apartment hunting: “the social experience”, chris vaughn, apartment finder, digitalsherpa

Chris VaughnDirector of Marketing

DigitalSherpa

APARTMENT HUNTING ON THE SOCIAL WEB:

THINKING ABOUT THE SOCIAL CUSTOMER FIRST

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THE EVOLUTION OF ‘REACH’

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TRADITIONAL OFFLINE SOCIAL REACH

STEP ONE

STEP TWO

STEP THREE

THE REACH OF THE ILS

THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL REACH:THE SOCIAL MEDIA CUSTOMER

STEP ONE

STEP TWO

THE SOCIAL APARTMENT HUNTING EXPERIENCE

CONTENT

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Stacks Case Study

Annual Loft + Artist tour open to public Cabbage Town Atlanta Connects with community psychographics

Historic building/historic part of town Art show/artist & creative Atlanta colony

$5 entry Engages residents and local community

Stacks

Atlanta Artists

REAgents

LocalRestauran

t

Local Retailers

Design/ArtBloggers

Residents

Content puts Stacks at center of community Surrounding community

markets Stacks

Stacks leverages communitysocial graph Stacks benefits in

Google search

USING WEB CONTENT

Consumers want to be _____ before making buying

decisions:

Interrupted?Solicited?

Assisted and Educated!

HOW DOES WEB CONTENT FACTOR IN FOR THE SOCIAL

MEDIA CUSTOMER?

#1- Create Meaningful Content

Create educational content for your target audience and buyer profiles on your company website or blog

#2: Using CTA’s

Share that meaningful content on your social networks with

engaging calls-to-action

#3- Conversion

Lead your website or blog visitors to your “bottom of the funnel” conversion events (where they

become business leads. That’s still the end goal, right?)

SHARE CONTENT OF OTHERS

Think “customer first”. If you come across content on the Web that you think benefits your consumer base, share away!

Added benefits of sharing the content of others include: Relationships with other businesses and

brand ambassadors whose content you share

Other businesses will be more likely to follow your account and share your content

GEO-TARGETED CONTENT

Create content geotargeted to your key markets that will help apartment hunters in that market

Find apartment hunters in markets asking questions or seeking help in the markets you’ve targeted

Create conversion opportunities by send blog or website readers to that market’s listing page from within your geo-targeted content

OPPORTUNITY

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OPPORTUNITY

Over 100,000 people seek help or express frustration with apartment hunting on social media networks a month

4 of 5 consumer inquiries on social networks go unanswered (As of October 2013)

This is more pronounced in Real Estate, where only 15% of consumer inquiries are answered, with an average response time of 13 hours*

*Statistics courtesy of Sprout Social

OPPORTUNITY

OPPORTUNITY

ENGAGEMENT

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ENGAGEMENT TIPS

DO ask leading and help-oriented questions like “How can we help” or “What city are you looking for an apartment in?”

DON’T spam with a link immediately. Social consumers are SMART and will tune you out

DO show personality and have fun. Social consumers like to know they are dealing with real people

ENGAGEMENT TIPS

DO have resources for the consumer ready quickly when they engage. Social users have short attention spans

DON’T reply without a link to content or a listing. This conversation is now in a selling stage

DO ask a follow-up question with the link you provide such as “What are your requirements for the perfect apartment?”

ENGAGEMENT TIPS

DO follow up with the consumer after an appropriate amount of time to close the service loop

DON’T keep sending them messages until they reply.

DO use success stories like this as case studies to show consumers how much easier your brand can make the process of apartment hunting

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

• How to feel good about all this work?

• What Can Be Immediately Measured?

• What Can’t Be?