Student Housing Business

MAR-APR 2015

Student Housing Business is the voice of the student housing industry.

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SOCIAL MEDIA STUDENT HOUSING BUSINESS .COM MARCH/APRIL 2015 59 doing online?" Without wanting to anecdotally speak to that, we dove in to reviewing over 540 student housing property websites to uncover the answers. We identifed the top 10-man- agement/ownership companies in the industry and then analyzed each of their property web- sites. We spent more time looking at function over form, identifying areas that related to how a potential resident may interact with the web- site. Areas of focus included: 1. Were the websites responsive? 2. Were social icons present on the home page? 3. On which social media channels did the property participate? 4. How many likes/engagement did their social pages receive? 5. How active were property management companies on the property social pages? 6. Which companies were ranked highest and which were lowest? While the analysis goes beyond what we're able to show in this story, there are some inter- esting fndings to point out: 1. Ninety-four (94) percent of properties had a working Facebook page linked from their home page. 2. Sixty-one (61) percent of properties posted daily on Facebook. 3. Seventy-one (71) percent either did not have Twitter or the link to their account was broken. 4. Forty (40) percent of those with Twitter did not post daily. 5. Thirty-two (32) percent of properties had Instagram accounts linked from their homepage. The industry aggregate average for social media sites: 1. Number of Facebook likes: 1,154 2. Number of Tweets: 898 3. Instagram photo shares: 139 SHB John Kerrigan is chief strategy offcer at Threshold, based in Austin, Texas. IN THE WEST, WE BELIEVE STUDENT LIFE HAPPENS OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM. When it comes to commercial real estate, you need a bank that understands your business. At Bank of the West, we're committed to the real estate industry and offer the depth and expertise needed to source the development and operation of purpose-built student housing. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. © 2015 Bank of the West. Sarah Candy, Vice President, Bank of the West Real Estate Industries Division (916) 552.4436 50% of students have engaged with an apartment community's social media page via photo "like" contests, and 65% have participated through "vote for" events

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