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Century 21 mixes social, mobile and video in new platform

Century 21 Real Estate has partnered with Google and Videolicious to create a new social, mobile marketing suite for its agents and expand their reach.

The C21 Social Xchange platform is a social media marketing, communications and advertising tool suite that lets sales professionals build relationships with consumers and expand their audience. The platform will be easily accessible from mobile devices to let real estate agents work on the go.

?Mobile is key in the real estate industry,? said Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer for Century 21 Real Estate, Las Vegas. ?The suite will be used on mobile devices. It?s created as mobile-ready. The social landing page we produced is mobile ready.

?Also Videolicous, we are leveraging that video app and clearly in real estate, the power of video to tell the story is phenomenal,? she said. ?But at the same time we were concerned for our agents. So the mobile high quality low entry level in terms of ease of use was important.?

Social Xchange
The C21 Social Xchange platform lets real estate agents leverage Google AdWords, Videolicous and other features to better market to consumers.

Century 21 sales associates in the United States will be able to use Google?s social tools and a special program to introduce them to Google Adwords Express, which enables them to advertise local businesses on Google.

Additionally, associates will be able to access the Videolicious mobile app to create professional-quality videos and easily post to YouTube. The app lets the associates combine videos, photos, music and stories into a shareable, professional post.

Video is particularly important in the real estate industry where consumers want to see a full picture of a house or apartment before making a commitment.

Using the Social Xchange platform, sales associates will be able to schedule a social media post, make the post and share to a number of different platforms. They can also automatically upload straight from the Videolicious app.

Mobile real estate
Both mobile and social make a lot of sense in the real estate industry.

As sales associates are visiting houses and apartments, mobile and social enable them to easily share content with consumers and potential clients.

?Social media platforms are great places to build relationships with clients,? Ms. Thorne said. ?For us, it?s becoming a more important advertising channel as well.

?The integration of mobile and social is perfect for real estate because it is our sweet spot.?

Since consumers spend more time on mobile devices and social media, marketers need to meet them where they are, and Century 21 understands how important that is.

According to a 2013 study from The Search Agency, 52 percent of real estate search impressions come from mobile (see story).

?Mobile is a key part of our digital strategy, we have mobile apps for all our platforms,? Ms. Thorne said. ?We?re using responsive design technology.

?Our consumers are absolutely mobile,? she said. ?It?s just a no brainer. It?s where consumers are going, and we want to be where our consumers are.

?With social media it?s the same thing. It?s today?s way of building relationships. It used to be picking up the phone, and this is just a new channel.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York