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Top 10 Ways NOT to Promote Your Real Estate Career and Listings on Twitter

There are A LOT of real estate professionals using Twitter. There are some great people I've met on Twitter that always give more than they receive and some not-so-great people that broadcast and whine like it's going out of style. Trust me... it's out of style. Below are 10 Ways Not to Promote Your Real Estate Career or Your Listings on Twitter... paired with some alternative approaches.

1. Tweet Your Lisitings More Than Once a Week

Your followers want something useful out of you. Your a real estate professional, tweeting your listings using Tweetlister or doing it manually is fine... in moderation. Tweeting each of your 5-50 listings more than once a week is just plain broadcasting and plain wrong.

You CAN mention your listing and link to it's property tour, video, or website if you are showing it, working on it, etc. When you link to something that is related to what you are talking about it adds value.

2. Send the tweet, "I'm in Real Estate! Do any of you have a home I can sell?"

Really? That's the best you got? You know, I occasionally ask my close followers or people that I am having a conversation with..."Hey, who do you know right now that's looking to buy or sell a home?" That's as forward as I ever get... and I never send that message where the general tweeting population can see it. If you do, you are likely to alienate 1/2 your followers in one foul tweet.

3. Ask followers for their address.

I've got a better idea... why don't you just triangulate their twitter signal and stalk them? I know people talk about 'stalking' others on twitter, but I'm talking "actual" stalking. Don't do it. If they want to give you their address to list their home... they will.

4. Tell followers what you are 'getting ready for...'

Example Tweet..."Just preparing some great market data to go list 123 Main Street in Pleasantville..."

My response to that tweet would be... "So? Isn't that what you're supposed to be doing? You're a Realtor right?"

Give me some VALUE. Like this, "Cross Creek in Pleasantville is ripe for a buyer looking for a deal, check out the market data http://tinyurl.com/example." That tells me something useful and what you're doing at the same time.

5. Auto-DM new followers with Shameless Self Promotion.

"Thanks for the follow...I'm the best real estate agent around. Are you ready to list?" Bzzzzzzz. Thanks for playing. You officially suck at twittering.

6. Don't display a picture on your profile.

I love to work with people that I have no idea how they look. I think it's the excitement and mystery... the thrill and the danger of the unknown. What? I'm the only one like that? Put up a picture that shows your a professional, trustworthy individual. If you can find one that makes you look intelligent too, that's a bonus.

7. Make sure your profile links to http://yourdomain.com

This is one that lots of people get wrong. It's a shame too because I love a good landing page that is tailor made for me. If you blog it's as simple as writing a post about your use of twitter and linking to it. Not that I have the best twitter landing page in the world, but at least you'll get the idea. This same concept goes for everything from facebook and linkedin, to buyers, sellers, and investors.

8. Only talk about real estate.

You ever notice how boring real estate really is? Market data, Days on Market, Absorption Rates, contracts, inspections, appraisals, I could go on. Now, many of us in real estate find most of this stuff at least a little bit interesting or else we don't last long but the general population you are tweeting to could probably care less. Don't be a robotic twit and only talk about the mundane details of real estate. Talk about your kids, the news, things you like and do... people will be much less likely to tune out your "boring real estate tweets" if you have something interesting to talk about at other times.

9. Only follow other real estate agents

While it's certainly possible to follow no one but real estate agents and follow thousands (if not 10's of 1000's) of people. While you might get something out of your interactions on twitter there's one thing you aren't going to get...business.

10. Only follow locals who might be prospects

Following people on twitter is kind of like having a balanced portfolio. For big dividends and a safety net, you need to have the right mix of locals and non-locals, Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, other industry professionals, and prospects and clients. When you need a little lift you can lean on your fellow agents for support. When the market is good, your followers that have a real estate need will be contacting you in droves.

I hope you liked these 10 things/ways not to do for real estate agents on twitter. If you need more twitter tips for real estate there are lots of resources but check out:

@Nik_nik from MyTechOpinion.com
Darren Rowse's Twitip.com
and a good article called Twittering Adds Up to Home Sales

I'm Ben Roberts and you can find me on Twitter @berober or Friend me on Facebook. Shoot me a tweet and let me know if you liked this article or make a comment below. Thanks for reading.

