamily marketing campaign an experience. The street stunt was impeccably planned and executed. It caught people off guard, and it gave them an experience that was “of another world,” suspenseful, and relevant. 

The great content provided the online audience with great entertainment value. This quickly turned the experiential marketing campaign viral on social media. Most importantly, it motivated people to buy the game. With WatchDog from UbiSoft, you can have all these amazing hacks without taking on real responsibilities.

Coca-Cola’s “Open Happiness” Campaign

Marketing professors always quote: If you stripped away all of Coca-Cola’s physical assets, the company could still get back on its feet so long as it didn’t lose the right to the Coca-Cola brand.

Ranking No. 6 on Forbes’ The World’s Most Valuable Brands list with a brand value of $64.4 billion, Coca-Cola is indeed the epitome of branding success.

The Campaign

In 2009, Coke replaced its four-year global “Coke Side of Life” campaign with “Open Happiness.” The experiential marketing campaign debuted with the usual TV commercials, print ads, and outdoor advertising. However, the viral element to this campaign was Coke’s brilliant use of vending machine hacks. Coke “dispensed happiness” to millions of people having an otherwise ordinary day through these hacks.

The Experience

The first vending machine hack — “Happiness Strike” — was launched in 2010 on a college campus in New York. At the school cafeteria, an unsuspicious-looking vending machine sitting by the wall delivered students endless free coke, fresh flowers, pizza, balloons, a 40-inch-long sandwich, and of course, an indescribable amount of happiness to everyone on the scene.

The video went viral online, which inspired Coke to take this vending machine happiness hack to the world stage.

In South Korea, Coke installed a dance machine featuring a popular local band 2 PM’s classic dance steps. Using MicroSoft’s Kinect motion sensor technology, people could mimic 2 PM’s dance moves. The more accurate they were, the more free coke this dance machine dispensed.

In Belgium, Coke partnered up with the new James Bond movie SkyFall. Commuters were challenged in a local train station to jump across platforms in 70 seconds with obstacles. As a result, the winners received exclusive tickets to the movie premiere and a bottle of Coke Zero.

Additionally, Coke used a high-tech vending machine installed in malls in Lahore, Pakistan, and New Delhi, India. The machines aimed to help people separated by political reasons to resolve their differences, connect, and share a happy moment.

Why Coke’s Campaign Worked

Consistency, relevance, and wild creativity are the three most defining characteristics of Coke’s “Open Happiness” experiential marketing campaign.

Consistency: Since the campaign’s inception, hundreds of videos have been produced for “Open Happiness.” Both commercials and real-world events deliver a seamlessly integrated message: Coke is for your happy moment. Whether you are in the video or watching the video, you invariantly experience the joy from the scene.

Relevance: Coke’s change of brand message began as a response to a culture shift in our society. In a world of uncertainties, people are yearning for a place of comfort and optimism. With a unified “happiness” message and customized local campaign executions, Coke made itself relevant to customers emotionally and geographically.

Creativity: “Open Happiness” deserves applause because it took digital beyond the internet and made technology interesting in real life. When combined with creativity, even a vending machine can become a source of entertainment. After all, happiness often finds us when we least expect it!

The Bottom Line of Experiential Multifamily Marketing

The core event of your experiential multifamily marketing campaign is to engage your consumers. People must physically participate in the events and pass the message online to others.

And the power and presence on social media do not go unnoticed. So, back to the Departure Roulette: A few lucky Twitter users who tweeted their excitement about the campaign got an unexpected visit by the Heineken crew. The campaign enthusiasts were visited by the roulette board and allowed to push the button that held their travel destination.

When consumers are actively engaging in a multifamily brand or campaign and then get rewarded, you create advocates  — and other consumers notice. Leverage these opportunities to create experiences consumers want to be involved in.

As multifamily marketing tactics evolve, how do you think marketers will begin to incorporate an experiential marketing campaign into their efforts?

6 Marketing Ideas for Apartments to Incorporate Into Your Facebook Strategy (#3 Might Give You a New Perspective)

Despite the economic climate, now is not the time for apartment communities to ignore social media.

In fact, Atlanta-based RangeWater Real Estate decided not to cut its budget in early 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — a risky decision for an apartment marketer to make during a global crisis.

