Since I respond to my twitter messages, I felt a need to add a comment. I am in the commercial real estate industry a group that are notoriously late adopters of technology and highly skeptical of social media. When I embarked on serious social media initiative two years ago it was a bit risky and the eye rolls and snickers from my peers were frequent. Its a stuffy crowd! My main goal was to differentiate myself from my competition and improve communication with my existing client base. I can't even describe how much social media has raised my visibility both locally and nationally and most importantly my existing clients have responded with more referral opportunities due the increased frequency of communication and engagement. The whole key has been providing value without selling and at times when clients and prospects are not immediately in need of my services.

In my mind the principles of effective social media use for business are the same as the principles of sound sales, marketing, communications and account management and It is really not rocket science, you just learn to apply the same principles in a new medium. Don't your clients and potential clients want authenticity, consistent engagement, value for the time they give you and trust. It is the same on-line or off-line. There are a few but not many who teach the nuances of doing it on-line. These are the so called social media experts, but they really are just smart business people.

The message should be "loud and clear" to CoStar. I do believe if they would shift the needle drastically in terms of the perception of their customer service they would get less resistance to their price points. The quality of the data can always be improved and we will always want lower prices. I have argued that we purchase CoStar for the efficiency it brings to the research function not that the data is fantastic.. As a Tenant rep it is invaluable in terms of efficiency, and a good tenant rep is going to verify data. My complaints have been when I raised questions regarding how data is collected or reported and you get the "our way or the highway" attitude.

Jeff brings up a salient point, if they would reach out more to their major customers and seek their input you just might end up with a better product that people will happily pay for.

Dave...you have hit the nail on the head. If LinkedIn figures out how to get business people to stay-n-play, it will be a huge success. The news function is a great start, and I would not discount facebook, but I have very specific opinions on how each can be used effectively. I have had significant success with facebook which for me at this point has outperformed Twitter and LinkedIn, if I measure by the metric of social connections that have turned into actual business. I however believe all three platforms have some inherent advantages and should be integrated into your overall on-line strategy.

Finally someone from CRE with some social networking experience echoes my sentiments regarding LinkedIn's value at this point as a professional networking tool. I like you don't think LinkedIn is worthless, however I do agree the real issue with Linkedin is despite it's promises as a target rich professional user environment, is the fact that the level of engagement is disappointing. As CRE professionals jump into the social networking scene, LinkedIn is the safe choice, but in my personal experience when you start talking ROI. Facebook and Twitter have significantly outperformed LinkedIn.

Again, John very insightful based on some real analysis of each company's financial statements and business models. I am chuckling at the ordained priesthood-unwashed masses description. Most of the concerns from the brokerage industry seem to revolve around a fear that LoopNet suddenly just got significantly more expensive, as LoopNet served as the only real competition to CoStar. Consumers don' t like when they don't feel they have a choice, but I would point to the residential industry where you have almost have to be on the MLS system. While there may be some change in the cost structure I don't expect it to be significant just as a result of the merger and greed. Hopefully if the cost goes up, so does the quality of the product correspondingly. In theory the acquisition gives CoStar the ability to better serve a segment of the market that couldn't justify the cost of a suite of CoStar products as well as penetrate tertiary markets which was the strength of LoopNet. The quality of the data should improve for both services with the LoopNet product being more robust and the CoStar data having a broader reach into smaller markets.

While both companies have tried to expand their services in recent years, at the end of day CoStar Property is their core service and what they do well. LoopNet is a marketing platform, that's what the do well. Neither has done very well trying to reach into each into the others core competencies, which is why the merger makes so much sense in theory. We will just have to see how they execute.

As far as the CRE data landscape. Until some entrepreneurs decide to raise the hundreds of millions in capital required to roll out a competitive product there will be no real competition. While there will be opportunities for niche players, as a core research and marketing product, the marketplace is years and hundreds of millions of dollars behind and I am not sure given the potential of the total market anyone will want to take the investment risk for half the pie.

For the major market big brokerage firm this merger is almost a non-event. I think when CoStar burst upon the scene it was viewed as a service that enabled the smaller brokerage firm and independent professional to compete with the larger regional and national players in terms of research. It didn't exactly turn out that way. Having worked half my career for a small niche firm and half for a national brokerage company I have seen both sides of the table.

This is exactly why we get paid what we do for closing deals and while some see the amount of these fees and form an opinion of that it is "too much" . They do not see all the hours of work and effort that goes into deals that never close. Classic Risk / Reward scenario

John, I agree with all your points and it is really no surprise to me to see CRE blogs pop up and quickly become inactive knowing the time and effort involved. I might add when it comes to the types of content I choose to deliver it is a constant tug of war balancing between: 1) popularity vs. critical acclaim, 2) SEO objectives 3) target audience/business development objectives. I am often surprised at what subject matter resonates with my readers, clients and or prospective clients. I might post something my CRE peers perceive as outstanding content that a client or potential client finds uninteresting, and vice versa. Finding the right mix is an art and you do it as well anyone.

I might add that many different RE publications will take the same data point and lead an article on the same subject matter with a headline that give conflicting impressions of the economic trend.

I love our industry, and there are some great people, but have always said we have way more than our fair share of douche bags.

douche bag: Douche bag or simple douche is considered to be a derogatory term. The slang use of the term orginated in the 1960's. The term refers to a person, usually male, with a variety of negative qualities, specifically arrogance and engaging in obnoxious and/or irritating actions without malicious intent. source: Wikepedia