Many apartment communities and small businesses have signed up for 3rd party social media services to help manage their social networking activities. We won’t debate if this is advisable today. Today I will describe out what happens when the contract ends.

Did Your Sherpa Leave You Stranded on the Social Media Mountain?

These 3rd party contracts typically include the set up and management of a blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. What you may not realize is that all three accounts may be left in shambles when the property elects to leave the program. After investigating, I have located over 100 pages that need immediate attention.

Social CPR: The Recovery Process

We can fix this! It will take some time, but with a little work your online presence will be back on track! Let’s start with the most obvious issues:

1. The lost blog: Your content is gone. It was hosted on the server of your 3rd party provider. You paid for it, but the investment was short lived. Did you ask for the content? Some 3rd party service providers will download the text and send it to you. Besides the lost content, you are left with up to hundreds of broken links leading residents and prospects to a dead end.

Deleted blogs leave dead ends

Fix it: Address this issue on your website, Facebook page and Twitter account by deleting every link to your former blog.

2. Deactivated Facebook applications: Did your service provider install an application on your Facebook page? Is it your landing tab? Does it reference your deleted blog?

Does your business have a broken application? Is it your Facebook landing tab?

If your blog has been deleted, links from Facebook will be broken

Fix it:  Reassign your landing tab and uninstall the defunct applications on your Facebook page.

3. Twitter confusion:  Your Twitter account is visible in search engines and could be confusing prospects and residents. Broken links could harm any SEO (search engine optimization) advantage you may have acquired.

Fix it: Any link to your former blog should be removed. If your contract was active for 12 months, you may be looking at the removal of 100-160 Twitter updates.

Are You Prepared to Cancel Services?

If you are considering canceling your contract with a 3rd party provider:

• Remove all 3rd party applications
• Delete 3rd party admin access
• Change Twitter password
• Request download of all content
• Clean up all accounts and your website to remove broken links
• Request all usernames and passwords
• Determine the person on your team that will replace the 3rd party provider to generate content, monitor for spam and comments and manage the social networking accounts
• Create social media policies
• Provide social media training

Can you think of any other ways in which companies would need to be prepared when they leave a 3rd party service provider?

PLEASE NOTE: If your company is experiencing difficulty transitioning, we wish you the best of luck bringing your online presences back to life. And if this sounds daunting, don’t be afraid to reach out for help!

Recovering from 3rd Party Social Media Providers originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on September 9, 2011.

Sendible, where have you been all my social life?

This afternoon a former customer of mine called me and asked “What are you using to manage social media?” Just her luck, three days ago I found out about Sendible. Sendible is an answer to the prayers of those managing multiple accounts and looking for a one-stop-solution for marketing, posting, engaging, tracking and measuring results.

From social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook, to email newsletters and SMS messages, Sendible makes it easy to track performance and monitor mentions across various networks. Mashable has posted about how Sendible‘s appearance has an email look and feel. You can import and consolidate your contacts across multiple social networks and create custom groups.

What’s my favorite part of Sendible? Well, I would have to say the scheduling is pretty cool. But the reporting is nice as well. Sendible tracks just about everything including clicks, referrers, shares, and comments. Messages requiring urgent attention are even highlighted.

Unlike other posting service, Sendible is not free. Well, for 30 days you can trial a limited edition that includes 4 accounts. Pricing ranges from $9.99 and up, depending on what you need. Are you an individual user, a corporate user that manages accounts for multiple online communities, or an agency?

For example, a $9.99 account will let you post to up to 400 updates across 15 social networks. If you’re an agency or a large corporation, you may want to white label an account and resell it to your clients.

I plan on using the $24.99 plan, because it will allow for 4,000 updates across 50 networks AND I can assign a user account to one of my customers as well. Additionally, I’m considering a custom application that will change the text that displays on posts from “via Sendible” to my own company name.

What do you think about Sendible? Is there another application that compares? Please share your ideas on the right tool for your personal accounts or business!

