Taking the Online Pulse of Multifamily

Image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Social media provides multifamily marketers endless means to showcase and boost their companies’ presence and influence.

Whether it is through images, text or sounds, interaction stays at the base of building healthy relationships with renters. Social media is equally important for property managers, who have the tools to show that they care about the opinions of both their residents and prospects. This human component needs to be an integral part of every digital marketing strategy—and one of the best ways to do so is through social media polls.

Why social media polls matter

First of all, they’re quick—involvement costs users less than a minute of their time spent on social media platforms. In addition, social media polls’ high engagement rate is attributed to the people’s need of being part of something. Everyone has an opinion and they’re just waiting for the right moment to express it. This creates a domino effect where algorithms favor interaction.

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What’s more, this social media tool allows multifamily marketers and managers to take the pulse of their apartment communities in various situations by simply finding out how their residents feel about particular changes. Just as with any social media content strategy, apartment marketers need to make sure they post interesting, relevant content during peak traffic times, as well as make the most of easy-to-use templates for creating question posts. Last but not least, they should prepare a follow-up strategy for each poll they post.

With that in mind, we’ve gathered some tips on how to use social media polls to engage residents on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Facebook Polls

Facebook users have a wide array of options to choose from. You can create a poll on Facebook to ask a question, customize the answers and let people vote for their favorite option. You can also create a poll in a Facebook group or story, and multifamily marketers might want to consider the Polls for Pages app.

In order to make your polls stand out, you need to make the best of all the perks this tool comes equipped with. Add relevant images or moving graphics to attract engagement, and keep in mind that organic reach is a key element for maximized exposure.

What’s more, you can decide when your Facebook poll ends—just make sure the poll doesn’t lose relevance. Let’s say you’d like to know the theme of your upcoming community event your residents would like to attend next weekend. If you let the poll roll past that weekend’s date, it will lose its relevance though it will continue to pop up on everyone’s calendar. Annoying, right?

Twitter Polls

If you’re familiar with the platform, you might already know its power lays in simplicity and character limit per post. This means you can get to know the ins and outs of your audience’s mind through shorter, straightforward polls. These are interactive and customizable and let you add up to four answer options.

Easy to compile and send out, Twitter polls are integrated into the Tweet window. Just like a regular Tweet, you can include useful and relevant hashtags in order to increase the poll’s visibility.

Twitter polls allow you to easily involve your followers in brand decisions. What’s more, by conducting follower research you can figure out what your followers or residents need help with, what’s their apartment hunting strategy, what are the top amenities they look for and what kind of content they’d like to see more often.

Similar to Facebook polls, you can set up your Twitter polls to end between five minutes and seven days after they have been posted.

Instagram Polls

Image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

The polls feature provided by Instagram is one of the easiest ways to get in touch with your followers. Given Instagram’s active and diverse user base, these polls are known to perform best. They are integrated within the app’s Stories feature and can be added as interactive stickers with two drag-and-drop options on visual content you’ve created.

Whether you’re voting on the next community event or giving your renters the possibility to express their opinion on paint color, pressing that little button makes followers feel relevant and seen. Chances are residents might become even more attached to the community just by knowing they played even a small part in its change.

LinkedIn Polls

LinkedIn polls benefit multifamily marketers, property managers and residents alike. Whether you’re looking to connect with other professionals through sharing expertise, decide on a work-related matter by getting others’ opinion on a certain topic, or ask your residents their thoughts on next Wednesday’s community event, receiving feedback from your network can put you on the right direction. In addition, this type of input doubles as information—a shareable outcome that can lead to new discussions and establish new professional relationships.

LinkedIn polls are accessible through the page’s menu chooser. It allows you to create up to four answers and customize the duration from one day up to two weeks. And since the poll can target your connections, individual groups you’re in or simply anyone on LinkedIn, don’t forget to use relevant hashtags to boost online reach.