Twitter’s Place in Commercial Real Estate – How-To Be Someone That People Want to Follow

Selling or discussing real estate in 140 characters may seem like an impossible task. Yet, #CRE is a popular hashtag that results in hundreds upon hundreds of posts ranging from properties for sale, to advertising, to the latest commercial real estate news. With the endless streams of posts, how do you make posts stand out and have an account that people want to follow?

When I first took over the company’s Twitter account almost two years ago, there was a lot that needed to be done. The first priority I made was to start “tweeting” daily (or at least Monday thru Friday). I search for content to retweet from other CRE professionals as well as finding stories that I could send out from our account. A good rule of thumb is to do at least 1 retweet a day and then post content from your account at least once as well. Consistency is key to growing your twitter account.

Second rule is the 80/20 rule (or is also known as the 90/10 depending on whose posts

you are reading). All this means is that 80% to 90% of the content you post is not news about your company. You should search for relevant articles that relate to commercial real estate, multifamily, retail, office, or industrial from either other twitter accounts or from news websites. The other 10% to 20% of content is tweets that will send people to your website or blog site. Remember, when posting content to use hashtags, especially #CRE. This is what helps your tweets become searchable, therefore, increasing your Twitter presence.

More importantly is making sure the content you share is not only relevant to your field, but also timely. One mistake you can easily make is seeing a tweet that has a great title and hitting retweet before actually reading the story. The headline could be misleading, the content could be outdated, or it is a click-bait link. The content of what you post is going to be a major key in becoming a notable CRE professional that others want to follow.

Lastly, make sure you spend the time to find other people and companies to follow. This is not only where you are going to find great information to retweet or repost, but will also help gain your followers. This is something that I have personally spent a lot of time doing. Back in 2014 when I took over the Twitter account, we had less than 30 followers. To this date, we have over 350. In a niche business like this, it takes time to gain notoriety. About once a month now, I actively search out for new followers. When someone starts following our account, I look at them to see what business they fall under and who they follow. It can be a timely process, but definitely worth it when you start to see that people not only follow you, but compliment you on the content that you post.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!