The Official AppFolio Blog

With the amount of time that people spend online these days, it’s very important to have a professional presence on the Internet. Potential clients and residents search for properties and property management services online, and your current owners and residents will appreciate the ability to connect with you via the web. On top of that, whether you have an online presence or not, your business likely has an online reputation. For good or bad, people are probably talking about your company online, and it’s important that you take part in that conversation.

Here are three simple ways that you can establish and improve your property management business’s online reputation.

Maintain A Professional Website
A company website with a professional look and feel is an important part of putting your best foot forward online. It is your business’s digital face, the place where people will look for your official presence. Building a property management website is a first step in establishing yourself on the Internet. Your website should provide people with all the important information they need about your business. A website gives you a place to post your contact information, list vacancies, connect with owners and residents and display positive reviews of your company. We work hard to make publishing and maintaining a property management website easy.

Provide Excellent Service
Excellent service is of course the key to offline as well as online reputation management. When you treat your owners and residents well, you reap the benefits in word-of-mouth marketing, and you attract better quality residents. Thankfully, the Internet makes it easy to provide better service to everyone. When residents, owners and vendors can do everything from sending you an email to paying rent online, you can respond quickly. And, of course property management software can make all this even easier.

Monitor And Respond To Feedback
Everyone appreciates a company that responds well to positive as well as negative feedback. In the digital age, it’s important to monitor mentions of your company online and respond accordingly. Run regular searches for your company name and find out what people are saying. An easy way to do this is to use Google Alerts – www.google.com/alerts. When you see a positive comment, be sure to thank the writer. You might even ask them if you can feature their review on your website. When you see a negative comment, apologize to the writer (even if you don’t think you were in the wrong) and fix the problem. Try to keep your replies short and simple, and use it as an opportunity to improve your business.

We’ve worked with Charity Hisle from Socially Engaged Marketing to create this great, free eBook on how to manage your online reputation.

We often hear from our property management friends about the challenges of managing their online reputation. If an unhappy resident decides to post a bad review on Yelp or Google Local, it can be really hard to know what to do. Many property management companies often have less than a 4-star rating. In today’s connected world it is even more important to invest the time to manage your reputation online because the majority of your current and future customers are online and will be reading your reviews.

Here are proactive things you can do to get started.

Use Alerts

Set up alerts so you can listen for your company / brand online. There are a number of tools to use out there, but start simple with these two.

Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts)
Free, easy and you can decide if you want alerts sent daily, weekly, etc. You can enter your business name and when you’re mentioned you’ll get an alert sent to your email.

Social Mention (http://www.socialmention.com/)
This site was suggested in a recent “Facebook for Property Managers” webinar featuring Charity Hisle. Charity knows her stuff! This site searches blogs (content and comments) and you can choose which sites you want it to search. Again, start with your company name.

Local Search

Claim your business listings local search sites so you put your best foot forward and start monitoring these comments from customers.

Yelp (http://biz.yelp.com/support/unlocking)
Unlock your business account on Yelp. Once you do this you can add photos and info about your business as well as see how many people are actually coming to your business page. This is the starting point for you to communicate with your customers and respond to reviews online.

GetListed.org (http://getlisted.org/)
Use GetListed.org to list your business on a number of sites. This is an easy way to get your local business listed on a bunch of sites if you’re just starting. You can also get great info from Google Places on how to claim your business listing.

My next post will cover the act of responding to your positive and negative reviews. I also have a few ideas on how you can gather even more positive reviews from existing customers.

Blogging is such a great way to connect with your community and when you include relevant search terms you are investing in generating more visitors to your property management website. OK, you’re sold! So now the harder part – coming up with ideas on what to actually blog about (details, details).

Here are 6 ideas for blog topics designed for residential property managers.