*Disclaimer: links above are affiliate; meaning that I will receive a small commission if you sign up for the program using one of the Sendible links.

Sendible, where’ve you been all my (er) social life? originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on February 4, 2011.

I’ve known for some time about Klout, the cool new tool for measuring social influence. I didn’t pay much attention to it until recently. Honestly, I’ve been so busy that I didn’t want to invest much time into another tool. During Social Media Week Atlanta I learned how some businesses are using Klout, and frankly, what I learned upset me. I haven’t been able to let it go, so I hope that by writing this post I can move on. Warning: This post will be longer than usual, so buckle up!

About Klout

Klout defines influence as “the ability to drive people to action” (read more). They measure reach, amplification probability, and network influence. Joe Fernandez, Co-Founder and CEO of Klout comments, “We are focused on creating a standard here.” There are other tools available as well, including Twitalyzer, PeerIndex and TweetLevel. There’s even a new service from Vitrue for evaluating a Facebook Page’s value.

Klout for business

Before I begin Klout bashing, I have to give props to the company for their efforts to develop a tool for understanding social influence metrics and afford businesses the opportunity to weed out all of the spam bots from the real people. The best way I’ve seen Klout used is on the Huffington Post. They implemented Klout on their website comment section recently.

“Using Klout to understand influence seemed like a clear next step for us and we expect it to increase engagement and allow us to highlight the right influencers on a given topic.” – Eric Hippeau, CEO of Huffington Post

Did you know that if you have a good Klout score you are more likely to:

• be approached by big businesses for free offers, such as premiers from Fox, flights on Virgin America, Cover Girl cosmetics, and Starbucks coffee?
• get a job?
• receive a response from a business?
• get better service?

This all sounds great, right? Maybe not… that is if you haven’t registered on Klout’s website and connected your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.

On Thursday, November 10th I attended the Hit The Road: Social Media Atlanta event (for those in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries) at the Georgia Aquarium. At one point in the conversation the audience was instructed to consult Klout first, to determine if a tweet on Twitter was worth responding too. WHAT?!? Wait, let it sink in…

Now, guess what the recommended minimum score is for following up on social sites? 30. So, if you’re an occasional Twitter user, you have no clout and therefore have far less social credibility.

THIS is why I feel compelled to write this blog post today. If your organization plans to depend solely on Klout for your Twitter customer service strategy, you’re in big trouble.

In the algorithm Klout uses to determine influence, Twitter is the only account automatically monitored. Whether you want to be measured or not, if your Twitter profile is public you have a score. The score is now updated daily, but how far back does the conversation tracking go? Does Klout know that even though I’ve been busy lately, I still have a lot of influential friends that would support me if I needed their help? Does Klout know that I’ve attended many conferences and have a large network on sites other than Twitter? No.

Scenario: Imagine that I’ve been offline a while, sick or out of town (you pick). I experience terrible customer service at a local restaurant and send out a tweet. The business decides that since my Klout score is lower than 30, they won’t waste time responding to my complaint or they spend less time attempting to resolve my concerns. This boils down to basic customer service and why one person should receive better service than another is beyond me.

Here are 10 potential outcomes to this scenario:

1. After sending my tweet, I move on with my life not visiting the restaurant again and no one sees my tweet. The company is safe.
2. I go to Facebook, which is closed to Klout unless I’ve given it permission to scan my friends list, and tell my 400+ friends about my experience.
3. I visit my favorite (private) local Facebook group and share my experience with everyone I know in town.
4. I visit the company’s Facebook page and place my concerns on their page.
5. I decide to repost my complaint on Yelp, an account not monitored by Klout today.
6. I send a direct message, IM, text, an email or call the single “influencer” I know online. The news spreads online and all of a sudden I’m instantly famous.
7. I write a blog post about my experience, also not monitored by Klout (surprisingly this is monitored by PeerIndex). Google picks up my content and when a local foodie researches the restaurant they come across my experience. I could be mistaken, but I’m not sure Klout searches Google.
8. I send a message to my local LinkedIn group (LinkedIn isn’t analyzed unless I provide Klout with access beforehand) and an influencer I know there shares my experience with their followers.
9. I visit a popular foodie’s blog and comment on a previous blog post written. Everyone subscribed to that comment feed receives notification of my experience. As of today, Klout does not monitor the popular commenting channels like DisQus.
10. I’m actually influential and I go online to my own Facebook business page and tell thousands of people about my experience. Klout didn’t know that I keep my profile page personal and I created a business page for connecting with other influencers. (Even if I’d registered on Klout, there is no option to enter my Facebook Page URL.)

