How construction, real estate companies use social media.

Byline: Dan Emerson

It could hardly have been easier to watch the rise of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater earlier this year on a lot just south of Interstate 94 in Woodbury.

Loretto-based Shingobee Builders Inc. used a webcam to livestream construction of the 9060 Hudson Road project, which finished in July.

The feed noticeably increased Shingobee's web traffic, said Elliot Christensen, director of business development. And still photos shared on Facebook and Instagram helped boost the builder's market profile.

The most avid viewer of Shingobee's photos and video stream was its client, Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Ramco-Gershenson Properties LLC, which was able to keep tabs on the project from afar.

Shingobee's use of online visuals is one example of how Twin Cities developers, contractors and commercial brokers are using social media to communicate with their various constituencies clients, potential customers, business partners, the news media and the general public.

Minneapolis-based United Properties uses social media as a supplemental channel to promote its messaging, Vice President of Marketing Sheila Thelemann said.

"Our main objective is to raise the visibility of United Properties as a premier investor," she said. "We use it from a brand image perspective more than promoting projects, although [we do] use it that way, too."

Currently, United Properties is using Twitter and LinkedIn and considering adding Instagram. Facebook is only used as a service for residents "mainly to promote events geared toward senior citizens," Thelemann said.

On Twitter United Properties announces projects and showcases the company's philanthropic work and community involvement, but it plans on cutting back on project-specific tweets in the future.

Twitter posts on topics like sustainability, market trends and public policy will give United Properties' executives a chance to demonstrate their expertise and help position the company as an industry authority, Thelemann said.

Robert "Bucky" Beeman, 27, has used a blog and other social media tools to position himself as an authority on the Rochester, Minnesota, commercial real estate market.

Beeman, a partner in Rochester-based Realty Growth Inc., blogs about local events, such as a new business owner who acquired a former fabric store building at 111 Broadway Ave. S. He also posts videos on Snapchat and uses the Snapped app to post other people's video or photo snaps to Twitter.

The web enables him to...