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New YORK CITY-Results of a recent GlobeSt.com poll indicated that commercial real estate professionals prefer LinkedIn as their social media choice for business networking, but Twitter is gaining traction. The loyal tweeters may presently be select but their voices are getting stronger, and those hoping to stay on top of industry trends may do well to embrace the platform.

But why start tweeting? If for no other reason, one can achieve eternal fame by joining the site. Yet jokes aside, the platform is certainly being taken more seriously, as Robert Krueger, manager of social media outreach and communications at the Urban Land Institute recently explained via email. “There is a reason why the Library of Congress is cataloging all tweets after five years,” he says. “They decided to do this because Twitter is a useful tool for researching what is being said in the public sphere. Of course, each organization/person needs to decide on their professional objectives and whether their target audience is using the platform before they decide to use it for their company, but I believe that every CRE professional should be using it on an individual level. It provides an invaluable wealth of information.”