Real estate entrepreneur Zeina Khoury and the CEO of fam Properties Firas Al Msaddi are well-known in the industry, and share many similarities.
One of them is their recognition of the power of social media in helping to build their careers and boost their personal branding, which they discussed at Meta MENA’s first Real Estate Summit in Dubai.
“Social media has been amazing and contributed a lot to my real estate career,” says Khoury, who is also a star of Netflix reality show Dubai Bling. She first stared making real estate videos during Covid with subject-matter experts and her followers quickly began to grow.
“Social media is extremely important. People can search online, follow me and then contact me when they are ready to make a decision.” Khoury has more than half a million followers on Instagram.
Firas has grown fam Properties into a 640-strong agent business empire. “Dubai is the land of opportunity because the city is being built as we speak. The more you contribute, the more you help build the city and industry and the more you are going to walk away with.”
Self-branding
The real estate gurus are big believers in using social media to help build their personal branding. “Step one is to tell your small community what you do. Work on creating relevant content,” says Zeina. “Nowadays content on social media is almost equivalent to an Ivy League degree.”
Giving tips to an intimate audience at the Meta summit she said: “I put in a lot of effort. I try to deliver relevant content, stick to one message, and try to have a little fun. It’s serious content delivered in fun way while adding hair and make-up and colour, and being honest.”
Firas’s secret is to share knowledge and then more people will seek you out. “Social media is not a luxury any more. It is essential to get on social media. Even the most simple content will have a relevant audience. It is a business necessity today.”
The real estate sector is a core part of the MENA economies and diversification strategies. It continues to experience exponential growth, forecasted at 111 per cent for the next 5 years according to Deloitte.
Advertising opportunity
CBRE’s Head of Research Taimur Khan gave a presentation at Meta’s real estate summit. The total value of real estate projects that are currently planned or under construction is estimated at $1.4 trillion, according to CBRE, which indicates a substantial commercial and advertising opportunity for many years to come.
“Meta says it is uniquely positioned to capture this growth as it offers a competitive value proposition that helps the entire eco-system of developers, agencies and prop-tech players drive awareness, acquire leads, optimise the cost of sales and customer experience,” said Alain Mayni, Head of Real Estate, Tech, Media & Telecom, MENA, Meta.
To celebrate this growth, Meta decided to hold its first Real Estate Summit bringing C-levels, VPs and directors from developers, prop-techs, VCs and agencies together under one roof.
Meta MENA’s first Real Estate Summit was kicked off by Alain Mayni and Dina Ibrahim Saad; Head of Mid-Market MENA, Meta.
This was followed by a panel discussion on winning in real estate at a global scale, featuring Fethi Kirdar, Managing Director, MENA at Fifth Wall and Haider Khan, CEO at Bayut and dubizzle. The panel was moderated by Fares Akkad, Managing Director, MEA, Meta.
