Imagine you’re a commercial real estate broker looking to drum up some new business, but you’re coming up short on leads. Where do you go to find new clients?
In an industry notorious for its reticence in adopting new schools of thought, that answer is increasingly including social networking and high-tech solutions.
Social and professional networking sites, LinkedIn in particular, are becoming more and more popular for generating leads for brokers. It’s as simple as walking into an office building’s lobby and seeing the tenants on the roster. Head to your computer or iPad, punch Company X into a LinkedIn search and wait to see who you or others in your network know at the firm. Then you can potentially get an introduction to the higher-ups there, far more effective than a cold call.
“In our business, which is all about building relationships and getting to know people, LinkedIn is a good tool because it helps you figure out who are the decision-makers at a company,” said Duncan Gratton, principal for the Boston office of brokerage firm Cassidy Turley. “In the old days I might never know that your college roommate ran a company in the Back Bay that might be looking for office space. It helps you figure out how to get in the door to see someone that you technically don’t know but might know through someone else.
Just last week, one of Cassidy Turley’s Cambridge brokers sent Gratton an email saying that he recently read about a company that just got a solid round of venture capital funding, looked up the senior management team, went to LinkedIn and found that Gratton knew one of them, and suggested Gratton set-up a meeting.
“It helped remind me I should call this guy,” Gratton mused. “If you’re paying attention to it, it keeps you aware of what’s going on in the industry as well.”
When utilized most effectively, LinkedIn can garner serious results, according to one public relations expert that works with commercial real estate firms. In fact, LinkedIn generates more leads for business-to-business firms than Facebook, Twitter or blogs, yet less than half of all B2B marketing firms are actually using LinkedIn, according to Tina Cassidy, senior vice president and chief content officer for the Boston-based InkHouse communications firm. Cassidy heads the company’s real estate practice and has been working to push brokers and developers to dive into the social media game.
While it’s a positive that brokers are using LinkedIn at all, Cassidy said it’s important for them to engage the social content aspect of the website. One of her clients, NAI Hunneman, has started a blog explaining various viewpoints of brokers, like about which markets are hot, investment sales perspectives and trends in office brokerage. That content is linked through blog posts and pushed through LinkedIn in a strategic way. If an office broker has blogged about technology hotspots, then that gets directed toward existing or potential high-tech clients.
“You try to be helpful with info that you think can be useful,” Cassidy opined. “You can do that person to person, or just through a status update. It helps position brokers as experts in market sectors or geographies.”
Bricks And Mortar
Although social networking is an obviously important new aspect of doing business in almost, if not all professional sectors, the CRE industry is still a very bricks and mortar industry. Brokerage firms build onsite marketing centers at new development projects to portray aspects of projects, like area amenities, geography and floor plans, often on widescreen TVs or through other media.
But a lot of that information can also be displayed in, say, iPad apps. When Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) brokers were working to lease-up Boston’s 40 Broad St. before its recent high-priced sale, the marketing team created an app with pertinent information for brokers, who are all armed with iPads, to bring up at the swipe of a finger for prospective tenants. The app included a 360-degree view of a floor, views around the lobby, a typical office layout and views of the surrounding area.
“When we [create] a brand for a property, they all have their own logo, palette, theme and messaging,” said Stephen Steinberg, senior vice president for marketing at the Boston JLL office.
Another piece of technology that is catching on in the bricks and mortar real estate world is window technology. A Revere company, imageSurge, has patent-pending technology for window-mounted touch screens, which residential real estate firms have been the first to adopt but retail stores and restaurants are warming up to, said David Fleming, founder of Boston-based PACE Communications Group.
The new technology allows the owners of major residential projects, like CL Waterfront Properties at the Boston’s Lewis Wharf, an early adopter, to place images, floor plans and other information about residences for lease or sale on a digital touch screen panel. Passersby can scroll through the information without setting foot in the office. According to Fleming, it’s the modern version of the listings that are often taped onto the storefront windows of real estate companies.
“It has everything that’s on those taped-up listings, but provides a far more interesting and interactive experience for the customer,” Fleming offered. “There are other ways for customers to interact with the office – phone numbers, emails, QR codes if you want to connect that way. And there can be dozens of photos if the firm wants.”
Email: jcronin@thewarrengroup.com
