photo credit: bindermichi
I use Twitter to keep in touch with clients and to watch headlines and breaking news. Some of the people I subscribe to are industry leaders or regional companies, I also follow CNN and the NYTimes. The NYTimes has some of their sections twittering separately, like @nytimesworld, @nytimespolitics, etc.
My 10 Twitter Tips:
1) Use the “Find People” tool and search for things you are interested in Real Estate, Fishing, New York City, etc.
2) Follow people that actually “tweet”
3) Do not just twitter personal promotion and advertisements, that is SPAM!
4) The “#” in front of a word, or letters, like “#icny” means that this is a post about an event or popular topic. #icny was used for Inman Connect New York, #Obama may be used for news about Obama, etc.
5) Follow @NYPierre and @trulia if you want to see some twitter action, most of Real Estate’s techiest agents and leaders are on Twitter too.
6) As a real estate agent, you should twitter the following things whenever you can: “Just got a closing in City, State” Just got an offer in City, State”, Just listed a great home in City, State”. This will inspire people who care about those areas or real estate in those areas to follow you. It will also counteract all that negative press out there that says people AREN’T buying homes – they are!
7) Use Tinyurl.com to create a shorter URL for long things, like listings. It is very easy, copy and paste the main link - like your listing URL on Trulia - and paste it into tinyurl, it will shorten it for you for Twitter use.
Twitpic is another tool to post photos right from your phone to your twitter account and add text - like “look at this new listing” and it will insert a link to the photo.
9) Twit about local events, things you are going to, maybe people near you are there too and want to meet - note, keep a lookout for stalkers?
10) Keep it social, don’t think of it as work, follow people first to get an idea of what you can say. you can even reply to other twitters directly.
Bonus tip: Twitter can update your Facebook status too! Look for the application on Facebook.
Post Inspiration: Wendy Forsythe at the BHGRealEstateBlog
Have tips of your own? Please add them as a comment below.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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January 28th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Do you know if there is anyway to export your facebook contacts and import them into twitter?
January 28th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Pierre - You offer many excellent tips for novice Twitter peeps. I would however caution RE pros from “connecting” their Twitter stream to the Facebook page. In most instances the jargon and chatter found on Twitter confuses your Facebook audience and leaves them wondering what planet you’re from and what language you speak. @dakno actually wrote an excellent piece on this very topic at our Dakno blog.
To add to your list, I would suggestion Tweeple use TweetDeck to manage the “stream of thought” of the people you follow and utilize the BudURL resource instead of TinyURL. BUDURL allows you the opportunity to see how many visitors actually “click” the link in your Tweet.
Finally, yes, you can automate your Active Rain blog post to spit out a “Just Posted at Active Rain” tweet about the AR post you publish. Unfortunately, this automated “push” of content distribution is taking on an air of “spam”. I say be creative and write a compelling title or headline to “tease” your followers to click to read your AR post. It’s is far more effective as I’ve tried it both ways and the extra time I took to write a compelling teaser headline was far more effective to gain viewers.
Keep up the great work.
Bobby Carroll - Dakno Real Estate Marketing
@rewebcoach
January 28th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Pierre,
This is great stuff. Thanks for sharing these tips. I am new to Twitter and while I still am not as “attracted” to is as I am to Facebook, it still seems to have good value.
I have been wondering about the TinyURL application so thanks for clearing that up. I will also check out the BUDUrl that Bobby just spoke about.
January 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
@ Bobby - thank you so much for the awesome tips! i am sure all the readers we had will enjoy them.
@ overland - I have not heard of that yet, but will look into it - if anyone knows about this, please post here and share!
@Sean - Thanks for the kind words.
By the look of all the follows I received (thank you all) - we had some good visits to this! Also wanted to add that people should use http://search.twitter.com in the first tip to run those keywords through.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
for those of you super aggressive “tweeters”, you can use tweet deck: http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/ its quickly becoming the interface of choice for most tweeters! I dont work for them, im a happy trulian! =)
follow me at http://twitter.com/apurva212
happy tweeting!
January 28th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Great Post. Thanks for the info. I am new to blogging and social media and have a lot to learn. I learn not only from the articles,but also from the many comments people leave behind. Good Job!
Jose Lopez
http://www.sellsarasota.com
http://www.fl-repos.com
January 29th, 2009 at 8:31 am
This is awesome information. It’s answering a lot of my questions.
Thanks, all of you.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:47 am
@ jose Best of luck - the only advice, is old advice: “How do you eat an elephant? - one bite a time :)”
@ Apurva - thanks for the tweetdeck tip!
@Adina - it is our pleasure, the nice thing about social media is what you have just experienced; people sharing information and ideas in open forums.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Twitter is a two way conversation. I see way to many Realtors popping on Twitter because someone told them too. They immediately start following a bunch of other Realtors, then all they do is publish their latest blog posts.
Boring.
Unengaging.
Useless.
Get to know people. Ask questions. Read what others are tweeting and respond. You get from a social network what you put into it. Twitter is more than a place to syndicate your blog posts.
January 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
@ Maureen - thanks for the added tips. I cannot agree more, you know sometimes people need to just start - and mess up - so they can learn what to do right. Most of my lessons in this space have been through trial and error. At the very least, they should do something to get their feet wet, even if it is just postign blog posts. Eventually as they follow and read others responses, notice their followers increasing for certain tweets, and leaving in droves after others - they will either engage or fade away. Twitter is most assuredly not for everyone, but I think everyone should at least try it out.
Cheers!
PC
January 29th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Hi Pierre, I’m glad I inspired you to write this post!! You offered some great tips to your readers. Here’s my Twitter handle if anyone wants to follow along @bhgre_wendy.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:14 am
@ Wendy thanks for note, and we will follow!
February 11th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Twitter is gaining ground right now and this is seen by many not just a social too, but a business tool as well.
February 16th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I managed to find a lot of local business contacts using Twellow (http://www.twellow.com). It’s like the yellow pages. Just pop in a region or zip code, select an occupation category, and poof… lot of new folks to follow!
August 18th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Excellent tips, thank you. Another tip to use for twitter is “retweeting”. Passing along good info and tweets you recieve as well as, having others pass your tweets on to their followers. See how to get retweeted further explanation,