TO TWEET OR NOT

So, how handy is social media for your commercial property? The question was posed at a recent joint meeting of the Institute of Real Estate Management Dallas and Fort Worth chapters in Irving. Before we learned the secrets to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, we snapped Fort Worth IREM prez (and Sperry Van Ness VP) Clint Montgomery with Dallas IREM prez (and Granite Properties') Tessie Nolan and IREM International prez-elect Jim Evans.

Pegasus Ablon?s Kendall Shiffler says Facebook has grown in the past two years from 150 million users to 650 million. Launching just seven years ago, that exponential growth shows how social networking is the true social infrastructure of the web, she says. The next most popular site is Twitter with (just) 200 million users. There are also more users on the mobile FB app than Twitter. So, how canproperty managers use FB? Simply use it to be found, she says. It's free, almost everyone knows how to use it, and it's more cost effective than setting up a website. FB pages also rank well in searches.

Like the IREM FB page here, these pages can be used to communicate with tenants in a two-way conversation. It allows users to build relationships and encourages informal conversations, Kendall says. There's a ROI on building relationships with genuineconversations, hopefully resulting in resident retention. The brand building gives prospective tenants some backstory into the site. Big tips: make your FB page easy to connect with, be human, tag earlyand often, update often, and write ?on message.? Also, offer incentives to connect through FB with original content and use a picture instead of a logo. We've already friended IREM, so we'll let you know what content is swirling around.

While we're talking about IREM, we stopped in for an update from some key Dallas IREM folks last week at the Ross Avenue office of Kessler Collins' Gary Kessler (left, below that beautiful vase that we managed not to break). He's with chapter executive director Kristin Hiett, Lincoln Harris' Susan Heath, and Universal Protection Service's Greg Goree. Congrats to IREM on its recent Casino Night, complete with blackjack, craps, and of course, Texas Hold 'em. The$7,500 raised from 150 attendees will be used to put on luncheons for departing troops and sending care packages overseas.