However, this seemingly “big risk” reaped big rewards for RangeWater Real Estate. The company saw a 35% increase in overall impression share across most of its submarkets between April and May 2020. Additionally, the company’s apartment communities appeared on Page 1 of search results more frequently than before — the ultimate win for any property.  

In short, RangeWater was able to attract a larger percentage of leads using the same budget despite a huge upheaval in the economy. How did they accomplish this?

Below, we’ve compiled some of our best marketing ideas for apartments and how to effectively use Facebook to bolster your apartment marketing strategy.

Making the Most of Your Facebook Strategy

Facebook connects more people with businesses than any company ever has in the past. Businesses know this fact, which has caused brands to constantly rethink their Facebook strategy every year.

Are Your Residents Still on Facebook?

Despite trendy platforms like Snapchat and TikTok gaining popularity among young adults, Facebook is still a relevant social media channel among your renters. According to Statista data, 65% of Facebook users are under the age of 35. This means your millennial and generation Z residents still use Facebook actively. 

However, as the multifamily market shifts and renters’ needs evolve, so too does Facebook. It’s critical for multifamily marketers to stay ahead of the game to ensure they make the most of their Facebook strategy. 

But even knowing how important social media is, how can you best use Facebook to your marketing advantage? Below, we’ve outlined some of our top marketing ideas for apartments and how to incorporate these tips into your Facebook strategy:

1. Always remember the 80/20 Rule.

Social media management should be treated like a cocktail party. You need to take the time to meet the other people at the party (residents, neighborhood businesses, new millennials, Gen Z renters, etc.) rather than monopolize the conversation. Only when the conversation presents itself should you share what makes your community so great. 

From recommendations and leasing details to customer service and reviews, renters are turning to social media for property information, and this trend will only continue as a younger, social-media-savvy generation gets older.

In the meantime, be a resource for your residents. Publish fresh, helpful content to inspire and engage your current and prospective residents.

2. Practice patience and consistently engage with your followers.

Years ago, you were finding residents. Nowadays, residents are finding you. People are searching online for places to live, and it has become the apartment’s job to intercept them. You do this by providing fresh content, sharing helpful information, and having conversations.

Multifamily professionals who have dabbled in social media will claim that it doesn’t bring them any conversions. However, keep in mind that social media is not about the sale; it’s about engagement and customer experience. When you successfully and consistently engage with your residents online and share quality content, their byproducts are relationships, referrals, leases, and retention. 

Any good salesman will tell you that relationship-building drives sales. And Facebook is an optimal relationship-building platform.

3. Focus on the qualitative aspects of your residents.

Who are your residents? We don’t just mean demographically, although that too can be important. Instead, you really want to focus more on the qualitative aspects of your residents. 

• What kind of lifestyle do they have? 
• What are their hobbies? 
• What are the things that cause them stress or trouble as residents? 

This is where your resident buyer personas come in handy. If your community is home to several working professionals, helpful content may come in the form of quick-and-easy dinner recipes. If your community is home to several dog owners, you could share an interactive map of the dog parks in your city. The information you share should be a mix of content you create and content you aggregate.

4. Share community events and partner with local businesses.

Your residents shouldn’t have to rely on the local news for happenings. Are there any upcoming events that you can pass along to your residents — festivals, charity events, happy hours? Find things that are within walking distance or close proximity to your property. 

Sharing helpful content could be as simple as re-posting farmer’s market hours, sharing restaurant specials, or providing tips and tricks for navigating the local flea market. Searching Facebook events for local on-goings is another great and easy way to find shareable content your residents will find useful. 

You could also try partnering with local businesses to arrange special discounts for your residents; this provides great content for sharing on Facebook.

5. Publish property updates.

Yes, we know we’ve advised against talking about yourself, however, this form of self-promotion is very different. Instead of telling everyone how great you are, show them. 

Try posting photos from last week’s movie event showcases, or get some shots of residents enjoying a nice day by the pool. Are you giving away free donuts and orange juice in the leasing office? Share that, too! Your property’s social calendar paints a picture of resident life and engagement, and it gives insight into your property culture. Isn’t that what you’d like new residents to stumble upon when they’re researching your property?

