Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Guide for Creative Marketers

Multifamily marketers, the 2024 MSMS (Multifamily Social Media Summit) is just around the corner! We look forward to it every year. Attending a conference can be a huge investment, and planning out your personal schedule can help you see everything you want, and help you prioritize which after-hours events will help you make the connections your company needs most. As much as we love the literal wining and dining that comes with attending a conference in Napa Valley, there’s a wealth of multifamily knowledge to tap that could (maybe?) be more complex than the cabs here.

Make the most of attending 2024 MSMS with our super-quick picks of the best topics, speakers, and sponsors we think you should add to your must-see list. 

Thankfully, MSMS is set up in a way that you won’t miss a session—you don’t necessarily have to pick a track and jump back and forth between agendas. The group stays together! If however, you need to grab a nap, a snack, or get a little fresh air, you can follow our guidance and go see the speakers and topics we think will be most helpful for thoughtful branding and top-notch marketing of your communities.  

Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Top Topics

The 2024 agenda for MSMS is full of Gen Z-focused social media strategy and plenty of discussion of AI—how it can help (and we’d assume, how it might not).

Keynote speaker Jay Acunzo is a creative coach, author, and his mission is to “help others make what matters.” (Sounds like we might have something in common with him!)

Also, given that we’re focused on apartment brands, the other topics we’re most interested in seeing are:

How to Reimagine Storytelling for your Multifamily Properties to Increase Engagement, Drive Growth and Social Search

Workshop #4

Wednesday, March 20

4:45-5:30pm

With Lindsay Calabrese, General Manager, Creator Network at the Arena Group

Expected Takeaway:

• Discover influential residents to collaborate and co-create together for mutual growth
• Creative ways to partner with local small businesses to increase community engagement
• Create engaging content to dominate social search

Why It’s Our Pick:
As an apartment brand-focused creative agency, we know copywriting is at the heart of your verbal identity. Finding new ways to creatively tell your brand’s story, quite simply, excites us!

The Urge to Act: How to Stop Shouting into the Void and Get Bigger Results with Content that Connects

Keynote

Thursday, March 21

9:15-10am

With Jay Acunzo, Cofounder, Creative Kitchen

Expected Takeaway:

• How to compete on the power of your ideas, not the volume of your content
• A storytelling structure to amp the efficacy of your words, wherever you show up
• How to produce higher-impact content, without magically adding resources

Why It’s Our Pick:

Finding a way to connect with every segment of residents and leads is vital to a brand’s bottom line. Producing content that provides quality over quantity is a lesson anyone can draw from.

Google Tips and Strategies

Friday, March 22

11-11:45am

With Riva Akolawala, Account Manager, Google

Expected Takeaway:

• Learn which key metrics to look for when assessing ads campaigns
• What 3rd party Cookie deprecation in 2024 means for advertising
• Enhanced Conversions FAQ
• Best Practices for Google Ads: which assets and creative to use

Why It’s Our Pick:

Google continues to be the key to a powerful online presence, but using Google Ads can be overwhelming. With some guidance, your brand could capture your target resident using paid search.

Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Speaker Picks

There are a few to choose from, but these were the ones that stood out to us!
Our picks have a variety of experience, both steeped in the multifamily industry, and in parallel industries. We pulled the following speaker’s bios straight from the 2024 MSMS website:

A 15-year industry professional, Alex Abernathy serves as Executive Vice President at Asset Living. His primary responsibility is overseeing global portfolio marketing efforts with both centralized national and specialized regional teams. Asset Living’s Marketing Service is a vital component of their company vision – continuing to serve our industry, communities, and partners as the most trusted partner in real estate. Asset Living employs over 7,000 real estate professionals and operates over 1,600 communities which consists of over 230,000 units.

Alex’s experience includes Multifamily, Student, Build-To-Rent, Affordable, Co-Living, and Active Adult, with industry knowledge and experience spanning 200+ real estate markets nationwide and international markets including Canada, Mexico, UK, Bahamas, Colombia, and UAE. Additionally, Alex dedicated two years to transforming a Houston-based software development firm into a full-service digital product / marketing agency, Poetic, specializing in Real Estate MarTech and Marketing Services.

Speaking on:

Wednesday – 2:30-5:30: Executive Summit on AI
Thursday – 2:45-3:30: Everything You Need to Know About TikTok

Delany Duke serves as the Director of Digital Services at Landmark Properties – overseeing the social media and online presence of 80+ student housing properties across the US. Her team is an integral part of Landmark’s corporate marketing department, keeping a pulse on the everchanging world of social media marketing and creating easy-to-learn tools and methods for leasing professionals to utilize social media to increase their leasing velocity while creating meaningful customer experiences.

