Bill Gassett
By Bill Gassett
So, you’ve finally joined Twitter. How do you know what to tweet about to maximize your time and energy on this rapid-fire platform? How often can you tweet without annoying people?
Your followers’ Twitter feeds moves at lighting speed, so it’s okay to post up to 10 times per day or more. Just don’t do all your postings at once, as this floods people’s feeds and is considered spamming. Spread your tweets out through the day and evening for maximum visibility. Switch up the types of posts so it doesn’t get too boring for your followers. Since you are a real estate professional, it’s expected that you’ll post about real estate topics much of the time. However, you can also tweet about other things that are interesting or helpful to your followers.
Here is a typical day’s worth of Twitter posts:
- Post around five informative articles or interesting pictures/videos from around the web.
- Re-tweet interesting posts from people you follow (see below for more on this).
- Respond to a couple of tweets from others. This is especially effective if you can find people asking questions about real estate, and answer them.
- Post personal comments about real estate or links to content you have written on your blog. It doesn’t have to be a recent piece, either. For example, here is an article about the inaccuracy of Zillow home value estimates. Most real estate agents are constantly explaining why a “Zestimate of value” should be ignored to both their buyer and seller clients. We all know how far off base Zillow can be! This is the kind of helpful information your followers will enjoy and gladly re-tweet. You can even add some humor into your tweets. Here’s a popular tweet I sent along with the blog link: “You have better odds of seeing Big Foot than an accurate Zillow estimate.”
Re-tweeting Other Real Estate Content
It is important to understand that you shouldn’t just broadcast your own content on Twitter. To be successful with Twitter and grow a following, you have to share others people’s content and engage with them. Keep in mind the social aspect of social media. When someone tweets your content, the best way to return the favor is to look over their profile and re-tweet something they have shared that you find interesting.
Follow Important People and Industry Leaders
Who you follow is just as important as who follows you. It gives you a chance to interact with people, build relationships, and perhaps even get a shout-out. Seek out local news anchors, hot-shot agents (besides yourself, of course), or anyone else you would love to mingle with. If you are lucky, they may even follow you back. You will also want to follow your past or present clients, other agents, mortgage brokers, builders, and anyone else with whom you want to build a connection.
Have Conversations
Twitter is absolutely a two-way street. It’s not just about getting your message out, but building lasting relationships. Whenever you are mentioned, reply. If you are new to Twitter, send out a quick thanks when you get a new follower. If you see something interesting in your Twitter feed, comment on it. It’s a pretty simple concept, yet it’s one that often gets ignored.
Manage Your Time
I often get questions from real estate agents such as, “How do you manage your time on social media?” or “How can I possibly be thinking about tweeting real estate articles if I am out selling houses and meeting with clients?” Time management is always an important consideration when it comes to social media. Fortunately, there are some great tools that can help you manage your time on Twitter. One of my favorite applications is Buffer. Buffer allows you to set what you want to tweet throughout the day on auto-pilot. You could schedule ten articles you want to share and Buffer will tweet them out for you.
Additional Twitter Tips and Advice:
Update Your Profile
When someone views your profile, they instantly form an opinion of you. Can they trust you? Are you a professional? Do they want to interact with you? Make sure that both your profile and header picture give the right first impression. You also get 160 characters to summarize who you are, so come up with something different and catchy that still makes your profession apparent.
Sure, you might gain some website traffic from people viewing your profile, but it is more likely that people will click on interesting blog posts that you share on Twitter (in moderation, of course). In addition, include the Twitter icon—linked to your profile—on your marketing materials, your email signature, and your website.
Add a Period
Did you know that if you start a tweet with someone’s Twitter handle, only that person (and people who follow both of you) will see your tweet? To get your comments to your entire fan base, put a period before the @ symbol if you’re beginning a tweet with someone’s profile name.
In summary, Twitter is all about making connections and staying relevant. As long as you are active on the site and really consider whether or not your tweets add value to your followers, you should be golden. Before long, you will notice an increase in website traffic, and you may even gain a client or two. If you are interested in learning more, read my previous post, “6 Twitter Rules for Real Estate Agents.” You will be a social superstar in no time!
Bill Gassett is a nationally-recognized real estate leader and one of the top RE/MAX salespeople in New England. See all his real estate articles at www.maxrealestateexposure.com.
Comments 15
Great article Bill. One thing I see done quite often by agents is that they just tweet listings of theirs. What I see you saying here is that they need to interact with others and post helpful information that others can use in order to develop online relationships. Great job!
Very useful info Bill! Nice job. 🙂
Great post Bill. Twitter is my platform of choice and I agree that if it is used well is a powerful networking and engagement tool. I’d like to add that Lists are a great way to organise followers, particularly when numbers start to go up, as you can then just see what the followers in that list group are posting.
Great article. It helps confirm what I’ve been doing on Twitter and with my blog for a while now.
I am an active twitter user and you as a Pro Twitter user, your advice is valuable to me Bill. Thanks!
The 80/20 rule. Sharing informative commentary/posts/articles/useful information with your audience. Then 20% gently introducing your services to existing and prospective Twitter followers (without sounding like a 1970’s polyester suit wearing used car salesperson).
Of course the #Hashtag helps people stand out…. as long as they don’t overuse it and put it in front of key words.
Good stuff Bill!
Marty Morua
Great tips Bill. You can follow me @JeffGingerich Cheers!
Another great article from Bill Gassett, Thanks.
Wish I would have read this years ago. Great information. Thanks.
Hi Bill,
Great information, thanks for sharing some solid reminders that so many agents need and overlook.
Twitter is also a GREAT listening device, I think that the Twitter Advanced Search (which I reviewed in the NAR CRS Twitter Webinar few years ago) is a wonderful way to find and connect to your local community.
People frequently dismiss Twitter, but it really is the MOST powerful of the social platforms for building additional SEO. Using Twitter Cards is another great way to expand your profiles and aren’t too difficult to set up.
I would also remind Agents that for the maximum ReTweet reach they want to keep the post under 120 Characters, even better under 100, so using a link shortener or my favorite social media tool Hootsuite (I also like Buffer and Swayy.co – still in Beta) to optimize the premium on the character real estate is a great “best practice” to do.
I do like that you pointed out the way the @ reply works and using a period in front of the name, but I honestly find that a rather cheap way to do it, even start with a greeting, I will write it as a message sometimes and start with “Hey @Twittername did you see this great article on Twitter use for RE Pros? #RealEstate” And Hashtags are awesome too.
A major no-no are those that post on other channels and broadcast to Twitter without every checking it. So many horrific faux-pas out there that our industry is guilty of.
The question of time management is important and frequent, time blocking helps, and if you have great tools like Swayy it is easy to find content to share. I also always bookmark the articles I share so I can reference back to them if I need to. I also read everything I share, never do a blind share, you might be promoting a competitor.
Have fun and show your personality! People want to connect with people, not listing spammers or Twitter Bots.
Great article!! Thanks for sharing and keep up the great stuff!!
Maya =)
Great tips Bill, looking forward to trying them out..
Great information. I’m going to try these out tomorrow on my Twitter.
Thanks for the tips, Bill! I just started on Twitter. I’ve followed some of your tips and grew my following from 62 followers three days ago to almost 650 now. Love doing this, love my job, and thanks again!
Hi Bill, I enjoy following you on twitter and agree with your advice. This week I discovered Lists as a way to track influencers from each niche.
Thanks Bill. This is good stuff. Appreciate it very much.