When it comes to cultivating brand loyalty through social media, Melanie Ling, director of digital marketing at Contemporary Management Concepts, LLLP (CMC Apartments) in Gainesville, Florida, has figured out a formula for success. She has quickly risen through the ranks at CMC Apartments and is responsible for all things digital — from website and technology solutions for property management to online customer care and content creation. But her passion is content, which stems from her background in television and radio.

As a television producer, Melanie’s goal was to form emotional connections with viewers. She developed a content programming style (a practice she now applies to creating web content) and analyzed media consumption patterns to make good marketing and promotions decisions.

She takes a similar approach in her role at CMC Apartments.

“Everyone has a story to tell. Our company has been in Gainesville for 36 years,” she said. “That’s part of what makes us special. We have staff with a long tenure, who were born and raised in the area. Our story is we believe that we are the best-suited to help ideal housing. We know what’s good in town, where to go for dining, entertainment, schools — and we help people find the right home and neighborhood. We’re selling shelter — that’s a basic necessity — but where you are your truest self, in the privacy of your home, is important. It isn’t just four walls and a roof, it’s your life.”

In today’s world, where current and potential residents are online, on multiple devices, looking at everything from decorating ideas to reviews, having a good online presence is critical — and Melanie’s love of content has led to some serious success in online reputation management. Melanie and her team are responsible for some of the multifamily industry’s most engaged social media channels, with 22 total assets including a Facebook page for every property and an active presence on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

“It’s an active, vocal and passionate community,” she commented. “I’d rather have a small engaged audience than a large, but non-responsive one. Creating a genuine connection is more important.”

Melanie helps CMC Apartments break through the clutter by combining audience insights and attention to detail with compelling images, quality storytelling, team-building, experimentation and a whole lot of fun. This year she was a speaker on such topics at both the National Apartment Association Student Housing conference and the Apartment Internet Marketing conference, and she recently took the time to share some thoughts about multifamily marketing.

Zillow: Talk about your approach to marketing, especially around social media.

Melanie: What’s the story? We take a PSA role and speak beyond our community. It’s not enough to talk about our pretty apartments. You need to have a little panache with your content and delivery.

Zillow: You’ve had a lot of success around your Instagram strategy. Can you tell us a little more about it?

Melanie: We thought about the story of the city we live in. Gainesville is a renowned college town, so a lot of things happen on a semester-based calendar. By nature of the city’s demographic, there are many professionals, singles and families that run on that calendar too. I noticed our property has all new residents every 15 months to 2 years because of the school system — students graduate, faculty transfer, and so forth. We understood that, and created the “As Seen in Gainesville” hashtag (#AsSeenInGNV) on Instagram to really put a local lens on the area and keep residents in the know.

Our best source of engagement is Instagram; we know residents by their handles and we have a strong local following. There are almost 700 posts on Instagram using the hashtag. People in the community are hopping in the conversation, talking about food, places to go and things coming to town.

Zillow: What are some of your takeaways from this success?

Melanie: People resonate more with something that feels real and organic, rather than with an apartment complex. We pushed #CMCHome. We pushed and pushed, even associated it with contests. In over two years, there have been just over 70 #CMCHome posts, compared to 675 for #AsSeenInGNV. Another thing working this year are Instagram takeovers which we feature using #CMCGuestGrams.

Zillow: Tell us more about Instagram takeovers – what’s the benefit of allowing another user or organization to take over your Instagram feed for a week?

Melanie: West Elm, Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel all did takeovers with some of my favorite bloggers and I LOVED IT! It gives such a fresh perspective on your content. You ask, “What makes Gainesville great?” Someone else can take the reins and answer that question if they are a good fit for your brand. For example, the County Tourism Board has content and knows where to go. Two other companies that took over our feed were a local brewer and a tech startup. It lets businesses tell their story, and we can see Gainesville from their perspective.

Zillow: How do you get businesses to participate?

Melanie: We send an email to a business and ask them to show us around — “a week in your eyes.” The content needs to be worthwhile — we have an audience to protect — focusing less on sales, more on edutainment.

Zillow: How do you measure the impact of your social media efforts with respect to your bottom line?

Melanie: Unless you’re doing sponsored social
campaigns, social should be your supplement. Make yourself an authority figure and go for it! What’s more important for our online efforts is reviews, which we can tie back to our performance. We work with SatisFacts and love the feedback at different touchpoints. We’re also using Community Rewards’ gamification platform, at select properties, to prompt reviews. 2014 was the year of reviews for us. Reviews have a strong impact on search results (not to mention your reputation), and my teams really pushed to make it happen in person and through dedicated landing pages to prompt a response. It’s rewarding when a prospect tell us, “Honestly, I came to tour because of your reviews”.

Social is just that — social. It’s fun! We’re telling stories, not selling a two-bedroom. If our audience is having fun with us, it’s through a social platform. If someone is shopping, they’re looking at reviews. There’s dollars and cents, and there's also your reputation — and that is an intangible cost.

CMC Apartment Facts

Number of properties: 23 throughout Gainesville, Orlando and Lakeland, Florida

Units under management: Approx. 4,200

Years in business: 36