85% of real estate transactions begin online! That’s a staggering number, which will undoubtedly increase over the next few years.
Web 2.0 presence is no longer an option for businesses small and large, it’s now a necessity. Companies that are not utilizing sites such as Twitter are doing themselves a huge disservice, and will find themselves struggling to expand their business or even maintain the status quo.
Real estate in particular is a field that relies heavily on technology, and to the credit of most residential brokers, they have understood the power of social media sites such as Twitter for some time now. Commercial real estate companies, however, have been slower to recognize the potential of Twitter. As Twitter has become more main stream I’ve seen a few commercial real estate companies here and there, yet many of them don’t utilize Twitter to its full potential. Twitter is an extremely valuable tool for building brand equity or rebranding. Self branding enables companies to showcase their talents, organically getting their name and information in front of people who might be interested in their services, and get networked to people who could help them grow their business.
Bob Woods at the Sibdu blog is the only person I’ve seen who has covered the use of Twitter in commercial real estate. He does a great job, however I want to cover it in more detail by using specific examples of what companies are doing correctly and incorrectly. In doing research for this article I monitored a few commercial real estate companies actively using Twitter. Some companies really get it and others fail to understand the power of Twitter. Here are some of the major trends I discovered.
Too many companies simply use Twitter as a place to advertise their service. Do not merely talk about your company. Here is an example of what not to do.
Not only does this make your company look bad, but it’s a waste of time. If people see that you’re only promoting your company, they will completely ignore you. This defeats the point of SOCIAL media.
Twitter and social media in general, with respect to CRE companies, is about building relationships with your clients and potential clients. It’s okay to advertise your services once in a while, but it’s about finding a healthy balance between your companies personality and your companies service. This is easier said than done. Colliers International, which maintains 3 Twitter accounts, (@ColliersIntl/@CRE_Research/@ColliersNews) does a good job of balancing their personality with their service.
Looking at their tweet stream you see a few interesting things.
The first thing I want to highlight is Colliers image background. A clean background featuring your companies logo and website is important to branding. It’s the first thing they notice about your page. Next thing I want to highlight is Colliers involvement in the community; as you can see, they are actively retweeting (RT) interesting and pertinent articles. The mere fact that they retweeted a post shows that they are actively listening to their community. This is key. People will not follow your company and listen to you if they realize that you aren’t listening to them.
The next thing I want to point out is that Colliers is taking the time to highlight articles they think their followers will find interesting. This shows that Colliers cares about their followers and wants to keep them engaged. This brings me to my next point; post links to articles you think your followers will find interesting or useful. In this case, Colliers is linking to an article about social media and real estate. A topic I’m wiling to bet almost all of their followers are interested in.
The last thing I want to point out is seen in Colliers most recent post.
Self promotion: Self promotion is not a bad thing if it’s done in the right manner. This use of self-promotion speaks volumes about Colliers as a company. By highlighting the success of one of their employees it shows that they care about their employees, while also showing the expertise and success of their staff.
Colliers as a company is a very savvy Twitter user and today, when times are tougher than ever, Colliers will be successful because they understand the game. The good news for every other company is the fact that it’s not too late to jump in. Get involved and become part of the conversation.
Stay tuned for part II of this series where I will discuss the use of Twitter for commercial real estate companies in more detail.
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