Click below to see the original post at exitrealestate540.com...

Original post at exitrealestate540.com

Posted by Ben Roberts on 07/01/2009 02:37 PM

Comments (44)

Twitter in the Sales Strategies / Tactics Channel

Post is included in group: Real Estate Tomato Bloggers
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44 Comments on Top 10 Ways NOT to Promote Your Real Estate Career and Listings on Twitter

JUL

Ben...

This is one of the best Twitter instructional posts that I've ever read and I've read a lot of them :)

TLW...ROAR!

Ben - your headline had me intrigued and I read every word! Very good post - and useful too! I'm still somewhat a newbie at Twitter and am not sure what to be doing to make it effective. This works for me! I'll be emailing this to my agents today. Congrats on the feature!

Agree with TLW! Great post Ben. Really like the landing page idea...

Excellent tips. And I like your landing page!

Ben, great suggestions about twitter. I am always trying to keep it between the trees. @frankrubi

Great tips, Ben. #4 gets to me the most, I think. I see this one on Facebook a lot, too and I always think the same thing you said.

Ben - these are excellent tips about what NOT to do on Twitter. Interesting much of this applies to other businesses as well.

jeff

Ben

A great primer for Twitter beginners - I'll be sharing it in the social media section of our weekly sales mtg. Thanks.

The more I read about Twitter, the more I realize I need to catch the train...So much to do...Where does it stop???????

Cathy Chaudemanche

Thanks for the good post and the great advice. I am new to Twitter and will remember your post as I go along.

John's right-- it's a great primer for us beginner Tweeters

Great info, I don't use twitter much, just signed on to follow you

Ben, what a coincidence, I just created a Twitter account earlier this afternoon. I was feeling a little lost, not exactly sure what to say or do. But boy am I feeling confident about it now! Thank you for posting such helpful tips!

Toni

Ben - Wow ! What a great blog post ! This is a must read for all of us on Twitter. We typically do not put too many listings on Twitter but every once in awhile we will. We will typically put in links for recent blog posts and so forth. Will need to come back and read this again too ! Also, just followed you on Twitter and subscribed to your blog : )

Ben that's why I love Active Rain. Honestly speaking reading this blog is going to help me become a better with my twits. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on the featured post. And your landing page-very nice. Then when I found out that Real Estate Tomato did it,I wasn't too surprised. Great post.

Fantabulous post! Definitely a must read for all the new twitter folk out there. I love your idea of having a specific Twitter landing page.... or it that just the "about me" section of your blog? Regardless, it is brilliant.

Baaahahaha...Great post...seriously!!!! I am so amazed that there are actually people out there that do these things....but sadly there are...hopefully you have smacked a couple of them in the forehead...tee hee hee. I find that the individuals that use Twitter purely to promote thier biz and not interact with others...probably have very poor social skiils to begin with. Perhaps we should feel sorry for them...not!

Ben.. this is great information.. I may need to check on my tweetlister and make sure I'm not over doing it..

I love your landing page . . . (giggle) . . . you wear shoes all the time too I bet. ;)

I think balancing out chat, personal and business tweets works well. It's too compact a platform for repetition or shameless self promotion; that is to say it is easy to overdo in any area. . .

@CandiceD BTW

This goes for facebook too. Too much business for friends and followers will make them not want to read your tweets or activities.

Good points, I have a link to my outside blog and only mention real estate about 20% of the time. Oh and I also quit following some of the more outrageous porn stars on Twitter!

May I add a couple more to the list?

If the only tweets you have are being sent from AR - as in "Just posted on Active Rain" - forget about tweeting. It's boring and gets you unfollowed.
Another that agents seem to do is "I'm so busy I need 36 hrs in a day. Going to list 3 homes this AM and show 20 houses this PM". If you're that busy, get off Twitter and get to work.

