News
Should You be Tweeting?
August 11, 2010
| They met on Facebook, started blogging, and the tweets were just a natural progression. We're talking about the marriage of social media and commercial real estate. It was a lovely union with vows to market properties forever and ever. Amen. | |
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| We toured multiple firms to see how they're using social media. At SCM Real Estate, COO Carol Coffman-Sosebee showed us the blog she created last year. It provides clients (and potential ones) with info and new technologies, which gives value to SCM. “We want to convey that we really understand where our owners and clients are coming from by blogging about issues they're interested in and curious about. We build our brand on credibility,†Carol tells us. Now, SCM is on Facebook and LinkedIn. The ultimate benefit of using social media? More channels to market properties, she says. | |
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| Henry S. Miller Brokerage's Missy Hodges says social media is still pretty new at HSM. The firm's starting to build a following on Twitter and a fan base on Facebook. “Twitter and Facebook allow us to quickly share articles and real estate opportunities with our HSM family internally; but we are also branding Henry S. Miller Brokerage to a new group of potential prospects,†Missy says. Why social media? “We want to create as much interest and interaction with existing and potentially new clients as possible; our fan page and Twitter are sources to find interesting articles about HSM and our industry, discuss relevant industry topics, review the latest investment opportunities, and much more,†she adds. | |
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| Cencor SVP and DFW property management director Jim Greenfield and DFW marketing coordinator Katherine Griffith with the Shops of Southlake Facebook window stickers, which retailers display to promote the shopping center's FB page. Jim says they see social media as one more way to promote properties, but not the only way. The goal is to use social media so the target audience appreciates and responds to what they're doing. The primary platform for properties is FB with Twitter close behind, he says. Many of their target audience members are already on FB and use smartphones to access it wherever they are. | |
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| Facebook might not be the most unusual way (think guy in a chicken suit) she's marketed a property, Katherine tells us, but it's one of the most rewarding. When she posts info about a special at Central Market, for example, the site generates immediate feedback from the audience. “That interactive feature makes it an opportunity and a challenge. People will let you know right away what they think of your marketing. So it keeps you on your A game,†she says. |
