Catherine Swaback Multifamily Leadership Summit Speaker | PANEL DISCUSSION

Catherine Swaback, Director of Marketing Strategy at Alliance Residential Company, shares her expertise and insights regarding what it takes to build a great culture of success for Multifamily Operators. She explains how Alliance Residential is attracting and retaining the next generation workforce.

MULTIFAMILY LEADERSHIP SUMMIT 2016 | BUILDING A WINNING CULTURE & BRAND PANEL DISCUSSION | CATHERINE SWABACK

QUESTION 1: How are you promoting your brand internally to your current associates and externally to hiring candidates?

1. Culture
   1. Hire people that value integrity, passion for leadership, innovation, and creativity
   2. Invest in associates – Alliance University facilitates success, long-term career path
   3. Leadership opportunities, career advancement opportunities, continued education
2. Associate Significance
   1. Early adoption is organic
   2. Associates are brand ambassadors
   3. Talent team focused on campaigns that focus on current associates
   4. Why Alliance? Why Multifamily? Associates tell their stories.

QUESTION 2: What is Alliance’s corporate social media strategy and how does reputation management actually play into that?

1. One strategy with multiple components across the board
   1. Corporate strategy is same as specific property social media strategy
2. Social Listening is key
   1. Push-pull model
   2. Learn from what is being said about brand
   3. What kind of content is being posted and shared?
3. Marketing
   1. Work with on-site teams to make sure they understand the importance of Alliance’s digital footprint
   2. Protect brand
   3. Brand sentiment – what are the reviews saying, are they positive or negative?
      1. Responding proactively to reviews, both positive and negative
   4. Retaining residents based on associates

QUESTION 3: How do you train your associates to be responsible with social media and digital footprint?

1. Reputation Management
   1. Associates manage their own profiles
   2. Tools, strategy, and structure given
   3. Set of best practices, on-site training, social media manager to oversee

QUESTION 4: What strategies is Alliance Residential using to leverage the video aspect of everything?

1. Content
   1. Content is key within the video space
   2. Relatable, relevant to target audience and consumer
      1. Identify target audience
      2. Understand nuances between regions
      3. Look at much more than demographic data
2. Storytellers
   1. Tug at the heartstrings in order to fulfill consumer desires
   2. The home is an intimate, personal part of someone’s life
3. Channels
   1. Must be relevant
   2. Content that is adjustable – length, location, and make sure it is shareable
   3. Leverage your brand ambassadors to help tell the story

QUESTION 5: How do your talent and marketing teams work together to support initiatives and what are your pain points?

1. Collaborative Approach
   1. Support for on-site and operations teams
   2. Allow operators to focus on what they do best – leasing
   3. Leverage each other’s strengths, mutual respect for individual abilities
   4. Strength within the group
2. Recruitment Efforts
   1. Talent team comes up with ideas
   2. Collaborate with Marketing team
   3. Identify correct channels to reach the best potential employees
   4. Understand the budget – be effective
   5. Ensure messaging is resonating with the right people

QUESTION 6: What social listening tools are you using to gain that insight?

1. Social Media Manager in-house

1. Site teams encouraged to use Yelp, Facebook, and other pages to see what people are saying
2. Engage in what is being said
3. Grow and understand how to make better decisions

CONNECT

• Alliance Residential
• Catherine Swaback (Twitter) @CSwaback13