3 Ways Social Media Will Shape the Future of Commercial Real Estate
“Relationships are the currency of business.” — Brian Basilico.
Social networking functions as the primary utility for one of the most important aspects of real business business growth: relationship management. The commercial real estate industry is making strides embracing digital relationship management and transparent access to information. However, compared to other industries who have established strong social media best practices, the commercial real estate industry is in an early adoption stage. The big question is how important is social media to the future of facilitating real estate deals? Let’s examine three recent CRE market trends to see where and if these social media waves are driving real business growth.
3. CRE tech catching up to cutting edge tech.
“From Drones to Immigration, The Counselors of Real Estate Provides Seven Insights Into Forces Reshaping the Industry,” via Rebusinessonline
The Counselors of Real Estate, a 1100 member real estate advisory community, recently held a panel discussion in Charlotte North Carolina. Two of the seven takeaways pertained specifically to the internet’s rapid effect on the commercial real estate space (paraphrasing below by Katie Sloan):
With the right infrastructure, the center of the world can be anywhere — Jerry Orr, director of the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.
Much of the internet’s effect starts with interconnectedness and transparency. In CRE, the availability of capital, the access to listings, and information sources to vet deals are at an all time high.
If you don’t build a social media presence, don’t expect people to find you — Rachel Cogar, CEO of Charlotte-based Puma Creative
Without a social media presence your network effect is limited and the ability to pass a vetting is diminished. Every firm in of itself is a community of contacts, customers, employees, and all their contacts customers, and employees. Without a community, who will you do business with? In CRE, you must open the online doors so your offerings can be found.
2. Where you can share an image, you can show a property.
“Instagram’s Role in Commercial Real Estate,” via Wall Street Journal
“You can tell a good story with a visual,” said Paige Steers, a JLL spokeswoman (photo creditInstagram @jllretail). “If I’m selling a building or leasing space and I have a beautiful photo that says it’s the first time on the market and it’s eye-catching, it will be shared and it will be spotted.”
This social network’s supreme reliance on images yields itself nicely to understanding what a building offers in a short period of time. Peter Grant describes Instagram as “the preferred social-media tool for many New York residential real-estate brokers.“
It’s no surprise to see more real estate activity on the site. While instagram can no doubt help with a firm’s branding and community development, will we see it emerge as a primary lead generation channel? Are commercial real estate brokers ready to say, ‘I can’t do my next deal without Instagram?’ And before you go head over heels thinking that Instagram is the top social media platform in CRE, know that JLL (quoted above) still doesn’t list Instagram as one of the company’s primary social networks on its own homepage.
1. The influx of ardent Gen-Y brokers
“Young professionals are at last breaking into the brokerage business,” via Cleveland Business.
“As a broker, you kill what you want to eat,” said Kevin Moss, who recently became an associate in retail services at CBRE,. “You grow based upon your ability to close sales — or not. It’s cool to work on your own and help businesses that want to grow (with new locations).”
Author Stand Bullard tells a story of how this monthly young broker’s happy hour grew from 3 to 25 people, serving as a microcosm for the increased demand of 20-somethings becoming commercial real estate brokers in the Cleveland area. For what the piece is lacking in hard data, it is surfacing in anecdotes. The happy hour is officially called, “No Old Dudes or Dudettes.” The article also implies that twenty-somethings brokers are outnumbering thirty-somethings brokers in the Cleveland area.
To get a deal done — from marketing a property to evaluating a property to building the right team — brokers are banking on social media. While the core of real estate is quite literally brick and mortar, the commercial development of new business demands a more modern approach.
Capstak is the commercial real estate community. Originally published on the Capstak CRE Blog.
David Smooke is partner in the tech marketing firm, ArtMap Inc., and the creator of ART + marketing.
