In the last post, I outlined the uses and benefits of LinkedIn and blogging for  property owners and managers. Excellent professional tools, but I think you can handle more. It’s time to face the media. Here’s how to make it go from so-so, to social.

Four social platforms that best-in-class property management professionals rely on (and advice on their implementation):

With over 200 million users, Twitter is an incredible tool to gather real-time information and news. It is a combination of personal and professional messaging, so you can often see the more human side of your peers, prospects, and clients. You have 140 characters to get out your message (a URL shortening device such as bitly is highly recommended), so brief is chief.

How to use:

Follow your clients and prospects that are on Twitter. You can set up lists that follow only the people or companies in them. This allows you to quickly filter Twitter activity by these lists, which may be tenants, CEOs, or whatever you fancy. Thus you can easily monitor a group of tenants and respond to their issues or complaints, boosting customer satisfaction levels. You may want to use a personal page rather than company page to build more personal relationships.

Use Hootsuite to monitor different search terms and manage your Twitter activity with other social media communications.

Voice your opinion, share company news, demonstrate your relevance.

YouTube is the second most searched website in the world. It beats out every search engine other than Google. Humans are visual creatures, so appeal to their senses.

How to use:

With as little as a flip cam, Smartphone, or iPad, you can create interactive content and make it easy to access. Upload videos of vacant spaces and properties you want to market… for free! Create a customized YouTube channel that links to your website.

If you haven’t heard of Google+, you apparently only use the internet to access this blog. With features often compared to Facebook and predicted to overtake it, Google+ allows users to create “circles,” another way to create networks for sharing.

How to use:

Google Plus is not yet available to businesses, so you must make a private account (this however can still be leveraged by businesses). Use circles to distinguish friends, business associates, industry thought leaders, tenants, and any other group you choose. The message and feed filtering makes segmented communication easier than on Facebook or Twitter.

Sparks combines RSS Feeds, Google Alerts, Google News and other tools to keep you up to date on industry-related news.

Gist allows you to correlate all of your contacts and see what those contacts are doing on their social media sites. It keeps records of your e-mail correspondence with clients, as well.

How to use:

Search a prospect or client to find their online presence, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc. These are all different venues to make connections that can be more effective than traditional means of reaching out. You get the gist.

Customers increasingly turn to social platforms before corporate websites and traditional sources when looking for information. What does a quick Google search say about your company? The results might surprise you.