When Thinking About Digital Walls: Go BIG!

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

That's a well-known Will Rogers saying and in a recent DigitalSignageToday article Debbie Wilson-Dewitt suggests it makes sense to apply it to digital walls, as well.  She says these walls are intended to create a strong impression.

Since the walls are typically placed in an entry area they're designed to make that first impression as lasting as possible and, for that, you need to go BIG or go home!

Social Media Wall at Wendell Falls

CPS offers Social Media Wall-- a unique, ever-changing combination of social media content and traditional marketing copy. Many of these walls have gone big and provide a terrific entrance focal point at new home information centers. 

Apart from size, what else needs to be considered when thinking about an effective wall?

• Size matters, initially; content keeps people looking. 
• Walls can greet as well as provide information.
• Use walls to communicate and reinforce branding. 
• Answer questions through wall content and images; it keeps people engaged, longer.
• Be sure the wall is designed for your audience.

Walls, says Wilson-Dewitt, are an incredible value-add and any kind of organization can benefit from them.

Heading to Orlando for IBS 2018? Visit CPS in Booth W5583 and let us help you imagine how this dynamic communications tool can leverage your social media content and create conversations!  

How to: Tell Your Amenities and Lifestyle Story Effectively

Bill Greene, with Atlanta-based multifamily developer Wood Partners, notes in a recent Multifamily Executive article, "The bar's being raised higher and higher on these communal amenities." He continues, "Millennials expect them. Besides wanting to live close to work, they expect every amenity you could probably find in a single-family suburban market, but all in one area."

Using interactive technology to tell your story!

And, actually, the same might be said for Boomers and their interest in a more urban environment. They want amenities associated with their previous suburban life such as pools, fitness spaces and large-scale theater rooms along with the lifestyle associated with a metro environment.

Location, of course, is still critical, as Jerry Davis with UDR notes, "The biggest community amenity is always the neighborhood."

One (perhaps) unexpected amenity of the moment is meeting/conference rooms.  With more and more people working from home, there's an interest in relaxing socially on-property as well as the ability to engage in community-centric activities such as wine tastings, dinners and game-nights.  Davis comments, "When it comes time for their lease to expire, if your residents have more friends that live at the community, they're more likely to renew."

The property not only needs the amenities but the ability to effectively tell their story.  Our suggestions include adding an interactive touch-screen based presentation to the leasing office with a clear focus on neighborhood and lifestyle. CPS' SalesTouch visually tells your story -- location, neighborhood and amenites.  Add CPS' Social Media Wall to engage prospects and residents in a property conversation -- and leveraging your social media, as well.  Ask us; we'll help you tell the story in the context of your community and amenity set!

How to Leverage Your Social Media into Engaging Experiences

There's a great recent article in Multifamily Executive featuring an interview with Holli Beckman, VP Marketing at WC Smith.  She's distinguished herself as one of the industry's leading social media experts.

One of the takeaways was this question/response:

Start Social Media conversation in your sales/leasing office!

Q: Is Social Media more about engaging with current residents or attracting new ones?

A: Both. Social media is where your customers are every single day and multiple times a day. 

Take a look at CPS' Social Media Wall and consider how it creates opportunities for leveraging your social media content creation and conversation to your community location.

The Wall takes traditional marketing copy and content (think video, images) and integrates social media content to create an ever-changing, constantly evolving story about your brand, community and audience -- Instagrammable moments, engaging experiences.

Everyone in your audience (current residents, home shoppers, your marketing staff) can join the conversation with a post to specific Twitter and Instagram hash tags -- and you have the ability to curate posted content before it displays on the Wall. Now, your social media content is available to everyone walking into the sales/leasing office.  You're creating a new conversation space!

Some hashtags will always display -- as will traditional marketing copy and images.  But...have a St. Patricks Day event coming up? Create a special hash tag and generate specific audience content just for a couple days. Same for your upcoming Spring Special Savings event and Homeowner's Friday Night Mixer!

Have you seen the recent Reevoo study finding 70% of consumers place peer recommendations and reviews above professionally written content?  Take advantage of 2016's marketing hot topic, CGC (consumer-generated content), to engage your audience and start conversations in your sales or leasing offices with CPS' Social Media Wall.