How Strong is Your Brand? Network?

By Conrad Madsen, SIOR

April 19th, 2021

To say my life has changed due to Social Media (specifically LinkedIn) is an understatement. I'm so thankful that I listened to a Gary V podcast about building your brand on LinkedIn. To summarize, he said that if you weren't building your Brand (whether it be your personal or company) on LinkedIn right this minute, you were missing the boat. I was like LinkedIn? Really? That's the place where you find decision makers for business development.

I went "ALL IN" for 90 days. Here I am almost 18 months later and Gary V was so, so right. I can't convey enough how grateful I am for what has transpired for me since I embraced LinkedIn. I'm literally flooded with requests to be on Podcasts, Speaking Engagements, Media Interviews, Quotes, etc.

But I'm most proud of my #CREFAM, to coin the great Natalie Wainwright (The Queen of #CRE Social Media). I've met so many amazing brokers, investors, developers, lenders, service providers, etc. I zoom with amazing people almost non-stop everyday, all across the globe. This has created incredible friendships. I can travel anywhere and know I have a great friend in almost any city across this earth (London to Lubbock, Miami to McAllen, Nashville to Nacogdoches). You knew I was going to throw in some of those big metropolises in Texas ;)

The business world is a "networking" game. The more folks you talk to, the more business that seems to get in front of you. I'm confident the amount of effort that I've put into social media is paying off. I receive messages weekly from Brokers who want to know more about Paladin Partners and our plans, when are we expanding to their city and when that broker/investor, etc. has a deal for Dallas/Fort Worth, they will reach to me because "I'm the Dallas Guy." Hopefully it's Bobby Ewing vs. JR Ewing ;)

So it got me to thinking, How Strong is your Brand? I know that in my 18 short months that I've received more deals, recognition and friendships than I did in almost 15 years while I was at national commercial real estate firms. The results were eye-opening as you can see below.

Everyone considers CBRE to be the largest and have most market share in commercial real estate around the globe, with JLL and Cushman always battling over the #2 spot. However JLL is crushing them on social media. Did JLL just start sooner or are they just more proactive?

We have the Big 3, then we have the little brother, Colliers. Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Colorado State, Iowa State, Georgia Tech fans can all relate. Still a strong brand, but just doesn't have the resources or size of the bigger "state" school ;)

After the Top 4, we have a HUGE dropoff, I mean HUGE. To keep the University theme going, this is your Baylor, TCU, SMU, Rice, UH, etc. People have heard of them and every once in a while they sneak up on the big guys and and steal a big assignment or corporate services account. In CRE, we typically think of NAI, SVN, CRESA, Newmark, Savills, Kidder, Avison Young, Corfac etc. in that 2nd tier of large national/globe firms or networks. Remember, most folks are in all these national firms due to the perceived perceptions of inbound deal velocity between offices.

Let's put it this way. Barry Wolfe, Beth Azor, Myself, Rod Santomassimo and Natalie Wainwright have MORE Followers than CRESA, Coldwell Banker Commercial, SVN, NAI, Lee & Associates and Kidder Matthews. I'm confident that based upon my personal Follower growth averages, that I'll be in the Top 10 and surpass Savills, Transwestern and Avison & Young in the next 12 months or so. Paladin Partners alone has two brokers (Jerry Lococo & I) with more followers than NAI or SVN.

So what does all this mean? It certainly shows who is embracing Technology and Social Media, which is the future of our industry. JLL is ahead of the game in the Big 4 and Savills and Transwestern are doing much better than their rivals at NAI, CRESA, Lee & Assoc. & Kidder Matthews.

So as Gary V said, are you going to Build your Brand or be Left Behind? The Choice is Yours. I know what I'm Going to be Doing. So who is planning on joining us on the Leaderboard a year from now?

Conrad is the Co-Founder & Partner of Paladin Partners, an innovative Dallas based commercial real estate brokerage firm. He has handled over 50 million square feet of real estate transactions on behalf of tenants, landlords and investors over his career in over 125 cities across North America and has was recently named one of the Top 5 Commercial Real Estate Influencers in the world.  

Connect with him at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/conradmadsen or [email protected]