May is the perfect time to start thinking about container gardening at your apartment community, so we asked our friends at Gethsemane Garden Center for some advice.  Check out these five tips for keeping your property blooming this season.

Summer will be on its way in no time!  Before you head to your local gardening center, here are a few criteria you should consider to help you select the perfect flowers, edibles and containers for your space; and achieve success in your gardening endeavors. Read More

With social media constantly changing, it can seem like the options are endless, so where do you start?  Look no further!  Here are 25 things you should be doing with social media right now:

1. Set up an account and start taking pictures with Instagram.  It is an easy photo taking and sharing app that was recently purchased by Facebook, so there are big things to come!
2. Create a Pinterest board of apartment-friendly decorating ideas for your residents.
3. Partner with a popular neighborhood restaurant to provide your residents with a Facebook exclusive offer.  Post a status update with coupon code to redeem 20% off.  It will make your fans feel really special.
4. Tweet street cleaning schedules to make sure your residents don’t get tickets.
5. Take a poll on your Facebook page asking residents what brand of coffee they would like in the lobby this month, then let them know you listened!
6. Choose a resident to highlight as your Resident of the Month on Facebook in an effort to help everyone get to know their neighbors.
7. Create a Facebook group for your employees to swap ideas, ask questions, give praise for a job well done and get to know each other.  Make sure the group is set as private.
8. Start Trivia Tuesdays on Twitter and give away small prizes to your residents for correct answers.
9. Ask your residents to Like you and follow you on social media websites!  You would be surprised how simply asking will help grow your fan base.
10. Keep your LinkedIn company profile up to date with current job openings and company information.  You can recruit top talent this way.
11. Read multifamily industry blogs, like Multifamily Insiders and Apartments.com/blog, to stay on top of trends and news.
12. Start a blog that provides relevant apartment living, neighborhood and community information for your residents.
13. Respond to all comments and mentions on social media, whether positive or negative, in a timely, professional manner.
14. Create Facebook events for your community get-togethers, so residents have all the information on the website they check most often, as well as the ability to see who else is attending.
15. Tweet the weather forecast first thing every morning to help your residents decide what to wear.
16. Host a charity like-a-thon and donate a certain amount of money or volunteer hours for every new Like you get on Facebook during a period of time.
17. Add your social media profiles to all of your current marketing materials, so people know you are active on those websites.
18. Start accepting maintenance request via your Facebook wall.  Make sure to respond to each request and follow up after the job is complete.  This will show current and prospective residents how great your customer service is.
19. Create a Facebook application with your leasing office and community staff photos and bios, so your residents know who to go to with questions, as well as the names of the people that make their community run smoothly.
20. Tweet fun, easy recipes that residents can make during the work week.
21. Wish residents happy birthday on Facebook or Twitter.
22. When the first of the month is rolling around and rent is due, tweet out a reminder for residents.
23. Create a social media policy and training course for your employees to ensure they understand the importance and responsibility of online behavior.
24. Capture nice things your residents are saying about you online and repurpose them in marketing materials or in a slide show that plays on your lobby TV’s.
25. Monitor mentions of your property management company name, community name and neighborhood on social networking websites and respond accordingly.

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Whether you are just getting started with your social media strategy or you’re paving the way for others in the industry, it is imperative to have a policy in place.  In this digital era, your employees need to be well versed in appropriate online behavior when they are representing, not only themselves, but also the brand.  Policy can be a scary word for employees, which is why your social media policy should really be more of a set of guidelines.  Here are a couple tips to get you started on your set of guidelines:

1. Team Effort – Creating a social media policy at your company should be a team effort.  Gather a cross-functional group from departments like PR, legal, strategy, sales, marketing and senior leadership.  All of these people will play an important role in crafting your guidelines. Read More

Apartments.com has teamed up with Craftsman Experience to provide renters with apartment-friendly Do it Yourself (DIY) videos to help them turn their living space into their favorite place.  These short, three to five minute videos are filmed in the one-of-a-kind Craftsman Experience studio in Chicago and cover topics that matter most to renters.  Keep an eye out for new videos posted to our blog and the Apartments.com Facebook page.  You can share these videos with your residents to help them turn their apartment into a home.  Who knows, you may even learn a thing or two yourself!

