The Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Using Twitter + 10 Essential Resources

Posted in Featured on April 29, 2009

Did you know that Twitter is the new real estate frenzy? If not, now is the time to get on board. Plenty of real estate agents have trod the path before you, so you now have some gurus you can follow so you don’t make their same mistakes. Even if you are using Twitter for business and socializing, we hope the following tools and tips will help you drive your Twitter use up a notch.

How to Set Up Twitter

  1. Go to Twitter.com and click on the green “Get Started - Join!” button. Register as you would with any other site, with a username, password (which you want to change often) and email address. Click on the “I accept. Create my account” button and you’re ready to find friends.
  2. If you want to find your friends through your address book, your contacts would need to be in GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL or MSN. At this point, however, you may discover that many of your contacts already use Twitter. Before you go searching, proceed with the next step.
  3. Create your settings by going to your home page (http://Twitter.com/home) and click on the “Settings” link. Enter your full name in the “Name” field and make sure you “Time Zone” field is correct. Enter your location, but do not check the “Protect my updates” unless you want to approve everyone who wants to ‘follow’ you and if you want to hide your tweets (your 140-character microblog entry) from viewers.
  4. Create a 150 x 150 pixel headshot or image and upload it to your Twitter page. You can use the same image you use on your Web site or other site to help keep a consistent image. Go to “Settings,” click on the “Picture” tab to select your file from your hard drive and click the “Save” button.
  5. If you’re connected to the Internet through your cell phone, set up your phone to receive all or some of your messages and send your messages via text. Beware that your phone service may charge for this practice unless you’re on an unlimited text messaging plan. Go to “Settings,” click on the “Devices” tab, enter your mobile phone number and click on the “Save” button. If you’re located within the U.S., you can text message the code Twitter provides to you to 40404. Wait patiently while Twitter confirms and your device is registered.
  6. You also can set your background by adding an image or texture. But, before you do, you might want to take a look around at some of the sites in the linked below to get a feel for might work for you. When you’re ready to change your background, go to “Settings” and then to “Design.” You can pick a background shown here, change the background image with one of your own designs, or change the design colors to match your business card or other brand colors.
  7. Finally, download a tool like Twhirl to help stay on top of your posts, your DMs (direct messages), and to learn more about people who twitter about you. Twhirl allows you to see any “tweet” messages that contain your Twitter ID anywhere in the message.

Getting Started

Now it’s time to add people to your Twitter account so that you are “following” them - and, hopefully, they will “follow” you back. Here are some tips specifically designed for real estate professionals to make the best use of your Twitter contacts, design and strategies. The links below are in no specific order, but you might start with the first four links to learn more about how to use Twitter in depth:

  1. Welcome to Social Media for Real Estate 101: Twitter: Daniel Rothamel offers a more advanced ‘beginners’ tutorial for real estate professionals. Even if you’ve been on Twitter for a while, you might enjoy his links.
  2. Twitter for Real Estate - How to get started: Carolyn Gjerde-Tu, a Broker Associate with Lyon Read Estate, offers her experience, tips and advice on how to use Twitter to build up your real estate business.
  3. Getting Started with Twitter for Business: Chock full of links and advice for any professional Twitter user. You’ll discover links here especially for real estate Twitter beginners.
  4. 5 Rules for Using Twitter: Great advice from RealEsateZebra.com about how to use Twitter with style.
  5. How NOT to act on the Internet: If you follow only one rule as a real estate professional on Twitter, this might be the one.
  6. Using Twitter to Listen to Your Clients: Joel Burslem from the Future of Real Estate Marketing provides tips and advice for using Twitter for real estate professionals.
  7. Twitter and Real Estate: Lou Lynch explores why Twitter is a great tool for anyone in the real estate profession.
  8. Real Estate List Network: Meet up with other real estate Twitter users in this network designed specifically for you.
  9. Twitter for Real Estate: Who to follow? Here is a great list of people for real estate professionals to follow to learn how they use Twitter.
  10. Finding All the Real Estate Twitterers: Find another network here, through the RE List on Twitter.

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