Majority rules
73 percent of millenials and 73 percent of corporate executives agree that social is going to fundamentally change how business gets done, according a Jive Software and Penn Schoen Berland survey. With some dismissing social media as a fad, Jive set out to show the risk in being dismissive of the rise of social networks in business.
The company took a top down approach, asking questions of executives (top) all the way down to millennials (bottom) to gauge attitudes of both extremes of the spectrum and found that in most cases, there is agreement that social is indeed changing business. For those who ignore the change in tides, they will certainly be left behind. This doesn’t mean that if a Realtor fails to tweet every day their business will die, but it does mean that as consumers use social networks to research and communicate with real estate professionals, those that are there to meet them have a higher chance of success.
What was highly interesting is that a major shift has taken place regarding who is responsible for bringing social media into the workplace. We remember just a few years back when marketing assistants were begging for clearance to use social networks, but now, executives understand the usefulness of social media in business and are leading the charge with 82% of executives leveraging at least one social network for business use whereas only 58% of millennials use any social networking for business purposes.
Although more millennials are actually logged into at least one social network during work, the rise in executive use is rapidly accelerating, showing that millennials are likely using the tools for personal use while executives understand the merit of professional use.
Implications in real estate
The implications of this study are different for a non-corporate hierarchy like a real estate brokerage in that the ladder is far different, but it is important to note that the business world is paying attention to social media as a legitimate marketing tool. We believe that real estate professionals have led this charge to a great extent, but for the naysayers left, it should be noted that even the stodgy white haired execs of yesteryear are on board.
This means two things to the real estate industry- first, marketing is and always has been a survival of the fittest world, and those who naysay will be left behind. Secondly, this means that social networking is not a fun toy for grandchildren, it is being used by executives across the globe as a viable marketing tool, so the network has broadened and Realtors are more apt to reach target clientele.
