Marketing & Communications meeting key takeaways

June 13, 2023

LinkedIn is the most commonly used social media platform for real estate investment firms – but firms are still taking a conservative approach to its use, with activity often limited to senior leadership professionals and a small core group of spokespeople.

NAREIM members shared their best practices in terms of social media use during the Marketing and Communications meeting on June 13, with members admitting that there was rarely “a call to action” on social media, with most firms focusing posts on brand awareness and keeping their organization “top of mind”.

Indeed, at a time when marketing and communications teams are dealing with client materials, PR and media, website marketing, client and employee communications, social media can seem a daunting – and less important – task.

However, the NAREIM meeting provide some strategies to consider as firms expand their social media profiles and posts. Key takeaways from the meeting included:

• Think small and then think smaller. Whatever you think you can do, step that back. One thing you cannot do is start a blog post and not post articles or stories for months or years at a time.

• Be authentic. Investors don’t consume social media as investors, they consume it as people. Ask yourself, what would you be willing to sit and watch/read? Think about content in a human way.

• Create social media or ambassadors within the firm. Often senior leadership are the key spokespeople for firms on social media and LinkedIn, with members saying it’s exceptionally helpful to provide the leadership team with draft words, posts and ideas on how to promote the firm.

• Understand the data you are collecting by using social media. Social media and marketing content is a two-way street as you give out information – and also collect data from users and visitors, through the form of meta data and cookies, to your content. Given each state has different laws, are you in compliance with all of those regulations?

• Typical approval processes for social media posts can range from 5-mins to 48 hours, although it’s rare to get posts approved in less than one day.

The attendee list and presentations can be accessed by emailing IvyLee Rosario at irosario@nareim.org.