An introduction to social media for commercial real estate brokers. Co-presented by Coy Davidson of Colliers International.

1. Social Media for Brokers
February 29, 2012

2. Today‟s Panelists
Richard Simonelli Coy Davidson Angela Brown
Director Strategic Senior Vice President External
Communications Colliers International Communications
CoStar Group – Houston Manager
CoStar Group

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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
Twitter
Please use the hash tag #CoStarSocial when tweeting about
this program or submitting questions via Twitter

7. Disclaimer
All information provided is based on the best
research available to CoStar. CoStar provides
no guarantees concerning the effectiveness of
the methods or advice presented herein.

8. 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

9. Social Media…

10. Myths and Misconceptions

11. 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

12. 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

13. Content Strategy

14. Content Strategy
LinkedIn
 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

15. Content Strategy
Twitter
 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

16. Content Strategy
Facebook
 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Content Strategy
Remember that you‟re creating and curating
for the web – throw the rules of traditional
content development out the window.

21. Who Owns Your Presence?

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. …for brokers

26. Raising Visibility Online

27. Raising Visibility Online
Do you need to actively build an online
presence…
… or are you feeling lucky?

28. Raising Visibility Online
79% of C-level executives conduct three Internet
searches per day
Source: Forbes | Insights in association with Google

29. If a client or
potential customer
“Googles” you…
What will they find?

30. The Broker’s Social Toolkit

31. Social Toolkit
Hub & Spoke Model
Your blog or website serves as the hub and the
various social networks are outposts

32. Social Toolkit

33. LinkedIn
Link to
an
article
Connect your
other social
accounts and
website
1 update per day

34. LinkedIn
Participate in groups
Use apps for a complete profile

35. Twitter
What do I
Tweet?
Not
Always
CRE
10 – 20 Tweets Per Day

36. Facebook – Newsletter 2.0
2-5
Updates
per Day
Content
Curation

37. Facebook Newsfeed

38. YouTube

39. 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.”

40. Account Management Tools

41. Hootsuite
Manage Twitter & other social networks
from one dashboard

42. Google Reader
Plug your news, favorite blogs and information sources into one place

43. LinkedIn News

44. Facebook Newsfeed

45. 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.

46. Summary

47. 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

48. 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

49. Questions?