Century 21 and Hootsuite Partner to Simplify Social
Two new products from Century 21 and Hootsuite will train Century 21 brokers and agents in best practices for social selling and give individual realtors access to exclusive branded content.
Real estate brand Century 21 has partnered with social media management company Hootsuite to develop a program that will connect realtors and brokers within the company for better branded social media.
Century 21 and Hootsuite have launched two programs. The first, “Social for Business,” will connect Century 21 brokers and agents across the country on a shared Hootsuite platform that gives users access to all of Century 21’s official social feeds including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, among others. The platform will also give users access to all of Century 21’s official content, like images and blog posts, so that the company’s thousands of individual realtors will have a wealth of content for their personal social media accounts.
The second product, C21 University, will partner with Hootsuite University to better educate realtors for best practices in social selling.
Social for Business helps realtors who struggle with social media find compelling content, according to Matt Gentile, global director of social media for Century 21. “Content is a very challenging aspect of social media, and we’ve heard over the years that’s where the need is,” Gentile says. “So through this system we’ve given the professionally designed content that we get from our agencies to all our agents and brokers.”
C21 University builds on Social for Business by helping Century 21 agents and brokers understand how to best optimize social media for business. Rob Begg, vice president of enterprise strategy at Hootsuite, believes that all Century 21 employees can benefit from the distance learning courses, whether they’re seasoned social vets or beginners just testing the waters, because home buyers, more than ever before, expect realtors to have a strong social presence.
“If you look at an industry like real estate, historically relationships have been driven one-to-one, but if you think about Millennial home buyers, new home buyers, or people just coming into the market, typically those buyers are looking for a social presence and a social connection that a lot of folks in the industry just don’t have yet,” Begg says.
In an age where social media snafus can really damage a brand’s reputation, training and access to approved content are more vital than ever before. “It’s like the wild west out there,” Gentile says. “You need some common standards to bring everybody into one center of excellence. We wanted to provide a best in class learning and execution on one common platform. It’s really going to help beginners, intermediate, and advanced folks leverage into digital media with a tried-and-true methodology. The collaboration with Hootsuite really enables us with a partner that can show us the best practices for social selling.”
Begg says that both Social for Business and C21 University are exclusive to the partnership with Century 21 and aren’t currently available to other brands.
