Andrew Bermudez of Lee & Associates in Irvine, CA, shares his thoughts on using social media for business. As a specialist in the lease and sale of office and commercial properties throughout Orange County, Andrew often uses his knowledge of this marketplace to drive new business.

What are your thoughts on using social media for business?

Social media is important, because it enhances word of mouth. I get multiple referrals from my personal Facebook page, where I am connected to clients, friends, vendors and other CRE pros.

How are you using social media to market your services?

We use a blog, www.finditfillit.com. We get some pretty good feedback on the articles that we publish to our blog. They are relevant posts related to the current state of the CRE market, trends and insights on how to negotiate the best deals or find the best market opportunities.

I use twitter to inform my followers of interesting articles related to commercial real estate. I also inform them of great buildings for lease or sale. I develop relationships with my followers, by having real-life conversations.

Any insights you can share on using the Real Estate Pro application on LinkedIn?

It’s a great tool to streamline my CRE activities, whether it’s leasing out a building, selling a property, or listing a new CRE opportunity.

What websites or social networking platforms do you visit to get the latest CRE news?

Mashable.com is a great site

I also have many friends who are social media pros, like Mirna Bard (http://www.mirnabard.com/blog/)

LinkedIn groups are a great way to share thoughts or get information on commercial real estate topics from other CRE pros or users

All of us have that ideal building in mind of where we’d like to locate our business. Could be the location, the character, or the other tenants. Maybe you’ve worked in that building before. Or maybe the office rent is known to be downright cheap. There’s a little known feature on our site called building search that lets you keep tabs on that specific building and check for availability.

Building pages on Rofo help you decide if a space is right for your business. Building pages, such as the Oregon Trail Building below, feature available office spaces for lease within the building, photographs, area maps and a building description.

Start your Building Search today and find the next space for your business.

No matter what city your business is based in we know that choosing the right office location involves surrounding amenities.

When looking at a listing on Rofo.com, such as the San Francisco – Downtown Stevenson Street – Class A Space below, you can select to see nearby amenities on the map. View local amenities and Yelp Reviews of nearby restaurants, coffee shops, banks, parking facilities and post office locations on the map of each listing detail page on Rofo.com.

Ever wonder what it looks like inside the Facebook HQ? How about Flickr and Google? Maybe you haven’t. But the guys at Office Snapshots have assembled a great portfolio of tech company office spaces.

The Craigslist bathroom was probably the most original…

and then there’s the Google slide…I believe this is their San Francisco office which they now plan to occupy through 2015 according to the Business Times.

Let us know if you’ve seen better. .

We’re always looking out for the best and cheapest ways to improve an office space. The folks at Wetpaint.com have come come up with a top ten list (Top 10 Ways to Give Your Office a Web 2.0 Makeover) that, based on my calculations, would cost you about 1400 bucks.

I’m into the white boards – www.whiteboardsetc.com is a good source. Cheap, convenient and, like conference rooms, you can never have enough. .