I realize I'm risking typecasting myself as a "Twitter fanatic" by posting this, but oh well -- I am, so here it is...

A blogging friend informed me they signed up for Twitter, but only saw a few people from their area on TwitterLocal "worth following".  She further clarified that even those people weren't talking about anything even remotely related to her or real estate.  As I wrote out my response, I decided it might also be a helpful blog post. 

Hi ________,

Good for you for signing up!!! What's your "handle"? 

Twitter is like a party. As far as conversations "about you" or "about real estate" think of it this way: If you go to a party with 100 people, 20 of them are statistically likely to be moving within the next year.  HOWEVER, the odds of actually overhearing them talking about real estate are slim to none.  (And the odds of them talking about YOU are even slimmer.)  Try to direct their conversations in the way of how you can help them with all of their real estate needs, and you'd be an outcast.  Engage in ongoing conversations, however, and interject that you are a Realtor ONLY when appropriate -- and you'll get plenty of business.

Entering Twitter conversations is the exact same thing.  If they're talking about local happenings, enter into those conversations, then follow them, and get to know them.  If you like knitting, search for conversations about knitting with people (whether from your area or not). By talking with people around the world about things that YOU are passionate about, the people in your network who share those passions WILL take notice, and they'll want to do business with you when the time is right.  (Some of those people live in your town, but many of them live elsewhere but know someone in your town, and others live elsewhere but will be moving to your town someday.) For what it's worth, I wrote a 3-part series on how to find discussions going on right now that you might be able to jump in on - further expanding your network.

The power is in the network.  The power of any social network isn't necessarily in the conversations you have with people striking up a deal.  It's with people OVERHEARING you talk about things that you are passionate about, and then either taking action and getting to know you more or better yet - reach out to THEIR network and get THEIR friends in touch with you...

Last week, we had a DenverTweetup, and someone from SPAIN who is following me saw the announcement.  She knew she had a few followers on HER list from the Denver area, so without even being asked, she "retweeted" my announcement to her list.  I barely know her, but she was willing to help out becauase she saw value in my tweet that she could contribute to.  That's the power of social networking.

As another example: I see people in my network mention that they're moving somewhere, or getting a job in that area almost daily.  In those cases, I REGULARLY tell them to get in touch with my twitter friends who I know work in that area.  In fact, I make it a daily effort to do that for SOMEONE in my network.  If you were to "recommend" yourself without already knowing them, you'd be a twitter spammer (and possibly get blocked), but if I recommend them, they just might listen because a non self-serving recommendation from someone else carries a lot more credibility. (Besides, it costs me nothing to do so. Why wouldn't I help a fellow Twitterer out?) The point isn't "follow Joel so he recommends me", but that there are other people on twitter who will certainly do that for you once they've gotten to know you, and once you have friends like that, there is no limit to how much business you might get.

Help one, be seen by many.  Just like Realtors who host talk-radio shows about real estate love it when someone calls in and they get a deal out of it -- that's not why they do the radio show.  They do it so they can share their knowledge with that one person, and have 10,000 or 20,000 OTHER people benefit from that knowledge.  By helping one or two people during the phone call, thousands of others establish them as an expert in that area, and then when the time is right for them, they just might do business with them.