(#551) MAKE THE MOST OF SEMESTER BREAK
CVZ PRESENTS:
STUDENT HOUSING TIP - SEMESTER BREAK
While the students are away for semester break get the most out of your Community Assistants (CAs) by doubling down on your social media content efforts and up your property’s social media game!
The students are gone for about 6 weeks and it’s likely your student staff members, aka Community Assistants, are still working their shifts during the break. This is often a relatively slow time at the property so be sure to utilize your support staff in a way that can be productive and fun.
How far you’re able to get ahead will be dependent upon the size of your staff and the way you utilize their efforts but it’s an excellent time to get all team members involved and excited.
FACT: Your CAs all love them some IG and they know what works on IG so bring in their personalities and let them run with it.
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HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN?
Let’s say you have a 4 person Community Assistant Staff. In a perfect world, you could assign each CA a goal of creating 1 month of content (30 posts). Over the course of 6 weeks, your 4 person team could easily get your content calendar advanced by up to 4 months of content.
Doesn't that sound amazing?
1. Make a gameplan. Let’s break it down.
Let’s say your CAs work 3 days a week on average.
If each of your CA’s took on one month of content that would require them to plan 3 posts per day. Based on 3 shifts a week, for about 3 weeks, would be about 27 posts. This leaves you a full 4th week if someone falls behind or is an overachiever and comes in with more.
I also recommend adding presentation/pitch meetings at the end of every week where each CA can pitch their content and strategy. Think resume builder for them and awesome content for your property page - DOUBLE SCORE!
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2. Get your team on board.
Now keep in mind that announcing to your team, “hey we’re going to jump ahead by 4 months in content and you’re going to create 1 month each” can clearly feel overwhelming so you want to be STRATEGIC in how you present this information.
Be sure to break it down in a way that’s simple and easy to understand.
I recommend you present it to them by saying, “Each day when you come on shift I’m going to challenge you to create 3 content pieces for our property Instagram. At the end of each week, we’re going to meet as a team and each of you can pitch/present the content you’ve planned and there will be prizes.”
3. Execute the plan!
Get creative in the execution… don’t be afraid to use their majors, interests, and natural talents to divvy up the work.
Here’s another example, let’s say you have an English Lit major on staff, someone that loves taking pictures, and a selfie expert that’s super active on her own IG-stories. In this case, I’d recommend you to get creative in the assignments such as:
English Lit Major: all copy and captions
Picture Taker: all images
Selfie Expert: story strategy
In this example, they would 100% work together. Plan the content/theme for the month and English Lit major would head up copy and captions, your photographer will take and edit all images, and your selfie expert will be covering stories. The assignments and contributions are specialized so they may not be able to get 4 months ahead, but surely can do a month or two. WHAT A WIN!
Once they are in a groove and when you have it fine-tuned, keep it rollin’ even when the students get back because as you know good content is GOLD!
FACT: you have to have a solid content plan. And having a content plan that’s designed by your community assistants, not the corporate marketing team, is even more GOLDEN.
Why? Well, it’s coming from their peers.
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4. Why this works.
Remember, at one point your Community Assistants chose the community to live there for their own reasons. Then the job came next. So rather than complicating your content let the CAs shine through IG and give them the creative freedom to make your page and your brand AWESOME and turn into a brand that sells the property without it ever feeling like a sale.
Copy that has been written by students that chose the community first and elected to work there because they love it so much is a very cool sale. It’s your best content.
Let them have fun. Let them show their personalities.
5. How to help your students reach their goals.
They will likely need some help with structure, time management, and deliverables so this is where you can come in and help support them. Break down their deliverable goals just as you would leasing goals.
It’s important to not let this feel overwhelming so keep it simple. Set a goal to create 2 to 3 posts per day.
Be clear in how many posts should be completed per day, per week, and over the course of the project.
Check-in and put your eyes on what they’re coming up with. Be supportive and engaged in this process, but let them run with it.
Remember this is something that doesn’t feel like work when you, as you the manager, keep the project in the “fun” lane, and you get quality work out of your support staff during a relatively slow time.
NOTE: I wouldn’t wait until the end of the 6 weeks to check in on this work just in case it’s not at all close to what you think it should be. You could have pitch and presentation meetings once a week, bi-weekly, or periodically. Make sure these meetings are upbeat and fun. THINK APPLE END OF DAY MEETINGS
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