Six Ways to Get People to Follow You on Twitter

Once most real estate agents set up their Twitter account, start tweeting, and follow a few profiles, they start waiting for people to follow them. When they enter this phase of social networking, one of two things happens:

1. They start getting frustrated because they’re only getting followed by spam accounts and don’t put as much effort into their tweets.
2. They get frustrated because nobody is interacting with them on Twitter, and they give up on it entirely.

Both of these reactions are understandable. After all, we’re all busy and maintaining your Twitter takes precious time out of your already jam-packed day. The only way you will start to see the value in putting time into Twitter is if you start getting some followers and interaction. Luckily, we’ve compiled these six tips to make that happen:

Have a picture. The first red flag that people notice when they go to follow people is if someone doesn’t have a picture. If you’re keeping your default photo as the Twitter egg, don’t expect to get as many followers. People will think you’re a spam account or won’t be drawn in when they see your name come up. Put up a great picture, and I can guarantee you’ll start to see more followers.

 Your username has to make sense. As much as you might want to incorporate your geographic area into your Twitter username, the fact of the matter is that Twitter is a huge social networking site. Many names are already taken, and adding underscores and abbreviating might get you a name with your geographic area, but people might not be able to decipher it. Do the best you can, but if worse comes to worse, stick with your name. That way, people will know you’re a real person and they’ll remember you.

Make your intro creative and professional. You have 160 characters to tell people about yourself, so use it wisely. Give people an idea of what you do professionally, let them know what geographic area you do business in, and include a few personal tidbits, if possible. Most importantly, make sure your intro has good grammar and spelling. People will take you more seriously as a professional, and as a result will be more inclined to follow you.

Switch up your tweets. Tweeting listing after listing won’t pique anyone’s interest. Sure, it will market them, but if nobody’s reading your content, that’s not very useful. You want to use Twitter to push out links to your website, blog, Facebook page, and other content that has to do with your business, but you also want your content to be interesting. Try tweeting some tech updates and tips, real estate related articles and stats, buyer or seller tips, fun facts, community news, and anything else you find that’s interesting. People will appreciate that your content varies and they’ll be more interested in reading what you have to say.

Interact. We can’t stress this enough. The point of social networking sites is to be social! Retweet other people’s content, thank people for following you, congratulate people that tweet personal accomplishments, and ask your followers questions and invite them to respond to you. The more interactive you are, the more inclined people will be to follow you and interact with you, which is how you will foster relationships, gain leads, and get business from Twitter. It’s key to be social.

Tweet often, but don’t overdo it. Since Twitter moves so quickly, your content goes through people’s home feed very quickly. You want to tweet often so that you’re a constant presence on Twitter. With that being said, you don’t need to tweet every five minutes! Tweeting so frequently, or posting all at once, can get annoying to people and will make them want to unfollow you. Tweeting 5-6 times per day, scheduling each tweet to go out gradually throughout the day, will give you a strong presence on Twitter without annoying what followers you do have.

If you take these six tips into account when you start tweeting, we can guarantee that you won’t be feeling as frustrated. Twitter can work in building your business, but in order for that to happen, you have to be willing to invest the time in posting and interacting, learn the site, and master the art of getting your point across in 140 characters or less. It isn’t easy, but with practice, you’ll get the hang of it.

If you’re too busy to get your Twitter presence up and running, let your real estate virtual assistants do it for you! They can include it as part of your social networking efforts and work on getting you the followers you need and the interactions that are so imperative to getting you more business.

Make it a great day!
Sarah Kay
Social Media Specialist