Vine has a lot of implications for the commercial real estate industryTwitter’s new Vine App released on January 24th has instantaneously become the hottest trending topic in social media. Not really a surprise since easy-to-make-and-share-videos is the next logical extension of photo sharing (which has become social media old hat at this point). The new mobile app allows users to capture and share brief six-second looping videos to their network.

Marketers have been forecasting the power of video for a long time, citing stats that emails with videos are opened 75% of the time vs. 20% of the time for emails without video.  It was only a matter of time before other industries, even commercial real estate which is notoriously slow to embrace Social Media, realized the power of video. Ok, we get it. People pay attention to video. But why should you, as a property owner or manager, care about Vine App? Here are seven reasons:

1. Showcase Your Property-

  • Space for Lease: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video is worth 10,000.  Imagine how you could show off your available space (and your modern approach) with short video teasers.
  • Events: Promote upcoming events or showcase past ones with by placing short videos on your tenant portal or announcements area of your property website.
  • Amenities: Just spent a lot of money on a fancy new lobby? Built a new meeting space? What better way show it off then through video?

2. What’s your worst nightmare? Imagine incidents or complaints gone viral… Imagine if someone slips and falls in your lobby and it’s caught on video and shared on Twitter.  Or, imagine someone snaps a quick shot of the broken window in the hallway that has yet to get fixed and broadcasts their complaint, with evidence attached, to their entire network? Yikes. By being aware and proactive about these types of issues, you can turn a bad situation into a good one. Now, imagine how that same tenant would respond if you fixed the window, took your own video of the repair, and responded to them with an apology!

3.  The Social Media Effect-

  • Since popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow users to share interesting links, having your own video on the major sites drastically increases your chances of exposure.
  • People are more likely to share an interesting video they came across vs. an article, news release, or other static content.
  • Video attracts. According to Adage writer Matt Fiorentino, online audiences chose to watch video ads at a rate of more than 150 per second in 2012!

4. Differentiate Yourself from the Competition Engage current tenants and attract new ones by turning your unique message into a visual reality. Are you part of the 95% who are too afraid, lazy or overwhelmed to do video? Instead, be part of the 5% who creates significant competitive advantage for themselves and their online businesses!

5. Tenant Testimonials (that people actually care to watch): We’ve all glossed over those text-based testimonials on websites or brochures. Yawn. If you want to really bring your testimonials to life and engage prospects, do it with video.

6.  Video Plays Well with Mobile: Mobile use is up 61% in CRE, and expected to double over the next three years.  Video, especially short video, is a perfect complement to a mobile workforce. Building Engines’ customers use our mobile app, BE-Mobile to do everything from watch short instructional videos while performing maintenance, to capturing short videos of specific items during an inspection.

7. Location? Location..: 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.

8. Just Get Going Already: Already, various property management companies have jumped on the Vine bandwagon.  Asset Plus, an investment, management and development company, suggests using Vine App to invite residents to events or to remind them to pay rent.


Get creative! How could you use Vine App to promote your brand?