Klout fails to measure other equally important considerations, such as topic or industry of influence, longevity of influence, sentiment (Twitalyzer does actually). I created an account with Klout, and according to them my score is 58. Of course, to get this high (I was in the 30′s) I had to connect my Klout account to Facebook and LinkedIn. If my Klout score had offended me, I would be in for a real surprise with TweetLevel. Their evaluation tool said I wasn’t trustworthy! *Grrrr*

Other considerations:

1. Klout monitors Replies and RT’s. This is great, but what about Tweets that do not mention me by my Twitter handle?
2. My friend Mark, shown above, has multiple Twitter accounts. How does Klout handle those? It doesn’t. Right now there is not a tool on their site to combine the influence of multiple accounts.
3. The system can be tricked. A company called Spredfast allows you to create multiple Twitter accounts and schedule the tweets and retweets of each account. With tools like this, it is possible to build a series of completely false conversations online that would result, of course, in fake Klout scores.
4. Are the hashtags that I’ve used on Twitter being monitored? Twitalyzer monitors recent hashtags but not nearly enough. By giving rank to the hashtags used for conferences, Klout might have a better idea of the actual size of my network.

The bottom line:

These systems are only good at measuring what they were created to measure. Influence scoring tools are not as robust as reputation management software. Please use common sense and a combination of tools to decide your customer service strategy.  NEVER underestimate the true influence of someone that understands how to use social networking sites.

What do you think of these influence-scoring sites? Are they worth your time, as a consumer, to invest in? As a business, do you feel these tools should be used to develop social response strategies? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Kiss my Klout… Not! originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on November 20, 2010.

Must-Follows For Apartment and Multifamily Professionals

I thought I’d share my top 100 favorite people on Twitter with you! If you’re just getting started, it can be difficult to know who you should follow. Sure, Twitter has lists, but if you’re new to Twitter you won’t understand how they work.

I’ve made following my favorite “Tweeple” very easy to do: Simply log on to your Twitter account and come back to this page. Start clicking on the names below, if you think the person is interesting just click the follow button!

These are in no particular order, as I simply went through all of my tweets and  Twitter lists. Some of the people and companies listed below may be from outside our industry or work for vendors competing with ApartmentFinder, but I believe they add value to my Twitter experience and can contribute value to yours.

Now, if I highlighted WHY I follow these people I would have to make this a series of posts! (And I may do that later) Please check out their Twitter profiles to understand why I think they’re special.

