Level the Playing Field: For the Major Leagues [Social Media Advice]

Who is more likely to hit it out of the park?  The one in the dugout or the one who steps up to the plate and swings?  Common sense is that we already know this answer.  The ones knocking it out of the park on social media are the ones who are putting forth the effort.  That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good at it yet or they have tens of thousands of followers. But at least they are doing it.  The most common oversight by many professionals is the inability to recognize how important their own digital marketing footprint is for their business.  Surely there are marketing departments that may be posting relevant content for their services or products. But what are the individual professionals doing for their own brand visibility.

I’ve spent a lot of time marketing in the commercial real estate (CRE) world. So, let’s look at the CRE industry as an example for this blog post. The brokerage marketing department will likely promote the brokerage and the individual property listings. But what are CRE professionals doing to boost their own brand visibility, as brokers?

Social Media Marketing – Not New Anymore

At some point, online marketing was just a “new” way to promote your business, brand, services, or products.  Now, it is not only the new way, but it is most universal way used to promote your business and your brand. Not to mention, for the most part it is FREE!  But make no mistake, many people are not taking advantage of the benefits that come from social media.  For starters, I took a poll on Twitter just recently asking the following question:

Which social media platform do you obtain the most business from?

While the results came in after a week on Twitter, 60% of the voters said that LinkedIn provides the biggest return on investment from posting to social media.  Yet it was brought to my attention that a CRE professional, to remain anonymous, went to LinkedIn and stated, “I am not a fan of using platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram to share listings. There are sites for that.” Yet, that is also why this person does not have any listings or do business on their own without having been added to another person’s listing.  So how many of you read that statement and think, WHAT????    Especially since the results of this poll, that was taken on Twitter, resulted in favor of LinkedIn.

Examples of What to Post on LinkedIn

So, what exactly are the CRE professionals posting to LinkedIn?  Based on my own observation, with exactly 8,700 connections (exactly at the time I just looked this up – I better go buy a lottery ticket!), they are posting the following, but not limited to.

• New Listing Links to Commercial Real Estate websites
• Video Marketing sharing Drone technology of their listings
• Industry Achievements & Career Milestones
• Guest Appearances on upcoming Podcasts, Webinars, Interactive workshops
• LinkedIn Blog articles or Blog links to other platforms (crossover marketing)
• Collaboration posts – CRE News to include features with other like-minded professionals discussing the latest trends, topics, and best practices to create audience engagement.

Don’t Forget About Email Marketing!

On the flipside, I created a poll on LinkedIn because someone on Twitter stated they do not send out E-mail blast marketing (newsletters, broker blasts, etc.).  As you can probably imagine I just about fell off my chair when reading something like this. Email marketing has always been one key component for an overall marketing mix. This is true for my own brand brand, as well as various commercial real estate brokerages and for my small business-owner clients.

I was relieved in seeing the results of this poll because most people are in fact, using E-blast marketing as a way of sharing information about their business.  Look, I get it!  We all get inundated with emails, especially broker blasts, but it only takes about 15 seconds to look at the subject line and email header to see if the listing specifications are something you’re looking for.  The 12% that do not use marketing E-blasts was a mobile home park investor and the other, a CRE professional.  It will be interesting to see what that person said. But in the meantime, we can rely on the results of the others who were polled. They are using some sort of marketing platform to send out marketing material to their E-mail lists.

Step Up to the Plate

I have always told people if you are not sharing commercial real estate news about yourself then who will?  In short, the best way you can position yourself for more business and generate new conversations that lead to new business is by using social media as your digital footprint to showcase what your brand is about.  Like any highly paid professional, no one can hire you (recruit you) if you are stuck in the dugout.  If you want to roll like a real baller in the major leagues, pick up the bat and get ready to swing!

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Author Bio

Melissa Swader is a local and nationally recognized marketing influencer in commercial real estate. She was named to the TOP ‘2020 CREi Influencers on Twitter’, named the ‘2020 Influencers in Marketing’ by GlobeSt./Real Estate Forum magazine and ‘Behind the Success’ by Commercial Executive Magazine to name a few.  She is the Director of Marketing & PR for SVN Desert Commercial Advisors, owner of Ruby Red Media LLC and the Editor in Chief for Elevate Magazine, an online business magazine.