6. Take advantage of Facebook Advertising to bring in more apartment leads.

A social presence is a great tool for properties looking to improve their lease-up. But sometimes, just posting and sharing isn’t enough. Without a decent following or active residents, your social media efforts might be falling on deaf ears. Thankfully, there’s Facebook Advertising to help.  

Facebook brought in $17.44 billion in ad revenue in the first quarter of 2020, a 17% year-over-year increase from the first quarter of 2019. 

Facebook did experience a “significant” fall in the demand for advertising in March amid COVID-19, but data from April indicates that demand is already returning to normal.

Paid social media ads can seem overwhelming or a huge investment, but Facebook has done a great job of making its ads cheap and available to a wide audience. There is any number of ad types to run, and they can make a difference in giving your social media reach.

If your Facebook is new, a “Page Likes” campaign can be key to helping you get followers that will see your content by encouraging them to like your page. This can greatly increase your reach for a couple of dollars per like.

Similarly, if you have a particularly well-performing, helpful piece of content, boosting that post for a few dollars can expand its reach to hundreds or thousands of others in your area. While you should not dump all your time and resources into ads, running some every so often can be key to giving your Facebook strategy that extra edge it needs.

You can also launch a giveaway campaign to promote Page Likes. Last year, Criterion.B hosted a Facebook giveaway for one apartment community client. The giveaway consisted of a swag basket followers could win by liking the apartment community’s Facebook Page and tagging their friends in the post to increase awareness.

At the start of the campaign, the apartment community had only 450 Likes. Within two months, that number increased to nearly 700.

Convert More Apartment Leads Into Leases With a Successful Facebook Strategy

The benefits of utilizing Facebook are two-fold: not only does it foster resident relationships (and retention), but it provides a window for prospective residents to peer into your community. With Facebook, we embrace this customer-centric approach that lays the foundation for all of our digital multifamily marketing efforts.

With the right Facebook strategy and these marketing ideas for apartments, you can better position yourself to become a valued resource for followers and ultimately convert more apartment leads into tours and leases.

3 Digital Multifamily Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Focus on Today

Digital multifamily marketing is constantly evolving. To keep up, you need a solid foundation and the capacity to think critically, act independently, and be relentlessly creative.

There are three main facets of digital multifamily marketing that businesses should focus on — social media, multifamily SEO, and paid search.

Below, we’ve highlighted those three facets and steps you can take to launch a successful digital multifamily marketing strategy.

1. Kickstart your digital multifamily marketing strategy with social media.

Of course, we are all too aware of Facebook and Instagram, but why should a multifamily marketer really care about social media? Audience accessibility.

Companies can interact directly with their customers for free, and in a way that others can easily view. Social media is a great way to get your multifamily organization’s name out — be it through giveaways, funny interactions with anyone who reaches out to your company or posting videos or photos.

Start by researching which platforms your resident buyer persona(s) use on a daily basis. Are you targeting commercial real estate professionals? Then, LinkedIn and Facebook might be your go-to digital multifamily marketing channels. Is your audience younger millennials who work in an apartment leasing office? Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest might be more in your lane.

Need a little help with your persona development? Our CEO Jon Simpson breaks down the basics in this helpful video:

After researching your target audience, create your preferred social accounts and fill in all the About Us details. It’s important not just to slap your tagline and phone number on your social media pages, then forget about it. Add details about your services, business hours, and more.

Next, start strategizing your social media postings. Create a calendar that details what you will be posting and when to help keep yourself accountable and organized.

Create a free Buffer account or use Hootsuite to schedule your posts a week at a time easily; that way, you won’t have to remember to publish content each day.

2. Multifamily SEO is the way to go.

Now for the more technology-focused digital multifamily marketing options — SEO and paid search.

The technical way to explain multifamily SEO is that programmers optimize the coding of your website to help it appear higher on organic search results on search engines. 

Let’s say you are Googling apartment communities in Dallas, and you see that the link to your company’s website is on the third page of search results. Do you really want that to happen? No! So, you call up your friends at Criterion.B and ask for help. With some magical clicks on our keyboards, we optimize your website so — POOF! — it appears in the top results.