1. JonathanSaar
2. BrentWilliams2
3. KimCoryFitness
4. ChrisBrogan
5. LisaTrosien
6. MultifamilyPro
7. KateGood
8. TotallyToni
9. ArtChickhb
10. Marketing_Mommy
11. JaredMillr
12. DavidKotowski
13. JudyBellack
14. NSteinert
15. TaraSmiley
16. EvaPana
17. MBrewer
18. RoryEllis
19. MBJ
20. Elysa
21. Eric_Urbane
22. FGuitton
23. SaraSGraham
24. ApartmentMaven
25. Wfroehlich
26. JenKaneCo
27. AdamJapko
28. TamelaCoval
29. ChadRichards
30. GCTProperties
31. CambridgeMGI
32. GABPProperty
33. JLCSoutheast
34. BellPartners
35. AvalonBay
36. Laramarketing
37. JD_Paragon
38. ChiSteve
39. TheAptNerd
40. RentSoda
41. WikiWiley
42. AptIndustryGirl
43. LoriSniderCo
44. TheMarketingGuy
45. PCMGtwit
46. AptFinderNews
47. Trainingfactor
48. HappyAllDays
49. Firebelly
50. Sladen123
51. MFinsiders
52. AptChat
53. 30Lines
54. NAAhq
55. AptGuide
56. ConnieReece
57. LetsTalkPM
58. Unmarketing
59. SatisFactsDoug
60. AptAssociation
61. AptsForRent
62. CreatingHOME
63. RyanPMG
64. DariaSteigman
65. BeckyMcCray
66. DuctTape
67. ShannonPaul
68. MariSmith
69. GraceHill
70. TMGrace
71. EricaCampbell
72. JRosseth
73. 4wallsRentals
74. AnnPadgett
75. TheEllipseCow
76. HAAOnline
77. AptlySpoken
78. HousingHospital
79. AptDoctor
80. KMueller62
81. MackCollier
82. DanZarrella
83. ShivSingh
84. Marc_Meyer
85. JasonFalls
86. BethHarte
87. BostonMarketer
88. Jeffbullas
89. TarynP
90. NotEasyToForget
91. AtlantaPR
92. ToddSchnick
93. KellyeCrane
94. TheBrandBuilder
95. Shashib
96. Hubspot
97. TobyDiva
98. JacquiChew
99. VacancyDotCom
100. I’m last… Follow me @CharityHisle for the latest updates on SEO, Apartment Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Engagement Strategies, OR just for conversation!

If you’re new to Twitter, you should definitely check out my post on using hashtags and other Twitter how-to’s!

Do you follow everyone on this list? Do you want to be on this list? Is there anyone else missing? If you have a few you’d like me to add, please leave their Twitter handles in the comments section below. I’ll be happy to update this post with your ideas!

Top 100 Twitter Recommendations originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on October 28, 2010.

"I've got a great name for our kid."

It’s reported that Twitter gets 300,000 new users daily. Many join without understanding the basics of what makes a Twitter account successful. You don’t have to have thousands of followers on Twitter to be successful. In fact, only 74% of Twitter users have more than 10 followers. It’s really simple: When people want to follow you, reply (@) to your tweets, AND retweet (RT) your tweets; you’re successful!

Everyone is new at Twitter at some point. In case you’ve gotten started and feel a little stuck, here are 6 simple steps to being successful on Twitter:

1. A rose may be just as beautiful and smell as sweet if it weren’t named a “rose”, but your Twitter name might stink. I think everyone would agree that the worst Twitter accounts are the spammers. One of the fastest ways you can determine a spam account is the username. Many spammers add numbers to names, thinking that will fool the average user. Jackie1975236 is far less appealing than WackyJackie or even JackieSmith. On Twitter, we like to know that we’re talking to a human, and most human’s have names (unless you’re George).

2. Use a real picture of you or something unique that represents who you are. Early on, Twitter was made up of real people wanting to share information and have real conversations. Even in 2009, Twitter’s users preferred people to use pictures or avatars of themselves. The key is to follow the culture of the site you are using.

3. The Non-Bio hazard. Share a little information about yourself if you want other users to follow you on Twitter. You can put personal or professional information in this space, make a joke or share a poem. No matter what you do, it’s better than nothing! Wait, unless your bio talks about selling something like “Follow me to learn how to get rich on Twitter!”

4. Know who to follow. Twitter has developed an application within their online interface that will give you ideas about people you should follow. These suggestions are made by comparing the user profiles of people that you’re already connected too. Use Search Twitter to find people that share similar interests. If you’ve established a friendship with someone on Twitter, you can look at their friends on Twitter and follow a few.

