Social Media for Brokers - CoStar | # 1 Commercial Real Estate
Transcript of Social Media for Brokers - CoStar | # 1 Commercial Real Estate
Social Media for Brokers
February 29, 2012
Today‟s Panelists
Coy Davidson Senior Vice President
Colliers International
– Houston
Angela Brown External
Communications
Manager
CoStar Group
Richard Simonelli Director Strategic
Communications
CoStar Group
Today‟s Panelists
Richard Simonelli Director, Strategic Communications
CoStar Group, Inc.
www.costar.com
facebook.com/CoStarGroup
@TheCoStarGroup
linkedin.com/in/richardsimonelli
youtube.com/costargroup
plus.google.com/111453929242928477271
Today‟s Panelists
Coy Davidson Senior Vice President
Colliers International – Houston
www.coydavidson.com
facebook.com/TenantAdvisor
@CoyDavidsonCRE
linkedin.com/in/houstonofficespace
youtube.com/coydavidson2128
plus.google.com/105557945022210548581
coydavidson.wordpress.com
Today‟s Panelists
Angela Brown External Communications Manager
CoStar Group, Inc.
www.costar.com
facebook.com/CoStarGroup
@TheCoStarGroup @angelambrown
linkedin.com/in/angelambrown
youtube.com/costargroup
https://plus.google.com/111453929242928477271
Housekeeping
Recording and slides
A link to a recording of today’s presentation will be available
later today
Questions
Questions will be addressed at the end, but you may submit
them at any time
Please use the hash tag #CoStarSocial when tweeting about
this program or submitting questions via Twitter
What We‟ll Cover
Social Media…
Myths and Misconceptions
Content strategy
Who should own your
presence?
…for brokers
Raising visibility online
The broker’s social toolkit
Account management tools
Social Media…
Myths and Misconceptions
Myths and Misconceptions
Only young people use social media
Social media is intended to be a substitute for
face-to-face interaction
There are too many platforms to use – I can’t
keep up
It takes too much time
It’s too risky
It’s useful for raising awareness, but not for
selling or building meaningful relationships
Social Media Overload
Know your audience…and competition
Have a clear set of goals and objectives
Weigh your options against your resources
Don’t be afraid to fail
Ignore the noise
Content Strategy
Content Strategy
Business-oriented
Great for a business and its individual employees
More formal tone
Used for outreach, competitive intelligence,
sharing information and thought leadership
Appropriate for sharing articles and other content
related to a given industry or topic
Lower levels of engagement
Content Strategy
Informal, but used regularly across the business world
Intended for concise, frequent updates
Useful for connecting with business connections and the
media, research, thought leadership and driving website
traffic
Appropriate for sharing articles, corporate news, cross
posting of offsite content
High engagement
Content Strategy
Popular for its large user base and
branding/advertising opportunities
Also less formal but widely embraced by
businesses
Ideal for sharing industry information, interactive
content (images, video) and promotions
High engagement
Content Strategy
YouTube
Strictly for video content
Could be used for everything from company
updates and media interviews to building tours
Labor and resource intensive
for high-quality video
Lower levels of engagement
Content Strategy
Blogging
Gives businesses and individuals the ability to
self-publish
Ideal for thought leadership and media
engagement
Create and share content driven by your
market/area of expertise
Level of engagement driven by content
Content Strategy
Google+
Relatively large user base, but limited number
of active users
High impact on search
Very experimental for brands
Ideal for sharing highly interactive content
such as images, graphics and video
Content Strategy
Remember that you‟re creating and curating
for the web – throw the rules of traditional
content development out the window.
Who Owns Your Presence?
Managing Your Presence (and Time)
Outsourcing saves time, but…
It can be costly
You can miss out on industry and business
expertise – no one knows your business
better than an employee
Authenticity is key, and hard to get with a
vendor
Getting approvals to post content can reduce
efficiencies
Instead…
Only use the platforms you have the capacity to
use effectively
Use third-party tools to help you figure out when to
post and schedule posts accordingly
Set aside time each today to check your accounts,
respond to followers and curate content
Develop a content calendar – and stick to it
Have a documented policy and content strategy
Iterate and evaluate – if you aren’t gaining traction,
move on
Your Internal Manager Should Be…
Passionate about social media
Able to think like a journalist
Creative and detail-oriented
Proficient in traditional and digital marketing
Well versed in your overall marketing strategy
A news junkie
Mobile
Data-oriented
…for brokers
Raising Visibility Online
Raising Visibility Online
Do you need to actively build an online presence…
… or are you feeling lucky?
Raising Visibility Online
Source: Forbes | Insights in association with Google
79% of C-level executives conduct three Internet
searches per day
If a client or
potential customer
“Googles” you…
What will they find?
The Broker‟s Social Toolkit
Social Toolkit
Your blog or website serves as the hub and the
various social networks are outposts
Hub & Spoke Model
Social Toolkit
1 update per day
Link to
an
article
Connect your
other social
accounts and
website
Participate in groups
Use apps for a complete profile
10 – 20 Tweets Per Day
What do I
Tweet?
Not
Always
CRE
Facebook – Newsletter 2.0
Content
Curation
2-5
Updates
per Day
Facebook Newsfeed
YouTube
How Much Time do I Spend?
1-2 hours per day: 30+ minutes posting to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
and Google+ and responding to messages and
comments
30 minutes involves scanning information sources for
content
Evenings and weekends are for writing blog posts
“The biggest objection I typically hear is, „I don‟t
have time for social media.‟ I think the real
meaning of that is, „I don‟t think it‟s worth the
time.‟ There are tools to be time efficient and
avoid spending hours upon hours with social
media.”
Account Management Tools
Hootsuite
Manage Twitter & other social networks
from one dashboard
Google Reader
Plug your news, favorite blogs and information sources into one place
LinkedIn News
Facebook Newsfeed
Take Advantage of Mobile Tools
Having breakfast, during lunch time, sitting in a client’s
lobby. These are opportune times to get your social
networking done.
Summary
Summary
Only join what you can effectively manage
Have a clear set of goals and objectives in mind
before you get started
Choose your platforms with purpose – you don’t
have to join every site
Diversify your content - most of your clients and
prospects don’t want to read about commercial
real estate 100% of the time
Don’t post your listings – there are services for that
and that’s where people go to view them
Summary
Understand the differences among channels and
post accordingly
Don’t overdo the self promotion - try to add some
value with your content
Pay attention to the frequency of industry tweets
- Twitter is a great news source if you follow the
#CRE hash tag. However, don’t share a story
that has already been shared repeatedly.
Take advantage of third-party tools and the
mobile web to help you manage your account
and maximize your tweets
Questions?
Use your GoTo Webinar module to submit a
question
Tweet a question using #CoStarSocial