Today is my firstborn’s birthday! I don’t feel old enough to have an 11 year old, but the Lord has used him every day of his life to drive me to be a better man. Love you, bub!
“Social Media Best Practices for CRE Professionals”
by Howard Kline, Esq.
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Last week, I had the privilege of being in Portland, OR for a commercial real estate conferencence. I had never been before and discovered it to be a beautiful and unbelievably clean city. I was blown away.
Courtesy of iStockPhoto
Our Pacific Northwest franchisees put on a great training conference. I got to speak on how to improve efficiencies with technology. I also got to lead a couple of break out sessions on measuring outcomes and accountability. It was a blast.
Curt Arthur, our managing director and franchise owner in Salem, OR said something there that I had to write about.
He mentioned in his opening remarks the 3 P’s. These are the three things that typical commercial real estate brokerages do with a new listing. He was not complimenting our industry of commercial real estate.
These are not bad things. A sign is a great way to broadcast to locals that property is available. Most property searches start online, so you have to make sure your listings are there. And I am a huge believer in prayer so don’t get the wrong idea here. For those of you who would substitute the word ‘hope’ for ‘prayer’ – hope is not a strategy.
This is called Passive Marketing. The definition of passive marketing is to flood the market with information on all fronts, and then wait for the phone to ring. That is simply not good enough.
But this is the norm. Too often, a seller signs a listing contract and doesn’t hear from the broker for 6 months when it’s time to extend the contract.
The other side of the coin from Passive Marketing is Proactive Marketing. Proactive Marketing is taking the initiative to ensure everyone who could be a buyer knows the property is available. That takes work. That takes a system.
So here are some questions for you to consider as you start your week. I encourage you to ponder and share your answers in the comments section below.
Question: Will the 3 P’s describe you this week? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
I am super excited about the new theme I just installed – Get Noticed! Theme. We are in the process of its customization, so please excuse our ‘dust’ as we complete the work!
This Friday at 3pm EST/Noon PST, I have the privilege of being one of a few featured guests on the National CRE Radio Show – Commercial Real Estate Radio with Howard Kline. We are going to be talking Social Media Best Practices for CRE Professionals. I have been connected with Howard Kline for a couple years via Twitter. His radio shows are packed full of great content for CRE professionals.
courtesy of iStockPhoto
I am also excited to be on this panel because it includes some of my favorite people in CRE: Barbi Reuter, Michael Lagazo, and Sarah Malcolm.
Barbi (www.twitter.com/barbireuter) is the CRE Marketing & Operations Executive for PICOR Commercial Real Estate Services in Tucson, Arizona. She is a social media all-star and one of the true pioneers of social media use in CRE. She is also one of my favorite people.
Michael (www.twitter.com/michael_mba) is the guy who I watched to learn how to use Twitter. He is a CRE all-star in San Diego and has forgotten more about retail than I will ever know. He also may be the nicest guy on Twitter and will send you coffee. What could be better??
Michael and Barbi are both founding members of the #crejavaclub on Twitter. If you love CRE and a hot cup of joe, look us up!
Sarah Malcolm (www.twitter.com/icsc) is the Director of New Media for the International Council of Shopping Centers. She is a social media power house. Reading her bio on LinkedIn will force you to be out of breath. I can’t wait to hear what she has to say about social media best practices.
I hope that you can join us on Friday as Howard normally takes questions. You can call in with yours at (619) 393-6492.
The show description is below. This is your opportunity to submit your social media questions ahead of time that Howard may cover. Use the comments section below!
Social media, social media, social media. You hear it everywhere you go and everyone is telling you that you have to do it. Everyone else is telling you how to do it, but is anyone getting through? Is there any value to it and how much time do you have to spend on it to be of any value to you?
What about sales? Really, isn’t that what this is supposed to be about, selling and making money? What good does it do you if you spend 2 hours a day schmoozing online and haven’t picked up a client in 3 months? Are there any shortcuts and gimmicks that you can rely upon to make it worth your time?
Isn’t social media all about advertising? How many eyeballs see your name is all that counts, right? What about relationships and trust, nice words to include in your repertoire, but do those words put food on your table or pay your mortgage? And let’s not forget the two most chic words of 2013, “engagement” and “collaboration”. Oh, how the experts like to throw those words in your face, if for no other reason then to show you how much more they know than you.
