NUTS & BOLTS
TEXTING & SOCIAL MEDIA
perceiving things incorrectly or making uninformed judgments about you that may affect your professional relationship with them. For example, if you take a vacation or make a major pur- chase, people will have opinions on those activities. Sadly, not all of those opinions will be positive. We once had a client who posted pictures of a really lovely trip she took. One of her ten- ants decided she must have enough extra wiggle room in her budget that she didn’t really need the rent and was very difficult about making payments after seeing the “luxurious” pictures! Why is this so important? Keeping your Facebook completely private eliminates the option for tenants to see what is going on in your life and eliminates a potential source of personal conflict in your business setting. Think about it: Do your personal friends live in perfect harmony with you and each other on social media? Probably not. There is no reason to bring that volatility to your business, so don’t. DO USE GOOD GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION IN YOUR TEXTS. A good rule of thumb is: Text as if you were sending an email when you send business-related texts. You can use a lit- tle conversational language, but do not use the same verbiage you would use if you were texting your friends. That means no abbreviations like “K” for okay or “UR” for your or you’re. Also, no emoticons. Texting is a convenient, quick way to communicate with tenants. We wholeheartedly encourage texting with tenants, as
The Do’s and Don’ts of Tenant Interaction Online SOCIAL MEDIA CAN SAVE YOUR DAY OR RUIN IT.
by Jenna Heneghan
S
ocial media and texting have made communication ridiculously easy. Almost too easy. The interactions on these outlets have blurred the lines on what is acceptable when talking to someone in a professional setting. For exam- ple, when you’re in college and posting pictures or statuses, you don’t think of the repercussions that these can have a few years down the road when you’re applying for a job. The same can go for messages shared when interacting with your tenants. In an ideal world, our tenants would pay on time and there would never be maintenance issues. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we are living in. Issues are bound to arise. It’s important to keep in mind that anything you typed out and sent or posted can be printed and used against you in the future, no matter how positive the interaction seemed at the time. At my company, we’ve come up with best practices for communicating with tenants via social media and messaging platforms. Here are three tips to keep you on the safe side: DO HAVE A FACEBOOK/INSTAGRAM/OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS PAGE ADVERTISING YOUR RENTALS. Social platforms are an excellent way to show off your new-
ly remodeled units! Before and after pictures along with vid- eos give potential tenants a way to see your property before they can get to the actual property. This strategy will get your unit far more attention than one that is not being advertised on social. Even better, that business page is free to use and reaches a large population of your target market. Why is this so important? A huge portion of renters today are Millennials. Where will you find them? You got it: on social media. If a potential renter sees your page and has a question they can message your page. This takes the work out of having to find an email/phone num- ber to contact and potentially wait for a response. Convenience is key, and having a professional presence online is crucial to reaching this unique generation. DON’T ACCEPT FRIEND REQUESTS FROM TENANTS ON YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNT. Does this seem extreme? It shouldn’t. As a landlord you are running a business. Your business is separate from your per- sonal life. If you let the two overlap, some people will end up
U hv roaches clean up ur kitchen bc pest control can’t w8
Hi, Mr. Jones. We wanted to let you know that maintenance will be coming out next week to handle routine pest control. Please let us know if Wednesday morning is a good time for you.
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Jenna Heneghan is the director of business development at Secure Pay One MLH. She may be reached at jennaheneghan@gmail.com.
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