Student Housing Business is the voice of the student housing industry.
Issue link: https://studenthousingbusiness.epubxp.com/i/564824
SMARTER OPERATIONS JULY/AUGUST 2015 STUDENT HOUSING BUSINESS .COM 84 MOBILE REVOLUTION A look at how operators are using smartphones and social media to reach student residents, right in the palms of their hands. By Lindsey Walker Marcec I It's no secret that university students spend a lot of time online. According to a new study from Pew Research Center, a whopping 92 percent of teens report going online daily, including 24 percent who say they go online "almost con- stantly." These stats go hand-in-hand with the increasing number of teens who carry smart- phones, allowing them to have uninterrupted digital access right at their fngertips. "We have experienced tremendous growth in mobile trafc from the increase in mobile searches conducted on smartphones," says Diana Paz, national account executive of student media with ForRentUniversity.com (FRU). "Forty percent of ForRent.com traf- fc is now from mobile. The ForRent.com mobile site and app are constantly evolving to meet the needs of prospective renters, no matter their device of choice. In fact, FRU mobile guest cards increased by 99 percent and mobile phone leads increased by 53 per- cent year-over-year in March 2015." Given the overwhelming evidence that, more often than not, students are using their phones to surf the web and access social media, "all student housing market- ing and communication eforts have to be centered around mobile," says Matt Davis, vice president with IRIO. "Students today live on their phones, and student housing operators can either decide to embrace this or be left behind. As we say around here: The phone is in their hand; the decision is in yours." So where should operators be spending their digital dollars? One way is to build responsive sites. "FRU is built on a respon- sive framework, allowing the site to respond to the user 's device," Paz says. "This in turn provides student residents with the informa- tion they are seeking to take the next steps in fnding their future apartment near the university they are looking to attend." Cardinal Group Management also invests in responsive design. "We currently employ responsive design on all of our websites," says Michael Huereque, director of market- ing. "About 60 percent of our web trafc comes from mobile, so we make eforts to create content that is engaging and easy to navigate on a small screen, and we spend our marketing dollars running mobile ad cam- paigns through social media and Google." One of Cardinal Group's current strate- gies involves running mobile advertising within Google, Facebook, and in-app soft- ware along each point of the light rail line in Denver, near one of its properties. "Our property is only steps from the light rail, so our primary focus is to use this not only as a selling point, but as the very core of our demographic targeting set," Huereque says. "So far, engagement and foot trafc for that particular location is far beyond our initial projections." In terms of social media, ComScore reports the total mobile engagement on social media has grown 55 percent in the past year, and, according to Pew Research Center, Facebook remains the most-used site among American teens aged 13 to 17, with 71 percent of all teens using the site. With that said, 71 per- cent of teens also report that they use more than one social media site, which is some- thing operators have noted and are focusing on. "At Cardinal Group, we have seen a decline in Facebook users, but an increase in other social media venues such as Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram," Huereque says. "We use this information to try and borrow from our existing user base on Facebook and Twitter, and integrate the new channels into a single campaign. By cross-integrating social platforms, we capture a more encom- passing portion of the digital landscape and are less afected by the rise and decline of specifc channels." Mobile campaigns are proving efective as data shows that residents are interact- ing more and more with their properties on social media. "Recently we have seen con- sistent data that two out of three users are engaging with the property on social media through their phones," says John Hinckley, cofounder and CEO of Modern Message. "That number is up from about one out of two residents a couple years ago, and there is an overwhelming number of iOS users compared to others." With its resident loyalty and advocacy platform "Community Rewards," Modern Message continues to adapt and evolve to meet the growing expectations of student residents when it comes to mobile apps and integrated platforms. "Since launching Community Rewards in 2012, we've learned a lot about the impor- tance of seamless integration between multi- ple platforms," Hinckley says. "We've made countless enhancements this year, and we're seeing heavy app usage on Facebook and Instagram. Twitter is trailing of a bit but still remains the third most preferred social network, with Snapchat coming up strong at number four. We've integrated platforms like these into Community Rewards to keep this mobile generation socially engaged with their apartment communities." In addition to responsive site design and integrated social media platforms, third- party apps are a means to engage with current and prospective residents on their smartphones. "We must present our communities to stu- dents via apps and any other platform that has their attention, and we must do it in an easy, convenient and — most importantly — memorable way," says Scott Casey, senior vice president of strategic business develop- ment and chief technology ofcer with EdR. "We have to be where the crowd is, but we have to stand out from the crowd." Most recently, the EdR team has used the Periscope app for community tours. "During the summer leasing months, it can be hard to reach the large population of students who move home for the summer and are not on campus to physically tour our communi- ties," Casey says. "The Periscope app allows us to host a live broadcast and receive real- time user interaction through comments." When it comes down to communicating easily and quickly with current or potential residents, text communications continues to be hard to beat. "With texting being the number one use of phones today, this is by far the most efcient and efective means of communication with students," Davis says. From alerting residents to a power outage to inviting them to a community party, tex- ting is a simple, timesaving way to get out short property-related messages in a seam- less manner. FRU also sees the efectiveness of text. "With 85 percent of renters checking their