When Mark Zuckerberg first created Facebook, by his own account, he never imagined the ways his platform would transform and evolve over time. What began as a platform that did not even extend beyond the walls of his own university, Harvard, is now a global platform with millions of users that is deeply entrenched in seemingly every industry around the world.
The old days of real estate syndication, it seems, are over and today, during times such as these, change is no longer optional. Sure, things such as building networks and keeping contacts remain important, but the ways in which we do these things have fundamentally changed particularly in a world where everyone is working remotely. If your real estate syndicate fails to develop an effective online presence, you will be closing your network so tightly it will eventually become debilitating.
Without a well-constructed digital and social media presence, your credentials, your knowledge, and your experience won’t really matter—nobody will know who you are today or after the crisis is over. With billions of users engaged online every day, many of these users holding billions of dollars in wealth, our new digital playground has become a fundamental gateway between the modern fundraiser and the rest of the world.
Helping voices be heard
Ultimately, the rise of social media and digital marketing within the broader real estate syndication market is all about enabling more voices to be heard. When utilized correctly, social media can help sponsors find investors, as well as the other way around. These relationships are essential in order for this industry to thrive more so today than ever before. Without methods for efficiently amplifying voices, such as synchronized social media syndication, there will inevitably be gaps in the market and the very processes of allocating and attracting capital will become significantly impaired.
As we have seen in many other dimensions of the industry, the principle of diversification remains paramount. Just as well-diversified firm would likely be investing in multiple different types of properties in multiple different states, a well-diversified social media campaign will take place across multiple different platforms at once. When done correctly, this can be completely automated so you can reach your prospects without having to sacrifice productivity elsewhere.
Already, there exists some best line of communication that can help us reach our target audience and enable our voices to be heard. This could be an in-person interaction, but it could also easily be via LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and various other platforms. Because you simply cannot know which platform will most effectively reach our target audience, it will naturally be in your best interest to attempt to reach the audience in as many ways as you possibly can.
Usually, the volume of a noise will be measured in decibels. The internet—specifically social media—has become a revolutionary platform that not only allows a voice to be heard, but also makes it possible to be continually adding new “decibels” to our message until such a message is virtually immutable. The connections we are making cannot be ignored. The brands we are building cannot be overlooked. And even if these campaigns simply began as a method of trying to attract new capital, they will create lasting impressions that will produce tangible dividends for many years to come.
Reflecting the information revolution
In real estate syndication, information is power. Information is strength. Without reliable information in hand, the decisions we and our investors make—creating a new partnership, buying a new property, transforming the way we do business—will be little more than guesswork.
The industry’s rapid transition into the digital space, it seems, has removed the need for guesswork altogether. By aggregating data across multiple, cooperatively managed platforms, we can see the market more clearly than ever before. Just as mankind was once pushed, by nature, to walk upright, our collective evolution is now being directed into the domain of the digital. We are currently undergoing a dynamic, data-driven transition unlike anything we have ever seen before and today, in these days of enforced remote working this has never been more true.
Is it worth investing in a pay-per-click campaign targeting sponsors near St. Louis? Are many investors down in Austin following a prospective sponsor on LinkedIn? Which content has helped a firm’s voice become heard and which content is largely ignored? None of these questions would have anything remotely resembling a suitable answer without effective reports in hand.
Investors want to know more about sponsors. Sponsors want to know more about investors. Both of these parties want to increase the rate they can connect with one another and do so in a mutually beneficial way and increasingly online, remotely. The real estate syndicate market, like most modern markets, is lubricated almost entirely by information. Bumping elbows and going through old rolodexes may still play a role in the industry, but anyone who aspires to be a big-time player will need to operate at the cosmic level that only the perks of the information age can provide.
The market has little patience for those who refuse to adapt, which is why seizing the opportunity of enforced isolation and rising to the occasion is so fundamentally important. The current era calls for in-depth social media marketing campaigns, supported by supplementary digital marketing content. The data, the industry reports, the crisis we currently face, and the winds of time all clearly show the market is moving in this specific direction.
The question that remains: Who is willing to continue evolving?
Adam Gower Ph.D. is an authority in content marketing and online communications for the real estate industry. He has more than 30 years and $1.5 billion of transactional experience in commercial real estate finance and investment. Over the last five years he has built a digital marketing agency at GowerCrowd.com and you can learn exactly how you can also create effective online communications even while working from home by clicking here.