But enough of my ranting, listen in as I discuss these issues and words and the meaning of life, (in social media), with, Barbi Reuter, Sarah Malcom, Bo Barron, Michael Legazzo and I, some of the most well know and most influential commercial real estate professionals utilizing social media to bring in the money. We are not the social media experts. We are the pilgrims, the veterans, the ones with the scars with stories of the things we didn’t understand, we don’t understand and what we are figuring out as we go along. We are you after you start “getting it.” We are students of social media and cre, learning as we go along, trying to figure it out and willing to share our experiences with you so that you do not have to get the same scars as us.
During the show, we will also discuss why you should be interested in social media for your business and what services, (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest, among others), you should use and for what purposes. Property manager, logistics expert, investor, property manager; this is not a one size fits all lecture. We will help you figure this out for your purposes.
A few months ago, the CCIM Institute asked me to participate in their System for Success series for Commerical Investment Real Estate (CIRE), their award winning publication. I was honored to do so.
This is the link to that article where I share what I believe it takes for brokers to thrive in the current economic climate.
My wife drives a Toyota Sienna. Do you know why? It is because a couple of her friends do. My family is going on vacation next month. Do you know how we came up with Disney World? We asked our friends on Facebook what they recommended. This is what crowdsourcing is. By definition, it is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people.
Courtesy of iStock Photo
Crowdsourcing is not a new phenomenon, but it has never had more power. Social media has brought the world to you laptop screen. You can access more content and opinions – and quicker – than you ever could before. People are making decisions this way. You probably did today.
Did you know that over 80% of all due diligence starts with a Google search? Do you know how many people trust a recommendation from a “friend”? 90%! Do you know how many people are positively influenced by a Facebook ‘Like’ button from someone they don’t even know? 70%! That number astounds me.
By contrast, only 19% of people now trust traditional advertising. I’m talking about print, TV, or radio. Do you know why? Because the game has changed. No one wants to hear you toot your own horn anymore. They want to know about real people who have actually used your product or service. They want a testimonial.
I plan on writing more in the coming months about the power of crowdsourcing and how you can maximize its advantages. But today, I want to give you 7 steps to harvest testimonials. There are a dozen ways to repurpose them once you have them. First, though, you have to get them.
In much of the country, kids are back in school. That is certainly the case here. This means that although it is 95 degrees here, my summer break from blogging is over. It is time to start writing again.
Photo courtesy of iStockPhoto.com
The other great thing about this time of year is the start of football! Tomorrow I’m taking my boys and heading to Nashville to watch the University of Kentucky kick off their season against Bobby Petrino and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Feel free to post your snide remarks about UK football in the comments.
Earlier today, I received an email from one of my former coaching clients, Chad Grout. Chad is a master Commercial Real Estate Broker in Nashville, TN and is the owner of Urban Grout. His email was so good I want to share it with you.
So let me hear from you. What is your favorite thing about this time of the year? What other parallels or contrasts to do you see between CRE and football? Post your comments below!
I come from a legacy of men who have served. I don’t take that lightly this Memorial Day. My grandfathers were both in World War II. My father was in the Army towards the end of the Vietnam Conflict. One of my brother’s is currently a Marine Corps pilot of a CH-53 deployed in Afghanistan. His wife, along with the rest of us, eagerly await his return.
My dad and my granddad pinning my brother during his commissioning.
I want to share a little about my grandfathers.
My dad’s dad was a metallurgical engineer and served in the Army. During the war, he got to do two really incredible things, in my humble opinion. The first was to travel to Russia to study their tanks. The second was to be one of the first men to work in the Pentagon – when it was just a line! Only the first wing had been built at that point. He retired a Lt. Col.
My granddad with my son and my siblings.
My mom’s dad was a Morse Code operator for the Army. When I was in high school, his unit’s exploits were declassified. What he did was amazing. His unit was responsible for diverting Nazi attention from the D-Day invasion.
They used cardboard tanks and mis-information to cause Germany to believe the invasion would be at another location. I remember my granddad, in one of the few times he shared with me about the war, telling me how his unit would sew different patches on their uniforms every night. The hope was that Nazi Germany would believe they were a force much bigger than they were.
Their efforts worked. As D-Day dawned, a significant portion of the German force was diverted away from Normandy. My granddad, however, was transferred at the last-minute to Omaha Beach. He was one of the heroes that broke the German hold that day and turned the tide of the war.
More recently, a fellow Kentucky Marine distinguished himself in Afghanistan and won the Congressional Medal of Honor. His acts of bravery have characterized our fighting men and women for generations. Here is the Medal of Honor citation of Sergeant Dakota Meyer.
