Commercial Real Estate Professionals Need Social Media
Are you one of the few business professionals that haven’t yet engaged in social media? What is
stopping you? Here are a few tips on why you need to be using social media.
You Need to Form Relationships
The commercial real estate business is all about relationships. Most business is won not because
of who you are affiliated with, not because of your marketing materials or even your experience.
It is who you know. Potential business can be won just because you have a good connection with
someone. Social media allows you to form new relationships.
Speeds up Networking
On social media sites, you can find tons of information all within seconds, and it is all organized
neatly so you can refer to it later. You can view 25 clients (local or non-local) within half an
hour, and find out much more information about them than you ever thought possible. Thus,
speeding up networking and cutting down local boundaries.
See what’s going on within your area (Twitter)
You may be afraid of Twitter and Tweeting…however, Twitter can be a very powerful search
tool. You can do a hashtag (#) search for your area. For example, go to Twitter.com and search
#atlanta. Just browse through the Tweets that show up. You can spend less than 5 minutes and
learn something about your area that you didn’t know was going on. Anyone can get
information; the key is knowing what to do with it. Requires a login to Twitter.
Social Media is the Home of Future Clients
99% of Generation Y (Gen Y), or Millennials have a profile on a social networking site.1
Gen Y accounts for close to 80 million individuals, outnumbering the 78 million baby boomers
reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.2
Gen Y has $1.3 trillion (yes, trillion) in direct spending power.3
Gen Y is beginning to take over positions that make decisions
Your Competitors are on There
What happens when you are not at a networking or broker event and your competitors are…you
miss out on a potential opportunity. Whether you want to believe it or not, your competitors are
on social media sites, and you should be too.
The commercial real estate business is one of the only businesses where you market directly to
your competition. They help you close deals, and you help them close deals. You can use social
media to:
1. Market to your competitors
2. Monitor your competitors
Use it to Learn
We are in the age of information overload. There is so much information out there. Social
media sites can streamline the information for you. You can follow only those people that post
topics that interest you or that you can learn from.
Use it to Share Content
One of the main goals of social media sites is to share content. Commercial real estate
professionals have tons of content to share beyond listings, including marketing reports, relevant
articles, blog posts, etc.
Meet your Client before Meeting them (LinkedIn)
Before I meet with any new client or vendor, I immediately look them up on LinkedIn. I don’t
really care for LinkedIn’s new policy where you can’t see people’s profile unless you have a
3rd degree connection; but if you actually do have a connection with the individual, you can find
out loads of information before you even meet the client. Use it to your advantage.
There you have it, are you ready to take the social media plunge. The key is use your time
wisely and don’t get trapped in the vortex of social media. Make the sites work for you.
By: John Boyer, Director of Marketing, Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates
1 - Participatory Marketing Network Study: Gen Y‘s Are Not Yet Taking Flight on Twitter; June
1, 2009, http://thepmn.org/pressreleases/060109
2 - Using Computer Simulations to Recruit and Train Generation Y Accountants‖ by Polimeni,
Ralph S, Burke, Jacqueline A, Benyaminy, Diana; May 2009,
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5346/is_200905/ai_n31965174/
3 - Welcome to the New Millenials‖ by Littman, Sarah; May 1,
2008,www.responsemagazine.com/response-magazine/welcome-new-millenials-1192
View more at Blog.CBCWorldwide.com
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