Who has more than 2,500 followers and isn’t in the NBA? Sperry Van Ness|Landmark Commercial Real Estate managing director Neil Johnson. It’s been an excellent way to stay connected with the broader real estate community, Neil tells us. His posts on Twitter and LinkedIn cover industry trends and local business activity, and following others helps him stay current on deals and market swings. LinkedIn is all business, allowing for extended conversations, more strategic relationships (based on request and permission), and more in-depth information into a potential contact’s background. By contrast, Twitter and its fleeting format reflect much more personality, passions, quirky interests, and humor, he says.

Take #CREjavaclub, a hashtag that began in June 2010 for anyone in commercial real estate that loves coffee and has a sense of humor. Neil guesses about a couple dozen people around the country stay in touch and contribute to the hashtag. He still marvels at the extraordinary phenomenon of having thousands of followers around the globe, including “some of the most prominent voices and experts in the commercial real estate industry,” who now feel like friends that he can engage directly. (He must mean Bisnow, and we're blushing from the flattery.) When Neil attends national conferences like ICSC RECon in Vegas, he’s enjoyed finally meeting and visiting with people in his social media network.