Commercial Real Estate Specialist | KW Commercial | Joint Venture & Property Development Opportunities | Serving Florida
This was such an insightful study, Beau—thank you for sharing! I’ve been exploring the power of LinkedIn for my personal business as well, and I’ve noticed a similar trend. While my impressions are significantly higher than my engagement, it’s clear that my content isn’t fully resonating with my audience. Your analysis sheds light on this gap, and it’s helpful for figuring out how to create content that not only reaches people but sticks with them. Thanks again for the valuable insights!
Is LinkedIn actually worth it for CRE brokers? I pondered this hard a few weeks ago because it occurred to me I can name several multifamily brokers in the Florida markets, who are larger volume producers than me, that have little to no presence on LinkedIn at all or any other social media platform. So, we ran a study on the data. We made a list of every buyer and seller on LinkedIn that I've done a deal with in the trailing 5 years....75 investors total. A high number of these investors I’ve done multiple deals with during this time period....as many as 7 deals with one group. We then created a scale of 1-5 for the person’s level of activity on LinkedIn. A 0 means they aren't on LinkedIn at all. 1 means they are on LinkedIn but do zero posting, commenting, liking, or sharing….or have hardly filled out their profile. 5 would be someone very active on there posting or commenting daily or several times weekly, like me. 3 would be a moderately active person. Some startling observations: - Only 3 in 75 people were on LinkedIn and moderately active or higher, or only 4% of the people I’ve done deals with. - Only 50% of the people had a profile on LinkedIn at all. - Of those on LinkedIn, 33 of the 37 (or 89%) were only a Level 1 or 2, which means they were almost never on LinkedIn engaging at all. - The average activity level among those with a profile was only 1.35. - Of the 3 above that were moderately active or more (3-5), none were a Level 5. Two were buyers (which I hope will sell with me in the future) and one was a listing. For all 3, I've done multiple deals with them that combined has paid me well over 7 figures in income. But was LinkedIn responsible for procuring any of these 3 investors? No. Does LinkedIn help to support my relationship with those three investors, yes, I think so. What I don’t know is how many of the 33 that are on LinkedIn, but not active, are stalker active.....meaning they don't post, like, share, or comment but do follow others on the platform without leaving a trace they are following. I think they exist but are still likely a small percentage. Something interesting though is the large number of listings I've taken where the investor says to me, "look forward to working with you, I've been following you for years." I take that to mean not just LinkedIn, but also my monthly email updates to them, mailings, videos, listings, and phone calls. They all work together. So, is it worth being a "Level 5" active content producer on LinkedIn as a multifamily broker? Is it worth the effort creating content, studying data, sharing, commenting, etc.? My sense is it is worth sharing very high quality info, hacks, and stories that can help others when they naturally occur in your day organically. I'm not sure it is worth spending hours each week thinking of things to post about in order to grow your business unless you truly enjoy producing content. If you enjoy it, do it. Thoughts...
I’ve been a LinkedIn premium member for about five years now. I get several leads from my posts whether the posts are “liked”, commented on or not. It’s also essential for branding yourselves in a community of people that are likely to transact with you. Well worth the time and effort.
I sell multi-family at record setting IRRs.
5dI have lots of comments and engagement from investors from all over the world, but only 3 who actually own assets in my markets that I've done deals with are active on the platform. I think it is still worth providing good content for others, it just meant to me to be cognizant of how much time I dedicate.