In a perfect world, you’d create all of your own content. It would all go viral. You’d burst with success. All the content creation would all be completed in less than an hour per week. Unfortunately, that’s not how life works. You likely excel in real estate, not content creation. Time minimizes how much original content that you create. Sometimes you have difficulty getting readers to engage with your posts. Piggyback marketing may be able to help. Piggyback marketing describes the use of recycled, trending content on your social media feeds and blog. It allows users to borrow and benefit from the popularity of someone else’s content. Sometimes piggybacking is sharing a video, meme, or post. Other times, it’s referring to a trend within your original content. There are advantages and disadvantages to piggyback marketing. When used wisely, it can build engagement and improve the reputation of your brand. When abused, it can erode trust and water-down your brand identity. The dos and don’ts listed below will help you use viral piggybacking to your advantage. DO supplement your content with piggyback marketing.Viral piggybacking of relevant content allows you to tap into what’s already successful. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, which is great when you feel creator’s block or you’re pressed for time. DON’T rely on piggybacking. Limit how often you use others’ content to market your brand. Keep the percent of borrowed content in the single digits compared to your original content. There is no substitute for content that reflects your brand, your objectives, and the unique tastes of your audience. DO stick to content that is relevant to your brand, market, and clients’ interests. Use tools such as Buzzsumo and Scoop.It to identify relevant content. Those tools allow you to...

Many content creators are only getting one use out of blog posts. You are missing out on countless opportunities to get noticed by potential renters! Get more from your blog with repurposed content. What Is Repurposed Content? When you repurpose content, you’re finding different ways to tell the same story. Each new way that you tell your story may appeal to a different group of people. For example, when you create a blog post, you tell the story to readers. You can tell that same story to visual learners using video on YouTube or pictures on Instagram. By appealing to different types of learners (or different types of entertainment) you reach a greater audience. A broader audience increases your prospect pool and your potential for leads. Below are a few ways that you can repurpose your blog content to reach new groups of prospects. Master Infographics Infographics are a great way to combine facts from your blog text with visual media. Infographics can be consumed anytime, anywhere because they are not hampered by audio access, buffering speeds, and data availability. Many content creators love infographics because they don’t require photography, video, or illustration skills. Many programs allow you to drag-and-drop into templates to create fantastic infographics. Try making your own free infographics using Venngage or Picktochart. Curate an Instagram Slideshow For a short blog post, you may only have one image. You can use that image to create an Instagram post, including a teaser excerpt for your blog post. (Unless you’re paying Instagram for clickable links within captions, be sure to put the link for your blog post in your bio.) For multiple images on a blog post, create a slide show. Rather than several posts on the same topic, a slideshow allows you...

On our previous post, there were a few loose ends to tie before hitting publish on your blog post. Once those important details are complete, you are ready to share your content with the world via social media! Why Use Social Media to Share Content? Without social media marketing and SEM services, the only way a person will find your content is by going directly to your website. Before you worked in the industry, how often did you visit an apartment’s blog? Precisely. By sharing the posts on social media, your content reaches more readers. Your social media followers will see the post appear on their news feeds. Social sharing draws attention to the blog post. Their engagement—likes, comments, and shares—will broaden the posts’ reach to their friends. Your efforts will be magnified even more when the platform’s algorithm robots pick up on users’ engagement. The platform may choose to share your content with an even broader audience. With more attention on your blog, you’re bringing more attention to your property! Social media marketing is easy, free marketing. Pick 2-3 Social Media Platforms Where should you share content? Select a few social media platforms that suit your brand. The prominent demographic of your community will determine which platforms are best for you. For example, Facebook is common for most organizations due to its broad user base–1 billion active users– and customizable features. Additionally, properties with young professionals may benefit from an Instagram account, whose 600 million users are mostly young adults ages 18-29. If you have a student property with an even younger demographic, 18-24 years of age, Snapchat may also be a beneficial platform to explore. Once you’ve honed-in on your platforms, learn the native marketing language for each. This allows you to...

Once you’ve chosen a blogging platform and written content, the next step in creating an engaging blog post is to include great media. Media includes visuals such as photographs, infographics, illustrations, and videos. For today’s post, we will focus on photography. Most modern smartphones are adequate to take a great image for blog posts and social media use. (If a staff member is competent with a DSLR camera and lighting tools, even better!) The tips below will give your images a professional touch. Select a Subject The subject of your blog post image will be influenced by the content of your post. Let’s say that you were writing about nursery safety as proposed in our prior post. Perhaps you choose to take a photograph of the nursery in your model unit. This subject is ideal because it’s relevant to the topic. Secondly, it’s a great choice because it is a custom photo taken on your property rather than a stock photo. Such an image showcases your product and what you have to offer residents and prospects. Identify Location and Lighting The best location for your image necessitates excellent lighting. It doesn’t matter how cool the location is if the lighting makes your image look murky or blurry. Indirect natural light is best. Directly natural light (i.e. sunshine at noon) can cast harsh shadows on your subject, especially faces. When shooting an image indoors, also pay attention to the way that the lighting casts shadows on your subject. In addition to great lighting, minimal background clutter is another key to a great location. Trash cans, signs, and unkempt landscaping can distract viewers from the subject. Includes Life Forms—Always! When it comes to your property blog, pictures with living creatures—humans, pets, or wildlife—are always more interesting...

You hear it all the time: to improve your organic ranking with Google, you need frequent, fresh content for your website. Blogging is a common best practice for keeping new content on your site while connecting with your residents. But how do you start a great blog? First, you need to select your blogging platform. There are several options available, varying in price points and features to fit your needs. WordPress WordPress has been the leader in the blog industry for years. It’s the most popular choice because it allows for the most flexibility. There are about 10,000 supported themes for WordPress and each one offers a degree of customization. That means that your blog can compliment your brand and stand apart from the crowd. With nearly 30,000 available plugins and hundreds of widgets, you can enhance your site in a multitude of ways. User-facing add-ons permit event calendars, image galleries, social media streams, merchandise sales, and all sorts of interactive goodies. There are also more technical plugins that impact the functionality of your site. While there are a lot of options, WordPress doesn’t need to be overwhelming. WordPress is as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Pick a theme. Write a post. Publish. Done. You can choose from WordPress.com or the self-hosted, open source WordPress.org. The latter allows greater customization and control while the former is a simple starting point for beginners. Wix Wix is the new kid on the block that has tons of personality and a growing fan base. This simple platform makes it easy for newbies to get started. Choose from a dozen, predetermined templates with a simple drag-and-drop user interface. These fresh themes give your site a clean, modern look that’s popular with top name...