By adaptive - April 1st, 2014

Century 21 Real Estate LLC is the franchisor of the world's largest residential real estate sales organization, providing comprehensive training and marketing support for the CENTURY 21 System.

Matt Gentile is a marketing executive with extensive experience in developing national and international marketing plans that leverage earned, owned and paid media to drive lead generation and enhance brand preference. He has over 20 years of experience managing all facets of corporate communication. Currently, he directs social media strategy on behalf of the world's largest real estate sales organization. Matt is a professional presenter who is frequently asked to speak at both national and regional conferences focused on digital marketing, social media and public relations.

Matt Gentile, Director, Social Media, Century 21 Real Estate LLC

How is social media organised within your company? What organisational models do you use and why?

Social media is managed by marketing for our portfolio of social media properties (e.g., @C21 – Home Matters Blog, Facebook page, Twitter presence and Google+

However, as a global organization, we use a consultative approach when coaching other stakeholders on best practices, tips and techniques for leveraging social media to drive business goals. We have also established a Center of Excellence to share best practices across our vast network of real estate professionals.

 

As a corporate user of social networks, how does your company value the networks it has a presence on?

Each social network that we utilize has a distinct value proposition. Specifically, Facebook offers the brand an opportunity to engage with the consumer and truly understand and respond to the many issues that consumers’ have surrounding the purchase and/or sale of a home. Twitter empowers the brand to weigh-in on trending news of the day and provide value to our audience in a completely different experience than G+, Linkedin or YouTube. 

Regardless of which network the brand has a presence on social media at its core empowers brands to communicate with the consumer and our own internal system members in ways that were not possible just 10 years ago.

 

Can you outline a recent initiative that included a social media component?

We recently conducted a voting initiative on our new CENTURY 21 ad campaign that was recently launched in conjunction with the Olympic games in Sochi, Russia. We asked our industry-leading Facebook audience which of the three ads they liked the best. 

The results surprised us in that “Puppy Pile” was a big winner earning over 50% of the votes.  This type of feedback helps us to make go-forward decisions on how and where we use certain ads in the future.  I am also very excited to announce that we will be taking over the home page of YouTube on March 27th, the highest traffic day for real estate! 

This is the first time a national real estate franchise has done a YouTube home page takeover, once again demonstrating our commitment to SMARTER. BOLDER. FASTER. marketing!

How much pressure is there to show ROI with the social media you use?

CENTURY 21 agents are some of the hardest working real estate professionals in the business. We feel an obligation to ensure that the rest of the world sees and understands the value that they bring to every transaction they are involved with. I don’t view it as pressure so much as an opportunity to reach more people with our powerful brand value proposition. 

Social media is only one part of our 360-degree marketing strategy, from advertising on the Olympics to sponsoring U.S. Soccer, our goal is to showcase the talents of our sales professionals in front of the largest audience possible. The ROI is manifold, but one tangible metric that is derived from our 360-degree strategy is the fact that we have held the #1 position among national real estate franchise websites for the past 15 months straight. This in turn creates leads and more opportunities for our sales professionals.

 

How did your organisation approach the mapping of your enterprise to identify where social media should reside in the corporate structure? And how this would deliver an integrated approach to social media activity?

Given social media’s inherent nature as a communication vehicle, the obvious choice for CENTURY 21 was to have social media fall under marketing. The evolution of social media within the organization began with social media being aligned with the public relations function and has over time transitioned to digital marketing. 

I have been very fortunate to oversee the growth of social media as it has evolved from more of a brand preference play to a leading source for driving referral traffic and lead generation. Given our leadership in brand awareness, we are now much more focused on driving brand preference goals and lead generation for our agents.

 

What is your advice to organisations that are beginning to map their own corporate structure with the view to embedding social media activity within their enterprise?

Take a holistic view of social media within the organizational framework. Nearly every department within a large organization has the ability to harness the power of these new communication tools to drive business goals in a positive way. 

Use a consultative approach internally and take the time to understand the various stakeholder’s needs. Spending the time at the beginning and talking through the details with each stakeholder within a large corporate enterprise may take longer than you would like at the beginning, but it will save a lot of time, energy and resources as your social strategy takes shape.

 

Are there any specific tools you employ that help your business manage its social media activity across multiple departments?

I’m glad you asked that question. In March at our Global Conference in Las Vegas, we announced the launch of the C21 Social XchangeSM. A comprehensive social media marketing, communications and advertising tool suite, the C21 Social Xchange combines an industry-first licensing agreement that leverages Google social tools, a co-marketing agreement with Google Adwords, and a comprehensive licensing agreement with Videolicious.

The C21 Social Xchange empowers our sales professionals to build relationships and grow their sphere of influence while also enabling our staff to develop a unique capability to more efficiently manage our social messaging and drive brand preference and lead generation goals through advanced application and campaign development features.

 

How do you see the management and development of social media in your company evolving over the next few years?


The social media space is only now beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible with regard to driving marketing and business goals. Social media management platforms have made it easier than ever to pivot and move at the speed of technology. For us, partnering with Google has made a world of difference.

I believe utilization of tools like Google Adwords will become as commonplace for our real estate professionals as newspaper ads were at one time. Bottom line, real estate is a people business and today many business relationships are made online and carried offline. Understanding how to enhance your online presence and take control of your digital reputation will continue to be an important factor for successful sales professionals. 

Fortunately, through the C21 Social XchangeSM, CENTURY 21 Agents are uniquely capable of not only keeping pace with the technology, but staying in front of it. At the brand level we will continue to evolve our social strategy and do everything possible to continue to position CENTURY 21 sales professionals with a unique advantage in the marketplace.

The Corporate Social Media Summit New York 2014

June 2014, New York

Become a social business: For superior marketing response, sharper corporate decision-making, enhanced innovation and a happier, more loyal customer

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