A presentation on the basic use of Twitter for commercial real estate professionals.

1. Social Media for Brokers:
Twitter
November 29, 2012

2. Today’s Presenters
Bo Angela Brown
Barron, CCIM Communications
Manager
Managing Director
CoStar Group
Sperry Van Ness / The
Barron Group

3. Today’s Presenters
Bo Barron, CCIM
Managing Director
Sperry Van Ness / The Barron Group
svnbarron.com
@bobarronccim
linkedin.com/in/bobarronccim
bobarron.com

4. Today’s Presenters
Angela Brown
Communications Manager
CoStar Group, Inc.
costar.com
facebook.com/CoStarGroup
@TheCoStarGroup @angelambrown
linkedin.com/in/angelambrown
Youtube.com/costargroup
gplus.to/CoStarGroup

5. Housekeeping
Recording and slides
A link to a recording of today’s presentation will be available
tomorrow – keep an eye on your inboxes for the link and a PDF
of today’s presentation
Questions
Questions will be addressed at the end, but you may submit
them at any time both through GoToMeeting and Twitter
Twitter
Please use the hashtag #CoStarSocial when live-tweeting
during this program or submitting questions via Twitter. Send
questions to @TheCoStarGroup.

6. Disclaimer
All information provided is based on the best
research available to CoStar. CoStar provides
no guarantees concerning the effectiveness of
the methods or advice presented herein.

7. What We’ll Cover
Twitter… …for brokers
 Why Twitter for CRE?  The Rule of Thirds
 The Lingo – Curate Great Content
– Engage
 Nailing the Profile
– Get Personal
 Building Your Presence
 Three Tools I Can’t Live
 Content is King Without
 Twitter: The CRE
Barometer

8. Twitter…

9. Quick Facts About Twitter
 More than 140 million active accounts
 75% of companies now use Twitter as a marketing
channel
 34% of marketers have generated leads using
Twitter, and 20% have closed deals
 92% of retweets are based on “interesting content”
 40% of Twitter users rarely post anything but primarily
consume content there
Sources: Twitter, November 2012;
Jeffbullas.com, July 2012

10. Why Twitter for CRE?
(and why not)

11. Why Twitter?
 Develop and promote your brand – personal or
corporate
 Engage your customers
 Get insight into industry and market trends
 Thought leadership
 Expand your network
 Generate leads
 Connect with prospects
 SEO
 PR

12. However…
 “Tweeting” isn’t for everybody
 Managing the platform well and seeing ROI
require time
 Twitter is designed for rapid fire, succinct
updates and consistent engagement – are
you up to the challenge?

13. Who Uses Twitter?

14. The Lingo

15. The Lingo
 Direct Message (DM) – a message sent through
Twitter that only you and the recipient can see
 @reply – written at the beginning of a tweet
indicating a direct response to/conversation with a
specific user
 @mention – contained in the body of a tweet (not at
the beginning) in reference to a specific user
 Hashtag – using the “#” sign, hashtags are a way of
aggregating conversations around specific keywords
or topics on Twitter

16. The Lingo
 Retweet (RT) – a tweet that has been
repeated/quoted
 Modified Tweet (MT) – a retweet that has been
modified from the original post
 ICYMI – “In case you missed it”

17. Nailing the Profile

18. If you haven’t already…
Upload a profile image (stylized
Secure a username
logo, headshot)
Write a bio and link to a page with If you haven’t tweeted yet, post an
more information introductory tweet

19. Nailing the Profile – What’s New?
Introducing…Profile  Includes your profile
picture, username, account
Headers name, bio, location and
URL
 No content limitations
(unlike cover photos on
Facebook)

20. Nailing the Profile
Sad sights on Twitter
 Lack of a profile photo (no
one likes the default egg)
 Outdated tweets
 #hashtag #overuse
 SPAM
 Protected tweets
 Missing bio information

21. Building Your Presence

22. The Art of Following
 It’s about quality, not quantity
 Quality content leads to quality followers
 What you see in your feed is driven by who
you follow so choose wisely
 Building a following takes time so don’t be
discouraged

23. Find and be Found
 Take advantage of Twitter search to find friends, colleagues
and customers
 Follow (relevant) suggestions from Twitter on who to follow
 Do not protect your tweets – people can’t (and won’t) engage
with you if they can’t see what you post
 Use low-hanging fruit to share your handle – email
signatures, business cards and other social profiles

24. Building Your Presence
Retweet interesting and relevant information Follow your peers
Share your information
Start conversations
Have fun!

25. Building Your Presence
 Post customer-centric content
 Listen for buying signals
 Monitor hashtags to gain
business and market insights
and respond in real time
 Learn from your peers –
follow thought leaders in your
industry

26. Building Your Presence
 Be relevant – only push “sales” messages that
interest your followers
 Be believable and speak to the value of your
services
 Research companies/people – research leads
using their websites and social media channels
to better understand their needs
 Find the best time to contact leads

27. Do’s and Don’ts
DO DON’T
 Be consistent  Be a spammer
 Be targeted  Neglect your feed
 Be interesting  Be disrespectful
 Be careful  Be inauthentic
 Be afraid

28. Content is King

29. Content Consumption in the
Twitterverse
Source: infographic LABS, May 2012

30. Rules of the Road
 Newbies: listen first – get a
feel for the lay of the land
before jumping in
 Define your purpose and
stick with it
 Value first – follow the
80/20 rule (or even 70/30) Don’t worry, it’s not this bad.
 Shorten and track your
links

31. Finding Content
 Are you working on an interesting project? Did you
hear something really insightful at an event? Tweet
it!
 RSS managers like Google Reader are great tools
for collecting, scanning and sharing info
 Look for sharable content in things you see every
day – news articles, company updates and news in
your local markets all apply
 Follow the right people – their content becomes your
content

32. Summary
 Twitter is great for business, but not for everyone
 This channel requires a bigger time investment than
others – make sure you’re up to the challenge
 Don’t forget Twitter’s value for “passive” use
 Make sure your profile is complete and
professional, and pay attention to updates
 Take your time if you’re just getting started – listen
more than you post
 The experience you have with Twitter will be driven
by the people you connect with and the content you
share

33. …for Brokers

34. RULE Of Thirds

35. The Rule Of Thirds
Curate Great Content

36. The Rule of Thirds

37. The Rule Of Thirds
Engage

38. The Rule of Thirds

39. The Rule of Thirds
Have Manners

40. The Rule of Thirds

41. The Rule Of Thirds
Be Personable

42. The Rule of Thirds

43. The Rule of Thirds

44. 3 Tools I Can’t Live Without

45. HootSuite.com

46. Bufferapp.com

47. Bufferapp.com

48. Google Reader
 What you need to pull
this off:
– Browser: Google
Chrome
– Access to Google Docs
(have a gmail account)

49. Google Reader

50. Google Reader

51. Google Reader

52. How to Get a Feed into Google Reader

53. How to Get a Feed into Google Reader

54. How to Get a Feed into Google Reader

55. How to Get a Feed into Google Reader

56. Twitter: The CRE
Barometer

57. Twitter: The CRE Barometer

58. Summary
 Rule of Thirds
– Curate/Originate Great Content
– Engage
– Be Personable
 Tools
– Hootsuite
– BufferApp
– Google Reader

59. Summary
 Twitter: The CRE Barometer
– Real Time
– Actionable Intelligence
 Conclusion: FDIC Story

60. Questions?