Social Media Solutions for Commercial Real Estate Brokerage
Social media alternatives are always available to brokers and agents. The online marketing process and the client contact that you embark on can be enhanced by social media. Over time you can build a large online marketing process that integrates well into your business activities.
The secret to making the online social media strategy work is in both frequency of posting and in relevance. The business clients and investors that we work for in commercial real estate are mainly focused on both property opportunity and local market information, so the content and communications that you create online should be uniquely created in that way.
f you center your social media activities on local issues within those categories, you will have a greater chance of interacting with the right people and getting results. Search engines like information and particularly specialized or local information that can satisfy an online enquiry or search criteria; that’s the focus for your social media.
A Typical Model for Social Media Activity
Here are a few rules to the process to help get things underway:
- WRITE: Let’s say that you can potentially write about your industry and location. Keep your comments and ideas within a few commercial real estate topics and locational issues. In that way you can establish the specific search engine exposure that you require. Keep your comments property and location related.
- THE BEST TOOLS: Twitter is a good business tool that is convenient to use and quite direct to your online community. Look for topics and locational headlines that could be pushed out on your Twitter feed. Understand the ‘hot issues’ that property owners and investors are thinking about in your location. When you see an online article of interest, then send it out.
- COMMUNITY: LinkedIn is a useful business tool and you can use it within the industry successfully as part of a contact and informational process. If you are growing your community of contacts in this way, make sure the settings of your online ‘friends’ in LinkedIn prevent them from seeing each other. Many people join LinkedIn groups simply to understand who friends and contacts are for a given person and group.
- BLOGGING: Set up a Blog. The blogging process can be a very successful business tool for agents and brokers. Many blogs are inexpensive to establish and will allow you to post comments and ideas about an array of issues. Your blog should be all about your location and property issues. You can then take your blogs and feed them into your social media channels such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
- LOCATION FOCUS: Facebook is a tool for commercial real estate business providing you keep the structure and comments suitably shaped. Stick to the things that matter in your location. Load comments and useful articles that help your online community.
- USEFUL IDEAS AND INFORMATION: Useful topics to write about and post to your social media groups include property prices, investment in the location, new property developments, leasing strategies, tenant mix updates, and rental strategies. You will never be short of something to write about or talk about.
Don’t forget that the commercial real estate market is highly biased towards investment, property performance, and business function. Control your comments and social media accordingly.