This was a very good list.

Thanks for sharing those great tips! I just got started on Twitter and will def keep them in mind! Great post,. :)

Ok, now I have to go out and make a landing page... Ok, since I have a few WordPress blogs, at least it is easy...

Q: have you ever really generated a lead from twitter? Honestly? A lead that you have closed... check in hand... deposited... money in bank?? I just set up my account but I need to allocated time wisely. It seems like facebook.. you go on to reply to one email and 5 hours later your entire day has passed you by...

Ben great post. I attended a couple of webnars over the past couple of weeks and have just started using Twitter.

Ben - that's a great list. Can you share with us how to do such a good landing page please?

Ben- Great stuff. Im still a newbie to tweeting and trying to figure out the value add. So far so good- thanks for the advice.

@EcoMike

These tips make a lot of sense. I need to look at a Twitter landing page and will check yours out for ideas.

JUL

Excellent tips. .very informative thanks for sharing your knowledge

Your post is so good that someone spammed you above. Thanks for the tips. I also use Twitter to post my blog onto Facebook. Twiiter is like a great cocktail party.

Thanks for all the great responses...I'll try to answer some questions and make some comments below...

Kim D - Thanks...make sure to check out "Twitter for Real Estate Twits" by @Nik_nik over at MyTechopinion.com

Roger Johnson - I'm with you on #4...I let out a groan everytime I see one of those.

Michael Eisenberg and others - Thanks for the follow... I'll try NOT to do any of the things in my post!

Lanre Folayan - Indeed, the Real Estate Tomato Rocks the party. Have you heard their new radio show? Check it out at RETomatoradio.com

Kristi Ross - I agree with you, mostly. I think many people have some sort of misplaced idea about social media... many social butterflies in the real world are simply 'show-up and throw-up' twitterers, facebookers, etc. It's like going to a party and trying to speak to everyone in pig latin... then wondering why everyone is looking at you funny.

Elaine Reese - Elaine! I love those two! Consider them added to the list! Especially the "Just posted on Active Rain" I think AR needs to change that because it's WAY overused... maybe allow a cust message when you select the tweet function.

Vannessa Reilly - Honestly... yes actually. I was sitting in a restaurant and one of my followers pulled up my twitter landing page on his iPhone and asked..."is this you?" I said, "Sure is." and that started a conversation about the market, and well, you know the rest. I have 1 check in hand and 2 additional clients Directly from Twittering. I think the value is knowlegde more than closed deals though...

Want a great landing page? Get a wordpress blog (I guess you could get an outside blog on AR too) then read Develop a Twitter Landing Page on Problogger. Great Stuff.

Ben this makes it so easy to understand and learn from. I love it! And your sense of humor is fantastic. I get tweets all the time that are as stupid as you clearly have shown. I always wonder if they even stop to think of how worthless the tweets are.

Congrats on your feature. Well Deserved. I will pass this one on for sure!

Hey Ben, Your advice on Twitter is really great...I'll admit, lately I haven't been twittering all that much, but when I get back into it, these tips will really help me. I like the landing page blog post in particular. I'm going to work on this.

Have a great day,

Anne Rains

#8 is great no matter if it's for Twitter or not. We are in a relational business and people buy and sell from people.

Ben - I have not yet used Twitter and I find your posting to have a considerable amount of useful information that explains some important issues when using Twitter from an agent viewpoint. I will be referring to your post when I setup Twitter.

JUL

Hi Ben - Just getting going with Twitter and enjoy your ideas. Love the landing page idea that incorporates and presents you as a professional!

Ben - this is an excellent post, and I agree with your points. I also like the landing page as well.

JUL

i am still laughing from number 3...too funny... I got to get to doing the twitter thing the only thing I have done is get alerts from the volcano center...

JUL

Super post! Twitter is pretty amazing, like a really really big BBQ with people you know, some you've never met and some who wind up being great friends. You never walk up to a conversation at a BBQ and shout out, "Cool house cheap price, check out my new listing".

Some people get some don't.