For Century 21, a lot of first-time homebuyers are between the ages of 25-34, which is a group that is known for its social media activity. Gentile told us that Century 21 must follow these “digital natives” and reach them in the medium in which they spend most of their time – the social Web.

“I think, for brands, it’s essential that you learn how to communicate effectively in those channels to reach the consumer,” he said.

Gentile admits that, although social is significant in this day and age, it can be challenging for brands. He compared it to when brands first began to pull their advertising campaigns from print outlets and started advertising online. The challenging part for Century 21 is keeping the system members informed on the reasons for its decisions. However, Gentile believes that communication helps to overcome this challenge.

Many brands also struggle with finding ROI in social media. Gentile told us that Century 21 has been able to turn many “likes into leads” by attaching a custom Bit.ly link to every piece of content it puts out in the social space. By doing this, it can track a lead from wherever it originated, be it Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., and see what the pattern of the consumer is.

Century 21 also recently released a new Facebook application that allows brokers to optimize their offices’ Facebook business page to better engage with consumers. Through the app, brokers can incorporate home listing info, Twitter feeds, blog posts, and more.

Gentile told us that Century 21 would continue to embrace social media in order to improve connections with not only its more than 112,000 sales agents, but also consumers.

This was the advice given by Matt Gentile, Dir. of Public Relations & Social Media of Century 21 at the Blogworld Expo in L.A. Gentile was there to speak about how to turn “likes into leads”. He said one of the greatest challenges, for any company, is understanding how they can get ROI from their social efforts. Gentile states: “I think you’re getting that from a lot of CEOs and executives they see it and know it they know they’re children are on it everyone is using it they know they need to be in the space but they’re not sure how they should track that ROI.”

Gentile goes on to say, “if you look at today’s consumer, especially in the industry we’re serving (real estate), a lot of first time home buyers are between the ages of 25 – 34. In order to reach these, what are commonly known as digital natives it’s very important to be reaching them in the spaces where they’re spending the most time where they’re consuming the most media. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter for brands it’s essential you learn how to communicate effectively in those channels to reach the consumer.”

This year Century 21 started a new advertising campaign “Smarter. Bolder. Faster”. While talking about the new campaign, Gentile stated, “we’re really emphasizing the fact that were embracing these new media channels preparing our sales professionals to have success in those channels,. leveraging thing sleek Facebook enabling access to content through our own channels at the corp level where the consumers can come in and engage with the brand and get some quality value content from every thing we’re putting out there.”

Essentially what it boils down to is… you HAVE to be where your consumers are. According to a recent Neilson study, 90+% of all consumers started their real estate search online, so this is why Century 21 made the huge social push since 2009. Gentile predicts you’ll see other brands making the same decision soon.

It should also be noted that Gentile revealed that Century 21 will have a Super Bowl commercial this year. How’s that for being where your consumers are?

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

“Real estate professionals love Postlets because you create a property listing just once, and Postlets automatically distributes it across the Web,” said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff on the Zillow Blog. “Plus, when you create an account on Postlets, you get a personalized landing page so you can showcase all of your ‘Postlets’ in one place. You can then customize your personal gallery with a company logo and an ‘about me’ page where you can describe your services and upload a personal photo to help you gain even more exposure. And it’s free.”

According to Zillow, Postlets already has over 500,000 registered users with 350,000 sales/rental listings.

“Our goal over the past several years has been to develop simple yet innovative products that redefine real estate marketing and search,” the Postlets team said on its blog. “This deal represents a fantastic opportunity to work with some of the most amazing people in the industry and build all of the things we said we would — and much, much more. We’re extremely excited that Zillow shares our vision and is committed to invest in Postlets to deliver tools that will further help you build your business.”

“Ask anyone in the industry, and they’ll tell you that Postlets is a great tool for agents, property managers and landlords looking to promote their listings and manage their online presence, for free,” said Rascoff. “As part of this acquisition, Postlets will continue to send listings to its current distribution partners.”

Zillow’s own traffic has been on the steady increase over the past year, having nearly doubled according to Compete’s numbers.

Postlets says it will reveal more details about what the acquisition means for the company and users in the coming weeks, but promises that it will continue to operate the same.

Google will lease over 13,000 square feet of a city-owned building located at 331 Foothill Road, according to Marie Cunningham.  The lease will cover a period of 11 years and is supposed to net the city $6.3 million in revenue (or about $573,000 per year).

That led Mayor Barry Brucker to say in a statement, “We are absolutely thrilled that Google has chosen Beverly Hills and our Foothill Road building as the home for their entertainment division.  The location in our emerging entertainment business district is a perfect fit both for Google and for the city.”

As for what Google gets out of the arrangement, employees should find it much more convenient to meet with entertainment execs and celebrities’ agents as the company tries to secure more unique and/or professional content for YouTube.

Indeed, the new office will put Google in the same building as Participant Media and close to companies named Lakeshore Entertainment, Live Nation Entertainment, and – we’ve all heard of this one – Netflix.

The one slight catch is that some renovations are taking place, so Google won’t take over the Beverly Hills office space until later this year.

It should be interesting to see what deals Google’s able to strike after everyone gets settled.

Gowalla CEO Josh Williams spilled the news onstage today at the GeeknRolla conference in London.  Martin Bryant reported, “Williams discussed how, with user numbers now in excess of one million, 45% of the company’s growth is outside US – particularly Europe and the Middle East.  Looking to support and fuel this, ‘four or five’ members of staff would be based here.”

