

Ask HN: How Do VCs/Angels Use Social Media for Investment? - jolie

...or do they?<p>I'm writing a post today on how angels and VCs use social media for business purposes, and although I have thoughts of my own on that, I'd like to get your take on it.<p>If you're an investor who uses tools such as Facebook/Twitter/what have you, or if your a startup who found funding through similar media, please-please-please let me know about it.
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jonathanpratt
Jolie,

I have had my commercial real estate license since 2006 and I recently found a
job as a retail, office, and industrial broker and advisor for Sperry Van Ness
Commercial real estate- a national commercial real estate brokerage firm. When
I began researching the real estate market I found that doing online research
was very helpful, resourceful and surprisingly expensive if I wanted to
subscribe to the services that I needed to be able to advertise my properties
and research online. Nationally approved and recognized brands and websites
like Loopnet, CoStar and DMCAR (a professional Denver resource) are paid
services. Since I was limited in what I wanted to spend towards online
marketing I began searching for ways to market my listings through alternative
sites that were free and considered to be social nine months ago and only now
have been transformed into advertising powerhouses. Facebook, Twitter and
search engines are excellent ways to advertise a business online and they are
resourceful for their simple digital functionality and mobile access.
Simultaneously these online resources are not necessarily money makers. It's
easy to spend $100 or more per month on search engines and Twitter and
Facebook can take up a lot of time without paying a dime. While it's important
to advertise on search engines and have an online presence through networks
like Facebook and Twitter to gain brand recognition and be accessible through
online searches, these services don't always pay the business owner who is
advertising the same hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars that the
developers invest in creating the technologies. In other words, there is a
strong distinction between the advertising consumer who pays for the online
services and the companies online who are generating 100% of their revenue
from online business. Online services can demand a lot and provide practically
nothing in return, so it's important for the paying advertising business
decision maker to balance how much money and time they invest in online
services so that they can have an effective online presence at a descent
price.

Jonathan Pratt Commercial Real Estate Advisor Sperry Van Ness ROI Commercial
Real Estate 1871 Folsom Street Boulder, CO 80302 Office Phone (303) 302-6484
www.svn.com

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trotzke
Social media is SproutBox's primary source of deal flow. It just makes sense
when you have an application process like we do that we would tweet about apps
opening and closing-- and that people would retweet the opportunity.

We also use Facebook, twitter and linkedIn extensively for research. If we're
interested in an app we immediately look up entrepreneur's profiles. If we
know them it reminds us how. If we don't, we find common connections and get
some context aout what they are about.

I don't think we could do what we do, at the scale that we do, if social media
didn't exist.

BTW... we're missing you out at Big Omaha this year.

~~~
jolie
I so wish I could be there! Please give Dusty and Jeff my love.

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frommww
You should connect with Jeff Clavier (@jeff). One of the top users, to great
effect.