What’s awesome is that if your website appears in the top results, searchers are 31.7% more likely to click on it. This means that people are 31.7% more likely to learn about your company and definitely fall in love with your multifamily product or service. Additionally, if your page is the No. 1 organic result, it’s 10 times more likely to receive a click as compared with a result in the No. 10 spot.

Beyond the expert work of Criterion.B, there are several simple steps you can take yourself to enhance your multifamily SEO. Here are a few tips we recommend to get started:

• Optimize Your Blog Titles — The optimal length for blog headlines is 8 to 14 words, and they should include one H1 tag and a main long-tail keyword that your blog is targeting.
• Add Alt Tags, a Title Tag, and Meta Description to All Pages — Implementing these three portions to your blog images and pages can significantly boost your web optimization.
• Target Two Long-Tail Keywords Per Blog — 50% of search queries contain four or more words.
• Increase Your Word Count to Increase Your SEO — Sometimes, the key to ranking higher in search results is upping your word count to increase your keyword usage without being flagged for keyword stuffing.

For an in-depth look at multifamily SEO and common mistakes multifamily marketers make, check out this blog.

3. See results pour in with multifamily PPC (pay per click).

Paid search, or pay per click (PPC), is kind of like SEO in that both want a link to your company’s multifamily website in the first few results on search engines. However, the main difference with multifamily PPC is that you pay for your link’s spot in targeted organic searches.

Strategy-wise, this is absolutely brilliant because you can pay for a link to your company’s multifamily website to appear when someone searches for your competitor. You can also have it appear when someone searches for something related to your complex. 

So, say you own an apartment complex with an outdoor pool area. You can pay for a link to your website to appear when someone searches “downtown apartments Dallas” or “apartments with a pool in Dallas.”

Digital Multifamily Marketing Made Simple

Congrats! Now that you are officially no longer an online marketing beginner, get out there and educate the world with your newfound knowledge. Maybe you can show off some of your new social media knowledge and tweet about it. The key to success with digital multifamily marketing is to have an integrated strategy that speaks to your customer in ways they want.

Live Streaming, Chatbots, and Drones … Oh My!

The multifamily market has been a mixed bag, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact. These fluctuations mean that multifamily marketing is imperative for companies to edge out competitors.

Consider the following multifamily marketing trends as they should show positive returns for your company.

1. Let live streaming take center stage.

It’s a game-changing year for multifamily marketing, especially regarding how to reach prospective buyers in your area. Until now, the marketing landscape has remained more or less the same, with social media claiming the throne in every corner of influence. However, we are now seeing increasingly fast-paced developments in the form of new and updated features such as live streaming and instant messaging.

The way it functions within Facebook has made live streaming a growing trend, besides the capability to engage in real-time with clients. Facebook allows you to prioritize updates from friends and family rather than pages you like or follow.

What does this mean for multifamily marketing? Put simply, it means that content will have to be creative and engaging to gain more activity online. The update ranks content that receives the most activity and shares it closer to the top of the feed. A multifamily marketing team with experience in social media content will optimize results. And since live video is currently the most preferred type of content among Facebook users, it is an area in which marketers will naturally place additional creative efforts.

Social media features contain many great multifamily marketing opportunities, including the capability to broadcast a live house tour or announce real-time property events for clients or prospects. And the live features allow for specific market targeting across multiple platforms, such as Instagram and Snapchat.

2. Understanding the continued rise of IM and chatbots.

Connectivity is another great advantage of social media. The simple ease of using direct messaging functions makes it easier to engage with your audience. However, property managers now face the conundrum of responding quickly and accurately to prospective buyers.

Cue marketing automation bots, also known as chatbots.

Today’s consumers want to engage with a company when and where it’s most convenient. This could mean losing possible leads for real estate if we cannot respond to needs instantly. Chatbots seem to have cracked the code, quite literally, on instant communication. According to Botpress, a chatbot is “any software that performs an automated task … the most intuitive definition is that a bot is a software that can have a conversation with a human.”

In addition to being programmed to have realistic, human-like conversations with prospective clients, chatbots can also gather specific information relevant to the seller or the marketer.

In the context of multifamily, a chatbot can mean providing 24/7, instant responses that do not require an individual behind a screen scrambling to answer a question. Chatbots also provide a smoother user experience for the buyer, and user experience is always critical.