That’s an interesting move.  As we suggested after Foursquare announced it might open an office in the UK, it shows that Gowalla’s been successful enough in its home market to branch out and has some spare cash.

It of course also shows that Gowalla is willing to go head-to-head with both Foursquare and Facebook Places.  (Consider that Facebook’s quite dominant in the UK, even beating Google in terms of visits on Christmas Day.)

Anyway, Bryant continued, “Williams discussed the company’s plans to move beyond check-ins and ‘gamification’ to become a social travel guide that works like ‘Lonely Planet written by your friends.’  Looking to provide the best user experience for ‘Sharing the world around you,’ Williams explained how the company has turned down offers from potential business partners, preferring to concentrate on travel-related businesses with ‘great locations.’”

One last note: there’s no word yet on when Gowalla’s new office will open or where exactly it might be located.

Emma Barnett wrote earlier today after interviewing Crowley, “He said that they would like to open up a Foursquare office in the UK at ‘some point during the next year.’  However, the company could not commit to anything at the moment as it was still trialling its first satellite office in San Francisco, away from its headquarters in New York.”

A move to the UK would be interesting for the usual obvious reasons, showing that Foursquare’s been successful enough in its home market to branch out and has some spare cash.

The move would also, depending on your point of view, emphasize the fact that Foursquare’s been able to grow in spite of competition from Facebook.  (Consider that Facebook’s quite dominant in the UK, even beating Google in terms of visits on Christmas Day.)

Crowley did tell Barnett, though, “I honestly believe that we offer a fundamentally different tool to Facebook Places.  Facebook is very good at offering its users tools for sharing things online.  We are good at facilitating activities offline, once a person has shared their location online.  Our primary aim to get people outside and doing more stuff.”

We’ll keep an eye out for additional developments, in any event, on both the Facebook and Foursquare sides of things.

New York Observer reporter Laura Kusisto wrote late yesterday, “The little blue bird has been perching in a spartan temporary New York City space since September, searching for the perfect spot for its first New York City headquarters.  Now The Observer has learned that it plans to sublease Facebook’s former digs at 340 Madison Avenue, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.”

The location would represent an interesting choice on Twitter’s part.  Setting aside the Facebook connection for a moment, the success of the television show Mad Men has ensured that people everywhere connect Madison Avenue with advertising.

The move might signal that Twitter intends to finally ramp up its monetization attempts and reach out to many different companies, then.  Which would arguably fit with CEO Dick Costolo‘s business-oriented mindset.

The move would prove that Twitter can afford to pay for some premium New York City real estate, too.

Anyway, Facebook’s new New York offices are only a short distance away – they can be found at 335 Madison Avenue – so, for better or for worse, it’s not like Twitter would be the sole social media/tech company operating in the area at this point.

It should be interesting to see what happens.  A hat tip goes to Peter Kafka.

Bill Faries reported earlier today, "Google Inc., the world’s biggest Internet-search company, is opening new offices in Latin America and boosting staffing levels by 50 percent to capitalize on its fastest-growing region."

Faries then added, "Revenue from Latin America surged 80 percent last year, outpacing every other market, Vice President Dennis Woodside said in an interview at the company’s Buenos Aires office.  Google, which has about 500 people in the region, has opened branches in Santiago, Lima and Bogota to take advantage of the growth, he said."

Meanwhile, Daniel Gertsacov, Google’s head of new markets for Latin America, gave an interview in which he stressed the importance of Peru in particular.

All this comes at an interesting time for the company, considering that just one week ago, Google lost its managing director of Latin America to Facebook. 

Google’s hiring spree should more than compensate for that loss, however, assuming a couple dozen people on its payroll aren’t already able to step up and fill the opening.

This move earned PayPal a warm reception from Chandler’s mayor, Jay Tibshraeny.  He stated, "PayPal is a very welcome addition to Chandler and the region on many levels.  From job creation and the diversification of the city’s business base, to PayPal’s excellent reputation as a quality employer, we are excited to have them join Chandler in the Price Corridor."

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer also applauded the development.  She said, "This new facility will bring good quality jobs to the East Valley.  PayPal is the kind of fast-growing, tech-savvy company that is attracted to Arizona for its business-friendly and high-tech environment.  I commend PayPal for investing in our shared future."

And of course, merchants and ordinary PayPal users should benefit from the expansion as PayPal intends to offer improved support to customers all over the world.

Anyone who lives near Chandler and is interested in a job can check out openings here.

Other U.S. PayPal centers are located in Maryland, Nebraska, and Texas.  Overseas centers have been set up in India, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The Montevetro Building, as it’s known, is 15 stories high and offers 210,000 square feet of office space.  It’s located in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock district, is currently unoccupied, and even has its own rail station to boot.

This development holds with Google’s habit of giving its employees convenient and comfortable workspaces, then.  Plus its tendency to grow at a brisk pace.

According to an Irish Examiner article, John Herlihy, the head of Google Ireland, explained the purchase by saying, "We are at capacity in our EMEA headquarters on Barrow Street and the additional space will allow us to relocate some teams to Montevetro and to create an even more spacious working environment for Googlers in our existing buildings.  Acquiring Montevetro also means we have the space and flexibility to support our future operations."

Herlihy then added, "Here in Dublin we are constantly seeking the best and brightest talent and at any one time we have a number of exciting opportunities available for the right people to come work with us. . . .  It’s a very exciting time in our company and it’s great to be a part of it."