There are hundreds of Social Networks out there and it is surely tempting to ‘claim’ your business on many of them; after all, it’s free! In fact, there are services like knowem.com which allow you to reserve your business name on 550 popular social networks at once.
Before you start registering your Property Management Company with all these social websites, consider the purpose.
For national brands like Coke, BMW or Dell, claiming their brand name means control over the brand messaging. What does it mean for local, or even regional Property Management company? Wasted resources.
The number one reason for Property Managers to use Social Networks is not lead generation or brand recognition. The purpose is to connect with Property Owners, Tenants and Vendors, provide better service and save time on everyday communications.
With this goal in mind, there are definite opportunities to gain new business, but only if your company is engaged and humming with customer interactions. Flooding your Social Networks with vacancies and other self-promoting content will quickly dissolve your listeners and become a time sink with zero ROI.
How many Social Networks is too many?
Our recommendation is to stay with 2 or 3. The important point is to go where your customers are. Right now, it is Facebook, Twitter and Google +.
Understand how each network benefits your customers, monitor all communications, quickly respond to requests, share interesting content, encourage all your customers to join; then, watch the new business flow in.