Commercial real estate conferences are experiencing a renaissance thanks to social media influencers and their massive followings.
For instance, the CREi Summit in Lake Tahoe, California was the first-ever annual meeting of industry social media influencers and focused on how to build authentic relationships for people within the industry.
“I got on Twitter in 2009 when things were really bad for my business,” said Ken Ashley, founder of CREi. “I had four kids at home and one income and so I felt like I would try anything to get traction in a tough business environment. I was open about my experience at the time and, even though it didn’t immediately result in deals like I had hoped, it helped me connect with others in the industry in a really valuable way.”
Ashley explained that Twitter has allowed him to see what people in the industry are thinking about in real time, which has been helpful for his experience.
While Ashley believes that LinkedIn has its place in business-to-business networking, Twitter appears to still be the superior platform for connecting in the real estate industry.
“LinkedIn has a lot of people trying to sell you, so you don’t usually want to come off as too spammy,” said Ashley. “Twitter is so massive and there are so many posts getting pushed through it that you feel more free to say what you want, as much as you want.”