Citation: Corporal Meyer maintained security at a patrol rally point while other members of his team moved on foot with two platoons of Afghan National Army and Border Police into the village of Ganjgal for a pre-dawn meeting with village elders. Moving into the village, the patrol was ambushed by more than 50 enemy fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and machine guns from houses and fortified positions on the slopes above. Hearing over the radio that four U.S. team members were cut off, Corporal Meyer seized the initiative. With a fellow Marine driving, Corporal Meyer took the exposed gunner’s position in a gun-truck as they drove down the steeply terraced terrain in a daring attempt to disrupt the enemy attack and locate the trapped U.S. team. Disregarding intense enemy fire now concentrated on their lone vehicle, Corporal Meyer killed a number of enemy fighters with the mounted machine guns and his rifle, some at near point-blank range, as he and his driver made three solo trips into the ambush area. During the first two trips, he and his driver evacuated two dozen Afghan soldiers, many of whom were wounded. When one machine gun became inoperable, he directed a return to the rally point to switch to another gun-truck for a third trip into the ambush area where his accurate fire directly supported the remaining U.S. personnel and Afghan soldiers fighting their way out of the ambush. Despite a shrapnel wound to his arm, Corporal Meyer made two more trips into the ambush area in a third gun-truck accompanied by four other Afghan vehicles to recover more wounded Afghan soldiers and search for the missing U.S. team members. Still under heavy enemy fire, he dismounted the vehicle on the fifth trip and moved on foot to locate and recover the bodies of his team members. Corporal Meyer’s daring initiative and bold fighting spirit throughout the 6-hour battle significantly disrupted the enemy’s attack and inspired the members of the combined force to fight on. His unwavering courage and steadfast devotion to his U.S. and Afghan comrades in the face of almost certain death reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
Fortunately, my grandfathers and Sergeant Meyer lived. Many others throughout the years have not. These fearless men and women laid down their lives for our way of life. Their sacrifices allow me to live a life of safety and freedom. They allow me to worship without fear. They allow me to work hard and provide for my family. They allow me to spend a Sunday afternoon, as I did yesterday, playing basketball with my boys in the driveway.
My brother and I shaking the hand of my grandfather.
I am indebted to all those who have served, and so are you. So on this memorial day, spend some time counting your blessings. Then go find someone who has or is serving and hug their neck. We act like the honor of serving is thanks enough, but we really appreciate it.
Every day is filled with choices. Many are small and inconsequential. Some are life changing. This month’s book suggestion was written to improve our decision-making ability.
Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath
As I was reading this book, I thought back on some of the key decisions in my life. At age 10, I chose to place my faith in Jesus to save me. At age 18, I asked the most beautiful angel-voiced blonde on our first date. Later that year, I decided to attend Murray State University (go Racers!). Four years later, I decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. One year later, I proposed to that beauty I mentioned before.
All of these decisions worked out for me. So many others did not. I am not going to share that list with you.
So whether you are deciding where to eat tonight, or when and if to propose to your girl (congrats little bro!), you go through the following steps.
The Heath brothers do a masterful job at describing what they call the four villains to decision-making. They coincide with the four steps above.
To counter these “villains,” the Heath brothers put forth a very clever and easy to remember acronym – W.R.A.P.
The Heath brothers spend the rest of the book sharing story after story demonstrating the power of this process. In fact, their premise for the book is that it is the process of making a decision that has the most impact on the quality of the decision.
This book is incredibly clever and entertaining. It had me page-turning. I was so intrigued that I’ve shared this process of decision-making with my coaching clients, my family, and many of my friends. I believe it is powerful. I believe that this book can have a powerful impact on your future. Do yourself a favor and decide to read this book.
I’ve been a fan of Howard’s for about a year now. CRE practitioners like me are normally weary of attorneys, but Howard is one of the exceptions. He has a tremendous understanding of our industry, and his clients love him. Brokers love him, too, and that is a rarity.
Howard is also the host of CRE Radio which I’ve been listening to for about a year. I would highly recommend following his podcast/radio show. He has industry leading experts on to share their wisdom and experience. He is also contagiously engaging, and he has that radio voice. Think Albert Brooks – the voice of Nemo’s dad (if you have kids, you’ll get that reference).
I had the privilege of being his guest on this episode along with my friends Barbi Reuter, Michael Lagazo, and Sarah Malcolm. These three are social media rockstars, and we had a ton of fun chatting about social media best practices over some virtual cups of coffee.
Give it a listen!