As today’s shopping process shifts toward online research and purchasing, it’s no surprise that ratings and reviews are becoming critical to your success. In fact, according to an Apartments.com survey, 80% of respondents indicated they used reviews as part of their search and 73% say reviews are extremely/very helpful!

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Apartments.com is excited to announce the launch of our Community Reviews Dashboard! To help our customers successfully manage reviews, we took the necessary steps to make reading, responding and promoting reviews as easy as possible by developing the Community Reviews Dashboard. The dashboard allows users to:

• Read all reviews received by the properties they are assigned to
• Respond to all community(ies) reviews
• Sort and search their community’s reviews by date, property name, review title, star rating or number of comments
• Easily promote and encourage reviews with a custom Apartments.com Community Reviews URL

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If you work in marketing for the multifamily housing industry, you may have heard Apartments.com has launched community reviews. And, you most likely sit in one of two camps: nervously optimistic or somewhat ticked off (I heard from both sides at last week’s NMHC OpTech conference in Dallas).

Let me explain why we’re going down this controversial path and why we believe it’s the right thing to do: Read More

Kids these days. What do we really know about them? Well, these coming-of-age youths of Gen Y are more technologically evolved than preceding generations, which is evidenced by their behavior: co-dependent relationships with their mobile phones, addiction to social media and video games likely accessed from their tablet. And, apparently, they prefer renting an apartment over owning a home. That’s one of the factors cited by Reis for the historically low vacancy and high rents being seen in the U.S. right now.

In a recent Chicago Tribune article, Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis, says This generation doesn’t hold home ownership on a pedestal the way prior generations did. Read More

Does the thought of optimizing your website make you wake up in a cold sweat every night?  Do you hear the phrase SEO strategies for ranking number 1 in Kentucky and think to yourself, someone got it wrong, what they meant is SEC strategy falls on no. 1 ranked Kentucky (let’s go Wildcats!)?  My apologies for throwing a March Madness reference in there, but it is that time of year again. Or, simply put, do you just not have the resources to keep a well maintained website according to Google’s standards?

If any of these questions resonate with you, then I would like to talk about a product Google has been pushing rather aggressively for some time now and the potential impact it may have to you, especially if SEO and website maintenance are on the same level as quantum field theory in your book.  The product I am referring to is Google Places and if you have not yet claimed your Places, it’s a good thing you are reading this post. Read More

The social media panel discussion I participated in at the 2012 TransUnion Property Management Summit last week in Denver was astonishing for what did and didn’t happen.  What did happen: The audience of multifamily professionals seemed surprisingly – if not a tiny bit begrudgingly – accepting of property ratings and reviews. They’re here to stay and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, was the prevailing attitude.  Begrudging acceptance will never be confused with warm embrace, but what I witnessed was a giant leap from the outright resistance prevalent in the industry up until now.

And that’s a good thing.  There’s plenty of research indicating how important reviews are in making a big purchasing decision, and there’s none bigger than deciding where to live. Read More

I know consumer reviews are scary.  Trust me.  Having worked in public relations my whole life, user-generated content that can disparage a brand I’ve been working years to uphold, has kept me tossing and turning more than one night.  Something you used to have control over is not totally in your hands anymore: your public image (e.g. branding, advertising, marketing collateral, and even to some degree, the press being generated about your company).  Sure, people could complain about your property, but that was typically somewhat contained.  Today, anyone can publicize their praise or contempt for your brand by going online.  What’s worse than consumers finding it?  Consumers looking for it, especially renters.  In fact, 58% of renters, who are also active on social media, told us at Apartments.com they search for additional apartment information and recommendations online when looking for a new place to live.

My name is Tammy Kotula, and I’m addicted to review websites Read More

At NAA this year there was a, let’s just say, interesting session on apartment ratings sites that was facilitated by a group of attorneys and featured a mock trial. What was interesting was that while the trial simulated a disgruntled former resident being sued by a wrongfully defamed property, the real indictment was against the rating sites themselves (in particular, ApartmentRatings.com, not-so-cleverly disguised as “ApartmentDestroyer.com” in the mock trial), and, in a larger – and more discouraging – sense, the entire concept of online reviews and ratings.

Last week Google released a free e-book called  Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. I haven’t read it yet (I’m a pretty fast reader, but not that fast), but will, and recommend that you do, too. Because the “ZMOT,” a concept that has actually been around for a few years now, and that Google has a commercial interest in educating you on, is one that very much applies to the multifamily housing industry. The basic premise goes something like this: There are three stages in a typical buying process, starting with the Stimulus (e.g. advertising), followed by the First Moment of Truth, and finally making the purchase. In our industry, the First Moment of Truth (or “FMOT,” a term coined by Proctor & Gamble referring to the first time you see the actual product, usually on a “shelf” next to other competing products) takes place when the prospective renter first visits your leasing office and tours your property. Read More