We have provided you with step by step instructions to get your Twitter account up and running. Now, we are going to tell you how to actually market your real estate business on Twitter to meet the following goals:
TIP 1: Listen
If you want to learn how to effectively market yourself on Twitter, then spend some time listening to active users. By “listen” we mean observe, research and understand what effective users do to gain followers and strike up viral conversations. As mentioned above, here is a good list of sites to help you find active, authoritative Twitter users to listen to:
TIP 2: Update
One of the most important things you need to do with Twitter is to keep it updated. This does not mean that you have to tweet every time you take a bite of your lunch. All this means is that you need to consistently post relevant, useful and timely messages to your Twitter account. Even if your updates come once a week, if they are extremely valuable, funny, resourceful or unique then they will be much more effective then someone who just tweets every 5 minutes about irrelevant things. To get you going, here are some things to possibly tweet about:
At this point you should start seeing some people follow you and you should be getting a good stream of quality updates from people you’re following. The next crucial step is to promote your Twitter presence properly. Just as you need to market your website, you must also do so for your Twitter account. Fortunately Twitter, and many other companies, make it very easy for you to do so. Here are some ways to get people to acknowledge your Twitter presence:
TIP 4: Engage
Twitter, and all other social networks, are not meant to be a one way conversation. To realize the potential of a strong Twitter marketing campaign you MUST create conversations with other people using these networks. If you’re just constantly talking AT people and not WITH them, then your Twitter efforts are most likely to go unnoticed. Here are some tips to help you create results producing conversations:
- Establish authority as a reputable resource for your local area
- Build your referral network
- Generate more leads
- Communicate with existing clients and leverage them for marketing
- Acquire more clients. Sell more homes.
TIP 1: Listen
If you want to learn how to effectively market yourself on Twitter, then spend some time listening to active users. By “listen” we mean observe, research and understand what effective users do to gain followers and strike up viral conversations. As mentioned above, here is a good list of sites to help you find active, authoritative Twitter users to listen to:
TIP 2: Update
One of the most important things you need to do with Twitter is to keep it updated. This does not mean that you have to tweet every time you take a bite of your lunch. All this means is that you need to consistently post relevant, useful and timely messages to your Twitter account. Even if your updates come once a week, if they are extremely valuable, funny, resourceful or unique then they will be much more effective then someone who just tweets every 5 minutes about irrelevant things. To get you going, here are some things to possibly tweet about:
- Newly acquired listings
- Recently sold listings
- Property price changes
- Community / neighborhood news where most of your listings are (especially if a new store or amenity becomes available)
- Tips on best neighborhoods to live in
- Tips on best schools in the area
- Links to property virtual tours, images or listing pages on your website
At this point you should start seeing some people follow you and you should be getting a good stream of quality updates from people you’re following. The next crucial step is to promote your Twitter presence properly. Just as you need to market your website, you must also do so for your Twitter account. Fortunately Twitter, and many other companies, make it very easy for you to do so. Here are some ways to get people to acknowledge your Twitter presence:
- Add Twitter widgets to your website(s) and blog(s)
- Use your @_________ Twitter username in all of your correspondence, especially your email signature
- Get Twitter users, especially those with lots of followers, to retweet some of your best Twitter updates
- Buy sponsored tweets through services like TweetUp, SponsoredTweets andBeTweeted
TIP 4: Engage
Twitter, and all other social networks, are not meant to be a one way conversation. To realize the potential of a strong Twitter marketing campaign you MUST create conversations with other people using these networks. If you’re just constantly talking AT people and not WITH them, then your Twitter efforts are most likely to go unnoticed. Here are some tips to help you create results producing conversations:
- Ask questions to spark conversations (more times than not, controversial questions tend to rouse people the quickest and get them talking)
- Include hash tags (i.e. #realestate) in your tweets so people can easily find and following trending topics
- Include links in the majority of your tweets. There is nothing worse than when someone recommends a site, but doesn’t provide a link to it
- Answer questions that other people are asking. Use Twitter Search to find a topic people are talking about and answer some questions
- Follow people who compliment your expertise and strike up conversations with them
- Retweet interesting / useful posts from other users