How to Promote Your Rental on Social Media

You go where your customers are. It’s the first law of any sort of marketing or promotion. And where are a lot of your potential customers? Yep, they're on social media, so marketing to them there is pretty much essential for renting out your property.

But how do you do it? That’s the real question, and it can seem overwhelming if you’re not overly familiar with the various social media sites out there. It’s not impossible, though — with these tips and guidelines, you can promote your rental on social media much more easily and with greater focus.

Have a goal/strategy in mind

You’re turning to social media for a reason, which is getting more potential tenants, but how are you going to find them? How many people do you want to reach out to? What kind of people are you trying to reach? Even if you’re not completely sure, just starting with an idea will help you a lot along the way. By all means, adjust as you go and get more experience, but having an idea of your target audience and how you plan on reaching and targeting them will give you a leg up early on.

Use cross-posting carefully

You probably want to be on most networks, so cross-posting seems like a godsend. Just open up Buffer or another similar app, write a post, and it goes to all of your profiles on various networks at once. Job well done.

Not quite. Twitter is not Facebook, Facebook is not Instagram and so on. While there are times to use cross-posting, like when a post is extremely simple and to the point, use each network as strategically as possible. If you want to be really effective, craft each post differently based on the channel it will live on. Try tagging people in your Facebook posts to help spread the word on a vacancy and create an open house event on the network, inviting renters you know. Use relevant hashtags on Twitter to reach users searching for content with those hashtags. Ensure the photos of your vacancy are visually pleasing enough to garner engagement on Instagram and grab a user's attention.

Take advantage of pictures

These are crucial. Looking for tips on how to take great photos of your properties? We can help. Include images of key living spaces, such as the living room or den, kitchen and master bedroom with a piece of furniture or two per room to show scale. Stick with neutral pieces and a few vibrant accessories. It's important to show, not just tell.

Stay active

No, you don’t need to post every hour on the hour, nor should you publish low-quality content just for the sake of posting. Simply have a consistent cadence of posts, whether it's 2 or 5 times a week. Additionally, whenever you have high-quality news worth sharing, such as a highly regarded property that's recently become available, let your audience know.

Respond to people who message or mention you

This is just as crucial as using high-quality photos in your social media content. When someone reaches out to you, acknowledge and interact with them. Sometimes it’s as simple as answering a question or saying thank you. Responding to those who make the effort to contact you shows a real person is behind the account and wants to help however they can.

Sell the community as much as the property

We get it — you’re proud of your building and the things in it and want to tell the world. Potential tenants want to know this information, but it's not all they're looking for. They also want to be part of a community or a particular neighborhood. Make sure to include this information in your social media content when promoting a vacancy.

Go after retention, not just new customers

You want to find new tenants, but what about the ones that already live in one of your units? It’s a pain when they leave since you’re back to the "finding new tenants" stage. What can you do to help with retention?

Use social media marketing, of course. Specifically, you’ll want to…

Arrange events and help your tenants interact with each other

If you’re managing a community, use social media to help bring your tenants together. Set up events and promote them on your accounts, and create a Facebook group for tenants to talk with each other. Show pictures from the great event you had last week, with promises of a similar or even better one coming up soon.

Reach out to other property managers

Find other property managers and landlords to interact and build relationships with through social media. Do you have a lead that isn't a fit for your vacancies but could be interested in another property manager's vacancy? Pass along the lead to the other property manager, and they may do the same for you when the opportunity arises. Don't think of other property managers as only your competitors.

Remember that social engagement isn’t the final goal

A common affliction of social media marketing is focusing on specific engagement metrics. Sure, you want to grow your social following as much as possible and rack up the likes, but too many people fixate on these numbers and not the ultimate goal — filling vacancies or keeping current tenants in a unit as long as possible. Likes aren’t leases, but simply an early step along the way to getting one signed.

Social media marketing can be difficult, but when done correctly, provides you with more exposure. Your content can get in front of more potential tenants in a place where they voluntarily spend a lot of time.