Great analogy! I really think we’re living through a great shift in the way we all conduct business, and as time goes on, the expectations for social media and its’ associated campaigns will become much clearer. Your only point I disagree with is the suggestion that only smart apt. companies “get” social media – I think there’s many companies out there with incredibly bright individuals leading them who just simply haven’t figured out how to best apply social media to their business – but that doesn’t mean they won’t in the future or that they aren’t stellar at running the rest of their operations. The main difference is, the ones who figure it out the soonest will have the chance to build a big lead on their competitors.

Thanks for the comment!!

Smart apt management companies realize that Social Media is a game changing tool. They should take their cue from Sam Walton’s playbook and buck tradition. Look for ways to skewer their traditional marketing with Social Media for brand building, list building and other internet marketing tools to stay abreast in a global marketplace.

Thanks so much for contributing your insight. If I hadn’t made it clear before, this is merely my personal opinion on the matter as a marketing professional, and as a relative outsider to the property management business I’m sure there is a level of operational context I’m missing. I’m not sure if you saw my reply to Eric’s comment, but I believe I’m addressing the question of ROI head-on, in stating that no, in fact we cannot measure ROI from Facebook and therefore we need to stop expecting it to be there. To extrapolate from that point, the question for mgmt. then becomes “OK, now that we accept that there’s no measurable ROI from Facebook, do we still pursue an FB strategy or not?” For many companies that answer may be no – and that’s fine. But if the answer is yes, than what’s the best way to pursue an FB strategy, knowing there will be no measurable ROI? I’d argue that my strategy from the article makes sense. My analogy of FB to the fresh paint on the side of the building suggests that a well maintained and active Facebook page could be treated as a cost of doing business for many companies – you’re not going to let the paint start to peel, but at the same time you don’t expect that the $$ you spend to paint the buildings every x years will demonstrate a corresponding uptick in new residents. (Disclosure: I could be wrong here – please let me know if your business is able to measure the return, in $, that money spent to maintain good looking buildings has on new resident move-ins and I will retract my assumption.)

If the argument is “does FB provide a measurable ROI?” than I’m with you – it doesn’t. Does that mean it should be abandoned completely? I don’t think so. It still likely provides an unmeasurable boost to your companies marketing efforts. My general point is that people need to reset their expectations of what FB means to their business.

There’s not an ounce of actual analysis or a single bit of real data in the blog post. It all sounds good; and we may want it to be true. But wishing something or intuitively expecting something to be true doens’t make it so. The analogy to SEO is a red herring. Back in 2004, Google had real numbers, and you could TRACK hits to leads to sales. You could calculate an ROI. So if anything, that experience proves exactly how weak FB is. Today. It could change in the future.

Marketing often does not have a seat at the table with senior execs. Maybe it’s because when we can’t bulid a business case for something, we plead and beg for the resources anyway? ROI doens’t have to be calculated to the percent to help drive business decisions. And if we keep dodging the ROI question, then we keep telling our execs that we really don’t want to be at the table when the real business decisions are made.

jmho

Thank you for the thoughtful comment – you understand this market better than most. Those are impressive statistics, and even though you might not be able to track measurable returns, I think the numbers themselves speak to the effectiveness of your efforts. You provide a good example of why I think people need to reset their expectations – maybe Facebook just isn’t cut out to be the traditional marketing channel (at least for the MFI) that many people think it is! Here’s another way to look at – properties spend thousands of dollars every year on structural upkeep – let’s use the paint on the side of the buildings as an example. Are you able to measure the exact impact a freshly painted building has on new resident move-ins down to the specific dollar amount? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume that this type of maintenance is treated as an assumed cost of doing business, and is an effort to put your best face forward to the physical world. Isn’t Facebook the digital equivalent of paint on a building? Isn’t it a community’s responsibility to use FB to put their best face forward online (in addition to their website)?

I agree with you on your key point – Facebook does not perform like a traditional marketing channel and therefore is unreliable when it comes to producing measurable results. I believe that maintaining an active and engaging Facebook page should be looked at by many companies as a cost of doing business. Just like the paint on the side of the building, you’ll never know if it’s what won over your newest resident. But you’re certainly not gonna let it start to peel so you can find out.