1. Review local neighborhood restaurants and pick your top 5 favorites. Everyone needs to eat and knowing what’s close to where you live is always interesting. Make sure to mention your city and you can even link out to the local restaurant menus. If you want to get more advanced, post it on your Facebook page and ask your community to weigh in too.
2. Talk about housing prices and trends in your local area. It is interesting to know what’s going on with housing – depending on the audience it can be good news if prices are going up or if they’re going down. Bottom line – when you show that you are knowledgeable about the area and paying attention to the trends you’re building trust with your future potential customers.
3. Create a list of the top 5 local activities to do this time of year. You can do this blog post once a season (that’s 4 times in a year!) and it gives you a chance to showcase your local community / city. Include photos of actual people enjoying the activities…and post to your property management Facebook page, too.
4. Write a recap of a recent community get-together. Over the holidays you probably hosted some fun events and activities for residents – recap them with some photos too. Even if you’ve posted on Facebook, this is an opportunity to really show the benefits of living at your community.
5. Talk about the technology you’re using to make residents’ lives easier. AppFolio customers who offer the ability for residents to pay rent online can write about how easy it is to set-up and get started. You can write about the benefits of paying online vs. sending a check and even launch a fun contest to get more of your residents paying rent online.
6. Give ideas on what residents can do to beautify their rental. You can write so many blog posts on this topic and it is a great way for your residents to feel even more connected to their home.

Set aside some time each week to write your blog posts – even just 30 minutes is a great starting point. Once you get going and see the impact on your website you won’t want to stop!

One of the best ways to generate more natural search engine traffic for your property management website is to start blogging. Sounds kind of easy, ”Step one, start!” But I know it can be hard to think of things to say as well as get people to actually find and visit your blog.

Here is a summary of tips from a recent post by Hubspot (they have great marketing ideas). I’ve chosen some highlights from each section but be sure to read the whole article when you have time.

1. Make the title of your blog catchy and interesting.
This is the most important part of your blog because it is what your reader sees first and he/she needs to be interested enough to click on it! Some strategies that work well:

• Numbers are great – “5 Easy Ways Beautify Your Home”, “7 Ideas to Reduce Your Monthly Heating Costs”.
• Make sure to use relevant key words that matter to your business – talk about trends in the community, the real estate market, your city/neighborhood, etc.
• Start with “How To”. We all like to learn how to do things better.

2. Write your content so it is easy to read.
Now that you have a great title you need to make your blog post simple and easy to digest. Stay away from big, long paragraphs and instead use bullets and shorter sentences.

• Make lists (they are easy and can be fun).
• Don’t be afraid to bold the important sections.
• Write like a reporter – stay at high-school level.

3. Your content should be optimized for Search Engines (SEO).
Your content needs to be optimized for search engines because people use Google, Bing and Yahoo to search and you want them to find your website. But don’t forget that you are actually writing for people so it shouldn’t sound like a robot spitting out your search terms. Think of the terms your prospective renters might be searching for, such as “apartments in La Jolla” and “rentals in Fort Worth”, and incorporate them into your blog posts.

• Meta Title – This is the title of your property management blog post and you should put your keywords close to the front. Keep it under 70 characters.
• Use internal links – Use your keywords as anchor text to link to other posts on your blog.

4. Ask for interaction from your readers.
It is great to see blog posts with comments – so at the end of your post ask your readers a question!

5. Don’t forget social sharing buttons.
Add the Facebook like icons below each post so your readers can share your great writing with others.

6. Link to other relevant blogs.
If you’re writing about something that you’ve seen written in other places then link back to that post. An example would be if you’re networking with local Realtors, link to articles that are about the local housing market. You will build your network while providing great content for your readers.

Any other ideas?

Maybe you’ve heard the quote, “The key to success is often the ability to adapt.” As VP of Product Management here at AppFolio, I track the major industry trends that affect the property management business. Below I’ve outlined some “mega trends” that I see evolving in the next 5 to 10 years.

Trend #1: The Changing Dynamic of the Renter
Statistics show more and more people are using the Internet in every demographic. As of June, approximately 70% of the U.S. population is using the Internet regularly which is almost 240 million people (http://www.internetworldstats.com/am/us.htm). Ten years ago, property managers would advertise a property for rent in the Newspaper. Today, renters (especially younger renters) rarely read the classified section of the newspaper and instead expect easy access to online listings whether on their computer or mobile phone. They want to browse vacancies that match their needs, see pictures and watch virtual tours. Increasingly this is happening from dedicated rental listing sites or simply listing services like Craigslist.

Generation Y is accustomed to interacting in a different way than past generations: they prefer text or email to the phone call, online rental forms to filing something out by hand and driving it in, automatic online payments to dropping off the rent check, and a management company that is responsive and listening to their needs.