Curtains can change the look of an entire room by making even the most boring white wall exciting!  Avoid a tilted tapestry or rickety rod by following these easy steps for hanging curtains in your apartment home. Read More

This blog post was written by Jonathan Saar, VP of Marketing and Educational Solutions for The Training Factor.  From online course design to learning program management, The Training Factor provides a single point of accountability for enhancing employee performance and productivity in the Multifamily Industry.

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I’m not a businessman.  I’m a business, man. – Jay-Z

Last week I was called to the Mother Ship with the rest of the super cool social media nerds, gaming dweebs and techy geeks.  South By Southwest Interactive is a massive conference in Austin, Texas that draws technology gurus and eager-to-learn marketers from around the world.  After attending a handful of sessions every day for five days, there was one that really stood out to me: Y Rappers R Better Marketers Than U.  The name of the session immediately drew me in and the Creative Directors from SapientNitro , who presented, did not disappoint.  They discussed seven lessons they learned from rappers, not all of which I agreed with.  Below are my four favorites and how we can apply them in the multifamily industry.

1. Stay Legit – Understand who your audience is and create a persona for your brand that appeals to them; then stick with it over time.  Like Jay-Z’s hustler persona, it’s ok to evolve, but don’t stray too far from the core.  As a management company, who is your key audience?  Are you a high-end community for urban professionals?  Are you close to a university and attracting undergrads?  Develop your marketing materials and online voice (persona) in a way that appeals to your audience. Read More

It may have taken a while to get here, but winter is upon us.  If you are lucky enough to live in a warm climate city, you don’t have to worry about snow removal.  But for the rest of us, winter means investing in a durable pair of boots, warm gloves and a shovel.

Although every city is different, most have an ordinance or code about keeping walkways clear during the winter.  As a property manager or owner, it’s important to stay informed on your city’s policies concerning who is responsible for snow removal, when it has to happen and to what extent.  It’s possible to be held liable if someone slips and falls on your property or a walkway that you are deemed responsible for clearing.  Your city should make this information public and easy to understand.  For instance, the Chicago Department of Transportation has a website, pamphlet and video explaining the importance of snow removal for residents and businesses.  The City of Denver lays out how they enforce their snow removal policies  and what their consequences are, while the City of Boston gives clear Do’s and Don’ts.  Visit your city’s website to read about ordinances specific to you. Read More

According to a recent study done by SatisFacts, move-out costs are estimated to average around $3,900.  When presented with figures like that, you have to think what can we do differently so our residents choose to renew their lease instead of leave.  You may be surprised to find that 54% of residents choose not to renew their lease based on controllable reasons such as poor customer service and lack of responsiveness.  You can find simple, inexpensive fixes to reconcile these issues and keep your residents coming back. 

Ashley Halligan of Software Advice, recently wrote an article about resident retention strategies, featuring an interview with Doug Miller, President of SatisFacts.  Ashley collected thoughts from property managers and retention research experts to present three strategies to increase resident retention.  She suggests starting with customer service, focusing on value, offering innovative perks and, in the end, keeping it simple.  You can read Ashley’s entire article here. Read More

Is your apartment community active on Twitter?  With over 100 million users, odds are your residents are there and listening.  When you are tweeting, it’s important to keep a couple things in mind: share, ask, respond and reward. 

Your residents are following you to get more information, so make sure you are sharing a lot.  Include multimedia or links in your tweets whenever possible.  Ask your residents questions to get their feedback on everything from events to the maintenance team.  This will show you are listening and interested in what they have to say.  When your followers mention or direct message (DM) you, make sure to respond.  No one likes an inactive account.  And finally, reward your followers.  You can work with neighboring businesses to offer residents special discounts or even announce a secret pizza party being held at your community.  Your residents will appreciate the special treatment for being your follower and may even share their reward with their social media circles. Read More

If you haven’t heard of Pinterest yet, you will soon.  The popular new social site allows users to Pin items of interest onto virtual tack boards.  Links to cupcake recipes, interesting photography, Blackhawks players and wedding dresses have been inundating my feeds on both Facebook and Twitter, as people put together their boards.  The platform is still an invite only, VIP kind of site, but you can request an invitation anytime or receive one from a friend.  Here are the main things you need to know in order to speak Pinterest-ese.

Creating Boards Read More