Delany began her career in student housing property management when she was a freshman at The University of Central Florida in 2014 – first as a part-time community ambassador and then as a full-time management position in new development marketing post-graduation. Throughout this time, Delany gained 5+ years of in-the-field leasing and marketing experience that allowed her to grow her knowledge of digital marketing and how proper implementation of social media strategy can positively influence your property’s brand exposure.

Speaking on:
Thursday – 3-3:45pm – Workshop #2: Gen Z – They’re Coming! Are You Prepared?

2024 Must-Visit Sponsors

Zipcode Creative – Besides coming to see us at the Zipcode Creative booth, there are few other folks (sponsors at 2024 MSMS) we think you’d enjoy talking with—not only are they friendly, but they also have awesome solutions for apartment marketers. (P.S. Our services partner really well with theirs.)

Revyse – This community is an incredible resource where you can shop vendors before wasting a second on a demo call! We use Revyse to start conversations with folks interested in our help!

Engrain – Their interactive sitemaps are awesome—many of our clients supply our beautiful 2D map files to them as a starting point. (It’s all coming together.)  

RESI – Known for their gorgeous websites, they’re able to make custom-looking branded sites (with all your brand style that we help establish) that still play nice with property management systems.

HyLy – Email and templates to reach your ideal resident? Hyly’s got it—and the branding we design for you is easy to fold in with their CRM system.

Apartment Geofencing – After we’re done making your branding beautiful, you can get on the advertising train with super-smart digital ads, getting in front of exactly who you want.

Show My Property – Visual branding—beyond your shiny new logo from us—needs beautiful photography to round out your marketing collateral. Enter: Show My Property.

Social Kapture – Steadily creating your community brand is easier with Social Kapture, with custom content and smart social media strategies. Establish your brand here and it will work hand-in-hand with your digital and physical collateral.

Organizing Your 2024 MSMS Schedule

Choose your top speakers and topics, write them down on a schedule. It’s easy to get blinded by the bright lights, but keep your focus and go to what you think will be most helpful for you and your company.

AFTER-HOURS EVENTS

A few questions to ask yourself before you say yes to that event invitation…
1) Does it align with your needs and what you’ve set out to accomplish at this conference?

2) Will it help you connect the dots and partner with a new vendor?

3) Will you meet other like-minded industry folks with similar roles who you can relate to / vent with?

Buuuuuut..let’s say you’re an introvert. Go for the smaller events. And definitely ask vendors personally what they may have going on.

If you’re an extrovert, maybe the larger events will work out better for you—more power to you!

Sometimes choosing the small after-hours events will help you make stronger, deeper connections because the gathering is more intimate, and you’ll be able to hold a conversation with the decision makers and the folks who want to connect with you (rather than woo you with fun parties). This can keep you from getting lost in the mix.

Can’t-Miss Events for the Quintessential Napa Experience

We’re so excited to be co-hosting two amazing excursions on the first and last days—they’re by invitation only, and they have limited space. If you’re interested in attending, please reach out ASAP!

Wednesday, March 20

Invite Only

10am – 1:30pm
Group Size: 40

Location

Meadowcroft Winery
Folktable Restaurant
Cornerstone Gardens

Hop on a bus with us from Meritage, then enjoy a glass of sparkling wine upon arrival to Folktable Restaurant & Meadowcroft Wines. Hearty appetizers will be served throughout as you sip white wine by the glass, and join a unique red wine-blending and bottling experience—you’ll also take home a custom labeled bottle as a souvenir. Mocktail tasting flights (with wines presented for smelling) will be available as an alternative. Attendees will then hear from Top Chef Contestant Chef Casey Thompson before touring the Cornerstone Gardens, weather permitting. The bus will drop visitors back off at the Meritage Hotel. (2.5 hour experience)

Friday, March 22

Invite Only

1pm – 8:30pm
Group Size: 45

Location

Turnbull Winery
The Saint Winery
Bottega Restaurant

Taking a bus directly from the Meritage Hotel, we’ll stop at Oakville Grocery for sandwiches, and eat en route to Turnbull Winery, where we’ll taste four special wines. Then we’ll stop at The Saint in St. Helena, tasting Night Wines (and others) while enjoying the venue for two hours. Dinner at Bottega in Yountville, with wine from Faust will round out the night, after which we’ll board the bus and return to the hotel. (7.5 hour experience)