Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Property Managers Need to Use Social Media

While the commercial real estate industry may be notoriously slow to adopt new technology, more and more property owners and managers are taking advantage of social media and the opportunity it presents. When used correctly, social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube can help building teams strengthen their brand, reinforce tenant relationships, and reach prospective tenants.

As we’ve said before, in any highly competitive CRE market, property management professionals need to differentiate themselves from the property down the street by creating a unique brand. A company’s brand is their promise to their tenants – it lets them know what they can expect from them. And consistent branding and messaging builds the value of an organization and a property. This is where social media comes in: LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and even Vine allow building teams to share consistent updates across several platforms, reaching a much larger audience than a simple email would allow.

As a result, property owners and managers are then able connect with tenants on a more personal level and nurture those relationships. For example, on LinkedIn, property managers can set up groups exclusively for the tenants of their buildings so they can talk to one another. The property manager can even monitor the conversation and chime in to answer questions or resolve any issues.

The group discussion format can also allow building teams to:

  • Promote their organization
  • Announce capital improvements
  • Survey tenants

When it comes to Twitter, this is an opportunity for property owners and managers to gather real-time information. They can follow tenants and even prospective tenants to arm themselves with data such as helpful personal info, state-of-business updates, comments on their building, and much more. In addition, tenants are more likely to see updates on social media than their inbox – so go ahead and tweet building announcements and community events!

An often underutilized social media tool is YouTube, where you can post and share video tours of vacant spaces or even spotlight building renovations – prospective clients will definitely take notice. This brings me to Vine, a Twitter app that allows users to capture and share brief six-second looping videos to their network. One of the biggest advantages of Vine over other video platforms such as YouTube is that it more easily adds geography location data to posts. This can be an exceptional tool for drawing in local prospects and web traffic.

Another benefit of all social media platforms is the opportunity to stay on top of any negative conversations and address them immediately.