5. Itty bitty Bit.ly. 140 characters isn’t much to convey your thought or share an idea. Remember to shorten hyperlinks when you tweet, it’s considered polite. By using a hyperlink shortener, you will be able to share more information with fewer characters. I choose to use bit.ly because I can track clicks and views of the urls I share. Tinyurl and Ow.ly are two other useful url shortening tools.

6. Be careful what you tweet. Unlike Vegas, what happens on Twitter is shared with the world. Twitter has made it possible to delete tweets but nothing prevents users from taking screenshots and reposting. In addition, Twitter has donated ALL tweets on their service to the Library of Congress for research and preservation. Who knew your tweets would be history in the making? What do you want to be remembered for? That chicken sandwich or that new study? Remember to be personable without being too personal.

That’s it! 6 simple steps to being successful on Twitter! Do you have any to add?

Related articles:

• 5 Secrets of Highly Effective Twitter Users (inc.com)
• 5 Simple but Important Tips to Make the Most out of Twitter (shoutmeloud.com)

6 Simple Steps to Twitter Success originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on August 16, 2010.

Using the hashtag #SweetestTweets, Macy’s is rockin’ Twitter using their own contest with over 1,500 tweets.

The question of the day is: How can you use Twitter during Valentine’s Day and other holidays?

First, list your goals. What are you expecting to achieve? More renewals, referrals, walk-in traffic? Are they reasonable?

Next, pick your prize! Determine what interests your residents and prospects. Do you know what your residents REALLY want? Here are a few ideas, please share your own in the comments section:

• Free Rent
• Renewal for their current rate
• Better parking
• Upgraded appliances

Then, pick your hashtag. If you don’t know what a hashtag is, check out my post #Hashtags: for Beginners. Choose something unique. Consider the holiday carefully, and pick a tag that represents the holiday, the prize, or your community.

Last, decide on the contest criteria and the marketing: how many and what types of prizes, submission deadlines, and marketing platforms (print, Facebook, signs).

I’m very curious to see what your business is doing. If you have ideas for contests, please share them!

Sweet Tweets? Twitter Contests Connect Businesses and Consumers. originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on February 14, 2010.

Update: Since the original date of this post, there have been changes to the tools posted above and therefore there were broken links. WhatTheHashtag is no longer a resource.

If you’re new to Twitter, I’m sure you have seen that # sign. Some people call that a pound sign, and that’s okay. But on Twitter, # is a hashtag. In this post, I will explain what hashtags are, how to use them, and a few tips and tricks.

A hashtag is:

A hashtag is a keyword preceded by a # sign. We use these on Twitter to track conversations on specific topics. Some of my favorite topics are #socialmedia, #mfi, #AptChat, and #blogchat.

Hashtags are also a great way to determine trending topics on Twitter. You can view these trending topics on the right side of your screen when logged in to Twitter or just by visiting Twitter.com.

How to use a hashtag:

Searching with hashtags.

The whole point of using hashtags is to be able to communiate directly with others on a particular topic. We do this by searching for hashtags in use, then responding and including the hashtag within the response.

There are different ways to search with hashtags. Search.Twitter.com is excellent, or if you’re signed in to Twitter.com, search is made easy on the right side of your screen or simply click on the hashtag. There are also tools that can be used to track hashtags, and chats.

What’s a Tweet Chat?

A Tweet Chat is a scheduled event on Twitter where individuals determine a specific time and hashtag. Then they tweet related messages using the hashtag to identify their participation in the conversation. There are several tools you can use to follow along with a Tweet Chat.

Tweetdeck can be modified to include a Twitter search column for a specific keyword or hashtag. The downside to Tweetdeck is that there is a limit to how many tweets you can read within an hour.

TweetChat.com is very convenient for following along and tweeting in a conversation. The best part is that it automatically inserts the hashtag into the tweet so you don’t have to. The negative is that sometimes it moves too slowly to keep up with the conversation.

