Pub. 3 2018 Issue 1

13 ISSUE 1 2018 those born between 1945 (the end of World War II) and 1964. • Harvard’s George Masnick, who is a Senior Research Fellow of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, has said Generation X consists of those born between 1965 and the end of 1984. (Masnick dismisses the existence of a Generation Y; there were not enough of them born between the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s to merit a new designation.) • Researchers Neil Howe andWilliamStrauss are of the opinion that Millennials were born between 1982 and 2004. Nobody has coined a term yet for those born after 2004. Once you’ve figured out the ages of your tenants, what does that tell you? • The baby boom generation, at 72 percent, tends to use Facebook more than any other social media website. Even Instagram can only claim an activity rate of 18 percent for that specific generation. • Those in the millennial or gen X cohorts are more active than their seniors on Instagram and on Facebook. (Facebook is no longer cool, of course; nothing your grandmother uses can claim to be cool unless your grandmother is extremely unusual. But it is still useful, and people of all ages recognize that fact.) The second step is figuring out the content that will appeal to the core target market or markets. For example, half the people renting today are millennials: those who are 30 or less. They generally value sustainability and being environmentally responsible. They also value connection, speed, and convenience. Address those needs with a blog that talks about being committed to the environment and being energy efficient is a good start to building a relationship with these tenants. If you are responsive to them when they communicate with you, in person or online, that is also helpful. What else can you offer tenants through social media? You can tell them about what’s going on in their community, review neighborhood restaurants, and offer decorating ideas. You should probably not do anything that looks, smells, or feels like an ad, however. Young people grew up on commercials. They recognize ads instantly, and it makes them think less of your community if you try to sell to them overtly. It is not considered to be “authentic.”The newmarketing approaches focus on letting people decide what they are interested in first, and only then giving them the information they need to buy something. Step three is developing a strategy for distributing that content. You need to refresh information on social media websites on a regular basis. It’s fine to give people time to discover what’s there, especially if you use your website to post articles with useful information, but it is also important to keep the content fresh with high-quality additions on a regular basis. Done right, having a social media strategy and putting it to work is a great way to build tenant loyalty to the community, attract new tenants, and keep your community profitable. The new marketing approaches focus on letting people decide what they are interested in first, and only then giving them the information they need to buy something.