Our team has been researching the student housing industry’s use of social media for over a year now and have decided to release some insight on our findings to the public. In December of last year, we concluded a quantitative social media audit of the top 25 student housing management companies listed from the Student Housing Business. We pulled a random sample of up to 50 properties from the portfolios of various management companies such as American Campus Communities, Asset Campus Housing, Campus Apartments, Peak Campus, and more. Total, we researched over 560 student housing properties throughout the nation and this is what we found:

• Averages: The average amount of fans and followers in the student housing industry across all platforms follow this trend:
  • Facebook: 942 Facebook Fans
  • Twitter: 124 Followers
  • Instagram: 42 Followers
• Post Frequency: Over 90% of Student Housing brands post more on Facebook than any other platform.

Now, while this may not be surprising to most people, it really poses a serious issue in the Multi-Family Housing and Student Housing industry. Why? Well, because if anyone actually researched the demographics amongst each social platform, they would find that Instagram is the most popular platform for young adults between the ages of 18-25. According to CNN, Facebook admitted to losing a substantial amount of young adults in October of 2013. Below, you will see the growth rates of various age brackets over the past three years on Facebook. Pay close attention to the younger demographic…

It is ironic that the majority of Student Housing properties spend most of their social media marketing budgets on Facebook while a large percentage of students spend most of their time on other platforms. I would guess that over 85% of student housing marketing done on social media is a complete waste of time. Here is why:

• The marketing departments for most companies typically have no systematic process of generating leads through social media.
• In effect, the leasing agents and on-site staff are not trained properly on how to effectively use social media.
• This leads to a huge loss in productivity and withdrawal from the daily operations that need to be done on-site.

There are a few student housing companies that we have seen do significantly better than others. In fact, our team has worked with over six student housing properties in the past five months and are proud to have finally mastered lead generation to produce about 15 to 20 leads a month consistently. There are systems that can be put in place to where an effective program can result into your leasing office receiving instant leads on a daily basis from social media.  Below is a snapshot of what the end result should be for all student housing properties social media efforts.

So yes, in case you were wondering, it is very possible to generate substantial leads from social media. The problem is that majority of the student housing industry does not know how to or where to start.

Want more insight on this topic? Reach me directly at Sherman@Lyfemarketing.com with any comments/questions.