Office Space Advice
Pacific Business Center Shares Social Media Strategy
Published April 9th, 2010 by Jennifer LeClaire
Executive office suites and social media go hand in hand like Tiger Woods and golf. Well, sort of. At least I’m seeing more companies in the serviced office space engage in social media — and do it effectively. One of those companies is Pacific Business Centers.
The Cupertino, California-based business center company has been experimenting with social media since May 2009, and Keith Warner, managing partner of Pacific Business Centers, has invested considerable time to build its blogging, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn presence. Warner may not be building the same buzz as its neighbor Apple does with the iPad, but in the serviced office world, it seems people are listening.
aBetterOffice caught up with Warner to discuss Pacific Business Center’s social media strategy and the results. There are key lessons here for regional serviced office operators from coast to coast – and beyond.
What specific social media activities are you involved in?
Pacific Business Centers has an active Facebook page to which I contribute, and I spend a lot of time growing my LinkedIn network and Twitter followers, then updating status and sending tweets.
How often to you engage on these sites?
I am part of the small social networking group within Pacific Business Centers. Our job is to be very active on social media on behalf of the whole PBC Community. I spend a lot of time doing this, probably two to three hours a day. Amortized over 16 centers, that’s a worthwhile investment of time.
There is no question that if I were a single site operator or only owned two or three centers like I did a few years ago I could not afford to invest that amount of time at the expense of all other things that need to be done to own and managing a center. Fortunately, being part of PBC gives me that luxury because other folks cover my back on other functions in web marketing, finance, sales, and operations.
What is your social media strategy?
To build long lasting relationship with a variety of people – clients, potential clients, potential partners, and industry colleagues.
What types of posts do you put on these sites?
Things that I think contribute value to the individual site as determined by the target individuals that are visiting that site. I try to provide helpful business tips with an office space or virtual office slant. I probably walk the fine line of being too “salesy,” but there are still so many people out there that have not grasped the virtual office concept that I think it’s important to get the word out. I also mix in some random thoughts, particularly on Twitter, that are hopefully entertaining, or at least make the reader smile and go “hmmm.”
As far as our Facebook Fan Page goes we consider this “The Lighter Side of PBC.” Our recent posts include:
• Picture from the roof of our Cupertino location
• Announcement about our onsite car wash service
• Picture of the wild turkey roaming our Pleasant Hill location grounds
• Picture of the Hawk nesting outside a window in San Mateo
• Contest for tickets to a Pro Tennis Tournament in Downtown San Jose
• Tickets for the annual Downtown San Jose Film Festival
• Pictures of construction in our San Mateo location
• Announcement about our 24-hour fitness membership program
• Link to our blog with Business Tax Tips
• Various other blog article links
What are the biggest challenges you’ve discovered in social media?
Time. It’s so easy to get sucked in. Two hours can become five in what seems like minutes. In many respects, it is a case of all or nothing. If you are going to do it well, you need to invest a lot of time.
How are you dealing with those challenges?
I literally sleep until noon almost every Saturday! It’s exhausting trying to keep up, and I wouldn’t if I didn’t enjoy it so much.
What are your social media successes?
That’s a good question, and it’s so much more difficult to gauge the social media successes than say an ad, mailing, or even web traffic. The jury is definitely still out on the ROI, but I would say around the centers there is a better sense of community amongst the staff and tenants.
Check out PBC’s social media efforts:
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About the Author
Elizabeth Sanchez April 9th, 2010 at 10:10 am
This is awesome. I really enjoyed this article. It’s good to see companies in the serviced office space out there in the social networking world. So many industries still seem so far behind. I thought it was interesting that Keith is willing to put so much time into it without clear results. I am wondering if he’s betting on the future or if it’s more effective than he’s letting on.
Bill Brookshire April 9th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I loved the examples of Facebook posts they offered. It sounds like have a good strategy for social media overall. I think there is also a disconnect between the investment and the payoff. Without social media metrics of some kind I guess it’s virtually impossible to get any idea of how it effects business. But building a community around a brand is never a bad idea. Sounds like Keith is definitely committed to managing it.
Milynn Mora April 13th, 2010 at 7:49 am
Great article, but none of the links are working for twitter, facebook, or their site.
Mike Sullivan April 13th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Working now…