What the Hashtag is also great for looking up statistics on hashtags. Try it now: Click here and in the search box (upper left) type in AptChat. Note the description, related hashtags, the Twitter activity, and the most frequent users of the hashtag? You can also get a transcript of all public tweets including #AptChat, join in with a tweet of your own, and subscribe to an RSS feed of tweets that can be delivered into your email inbox for convenience.

A few more Tweet Chat tools include TweetGrid, Monitter, and Twitterfall.

Create a hashtag:

When possible, use hashtags you know already exist. If you need a to create a hashtag for your brand, it is acceptable to do so. For example, my friend Brent Williams with MultifamilyInsiders.com created the hashtag #mfi to label tweets to/from the community. There aren’t hashtag police, but please don’t get too ‘creative’! What I mean is, don’t over-complicate it. Use as few words as possible, unless you’re trying to be funny #imjustsayin and #dontIknowit!

Placement of a hashtag:

The biggest complaints I read about hashtags are that people use too many per tweet or that they place them at the beginning of the tweet. Too many hashtags within tweets can make tweets appear spammy. Pick 1 or 2, but no more than 3. Remember, the more hashtags in the tweet, the less room for the message.

Try to keep hashtags at the end of the tweet unless you are substituting words within the tweet with a hashtag. For example: I loved the article on #mfi today (link here). Otherwise, it would look like this: I loved this article (link here). #mfi

Avoiding hashtag spammers:

Hashtag spam is a growing problem on Twitter. Basically, a spammer will see a trending hashtag on Twitter, then use the hashtag to spread their spam in order to gain more click-thru’s. My advice regarding spammers: Quickly block and report spammers to keep them from your tweet stream.

Another new solution that I’ve noticed recently is that some Tweet Chats are changing their hashtags weekly to decrease spam. Spam is particularly irritating when you have a limited number of tweets you can view (API limitations).

Tips for hashtags:

To break it all down:

• Use hashtags to communicate with others on a specific topic.
• Create hashtags that make sense.
• Place hashtags at the end of your tweets.
• Use only 1-2 hashtags per tweet.
• Don’t be a spammer, only use hashtags if they apply to your tweet.

Do you have any other advice to share regarding hashtags? Or any questions you need answered?

For more infomation on hashtags, Mashable has an informative post.

Photo Credit: Tony Gigov

(Update) #Hashtags: for Beginners originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on January 4, 2010.

I just got off the phone with my friend Kim Cory. We were discussing last weeks #AptChat and the term ‘engagement’ as it relates to social media and our personal definitions of the term. But before I get into the various descriptions offered for the meaning of engagement, let’s see what Dictionary.com has to offer us:

en⋅gage: [en-geyj]

1. to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons): He engaged her in conversation.

3. to attract and hold fast: The novel engaged her attention and interest.

4. to attract or please: His good nature engages everyone.

and just for fun:

5. to bring (troops) into conflict; enter into conflict with: Our army engaged the enemy.

#5 happens when opposing views are shared!

Here are a few interesting thoughts on engagement shared during the chat on Friday:

What is ‘Engagement’ to me?

Those were some interesting thoughts from our #AptChat crew! I really liked Jonathan’s description “to me engagement has the tone of genuine interest in a subject”. When Kim Cory and I were speaking this afternoon, we agreed  that being engaged is about the quality of the conversation. It’s more than how many comments your blog post receives, or how many fans you have on your Facebook page. Engagement demonstrates you have a vested INTEREST in the conversation, you’re INVOLVED in the conversation, and you CARE about what is being said and who is saying it.

We all approach our online relationships differently. For example, my connections online usually begin with a professional outreach and I build on that relationship until it becomes personal. For property managers, I see this happening much the same way. At first you’re just connecting with everyone you can to begin establishing your relationships online, then you feed and water the relationship until it grows personal.

What does ‘Engagement’ mean to you?

Please share your thoughts below. Don’t be afraid to comment; there are no right or wrong answers, it’s all a matter of opinion!

What Does ‘Engagement’ Mean, Anyway? originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on December 14, 2009.

Be Unique, Make Your Ads Stand Out!

