Keller Williams Realty
Challenge
Complete Visibility and the Right Contacts
Their slogan, "Built by agents, for agents" speaks to their origins. From a single office in Austin, Texas, founders Gary Keller and Joe Williams grew an empire that now spans nearly 1,000 global offices and more than 180,000 associates. Today they have their own cloud platform and the real estate industry's very own version of Siri, named Kelle.
In prioritizing transformative technology, the realtor moved to upgrade their media intelligence to gain deeper insight of industry trends and uncover opportunities for raising brand awareness. They were using Cision for media monitoring and outreach, but grew frustrated by the tool's lack of search filters, among other essential features.
PR Director Darryl Frost says, "With Cision, I would search for journalists according to beat but still had to go in and dig deeper to find the actual subjects each reporter was covering. I tried other solutions like TrendKite, but they are not quite there yet. I love how Meltwater shows me the most recent stories each reporter has published. I can also easily map results geographically and other very useful filters."
Keller Williams' requirements also included comprehensive media listings, as well as the ability to monitor for coverage at all times, even on the move.
"Meltwater is the leader in that core capacity that we need, which is the ability to hyper-target those members in the media that are talking about the conversation in real time."
Darryl Frost, Director of PRand Media Relations, Keller Williams Realty
Solution
A Versatile All-in-One Thought Leadership Platform
Quality information is the lifeblood of the real estate industry. When Keller Williams' PR team realized it was time to switch from Cision, they never looked back. Today the realty giant is using Meltwater for media monitoring, analysis, and outreach, as well as the dashboards and mobile app. They like the fact that everything is available in one highly intuitive platform.
PR Director Darryl Frost says, "With Meltwater I get the content in real time. I can see all the stories I want to see as they are published. I can also see how the key terms are pulled. It's a complete thought leadership platform. And we couldn't be happier with our new media relations capabilities. Keyword search is perfect for hyper-targeting the exact reporters that I need to talk to."
Frost and his PR team like to use the platform to follow what their franchisees are talking about. This allows them to get behind important stories and enlist their headquarters' help in getting these stories into bigger publications. They also like the flexibility provided by Meltwater's mobile app. It lets them stay on top of key developments from anywhere. The mobile dashboards show them the coverage of the key players and provide the same rich detailed information available in the main app.
"I love the way the mobile app gives me updates and proactively tells me I have x number of stories about my brand waiting. It captures everything."
Darryl Frost, Director of PR and Media Relations, Keller Williams Realty
Summary
Meltwater Helps Keller Williams Realty
Customize their pitch according to the latest industry developments
"PR is fueled by research and Meltwater acts as an accelerator. When I'm delivering our thought leadership pitch, I can leverage the insights pulled from Meltwater and I can learn exactly who the influencers are in the conversations we want to be part of, which angles interest them most, and then engage them."
Keep close tabs on their leading competitors and industry trends
"There are industry competitors we respect, and Meltwater shows us the coverage of these key players. Meltwater's dashboards let us see their different areas of focus. We can create almost a map of what they're talking about and how often they're talking. We follow up with strategy to set ourselves apart."
Connect with leading reporters focused on digital transformation
"We want to be known as thought leaders and experts in value propositions and training. Today that means connecting with reporters focusing on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Meltwater's platform lets us hyper-target the contacts and top-tier outlets writing the stories on digital transformation."
— Darryl Frost, Director of PR and Media Relations
