Your commercial real estate world depends on your brokers, investors, and managers buying into the fact that you are a thought leader in this field. You need to demonstrate that your knowledge of the industry is comprehensive, but if you’re not focusing your CRE marketing to optimize social media in your favor, your reputation can fall quicker than a guy wearing socks with his sandals. You just won’t be taken very seriously.

Today’s commercial real estate professionals looks for answers in the palm of their hands, literally. They stay connected to the industry on-the-go with their mobile devices. To make sure that you’re staying relevant, in addition to your normal lead generation activities,  you need to stay active online and particularly through your social media accounts. Your marketing team should focus on these four areas to ensure this is happening for you.

Platforms. Which platforms are garnering your attention? While it is good to spread yourself out in the market, some social networks are more important to business. Improving your social media presence means choosing the best networks. Facebook is a reliable outlet. With its many different channels for CRE groups, your audience is likely to come across your digital information even if they aren’t members of your specific group.

Twitter, has become a platform that thought leaders use to get their message across. Used by world leaders, business executives, and people who strive to have their voices heard, Twitter offers a strong following and #hashtag capabilities which can get other users to help disperse your messages.

Instagram is as active as Twitter, and offers you the opportunity to incorporate videos and photography. Visuals not only attract users with their presence, but viewers also tend to reference them more, and they are more likely to be shared than posts without visuals.

Beyond these main thoroughfares on the Internet, you can’t go wrong working with LinkedIn, it is excellent for networking and was built specifically for business people.

Visuals. If you have seen visuals mentioned a lot, then it should be no surprise just how important it is to splash-up your commercial real estate social media presence with some well done photos and graphics. Incorporating visuals is how 65% of brands using social media communicate their message, and probably  something your marketing team wants to use more often than not.

From still photography to drones and 360° photography that users can interact with, this content is sure to round up an audience and keep it connected. A recent study found that your post is 40 times more likely to be shared when it incorporates visual content. Your post creates a snowball effect for your message that puts your brand on-track to be noticed and remembered.

Be Engaging. Engaging your clients on social media helps to qualify their needs. This can move your business forward, as 20% of senior marketers say they received the highest ROI from original organic social media posts. Make solid points by commenting on posts. Start conversation threads and share posts with your networking groups. Contribute to the conversation by suggesting problem-solving tips. By contributing to these, you build trust and sincerity with your audience.

Timing. Here is the most critical factor to consider, when to post? For each platform the schedule is different. Facebook recommendations advise not posting when your target is expected to be online. They are likely to miss the post as it is absorbed in their timeline. Posting early allows it to populate to the top of their page. Twitter and LinkedIn posts are better optimized on specific days, while other platforms rely on postings at particular hours of the day. Your audience is unique, and your marketing team should study your clients to ensure you hit the target dead center when posting. At that point, marketers may choose to employ a buffer application to create a queue and publish your articles and blogs according to your agreed upon schedule.

As a thought leader, your followers don’t just listen to your message. They look at how and when you act. Managing the digital presence of your CRE company is a delicate task. Your focus needs to stay on the message, and your marketing team needs to take charge of timing your messages and presenting you in the best light. Work together to strengthen your message, develop more leads, and close more deals.