By John Rainone, Morgan Sullivan
Professional/social networking and shared content Web sites such as LinkedIn, Technora
ti, Reddit, and Digg, which are parts of a generation of sites sometimes collectively referred to as "Web 2.0," can be beneficial for
any business. There is even one site, www.biggerpockets.com that is geared specifically to the real estate and construction community. These sites can be used in recruiting, marketing, keeping tabs on your firm’s reputation, and checking up on your clients and business partners.When used properly, these sites can be powerful tools to raise a firm’s visibility, help drum up new business, identify talented job candidates, and bolster a firm’s reputation in the real estate community. Each site has its own nuances and is useful for different reasons. Let’s take a look at what these sites can do and how real estate and construction firms can use them.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is probably the most popular business-oriented social networking site. Chances are good that if you haven’t yet been invited to join the site, you soon will be, as it has been adding new members at a furious pace. LinkedIn’s main purpose is to facilitate connections between business associates and professional contacts. "Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have," according to LinkedIn.The site, which is free to join, allows a user to invite others to join his/her network. This feature enables business contacts to maintain connections easily over the years so that when a contact changes jobs, you can easily look them up on LinkedIn. What makes the site particularly useful is the ability to search for people according to certain parameters. For instance, you could search for professionals with land development skills in or near areas close to your zip code. You can also post job openings or search for a service provider such as an architect or engineer in a certain area. A recent Harvard Business showed how a 40-person Web design business found their new CEO through a LinkedIn search. Another feature, called Introductions, lets you contact users in your network (those who know your contacts) through the people you know. If you want to contact a LinkedIn user who is two or three degrees away from you, you can request an introduction through one of your connections. Your connection will, in turn, decide whether to forward it on to the desired recipient. This makes LinkedIn like a giant, online referral network. One of the caveats to using this service is to add to your network only those with whom you have a relationship or have met. That’s because the networking benefit of the site, which relies on online word-of-mouth referrals, depends upon personal relationships and verifiable reputations. If you add scores of people you don’t know, you diminish the value of the networking feature and run into the danger of having someone think that a stranger in your network who turns out to be a con artist is an acquaintance of yours.
Bigger Pockets:
Founded in 2004, Bigger Pockets’ real estate-centric site, which is also free to join, features forums, blogs, property listings and analysis, real estate tools and other resources. This site, like LinkedIn, is a potential source of business partners and recruits and an aggregator of real estate industry news articles; however, its social networking feature was just added in January. According to the site, "Our mission is to help educate people about all aspects of real estate and real estate investing and to provide tools and resources to enhance real estate knowledge, networking, and deal making."A fairly new site as far as networking goes, Bigger Pockets is still building its brand, but with its unique focus it certainly merits attention.
Digg:
Digg is a user-generated content site, a repository for news articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, and photos. Users rate the posted content, and the highest-rated submissions receive the most prominent visibility. "Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web," the site says. "From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users." You can search Digg for your particular area of interest. Search "construction industry" and you can find news releases, news articles, even videos of speakers from industry conferences. Getting your firm’s press release, white paper, or news story high on the list of results from a popular search term is a great way to increase your visibility. After recent crane accidents in New York City, for example, some firms posted news releases about how they are going the extra mile to prevent such accidents. Such a timely response to breaking news can be a great way to boost your firm’s cachet. It’s free to post your content, and in theory, the content that appeals to most users will receive top billing. Reddit is another shared content site that has many of the same features as Digg. Technorati:
Technorati is similar in conception to Digg. Technorati, however, built its reputation by being a sort of Google for blogs. You can search by industry, region or whatever parameters you choose to find what you’re looking for. Search your firm’s name and you may be surprised at what turns up. Some of the entries may be flattering and some may be damaging. This is a good site to track how your firm is perceived by the media, bloggers, and the public. More and more people are turning to Technorati when researching the reputation of a company. These sites, and others like them, are increasingly important business tools. We recommend investigating them and seeing how your firm can make use of them.
John Rainone is Project Operations Manager for MorganSullivan. He can be reached at
jrainone@morgansullivan.com.