Carrie is the CEO of Carrie Bobb & Co, CEO of hellojenny, Co-Founder of The Carrie Bobb Foundation, a wife and mom to three kids & a doodle.
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For anyone struggling with how to measure success or the success of people in your company on social media, it is possible to have clear, attainable goals in commercial real estate. We just need to give people a target to hit. We begin by establishing and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). These directly translate into new leads and eventually deals.
There are two different kinds of KPIs when it comes to commercial real estate: non-revenue-generating and revenue-generating. It is difficult to succeed at revenue-generating KPIs without doing the non-revenue-generating KPIs well.
Below are examples of both non-revenue and revenue-generating KPIs to track month over month to measure success.
Non-Revenue-Generating KPIs
More important than tracking the number of followers, we should be tracking the engagement rate and reach. These numbers account for actual people actually engaging with or seeing the content.
• Engagement rate: This is generally the number of likes, comments, saves and shares on an account or post. The standard formula for calculating engagement rate is to add the number of likes, comments, shares and saves together and then divide by the total number of followers. The average individual engagement rate on Instagram, by one calculation, is 4.7%. The engagement rate also depends on the number of followers. As a rule of thumb, the larger the follower count, the lower the engagement rate. The important thing is to track the engagement rate month over month, to watch how the audience is responding to content.
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• Reach: This is simply the number of people who saw the content from an account. By tracking the reach of your account, you are monitoring the growth and exposure of your account. This is an especially important metric to track if the goal is to grow exposure for a personal brand or company.
• Clicks: This is when a visitor clicks on the link in bio. If someone is willing to click on the website or is learning more about the account, they are more likely to convert to a client.
• Shares: When your audience shares a post, it is an indicator that the content being created is valuable and people are willing to recommend your personal brand or company.
• Meaningful connections: Tracking the connections you are making through social is one of the most important reasons to be on social media. The whole point is to connect with people. These are what translate into relationships and into transactions. But it must be meaningful and matter.
Revenue-Generating KPIs
This is where we can measure if our digital sales funnel of engagement, exposure and connections is actually working.
• Leads: When we are managing our pipeline and tracking our various transactions, we should be mindful of leads that came through social. Many times they’re not 100% from social, but the familiarity of knowing the personal brand and the account could be what tipped it over the edge. We have gone into pitches and clients already are familiar with our work because they are following us closely on social. Simply tracking that social was a factor can be helpful.
• Transactions: How many transactions were completed because of an introduction or connection that was made through social?
• Occupancy rate: If a direct message to a brand about pop-up shops or short-term leasing opportunities turns into short-term lease, it’s worth something because it keeps the occupancy rate up. These could also translate into longer-term deals.
• Tenant retention: Through the pandemic, landlords have been leaning more into the digital space. Some are creating content for their tenants and it has been part of what keeps a tenant at a property. Maybe not the entire reason, but part of it. Being aware of that and tracking it is important because it helps shape the social media strategy for an asset.
By paying attention to the data of how your audience responds to your content, you can make clear, informed decisions and shape your content strategy. It can be a fluid process, changing with the wants and needs of your audience, but it means you are listening to clients and delivering more of what they want. And if you do it well, you will keep improving month over month and see more and more come from your investment in social media.
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