I’m a big believer in social media. As a result, I’m quite active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – the latter two of which I actively use for business purposes.
I’ve met a lot of folks in the real estate and facility management industry who greet me with a great deal of scepticism when I tell them that I use social media as part of my every day business development and social interactions. What’s the point, they say? This is all just a fad, and real executives don’t use and don’t have time to waste on social media. And besides, what applications are there for social media in the real estate industry anyway? You’re wasting your time and effort.
Maybe so. And everyone is entitled to an opinion. However, I disagree. And let me tell you why.
What is Social Media Anyway?
Social media is a way to disseminate information through social interactions. Commonly referred to as ‘Web 2.0’ (the next generation of the web), it’s rapidly taking over our communications and media landscape. It’s even spawned new verbs, such as “I Facebooked you.” Or perhaps “I Tweeted about that today.”
Like every trend, there are always your early adopters and your late adopters. Some industries and companies have been very quick to jump on the social media bus, while others, such as the real estate industry, are dithering.
There are already a multitude of success stories in social media. For example, take the story of 29 year old Justin Halpern. In August of 2009, Justin decided to start a Twitter feed where he would post funny little vignettes (remember, Twitter is 140 characters or less) that his 74 year old father would tell him. His Twitter moniker is famously called “Sh*t my dad says.” Fast forward to 8 months later. Halpern has over 1.2 million followers on his Twitter page, secured a book deal with Harper-Collins and sold the television rights to CBS. He’s literally an overnight success story built purely through social media.
Admittedly, what happened to Halpern is not going to happen to all of us. It’s just an example to demonstrate the power of social media.
As for real executives not using social media, nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone from Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Steve Case and Richard Branson is on Twitter. Check out this directory for a more detailed list.
How Should I Use Social Media
Mashable, the social media guide, recently discussed ‘5 habits of successful executives on Twitter’. They are 5 habits that all of us can learn from, and actually, could apply to all social networking sites:
They are their brand’s conscience: Show that your brand is sticking to its message.
They don’t sell – they share: According to Mashable: “Twitter isn’t advertising, it’s a conversation. Great executive tweeters don’t try to sell to their followers, they try to engage them in a personal way. They share things about their company’s corporate culture, their leadership values, the great people around them. They help followers with problems. They make business competition personal, and sometimes even funny. Each tweet should be a window into the life of the company behind the marketing, which will make the marketing stronger as a result.”
They are real human beings: You don’t always have to talk business. Tell people about other things going on in your life (without crossing the line, of course). For example, are you taking your son to soccer practice tonight? Is tonight poker night for you? Don’t be shy to tell people. It shows you have a human side.
They write well: You want credibility? Nothing says credibility like good grammar and punctuation.
They commit: If you’re joining Twitter, or any other social networking site, commit to using it properly. Don’t join and then forget your password. Or don’t join just to “check it out.” If you’re going to join, commit to joining on a full-time basis. Otherwise, it will be difficult to derive any benefit from it at all.
What about Real Estate?
If you read my article entitled “How Can Twitter Enhance your Real Estate Operations”, you already know that the big real estate players are not very big on Twitter. I struggle to find real estate connections on LinkedIn, but I must admit, the numbers have been rising lately. In my opinion, this boils down to nothing more than a lack of understanding of the power of social media. Here are some stats:
- Facebook has over 400 million users
- LinkedIn has over 45 million users
- Twitter has over 45 million users
The above stats clearly demonstrate that the argument of “my customers and targets don’t use social media” is completely false. They’re using it. And they’re probably looking for you. There are certainly more people on those three social networking than there are reading your local newspaper. Makes you wonder what the point would be in advertising anything in your local newspaper, given the reach that social media has.
Social media is a tool that can be used to demonstrate your expertise, your know-how and can help be the basis of meaningful business relationships. There is this sense out there that real estate industry is different from other industries. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, the real estate industry frequently is slower than most industries when it comes to adopting certain new technologies as well as communication tools.
Just to further demonstrate this, when I go to a real estate conference or networking event and collect business cards, the first thing I do when I get back to my office is search LinkedIn for the people that I met at the event. More often than not, I come up empty handed. A good friend of mine who is in the banking industry does the same thing. The majority of the cards that he collects are all on LinkedIn. Real estate just hasn’t caught on yet.
Here are a few things to keep in mind if you’re in real estate and you’re interested in getting involved in social media:
Social Media is a communication tool, not a sales mechanism: This is not ebay or craigslist. Don’t try and sell people anything. Your role is to communicate to them what you and your company are all about. Show them your expertise. Prove to them that you’re a leader in your industry.
If you’re a broker, this is not the place to post listings. People looking for real estate (owned or leased) will go through already established channels (like Altus Insite, Loopnet, local brokers etc.). Or, they’ll go to your website – which will be linked to your social media account. It’s all one big inter-connected web.
Anyone can post new listings. But does everyone have the same expertise, knowledge and understanding of the market that you have? Social media is the tool by which you can demonstrate that knowledge and expertise.
Networking, Networking and more Networking: Social media is about forming sustainable business relationships with like-minded individuals that can be mined at a later date. On Twitter, I’m following real estate people and companies from all over the globe so that I can keep up with global real estate news and gain a better understanding of what these individuals and companies do so that if necessary, I can reach out to them one day. As a member of CoreNet Global, I use LinkedIn to keep up with CoreNet happenings and news, as well as to browse other user profiles for networking opportunities. Also, I use Twitter and LinkedIn to announce what forums or conferences I’ll be attending so that if any of my connections or followers are attending as well, perhaps we can arrange a face-to-face.
Exposure: Did you just publish a new blog post? Are you speaking at a conference and you want people to know about it? There’s no better place to promote it then on Twitter or LinkedIn. Once again, it’s just another way of showing that you’re a subject matter expert.
Brand Awareness and Recognition
On a personal note, I can tell you that I’ve increased my brand through social networking, and I know of a few others in the real estate industry that have as well. And that’s really the key of social media. It’s about brand exposure, not about selling.
So enough with the excuses! If you’re not actively engaged in social media yet, now’s the time to take the plunge.
Article by: William Jegher
William Jegher is President of Wika Consulting, a consulting company specializing in facilities management and real estate benchmarking, communications and consulting. Contact him at wjegher@wikaconsulting.com
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/wjegher
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/william-jegher