How do you appeal to renters without using rent concessions?

How are you writing your apartment community craigslist ad titles? Are you using rent concessions to drive traffic to your property? What if you don’t have any promotions? What content are you posting to your Facebook and Twitter pages? Are you just posting your rental rates and promotions? Did you know that more than half of American adults are attempting to save money?

A new Harris Poll shows interesting statistics regarding ways adults are trying to save money:

• 36% have switched to tap water and refillable bottles instead of bottled water.
• 21% have cancelled or cut back on their cable TV service.
• 20% have stopped buying coffee in the morning.
• 14% have been carpooling or using mass transit.

Let’s face it, not every community can compete with ever-increasing rent promotions and concessions. Sometimes, the rent cannot get ANY lower. How do you differentiate your ads and your content from competitors when the properties are so similar? Try this: if your community offers something of value, highlight that feature in your ads, in your Facebook Page content, and occasionally in your Twitter feed. Please understand: I don’t mean use a long list of amenities. Frankly, that’s boring and exactly what everyone else is doing. Use the statistics above to create ad titles/headlines that are unique for your community.

Below are a few examples of ways you can turn your apartment community features into a call-to-action.

Your community offers-

Free water and trash services.
“Save $50 a month with our FREE water and garbage service!”

Free cable.
“Thinking of canceling cable to save money? If you lived at “XXX Apartments” Cable would be FREE!”

Excellent location.
“There’s no need to carpool to work when you live a block away!”

Free morning coffee to residents.
“Why buy expensive coffee? Get yours free every morning before you head to work, just bring your own cup!”

Free theater room.
“Date nights are expensive! Book our FREE theater room for a cozy night out, just bring your own goodies!”

Fitness center.
“Cancel your expensive gym membership and workout for FREE in our community fitness center!”

Community room (magazines, movies, games, coffee)
“Magazine subscriptions are expensive! Save money and read your favorite magazines for free in our community center!”

Don’t forget to rotate your new headlines, I’m sure there are many other ideas just waiting for you to discover.

How have you used your community features to appeal to potential renters? Please share some of your examples with us!

Appealing to Renters Without Using Rent Concessions. originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on November 5, 2009.

You never really know someone... especially online.

When I ‘meet’ someone on Twitter, the new relationship starts out with a certain level of trust. I am careful about those I ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ online and by the time I’ve returned a friend or follow request I have established that a person is trustworthy. By careful, I mean I spend some time in the profile before I automatically follow the person back.

These are 10 steps I take to protect my Twitter account:

1. View the friend:follower ratio – It has to be somewhat even, unless it’s @badbanana, @theonion or even Justin.

2. Read the Bio and the URL – Is it believable? Is this a real person or someone looking to ‘collect’ me like a stamp?

3. Look at the tweet count  - If the person has 1K + followers and only tweeted 100 times, there’s a problem.

4. Read the tweets – Are there any conversations (@replies) with people?

5. Take the time to glance over the following/follower lists – Does this person follow other spammers? Or does this person follow other people in my fields of interest?

6. Once I’ve decided to follow someone, I will unfollow immediately if I receive any kind of ‘click my junk’ DM. TIP: I’m not fond of ‘Thanks for following’ DM’s either.

7. I block scammers and spammers regularly. This is the reason my Twitter follow and follower counts are still fairly low.

8. On occasion I protect my updates and spend some time removing followers. This is less than a ‘block’… it’s just saying I’m really not interested in them following me.

9. I report scammers and spammers to @Spam often. We need to work together as a group to get rid of these people.

10. I’ve stopped clicking on links within DM’s. It’s not that I don’t trust my friends, it’s more about the lack of Twitter security. If you receive a tweet from me that says “please confirm this link is real by sending me an @reply”, please don’t be offended.

I hope these 10 Tricks will keep you safe while Tweeting! Do you have any tips or tricks to share?

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope it’s spooooky!

10 Tricks for Safe Tweeting originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on October 29, 2009.