Growing Your Rental Property Management Business: How to Use Social Media as a Business Tool

Marketing on social media helps you to reach a diverse audience and quickly adapt to changes and trends. If you are a property manager who wants to use social media for business marketing, here's what you need to know to help your network and your business grow.

Social Media for Business

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other social media outlets have turned into remarkable venues for spreading your marketing message and expanding your business. Social media marketing can increase the awareness of your brand, allow you to show a more personal side of your business to prospective and current tenants, and improve your communication with your audience. Use social media to not only promote your content but also to build relationships.

According to Inc.com, "people spend more than 50 percent of their time online with content and an additional 30 percent of their time on social channels where content can be shared." Social media is the way to get your rental property management company and your individual listings noticed in a networked world.

Be Effective With Your Time

When you're evaluating social media accounts, it's easy to be overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. Should you go for Instagram? What about setting up a Pinterest account? Look at all of your social media options to determine which ones are the best fit for your company. Consider the type of information that goes onto each platform as well as its audience: for example, Pinterest and Instagram are excellent for sharing photos of listings, but Facebook or Twitter may be the networks where your target audience is most active.

Don't be afraid to start small. If you simply add a Facebook account and focus your energy around that, doing it as competently as possible, you'll make more of an impact than if you start out on five different social media accounts and work on them halfheartedly. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, "Most people and companies can't be amazing on every platform; that takes a huge amount of bandwidth and resources. Instead of having a sub-par representation in a lot of places, be awesome on a few of them."

Create a Social Media Strategy

Once you've chosen the right platforms, create a strategy for each. Each type of social media platform has a different way of organizing its content, and you'll need to be prepared to get that content organized. You might use a hashtag to help your newest listing trend or you develop a series of keywords for your newest post to share on Facebook. Before you engage on social media, understand how you need to structure your posts or your images to get the most engagement.

Focus on Inbound

While paid advertising can be beneficial on social media, your goal is to develop posts that generate organic traffic, as well. Here are some inbound marketing tips to consider on social media:

• Provide excellent information. Create a website that's full of tips for new renters and provides effective communication tools for current tenants. Become a strong voice in the field of rental property management and include content that's designed for your audience.
• Create a unique voice. Your company has a specific style and personality, so play up this persona. Make yourself approachable, and people will want to share.

Make Your Listings Desirable

While social media is a helpful tool, it needs to be backed up with the right content to be effective. Make your actual listings as desirable as can be. Persuasive writing and eye-catching images still matter as they help to showcase the property to your readers. Instead of calling a property an "accessible one bedroom", give your readers a feel of what it's really like to live there. Use the personal nature of social media to your advantage and make your listings personal, as well.

Are you growing your rental property management business? Social media for business can be very helpful, but you need support to help your find your audience and deliver your message. With our digital marketing, SEM, and SEO tools, you'll be able to be more social than ever before. Sign up for a free tour of Propertyware today.