Social media features such as live streaming and instant messaging are powerful tools that benefit both sellers and buyers. Multifamily marketing trends are growing rapidly, and their influences within the industry are rising.

3. Let drones offer a bird’s eye view.

Drones are a defining piece of technology for multifamily and commercial real estate. Several years ago, hiring a professional photographer for aerial shots of a property was conventional. With drones, on the other hand, you can capture stunning images and breathtaking videos of your property with camera-equipped drones, all while cutting back on costs.

Drones can depict a great layout of the entire property, especially when recording video. For larger areas, drones’ unique benefit is navigation beyond the property and into the surrounding area. They can capture incredible bodies of water, beautiful landscapes, and nearby neighborhoods. This particular feature can be optimized if paired creatively with live streaming.

Drones also allow high-rise apartment complexes to capture images of the entire building and attractive neighboring hotspots. Drones are one trend guaranteed to set your multifamily marketing apart from competitors and will surely spread within the industry.

4. Take advantage of virtual and augmented reality.

Though we have seen impressive and usable trends for multifamily marketing, virtual and augmented reality takes the prize.

Virtual reality opens new doors for prospective clients by providing a behind-the-scenes look or digital tour of a property. As the real estate industry rapidly moves forward, embracing new technologies, virtual has already made it into many multifamily marketing plans. Companies now design 3D models through the power of virtual reality. Prospects can walk a unit and experience property amenities firsthand without being onsite. This trend took a significant leap at the pandemic’s start, when many properties had to shift to a virtual-only touring model. Today, virtual tours are offered at many properties in addition to in-person tours, offering prospects even more opportunities to sign a lease from the comfort of their couch.

Marketers and realtors are also using augmented reality to bring blueprints to life. With the aid of smartphone and tablet cameras, AR technology can render a 3D image of a building from a blueprint or a completely interactive layout. This tool will prove useful in all stages of development by allowing clients to visualize the entire project.

Augmented and VR technologies, drones, and social media make the customer experience more convenient and engaging. With these trends in mind, your renters will be brought smoothly through the sales funnel and to that final decision.

Twitter is an amazing place. With over 300 million active users, Twitter has an active community that all different types of people embrace.

Almost every type of industry has a community on Twitter, including engineers, marketers, fashion designers, and even realtors. But how can these industries use Twitter to their benefit and actually gain something positive out of a social network?

We’ve talked a lot about social media and how it benefits real estate, but let’s talk about one thing in specific that may be of interest to realtors, developers, and everyone alike: Tweetchats.

The Benefit of Tweetchats

Tweetchats are scheduled, moderated conversations about a specific topic. Any Twitter user is welcome to join any Tweetchat of their choice, but it’s a chance for users to connect with each other and converse over similar interests. For instance, a Tweetchat about community fitness will probably bring groups of social runners and yoga lovers together to talk about health and wellness in community settings.

How to Get Involved

Find a Tweetchat

This part is actually relatively easy for the real estate industry. There are several different types of Tweetchats, each catered to people interested in multifamily, apartment hunting, developments, or traveling. However, Tweetchats are scheduled at a certain time each week. Make sure to find out when exactly your chat is and add it to your calendar. There are a few websites out there that list almost every Tweetchat created and their time.

Questions & Answers

The format for a Tweetchat is fairly simple to understand: there’s usually a moderator from a single Twitter account that tweets out questions for other users to respond to. Using the form, “Q1” or “Q2”, moderators are able to let you know what question they’re on and you reply to those questions with “A1”, “A2”, or whichever number corresponds to the question. This makes it easy for other participants to easily understand what everyone is responding to and ultimately helps everything stay organized.

Engage With Others

So you’re answering the questions and you’re getting favorites on your Tweets and maybe a few replies. What do you do now? Engage with them! This is the time where you can interact with the rest of the community; reply to interesting answers you see, favorite some tweets that catch your attention. Overall, it’s your chance to get your name out there, grow your following, and make some connections.

While you may think Tweetchats won’t help people in the industry, it’s still important to know that a social presence is beneficial to all different types of professionals. With the digital age constantly evolving, it’s imperative that the real estate industry stays on their toes; engaging with the community through social media is one way to stay up-to-date.