The Top 3 Digital Trends for Multifamily Marketers

It’s clear that residents and consumers are spending more time online. Here are the top three digital trends that multifamily should pay attention to to grab their attention:

1. The growth of video consumption

Online video is here to stay. We’re living in the attention economy—shorter attention spans and mobile usage are influencing video consumption globally. Currently, 50% of all mobile data traffic is coming from streaming video.

At the Digital Summit Dallas conference, the prediction was shared that 90% of content will be video by 2020. Video gives you the opportunity to humanize your brand and creates a sense of excitement. In the world of social media, there is no question that Facebook is putting video at the center of its apps and services. Video is evolving and there are three distinct avenues for it in social: professional video, pre-recorded mobile video and live video.

Not creating videos on social yet? You’re already behind. It’s time to decide which platforms you want to invest more time in and upgrade your strategy.

2. Measuring social media and content ROI

To secure a seat at the table, it will become increasingly important for social media marketers to prove the ROI of their efforts—because without accurately measurement and reporting, it’s difficult to earn buy-in from the executive level and increase budget. However, knowing what specific variables to measure and how to tie them back to business outcomes can be a challenge. According to the Hootsuite 2018 Social Trends Survey, 40% of respondents struggled with knowing the right metrics to track.

We recommend starting by defining goals and benchmarks per channel— including typical metrics such as likes, followers, and mentions along with broader metrics, such as new leads generated, conversions, and existing leads touched.

A key way to track success is through Google Analytics. Create tracking parameters for any shared content that links back to your website and regularly measure performance. Social media tools like Hootsuite, HubSpot and Sprout Social are great resources to help you assess your social growth and engagement. Integrating with a CRM tool, such as Salesforce, is another effective way to track across the entire customer lifecycle and attribute leads back to social media.

3. Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become part of everyday life, at work and at home. You probably have had some experience with this technology—think Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri or Google Home. Calls and emails will be replaced with chatbots that provide smart and instant responses.

What does AI mean for the future of multifamily? As customer demand grows, AI will be there to manage the day-to-day flow of work. According to TechEmergence, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human by 2020. Calls and emails will be replaced with chatbots that provide smart and instant responses to customers.

Taco Bell created Tacobot, the new taco robot for Slack, which allows customers to place orders via chat. Why you ask? They believe that “no matter how slammed, stressed or on a roll you might be, no one should work hungry.” That’s something to tacobout.

Sephora uses a chatbot on the KIK app that that lets customers avoid going to the store and fulfills makeup orders.

Image via Forbes

There are still untapped possibilities on what AI can do. A unique and personalized chat experience can create new opportunities and help businesses stand out from the competition. Even farmers are using AI technology to spot diseased crops faster and preventing a spread to healthy crops. How do you picture using artificial intelligence?

We wish you the best of luck as you refine your social media strategy to reach more residents and build your multifamily business.