The point of marketing your CRE business is to reach your end customer, and we don’t think they’re on Twitter.
By Amy Catterson || July 21, 2022
Like any long-winded relationship where you’re putting in all the effort and getting no engagement back, it’s (probably) time to quit Twitter. We know, it’s a bold statement, but it doesn’t really matter because no one engages with your content anyway, right? Let’s be honest, unless you’re big on Twitter, the engagement for your brokerage or CRE firm is probably next to nothing.
We’ve all heard those famous last words synonymous with a break-up, “it’s not you, it's me.” This time it really is Twitter and not you.
We’ve done the math
We’ve audited hundreds of Commercial Real Estate companies that use Twitter and compared engagement for them to other social platforms. The results: hardly anyone is engaging with #CRE on Twitter, and the only retweets normally come from one’s marketing teams and employees. Also, advertising on the platform is very expensive so you can’t even boost organic content. Seriously, cut the cord.
Maybe you’ve been trying
But, maybe some of your tweets have generated some airtime for those very few, precious minutes that anyone see’s them, and it feels like you’ve finally made it. It’s cool… but is it selling your property?
Now don’t get us wrong, if you’re JLL or CBRE or one of the BIG CRE dogs (even their engagement is s&*t); cool, get those tweets out there and make sure your investors and shareholders can see all the great corporate responsibility work you’re doing so they don’t sell any of your shares.
Stats to back it up
However, if you’re a smaller brokerage or CRE firm that doesn’t have a trillion dollar marketing budget, stop wasting your time trying to win on Twitter. Why? Because of these stats from the Pew Research center:
Only one in five U.S. adults (23 percent) say they use Twitter, compared to;
o YouTube (81%)
o Facebook (69%)
o Instagram (40%)
U.S. adults UNDER 30 are more likely than older Americans to use Twitter
o Some 42% of adults ages 18 to 29 say they use it, compared with just 7% of those 65 and older – a difference of 35 points.
A minority of Twitter users produce the vast majority of tweets
o Among U.S. adults who use Twitter, the top 25% of users by tweet volume produce 97% of all tweets, while the bottom 75% of users produce just 3%
Around a fifth of U.S. adult Twitter users think nobody sees their tweets
o This is just the sad reality.
Shift your effort
Look, we aren’t saying quit Twitter entirely, especially if you’ve built a good following. What we are saying is that if you’re putting a lot of time and effort into crafting smart tweets and trying to take part in larger #CRE conversations in order to be thought leaders, and ultimately drive leads, and you’re getting left on read…maybe re-think that plan.
Actually get some ROI
There are lots of fish in the sea! We’d advise you rather focus those efforts into platforms that will get you a WAY better return on your marketing investment like YouTube, LinkedIn or Instagram. Or at least use all that time you’re wasting on Twitter to deliver better content for other channels.
To end, if you feel you need to keep showing face for Elon Musk, shareholders or investors, that’s totally cool. But honestly, it’s probably easier to just re-post your LinkedIn content there.
Until next week,
Stay ATYPICAL 😉