We spent last week discussing the apprehension many organizations feel towards using social media technologies for business applications (1, 2).  For many real estate owners and managers this leads to a hands-off (“Let’s see what the agents do with this new technology…”) approach to this topic.

This hesitation could be rooted in the possibility that unwise investments will be made in fad technologies that will soon disappear.  Or, like the Costco executive who once feared email, there could be some anxiety around the possibility of unleashing a force inside the organization that will distract agents from revenue producing activities.

Cartoon credit:  The Duffy Agency / Jetpack Media

So, many leaders remain on the fence, wondering how to handle this issue.  One way to gain some clarity on this topic is to learn how other, non-real estate, organizations are dealing with social media.  I’ll share a few ideas here from the research I referenced in my last blog, but I also encourage you to seek out this type of information on your own.

The Gartner consultants (referenced in the previous discussions) made the following “big picture” observations:

“Social media sponsors who successfully move beyond…negative attitudes tend to build their social media capability in one of two ways:

1. They either use it to demonstrate executive support and build confidence throughout the organization.

or

2. They start small with a narrow and specific purpose.

The large grocery retailer SUPERVALU provides a good example of how to overcome fear in an organization by demonstrating executive support.  CEO and President, Craig Herkert, saw social media as a way to respond faster to market needs, create a flatter organization, and share ideas and innovations… To this end, Herkert uses social media both to communicate with the company and also to respond to questions and comments directly and quickly.  He encourages his executive team to participate and even assigns comments and action items to them via social media where everyone can see.  This creates a cultural intimacy in a company with multiple brands and acquired chains.”

I know this sounds simple, but the executive team at SUPERVALU embraced social media by starting to use it themselves for day-to-day business communications inside the organization.

If you think about it, there was a time in the past when leadership teams within companies stopped sending paper memos to the individuals on their teams, and started using email.  At some point, that day needs to come with social media in your organization as well.

If this approach is a little too scary, you may want to dip your toe in with strategy #2: Start small with a narrow and specific purpose.  The Gartner researchers have some thoughts on this as well:

“[If you’re going to try a narrow approach], note that this is different than starting with a pilot.  Social media pilots don't work because they might limit the initial audience, which needs to grow organically and aggressively for success; or they tend to launch with a half-baked scope or technology that doesn't inspire the community to participate.

Instead, find a narrow purpose that engages people without threatening the organization.  For example, instead of deploying a social network for all its employees to collaborate more effectively (but only starting with a pilot for the "western region"), a company can build a social media solution for sales people to network specifically on how to successfully identify and overcome the top three sales objections.

In other words, consider a starter set of social media purposes that are highly magnetic to individuals to attract them into collaborative communities.  Purposes related to employee health and safety, customer support, or even organizing the company picnic, have all been used to move beyond fear and into action and experience.”

Bottom line: Unless you show leadership around the topic of social media and start using it yourself to empower business communications, you’ll never experience the collaborative benefits this new technology can offer.

While this may sound like a huge hassle, it may be one of the most important competitive differentiators among real estate companies in the next few years.  If you can’t speak the language of younger customers, those customers will find organizations who can. 

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.