LinkedIn in 2022, should property managers use it?

These days innovation, digitisation and a compelling online presence are survival essentials for businesses and career focused individuals.

In today’s digital world, LinkedIn is one of the most utilised and powerful social media platforms for professionals and businesses. Perhaps originally more a domain for CEOs and directors, LinkedIn is now used broadly by industry veterans, university graduates, and even students who are willing to expand their professional network. So what does this mean for property managers in real estate agencies?

The truth is, if you search “property manager” on LinkedIn, you’ll find thousands of results with suggested links to connect with people and find job prospects as well as opportunities to strengthen relationships with clients, colleagues and other professionals who may share similar interests to you.

LinkedIn is proven to display and create lead generation and help build a customer base; in fact, it’s 277% more effective for lead generation than other social media networks. And that’s saying something.

So, with these facts in mind, are there compelling reasons for property managers to use LinkedIn? Do you want to lift your property management profile to the next level?

Well property managers, there are many valid reasons why you can benefit from LinkedIn, not only boost your career confidence and develop new skills but to also raise your profile status and develop your business.

Why should you be using LinkedIn?

With around 12.75 million users or almost 50% of the Australian population, LinkedIn has become the premier professional networking site with an unlimited supply of connections and opportunities for career insights, career progression and business promotion.

LinkedIn can provide you with opportunities to:

1. Build your professional network
2. Build your business
3. Advance your career

What’s not to love? Let’s get started.

Build your network

In these days of social media, LinkedIn continues to grow and is designed so members can establish a network of people they know and can learn from. These connections can keep you up to date with what is happening in your industry, consider you for job opportunities or help you build your real estate agency business.

Some tips to build your network include:

• Optimising your LinkedIn profile, and
• Joining social groups and attending events

Optimising your LinkedIn profile is a mandatory step if you want to get the most benefit out of LinkedIn. If you have one chance to make a good first impression, then why wouldn’t you?

It’s common for people to create a LinkedIn profile and then forget about it – until something happens to make them look at it again. If you met someone professionally face-to-face for the first time, you’d invest time in talking to them especially if you were in the same industry. Why not take time, such as the 20 minutes you might chat to a new contact in person, to build your LinkedIn profile which has the potential to help you grow your network?

You’ll need to make each part of your profile count in your favour and remember that you might not have too long to make an impression – think of the timespan of a GIF or two to entice your audience.

A professional looking profile picture, your very own ‘calling card’, allows you to digitally introduce yourself to the market in a way you can control and gives them an idea of what you look like if they were to meet you tomorrow.

LinkedIn also gives you the opportunity to summarise your profile - why not turn your summary into a story? After all, the summary is really your visual handshake and personal introduction – when done right it could help you make valuable networking connections and attract interest from hiring managers.

Join social groups and events: Stumbling across LinkedIn groups is different to what you see on your Facebook page, but it doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the opportunities presented. Although some groups are more about self-promotion and spam rather than valuable information, there are many useful groups and events that could help you to build your network.

With a current user base of more than 850 million registered members, LinkedIn continues to grow with people keen to further their professional network and increase brand industry knowledge. There will be groups and events that could help you build your network.

If you're not sure which groups to join and want to investigate groups you may find interesting, why not try the LinkedIn Group Directory?

Build your business

While some may not think it is the world’s most engaging platform, nor the one with the longest reach, LinkedIn does have a huge global audience and you can use the platform as a powerful tool for brand building and lead generation for both Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) scenarios. For example, LinkedIn could help drive property owners to your real estate agency business and help you build your rent roll.

Having a strong LinkedIn presence through your profile and your activity on the platform will give you a good chance of grabbing the attention of those people and companies that could be great for your property management business. If you can generate interest in your profile and your business, you’ll be building your personal brand as well as your business through the lead generation opportunities LinkedIn provides.

You can use LinkedIn to demonstrate your knowledge in the industry and the capability of your business through the posts you share and your connections with others in your field. The platform consists of professionals and peers highlighting their influence and accomplishments, so looking the part is a top priority to stay relevant and front of mind. And better still, your contacts or those you or your business have engaged with can endorse your skills and experience. This will help attract leads to your profile for your property management services.

You can also use LinkedIn as a research tool – it’s a great way to check out other companies and professionals in your industry to see what they are up to. And you can also follow businesses so you will have visibility of their updates when they post them. This could be both other real estate agencies or property management specialists, or it could be a business or profile completely unrelated to real estate that you admire and want to connect with.

Advance your career

There are so many reasons why job seekers or those looking to build a team should be on LinkedIn.

One of the most helpful things about LinkedIn is its integrated search engine. LinkedIn can really support your career development and provide employment opportunities, with recruiters and hiring managers routinely using LinkedIn to search for candidates. They can filter by keywords, job titles, skills, and experience to find the ideal prospect and that could be you. This unique feature can be really useful to optimise traffic to your profile.

The search engine might help recruiters find you, but equally you can use it to find jobs or even other people to join your team. LinkedIn also allows you to follow anyone and not just those you are connected to, meaning you can see what is happening in the industry, hear about best practices and follow the careers of those you might like to emulate or learn from.

What’s also amazing is that LinkedIn allows you to update your position status to let those in your network know you are looking for a new role. This will help you build relationships with recruiters and hiring managers in your area of expertise, so you are top of mind when job opportunities arise.

On top of using the amazing search for connecting with other property managers and property management businesses, you can also engage with LinkedIn learning course to develop specific skills.

So, if you want to build your network and your property management business as well as advance your career at the same time, then LinkedIn is the place for you.