Twitter Basics

By Rick Broida

You figured out Facebook. Linked yourself to LinkedIn. Studied social networking. Now it’s time to brave the latest Internet craze: Twitter. • No doubt you’ve heard of it. Oprah’s a fan. So are Stephen Colbert and, infamously, various members of Congress. But just what the heck is Twitter, and how do you use it? More importantly, how can you use it to your advantage? Is it really a worthwhile tool for real estate professionals?

Twitter Defined

>> Boiled down to basics, Twitter is a microblogging service. Whereas a traditional blog hosts articles that average a few paragraphs in length, Twitter limits each entry to just 140 characters. Not words–characters . Translation: You get about two sentences, max, to say what you want to say.

That may sound limiting, almost to the point of impracticality, but it’s actually great for communicating short, to-the-point messages and even creating a sense of urgency among your “followers” (i.e., the folks who subscribe to your Twitter blog). For example, check these recent “tweets” (Twitter posts) from San Diego REALTOR® Jane Loveday (www.twitter.com/sdrealestate ):

Chicken Little was wrong! San Diego property prices are going up, not falling–ready for your $8,000 house tax rebate?http://jijr.com/hzxJ

More Houses Are Getting Multiple Offers: http://bit.ly/yuAvN

Now, tell the truth: Wouldn’t you click both those links? Loveday, who started using Twitter earlier this year after selling some homes on MySpace, recognizes what makes for compelling tweets: humor, interesting news, and/or a call to action. It comes as little surprise, then, that she’s racked up nearly 1,600 followers. (My own Cheapskate blog, which offers readers a technology deal of the day, is quite popular on the Web, but has yet to attract more than 1,000 followers.)

Ultimately, Loveday has found Twitter to be “a great way to network and find new clients and joint ventures in the real estate industry.” Here’s how you can do likewise.

Set Up an Account

>> Twitter is free, and creating an account takes all of 60 seconds: Just enter your name, e-mail address, and a username and password. Your username will double as your Twitter address (www.twitter.com/isellhouses , for example), so give it some thought. If you trade heavily on your name, use that. Otherwise, something clever or unique can help make it memorable.

Attract Followers

>> The whole point of Twitter is to attract followers–people who read your tweets. There are several ways to accomplish this. First, you can find other Twitter users and “follow” them (meaning you’ll receive whatever tweets they send). The unspoken rule of Twitter is that if someone follows you, you should return the favor. So by following others, you should attract followers of your own.

Of course, ideally you want qualified followers: current and potential clients, fellow real estate professionals, and the like. You can attract the former via traditional marketing efforts: Add a “Follow me on Twitter” line or button to your Web site, your e-mail signature, your Facebook and other social-network profiles, the end of each regular blog post–anywhere clients are already exposed to you.

You can also tap various Twitter-oriented services to look for qualified followers. “To find new people, I use twellow.com, which is the Twitter yellow pages,” says Loveday. “You can [also] go to twellowhood.com, where you can search via map and narrow down potential fellow tweeters in your city.”

Loveday also relies on Tweetlater.com, which allows her to schedule posts to run automatically on a daily or twice-daily basis, “depending on the news I want to pass along,” she says. That’s great if you want to tweet, say, first thing in the morning before heading out to your showings, but want the tweets delivered later in the day when they’re more likely to be noticed.

If you’re already a blogger and simply want to announce new posts to your followers, try TwitterFeed.com. It’s a bit tricky to set up, but it automates the process of tweeting your regular blog posts to your Twitter blog, complete with shortened Web links to help keep within the 140-character limit.

Short and Tweet

>> So, what should you tweet, and why? Anything you think would be of interest to clients, co-workers, and the rest of your followers: new listings, interesting real-estate news, tips for home buyers and sellers, and so on. Whatever’s fair game for, say, your blog is fair game for Twitter–you just have to make your point in 140 characters or less, including a link to the related information.

Try to tweet at least a couple of times per week, but don’t go overboard: If you post more than one or two messages per day, your followers may cry “TMI!” and stop following you.

Interacting With Followers

>> Although Twitter does allow followers to reply to tweets, it has no blog-like “comments” section that collects and organizes these replies. Rather, a follower can reply publicly–in which case, everyone else sees the reply–or privately via Direct Message. The only problem with the latter is that you can’t reply to the reply unless you’re a follower of the follower who sent the message.

Yes, Twitter can be incredibly confusing! Fortunately, the more you use it, the more it starts to make sense. And because it costs nothing but a bit of your time, there’s every reason to dive in and start tweeting, retweeting, hashtagging, and so on. #justsayin.

Twellow, the “Twitter Yellow Pages,” can help you connect with other real estate pros.

C.A.R. (twitter.com/carealtors )

Launched in April, C.A.R.’s Twitter feed provides technology tips, help for Twitter novices, and information on upcoming programs and events.

San Diego REALTOR® Jane Loveday uses Twitter to share interesting news, tips, and information with her followers.

Rick Broida is a freelance writer and a contributor to numerous outlets including Wired Magazine, CNET, Family PC, and Popular Science; he also is the author of How to Do Everything with Your Palm Powered Handheld, 6th Edition.