This shift in renter behavior is pushing property management companies to adopt and update their technology. I advise property managers to build a modern website and be visible online. If old methods of finding applicants are becoming less and less effective, try new areas where your renters are likely to be. With potential renters and property owners on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, it makes sense for you to meet your market on the platform of their choice.

Trend #2: People Visit Trusted Social Networks for Reviews
As a property manager, you are marketing your business to both owners and renters and almost everyone has access to comments from past residents and clients on social networking sites. People are reading reviews before buying a book on Amazon, checking Yelp before booking a restaurant for dinner, and the same is true for the property rental business. When looking for a new home, people may first ask their Facebook friends or other online networks for a good recommendation. Statistics show Facebook has over 250 million users and the numbers continue to grow. Understanding this shift in behavior is key to adapting your business for future success.

When it comes to online reviews and forums, I see more and more businesses joining the conversation so that they can respond to customer feedback in real time. A good way to turn an angry gripe into a positive sentiment is to address people head on. Letting someone know that you hear their frustration and want to take action to correct the situation, makes you seem like a person people will do business with.

Management of your reputation is crucial to running a successful business, and property managers must differentiate themselves with excellent customer service in order to stay competitive.

Trend #3: Mass Marketing No Longer Works
The days of sending out mass messages to a broad range of people is over. Mainstream media outlets are saturated with information and it appears that direct marketing to your target audience is critical to increasing revenue. Companies today are doing some research into renter and owner behavior and creating customized marketing campaigns. If you know your audience, market specifically to them for a higher ROI.

Adapting to Change is Key to Future Success
Don’t forget to take larger market trends into account as well. For instance, we notice that the “green movement” is gaining widespread popularity. Property management companies can take advantage of this public interest by making a few upgrades to their properties and marketing them as “green.”

What changes will you be making to your business plan in the next 5-10 years?

If you thought posting your vacant units to Internet sites with AppFolio was already easy, it just got easier! Now, in addition to the already existing ability to post to Craigslist, your website and Oodle.com we have added even more sites.

Through partnerships with rentbits.com and rentalhomepros.com we are now able to syndicate out your listings to all the sites below for free with only one click of the mouse.

• aolclassifieds.com
• googlebase.com
• hometownrent.com
• hotpads.com
• lycosclassifieds.com
• military.com
• mynewplace.com
• myspace.com
• olx.com
• rentalads.com
• rentalhomepros.com
• rentbits.com
• rentedspaces.com
• rentlizard.com
• tenant.com
• vast.com
• walmartclassifieds.com
• yearlyrentals.com

And by logging into rentbits.com and rentalhomepros.com you can quickly upgrade your account so your listings are displayed on even more sites.

So what does this mean for you? Well, it means more inbound leads on those vacant properties, which in turn means less days vacant and happy owners!

One of the most interesting aspects of my role as the VP of Product Management is that I get to spend quite a bit of time listening to our customers describe their problems and learning about the process they go through to solve these problems on a daily basis. Many vendors in our industry also hear about these problems but often times respond by producing software that addresses each issue, one by one. But, as more technologies are released that help property managers run a more efficient business, it becomes really difficult to manage, integrate (and pay for!) all of these new mostly stand-alone technologies.

For example, a modern property management company will invest in:

• Property management accounting software
• Tools for posting vacancies (to Craigslist, the Internet, the business website)
• Online rent collection for residents
• Resident background check software
• A company website
• A portal solution for their Owners and Residents

During my initial conversations with residential property managers they talked about the challenges of getting all of these different software solutions to “work together” and their frustration at the cost and headache of managing multiple vendors. It became very clear to us that what property managers needed was a single and complete property management software solution so they could spend time focused on their business rather than solving technology compatibility issues. We also heard (loud and clear) that property managers are tired of paying extra for additional features.

We most recently announced online rent collection using ACH, integrated with AppFolio property management software and we are the first vendor to include it at no additional charge to our customers. In an industry where property managers typically pay their provider up to $1.50 per ACH transaction, it is pretty exciting to offer this service to our customers with zero additional monthly fees.

We have such an exciting opportunity to build property management software that matches to how property managers actually run their business!